Secular Confessions

[Cosmosmom]

Can you kennel him while kitty eats? It's Gwen that doesn't tolerate a kennel right? Or stay in the room with them while she is eating. I don't really blame him....most would rather have the tasty food vs the dry dog food. When we have another dog over, we have to restrain one of them at times while eating. My MIL's dog gets way more people food (often hot dogs) than I would ever give Cosmo....and he can't have her dish of people food dinner because it's got her seizure meds in it. If we sick her in another room and close the door, she will bark most of the time or cry too.

I just have it easy in that Cosmo is only 26 lbs and can't get on the counters.

[Gwenn]

Can you kennel him while kitty eats? It's Gwen that doesn't tolerate a kennel right? Or stay in the room with them while she is eating. I don't really blame him....most would rather have the tasty food vs the dry dog food. When we have another dog over, we have to restrain one of them at times while eating. My MIL's dog gets way more people food (often hot dogs) than I would ever give Cosmo....and he can't have her dish of people food dinner because it's got her seizure meds in it. If we sick her in another room and close the door, she will bark most of the time or cry too.

I just have it easy in that Cosmo is only 26 lbs and can't get on the counters.

I don't have a kennel large enough for him, as I haven't needed to crate him since he was a puppy. The problem is her food area is a corner of the bathroom counter (no space in the kitchen so that's the only counter available) and she takes her sweet time eating - she's not a dog. I don't want to sit on the toilet for 45 minutes while she eats. I can put him out on the screened porch, though, although the problem with that again is the length of time. That may be the only solution. I don't blame him for wanting it, either, but I won't tolerate stealing food from another member of the family.

[Bridget]

alcohol makes me very drowsy...and horny and there is nothing worse than a horny, yet sleepy drunk lady LOL.

Erin

That is hilarious

I am also sorry to hear of the negative experiences so many of you have had, but I have to say I am a little in awe of all of you and how you have not only recovered but lived your lives to the fullest. This is a group of such strong, amazing, interesting women and I actually feel a little lucky to know you all. There, I've said it.

.

I feel just the same

[daylilies]

I missed the "drunk, horny, drowsy" quote in its original post but I have to say I am one of those too. There's a really fine line between ready to go and Zzzzzzzz....LOL

Today I was watching a video of one of the New Kid's solo concerts he's currently doing in Vegas. Josh was watching it too and he said "Oh! Joey knew you weren't coming to the show so he put up a video on the computer for you to see!"
LOL, I wish!

[Gwenn]

Today I was watching a video of one of the New Kid's solo concerts he's currently doing in Vegas. Josh was watching it too and he said "Oh! Joey knew you weren't coming to the show so he put up a video on the computer for you to see!"
LOL, I wish!

He knows you well, doesn't he?

[daylilies]

He sure does I'd love for him to meet Joey someday. It would be hilarious.

[missychrissy]

Conner was a cuddly little bug last night. He came to me out of the blue and just hugged me and said, "I love you Mommy." I so wish he could stay this sweet forever.

[daylilies]

Aww, Josh does that too
The other day, it was very sad. Out of the blue he just said "I'm going to miss you when I die. I'm going to give you a hug and kiss now for when I die." and he came over and gave me a hug and kiss. I wonder if having to put our cat down is bothering him more than he lets on.

[missychrissy]

Ugh, how heartbreaking. I'm sure he has a lot of curiosity about death. It's one of the toughest questions to grapple with as a parent. I'd rather talk about sex and why Conner's penis gets big than talk about death with him.

I remember Bobbie having a vivid, recurring dream about Jessica getting too close to an open fire--like a bon fire. I think they were 3 and 4 at the time and Bobbie talked about it all the time.

At that point in my life, I 1/2 believed that kids could 'see' things into the future and I nearly gave myself an anxiety attack over the whole thing. I blame my dear, sweet, maternal grandmother. She's so superstitious! It took me a long time to get away from thinking like that.

[Bridget]

Aw, Kate. That is sad that he said that but I also think good that we let death be subject that our kids can talk openly about so they aren't freaked out by it.
I have talked about death more with my children than I have ever talked about it with anyone my whole life. It's helped me come to terms with it myself since I grew up terrified of it and the prospect of going to hell and even the thought of eternal life in heaven gave me the heebie jeebies. And then as an adult coming to the conclusion that heaven and hell don't exist at all ...
What I hate trying to explain to my kids is cancer. Savana asks me all the time to tell her how a person gets cancer and why they gave grandma medicine that made her hair fall out but it didn't make her better. And she gets really upset when I tell her I just don't know because she really like definitive answers to everything.

I love you story about Conner snuggling you. I got that from Kai last night too and he is not snuggly with me at all. It's usually me trying to smother him with kisses and him giggling and trying to escape. If I ask him for a kiss he "blows" me one which is actually him kissing his hand and then throwing it at me overhand like a baseball pitch. I always act like it went in my eye.
But last night I had Sawyer on a blanket on the floor next to me and snagged Kai when he was walking by me and he just lay in my arms and he let me hold him. He felt gigantic to me after carrying tiny Sawyer around.
It made me realize how much I miss holding Savana and Kai in both my arms since I'm almost always wearing or carrying Sawyer around and doing everything with one arm.

[missychrissy]

I miss the days when Bobbie and Jessica were little enough for me to carry around together.

[daylilies]

I miss being able to hold Josh. He will rarely even let me hug him anymore I've discovered he loves backrubs though. He melts into a little puddle in my lap when I do it.

[Cosmosmom]

Did you guys see that the White House will no longer support the defense of marriage act banning same sex marriage? I am so happy about that....what a great step in the right direction for once.

[Bridget]

Did you guys see that the White House will no longer support the defense of marriage act banning same sex marriage? I am so happy about that....what a great step in the right direction for once.

I saw that last night! I've seen so much news lately as I'm up every 2 hours with Sawyer and news channels are all we get in the living room.

Wish me luck ladies! That editor is going to be here in 20 minutes.

[Cosmosmom]

Wish me luck ladies! That editor is going to be here in 20 minutes.

Good luck!

[daylilies]

Good luck!

[AmeriBrit]

Good luck!

[missychrissy]

I am happy about that as well Jennifer, but my absolute disgust over the things happening with the unions is making me ill. I've avoided the news sites all day because I can't take any more of it. One of my friends lives in Ohio and her husband is a teacher. He recently learned (today I think?) that 20% of his salary is going to healthcare benefits, and there is a co-pay as well. I keep thinking about how 'we' extended the tax breaks for those making over 250,000/year yet we have people making 50,000 or less and paying 20% of that toward their insurance. It really makes me angry.

Good luck Bridget. You'll have to tell us how it goes as soon as you can.

[Cosmosmom]

Oh gosh Chrissy...I know. I'm so irritated with our gov right now. He got punked and thought he was talking to David Koch (left reporter!) and basically said he wanted to bust the unions and thought this was their time to shine in history and compared it to Regan firing air traffic controllers and leading to the collapse of communism. OMG. He also said he would listen but he's not willing at all to talk. And the unions have said that they even agreed with giving in to the concessions because they know the budget is in trouble....they just don't want the union gone. Walker says it's about the money...but if it was, he would be talking to them. OMG I hate him. I don't understand how people are so stupid that they can't see he's about the big business and millionaires....he doesn't care about the working class or middle class at all.

[missychrissy]

So in case you missed my Facebook post...Bobbie has been accepted to Elmira College and they've awarded her a $40,000 scholarship!!!

[daylilies]

Awesome Chrissy!

[daylilies]

sorry, double post

[Cosmosmom]

So in case you missed my Facebook post...Bobbie has been accepted to Elmira College and they've awarded her a $40,000 scholarship!!!

OMG that is GREAT!!!!!!

Is that one near you? Or will she have to live on campus?

[demigraf]

I hope it went well with the editor, Bridget!

Bodhi has just reached the age where he's learned how to give huge bear hugs and hangs onto me like a baby monkey when I carry him around. I absolutely love it. When I tell him to give his dad a hug good night, he really grabs on and squeezes tight. I can see DH's heart melting, and that's just awesome. Bodhi, on the other hand, is also telling me he wants to be alone sometimes, and I don't love that. Well, sort of. I want to spend as much time as I can with him, but I also want to encourage his time alone, because I think it's important for him to know how to entertain himself. I believe it'll be an important component of his self-esteem in the long run.

On the spectrum of introvert-to-extrovert, I think he definitely leans more to the extroverted side, which is more his dad than me. Bodhi walks into a room singing at the top of his lungs, climbs right up onto a couch full of people and keeps on smiling and singing. Sometimes I look at him and am reminded of this bit of Ralph Waldo Emerson essay "Self-Reliance", which is one of my absolute favorite descriptions of what confidence should look like:

The nonchalance of boys who are sure of a dinner, and would disdain as much as a lord to do or say aught to conciliate one, is the healthy attitude of human nature. A boy is in the parlour what the pit is in the playhouse; independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome. He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests: he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him: he does not court you.

I see these traits in Bodhi, which are natural to so many children, and I hope he hangs onto them his whole life. Anyway, yeah, I'm not worried about B growing up shy, but I am on watch for the extreme opposite - him growing up to be perhaps too dependent on the company of others.

Speaking of introvert/extrovert - have any of you guys taken the Myers-Briggs test? (ETA: I deleted the link I previously put here because I re-took it and it turned out to be a test where you have to pay to get your score. I'll look for and post the URL for a free test soon.)

[daylilies]

I got artisan, but I think I answered some questions wrong because that description doesn't fit me at all

[missychrissy]

OMG that is GREAT!!!!!!

Is that one near you? Or will she have to live on campus?

It's close, about an hour away. But she will live on campus. I think it'll be great for her. Heartbreaking for me, but good for her.

[AmeriBrit]

Fantastic news, Chrissy! That is super awesomeness!

That's a cool tidbit of Emerson's essay, Myles. I like that. Travis is an extreme extrovert and I don't know where he gets it from as both his dad and I are quiet people.

[Cosmosmom]

It's close, about an hour away. But she will live on campus. I think it'll be great for her. Heartbreaking for me, but good for her.

Is it per year or spread out over four years? I got curious and looked online and wow, looks like a great school. Actually like the kind of schools I would have been interested in and looking at. I wasn't so into the huge public ones. But wowsers to the tuition of that place!

And I think that living an hour away is about perfect. My third and final school was about 45 minutes away. Far enough that I didn't run home for every little thing but close enough that if I got sick or something, my daddy could come and get me.
She will get to have the full experience that way.

[demigraf]

Oh, kate, I'm glad you got some sort of score after you took the test. It was pretty long, and I was hoping no one clicked the link before I deleted it, since you're supposed to get a score like "INTJ" or "ESFP". I'll keep looking for the free one.

I am procrastinating, even though I have stuff to do because I am sick of my project today.

*** RANT ALERT. feel free to skip over this paragraph because it's just me venting *** I confess... I have this rule that I should wait 2 days before I complain about my job, just in case it's just me having a bad attitude day. Well, it's been two days, and the things that were annoying me are still annoying me now, so I think I have a legitimate right to complain. One of my teammates is really inconsistent, and that really bugs me. On the one hand, he recommends to our business software users that they think "blue-sky" when formulating their requests to us, i.e. he tells them "tell us everything you would want in the best of all possible worlds". And then on the other hand, he shoots down some of their ideas as too costly or impractical before they even get the chance to finish asking for them. So today, he pulled me aside to share his concern that my body language gives off the appearance that I'm not in-step with "the rest of the team" (his euphemism for "him"). I think I know one specific moment he's referring to, where he was kind of threatening this one woman to ask for something now, or not get to ask for it at all. She looked really worried, so I looked at her, slightly shook my head, tried to give a reassuring look and told her there would be other opportunities to make requests. That's all I can think of. Maybe I shouldn't have done even that. Anyway, I consider him pulling me aside to discuss my body language more personal a matter than I'd care to discuss at the office. In my mind, it's the equivalent of me pulling him aside and telling him he interrupts people too much, uses too much of a sneering tone when contradicting his own team members and generally brings a nervous energy into the room, all of which he does. But I don't feel the need to correct him because I just let people be responsible for their own behavior. Long story short, my complaint is that I work with an obnoxious and maybe highly insecure guy. And the fact that he'd reproach me for contradicting him when he wouldn't hesitate to do the same is just more inconsistency on his part. It's a good thing he's based out of Texas so I don't have to see him day after day. Thanks for reading that far if you read that paragraph at all.

Chrissy, that's crazy good news about Bobbie!!! I think (and hope) you'll find that living apart brings you and Bobbie closer together.

[daylilies]

Yeah, you have to pay for anything in depth, but it gave me the diagnosis of artisan and then I found a place you could click on to get the description. That one you're talking about is the Myers-Briggs test. I took that years ago-I don't remember what I got.
I'm just confused over him speaking to you about your body language--that's really weird and sort of inappropriate. I'm sure my body language is very negative if I don't like my job or my boss (I mean really if you don't like your job it's really hard to fake that in your body language) but fortunately I'm behind the scenes when I work as a cook