I realize that there has been a lack of blogging on my part. Actually, many of the blogs I read have slacked off lately, seriously people, what’s up with that?

I’m out of things to ramble about (for now).

I don’t want to talk politics anymore. That subject got old about 6 months ago.

I really don’t want to talk about economics because
a) I don’t like economics
b) because I don’t like it, I don’t understand it
and
c) everyone’s sick of hearing about it, so what’s the point?

I know that everyone is super excited about all the stuff I’ve been making lately but you can check that link for yourself.

My kid is still cute but today, not so much. She stuck her hands someplace that nobody wants to hear about.

We are at #11 on the waiting list for our baby - but the movement is slow.

My kindergarten is testing the limits. I fear bootcamp may be in their future.

So, maybe I’ll come up with something else soon. But there’s the list of everything I don’t feel like talking about right now.

I copied this directly from Leah’s blog. Leah is the mother of Angela, who has Down Syndrome. Leah titled her blog post: If you love my kid, you won’t go! And although I probably wouldn’t have gone to this movie anyway, I do love Angela so I put this up on my blog as well.

I bet you’ve seen the trailers for the new movie opening this week “Tropic Thunder”, the new Ben Stiller movie. I’ll bet you thought the trailers were hilarious. I’ll bet you DON’T know what’s really in this movie!

Ben Stiller and his team put a lot of thought into this movie, trying to be very careful to not cross the lines on racial humor. They wouldn’t want to offend anyone of color or other nationalities in fear of loosing a lot of money in the movie.

But people who are intellectually disabled are fair game in the world of Hollywood. The word “retard” is the whole sub-plot for the movie. The term “Going full retard” has been coined and it’s been announced there will soon be a line of t-shirts appearing in your local stores with the term plastered across the front. If you take every time the word “retard” is used in the movie and replace it with the “n” word, or any other racial slur, the movie would be banned in the U.S!

And that, my friends and family, is what Angela has to look forward to when school starts. (Last year it was Napolean Dynamite pens that talked, with one of the phrases being “you retard!” which, after complaints, were quickly pulled off the shelves and banned by schools across the country.)

Yes, the movie is rated R, so young kids shouldn’t be seeing it. But they will. And their teen siblings and parents who DO see it will be coming home repeating what they think is a funny phrase, and kids will be coming to school with it. They’ll love the t-shirts as well.

I don’t understand how in the world it’s ok to to belittle this population of people, but if they were using the “N” word, or any other racial slur, it would be all over the news! Our countries schools have a zero tolerance policy against racial harassment, and you won’t hear certain words thrown around the hallways of your child’s school. But you WILL hear “retard” on a regular basis.

I know there are plenty of you who feel I’m overreacting. Well, apparently I’m with the 3 million other families in the country who are FURIOUS this film has been allowed to be produced the way it has. You can expect to see national and local protests about this film, as those of us who are overreacting demand that our children, brothers, sisters, cousins, and loved ones get the same respect that everyone else in the country gets, including illegal immigrants. That they aren’t set up for yet MORE harassment by teens who think it’s funny to mock our children because Hollywood has encouraged them to do so.

I hear the word by friends and family members all the time. I hear the “short bus” jokes. Most of the time I’ll call someone on the carpet about it, but sometimes I won’t. Sometimes I just get tired of constantly having to defend my child against the people who are supposed to care. Their lame responses of “I wasn’t meaning HER, it was just a joke!” Well, HELLO!!! Who do you MEAN then? Who are you comparing yourself or others to when you toss those words around? And my personal favorite “It just slipped out”. Funny…words that aren’t part of my every day vocabulary don’t “just slip out”!

My child, and millions like her, are intellectually disabled (that’s the proper term, by the way…”retarded” is going out the window because it’s become such a hateful slang term. School districts aren’t even putting it on their paperwork anymore!) Just as people of color don’t have a choice of what color skin they were born with, children with intellectual disabilities don’t have a choice but to ride “the short bus”, and so they become the brunt of your jokes. I’ve watched people who’s own children ride “the short bus” make the same jokes, without even realizing (or caring) that it’s at the expense of his/her own children. “Oh, but they think it’s funny too!” Do they really? Or are they laughing along while inside they squirm with discomfort?

These people don’t have a choice to have the medical term “Mental retardation” plastered all over their medical records. Those with syndromes such as Down Syndrome can’t even hide behind a “normal” appearance. It’s plastered on their face, leaving them open to hateful ridicule by their peers, and yes, even their family members.

So, if you’ve seen the trailers, and thought, “That looks like a fun movie to see!” Please don’t. My child…your grandchild, your niece, your cousin, your friend…. and those like her, deserve the respect more then Ben Stiller and his team deserve a few bucks!

I’ve added a few links to the side bar in on my blog. You, too, can check out my facebook profile, follow me on twitter, read all the random stuff I’ve saved in del.icio.us and check out my talent for sewing things on flickr. (And just so you know my flickr pictures are only pictures of the things I have made or that I’m currently working on. If you are looking for cute Lexi pictures you need to go here.)

A couple of weeks ago I had some serious words with my blog about how it was posting pictures. There was much complaining, muttering, and swearing under my breath at how irritating it was being. Today I tried to upload a picture of the most beautiful pile of fabric ever seen and more words were exchanged. However, Kevin and I realized it may not be a wordpress thing like we originally thought. We figured out it was the particular theme I was using. I really liked the theme I had but instead of trying to fix the code for how it places pictures (which I have no idea how to do anyway) I just changed the theme. There. Problem solved. Sort of. Oh, and go look at the new theme. I like the color scheme. Although I either need to add some type of picture/graphic to the top, or shrink it all little bit. Suggestions on which way I should go?

Too lazy to write full posts about several topics so I’ll write several topics in one post.

• No work tomorrow. This is good.

• Child who said “MAKE ME” is now suspended for 3 days (bad for him - huge relief for the staff for 3 days) And no, he wasn’t suspended just for saying make me, his list of crimes for the day is long. Very long. And it includes calling me “Stupid face”. Zero points for creativity in the name-calling category. I prefer such insults as “Bunny-hopper”, “Chicken-head”, “Baby-ass” or “Spicey-spice hands”.

• Tomorrow is the Missions Dinner at church. I’ll be there, all day, cooking Thai Pork Satay and assorted side dishes for 100 people.

• The Walk for the Animals is Saturday. Lexi, Speak and I might walk it. If it’s not raining or snowing. Mazie, however, needs to stay home because she’s forgotten how to play nice with others.

• Been thinking a lot lately about shopping for a cause. This may become its own post. Basically, I’ve been trying to decide if it’s financially possible (for us) to limit our shopping to stores that support fair trade, support small business men and women, support local produce growers/farmers, etc.

• Kevin is getting very close to being bald. Kinda freakin’ me out.
• Did I mention that the plan for cooking for 100 is actually grilling for 100? And that it’s supposed to rain tomorrow?
• Consider yourself warned - Rummage Sale Madness, Part 2 will soon be upon us. So if you missed the first one, come see what’s at the second sale. Rumor has it there may be new stuff to view.
• Did you know Ice Hockey is now the official Minnesota State Sport?
• I need to go to bed now.

I made the switch over to wordpress. After much putzing and frustration with finding a theme (the first three I picked were filed under “widget ready” but weren’t) I got everything set up the way I want it. I might switch a few of the colors around, but we’ll see.

I’ve decided to switch from moveable type (good-bye 500 server error) to wordpress. Let me know if you stumble across broken links or anything else that needs some fixing.

My blog is ugly. But unfortunately I ride the short bus when it comes to graphic design and computer techno-speak. Anybody with the skills want to volunteer their services?

It’s about 4 hours away from 2008. Lexi’s asleep in bed, Kevin is in California and I’m in my pajamas blogging and doing laundry. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Funny thing is, I never even considered finding someplace to hang out and ring in the New Year. It just seemed like way too much work and a really long night. Lexi and I did go to Target and she wished lots of people a Happy New Year.

As for the tradition of New Year’s Resolutions, I gave that up a long time ago. Partly because I would either a.) quit my resolution 20 minutes into the new year or b.) make it something ridiculously easy like not letting my car get to empty before putting gas in it. I don’t remember when I stopped making resolutions but I do remember what my last official New Year’s Resolution was. My former boss (read: nutcase) forced us all to make resolutions and share them with everyone. My resolution was that I was never again going to make resolutions.

A couple of years ago I did make a list of 50 Before 50. And I’m not doing too bad on it. At last count I’ve done 17 out of the 50. I’ll let you see if you can figure out which ones I’ve done. A couple of them just won’t happen - we caved and got cell phones, I won’t be starting a kindergarten program at my daycare because I don’t work their anymore ( I teach kindergarten, does that count?) and I won’t be finishing grad school (if you haven’t heard why I quit and really want to know, e-mail me).

Here’s what I’m looking forward to in 2008:
1. Turing 30. I think when you are 30 that’s when you officially become a grown-up. Or something like that.
2. Watching Lexi go from toddler to preschooler.
3. Bringing home our baby from Ethiopia.
4. Traveling to Ethiopia.
5. Seeing how much my kindergarten class has changed from September to June (and believe me, this group has gone through huge changes.)
6. Starting another school year.
7.Painting a few more rooms in my house.
8.Friends from far away places moving closer to home.
9. Kevin coming home from California.

Happy New Year.

I’ve noticed a trend in the past several months of people not putting their real names or any contact/location information on their blogs in order to protect their privacy. I’m not a stickler about this, but I am also not about to post my name, age, social security number, phone (home and cell), and street address in a blog post or on my blog. But I’ll put up a way for the reader to contact me (e-mail) if they really want to.

Some people keep all indentifying information off their blogs. They come up with cute names for their family members and use those instead. Or they write things like K. and A. took L. for a walk with their dogs M. and S. or My DH told my DD to find her shoes. They don’t post pictures, and there is no way to contact them.

Personally, I feel that if you are going to write for the world to read, just use your normal name. You don’t have to use a last name but seriously, do you know how many Sarah’s, Tom’s, Jacob’s, etc. there are in this world?

But here’s the one that I don’t understand. The blogger goes through a ton of effort not to reveal who they are, where they live, or any other details but they post about 1000 pictures per entry of their kids, their house, their car (with license plate numbers showing), their pets, their parents and anything else you can think of. If you are going to plaster your kids faces all over your blog, what difference is it going to make if the world knows that the 6 mo. old naked in the bathtub is Little Janie or DD? Either way, when your kid is 16 she is going to be really pissed that you posted that picture online.