January Secret Subject Swap: Like Mother, Like Daughter, Except When We’re Not

Welcome to Round Two of the January Secret Subject Swap. 17 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.  At the end of the post is the list of ALL the people who participated this month!

This is my second time participating!  Here is my prompt, submitted by Denise at Go Cheap or Go Home:  I knew I had turned into my mother when…

She IS my real mom, and I bet she loves this just as much as I do.  This is one of my favorite pictures!

Well, I haven’t actually had that exact moment yet where I thought I was turning into my Mom.  There are lots of ways that we are similar, and ways that I wish I could be more like her!  I will now attempt to list some of these things-keep in mind my mind is a bit fuzzy from what they say is bronchitis, but I’m beginning to think there is some sort of brain eating virus accompanying it.

Ways I Wish I Was More Like My Mom:

My Mom is a pretty crafty person-to have her craft skills would be awesome!  I’m good at scrapbooking, but have never been much at the other stuff.  Remember, you all saw my cakes.

Eureka!  Forget those fancy edge trimmers, I have a cat!

She’s also great at being thrifty. I used to be.  Now that I have no control over my money situation not so much.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed for financial security…  When I was a kid she would do little things like do rebates or work part-time here and there so that we had money for little things like music lessons.  When my son was little I still was able to do those things, but since then all of the various ways I managed to bring in extra money have gone the way of the dinosaur.  All but one of the places I have picked up extra CPR classes have shut down or quit offering services, people were not interested in sending their kids to my preschool music classes, and I can’t even hired for ONE job these days let alone an extra job for cash.  I’m hoping I can start bringing in something with my writing here soon.  That would be swell!

This was too funny not to share!

My Mom had to go it alone often when my sister and I were little. My Dad was often out at “sea”, what they call it when Navy guys go out on their tour of duty.  Often he was gone for months at a time.  Not only that, we moved a lot!  She made sure we had a fun time wherever we lived.  I don’t think I am nearly as good or as patient a parent as she was with us when we were kids.  I’m hoping I get better as time goes on.

I’ll include my address if anyone wants to come over and take me up on this.

She’s really good about remembering those all important things like birthdays and anniversaries.  She always remembers and I always look forward to getting a nice card in the mail for special occasions.  I now have calendars with reminders on both my computer AND my phone, and I STILL forget.  I guess I do remember them, just never in time to get something into the mail.  I suppose if the calendars were to slap me across the face with the card and then push me out the door to the post office with it in my hand, they might be more useful!  For the record, I do remember the things in the house I live in.  Beyond my little ADD world, forget it…

The Ways That I See That We Are Alike:

There’s definitely the sense of humor.  The weird sense of humor that I have runs in the family.  A little morbid and maybe a little bit different than what other people might consider funny.  But when we get together we all just get each other.

Because I too am strange and unusual.

Growing up, movies were something that we watched together as a family on a regular basis.  Therefore we can quote most of the same movies and tv shows. We quote so many movies and shows on a daily basis at our house that awhile back I even wrote about it. My Mom and I have a lot of the same movies on our favorites list.  I’ve branched out a little since I’ve married my husband, but the old stand-bys are still the best!

I bet you can name that movie… one of our very favorites.

We have this thing that we call the recessive gene.  No it’s not a disease or a birth defect.  It’s this thing that happens to some members of our family.  You can be anywhere, anytime, and hear someone say something or even just see something and you automatically break into song.  I can’t control myself any time anyone says anything that remotely resembles a line from a song.  And neither can she.  For example, if someone says the word “so” or “sew” or “sow”-I have to go there. I have to follow up with singing “… a needle pulling thread”.  Sad…but true…

We both enjoy working with kids, because kids are funny (though oftentimes it’s the adults that suck).  She was a second grade teacher for years, and now is a school librarian-both at the same school I started out teaching at.  I taught preschool for a long time.  Neither of us went insane doing it.  Seriously though, much like me she hasn’t decided what she wants to be when she grows up either.

We like punctuation. If you’d like, I can even sing you the song from the original “Electric Company”.

There’s a few other things too:  One in particular is the annual tradition of the lost gift.  Every year Mom misplaces a gift for someone.  This is due to the fact that she starts her shopping early and spreads it out.  Guess what, I’ve done the same thing a few times, just in a different way.  I have bought things for people and totally forgotten them until I accidentally happen upon them.  (The thing, not the person.)  And it has recently come to light that this was passed down from her mother to her, and now to me.  I just had to change it up a bit.

Perhaps as I get older I’ll be more like my mom in the ways that I want to be.  Like when I grow up?  Oh I forgot, I refuse to grow up, just get old.

The ’70s are a long way down there anymore…

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

http://www.BakingInATornado.com                     

http://menopausalmother.blogspot.com/

http://lifeonthesonnyside.blogspot.com/

http://suburbiainterrupted.com/                             

http://www.bigaandlittlea.com                       

http://ibddaddyandme.blogspot.com

http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/

http://www.3monkeysandamartini.com

http://www.somethingclever2point0.com/

http://www.themommyref.blogspot.com/

http://rushingforbagels.blogspot.com

http://gocheapgohome.com

http://www.rebekaches.com

http://mooreorganizedmayhem.blogspot.com/

http://slackermomof4.blogspot.com/

http://www.mommyunmuted.com/

The Getting To Know The Blogger Challenge: Life

I’m participating in the 15 Day Blogger Challenge, started by A Little Unhinged.  Today I’m answering question #7

7)  Has your life gone the way you expected it?

(Deep in thought…)

I guess I would have to say no.

As a kid I had big dreams.  There were so many things I wanted to do.  I wanted to write science fiction like Robert Heinlein.  NOT books like Starship Troopers though.  Ick.

I wanted to work for Industrial Lights and Magic.  I grew up when George Lucas was putting out the first set of the Star Wars Trilogy.

I wanted to be an astronaut, because I loved space that much.  Then I found out that you have to actually understand some of those concepts and be good at math.  That was as far as that dream went.

When I was in high school in Florida I wanted to join the Air Force.  Then we moved away.  Not being around all of that stuff all the time made it less of a dream for me.  I also wanted to go to Florida State, but lack of money for my family at the time and that lovely out of state tuition you have to pay made that not work out either.

And of course I wanted to be a teacher because I loved school and learning and all of that stuff.  Didn’t work out so hot for me, huh?  If I had to do it all over again, I would have stuck with early childhood education and hoped for the best.  But, you can’t go back.  I have to deal with the hand that I’ve been dealt.

Now that I am an adult and real life has reared its ugly head, it’s really too bad!  Dreams can be fun.  Now I just dream about being able to pay bills on time, losing weight, and, well, sleeping.  Sleep is something I’ve fought trying to get for years.

I never conceived that I would be married with two kids either, that part worked out pretty well.

September 1999

My kids.

Since I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life, I can’t say that I’m upset with how it’s turned out.  I wish that things would work out so that I can just stay home with my daughter and not have to worry about money.  I also wish that I had gainful employment.  I wish that things had gone down differently in some areas.  But the overall thing I’m satisfied with.  I love my husband very much and I adore my children.  At least most of the time I do.  🙂  We have a roof over our heads.  Though it’s not the finest looking house it keeps the cold, wind, and rain out.  My husband has a good job, and a safe car that gets him there every day.  So you can say that while it’s not perfect, it’s turned out just fine.

Previous Blogger Challenge Posts-This Could Be Fun:  I’m Doing The 15 Day Getting To Know The Blogger Challenge, Where I Grew Up, Favorite Childhood Memories, School, Work

When I Grow Up I’ll Be Stable, And Maybe I’ll Get To Do Stuff

Ah, my little princess. Don’t grow up too fast. Being a grown up isn’t much fun a lot of the time.

A couple of times recently  Princess Confident has announced, “When I grow up, I will get to do whatever I want!”

I replied to this, “Ok honey, you just keep thinking that.”  And maybe she will, being the confident little thing that she is.

I sure can’t say that’s necessarily true for me.  In the last year with all of this unemployment stuff, I had several people ask me what I really wanted to do.  The truth is I don’t know.  I have no idea what I really want to do when I grow up.  I’m 38 years old, and let’s face it, I don’t feel like a grown-up.

I wanted to be a teacher most of my life.  That didn’t pan out well, now did it?  I guess being a published writer is my next goal.  HA HA.

She has told me on several occasions that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.  Or a cowgirl.  They’re so close, don’t you think?  The Professor thinks he wants to be a baseball player.  This is new, because up until this announcement he has wanted to be a racecar driver.  But then again, he has also informed me that he will take over for one of the school’s fourth grade teachers when she gets too old to teach.  Hmmmm… that easy, huh?  I must admit that I admire my husband in the fact that he has always known he wanted to be an engineer, even though it took him a long time to get there.  I guess that’s how you know you’re a grown up, you know what you want to do?

A lot of grown-ups have bucket lists.  Someone recently asked me about my bucket list.  I guess I really don’t have one.  I have joked about taking pictures of different buckets and putting them on here.  I guess I don’t really have one because the things that I really want to do seem so out of reach.  I’m horribly, horribly practical.  Lack of money can really do that to a person.  No wonder I have been depressed.  If you can’t have dreams, then what is worth reaching for?

Isn’t the bucket list what you want to do before you kick the bucket.  Well I don’t necessarily have a bucket list.  I just have some things that I would someday would like to do.  Horribly impractical and probably will never happen.  But here goes.

• I would like to learn to play the cello.  And the guitar.  I’ve tried to play the guitar on my own, but I really need lessons for a grown-up.

• I would like to see another Broadway musical.  Or two.

• I want to see mountains.  I just want to drive to see mountains.  I don’t have to stay.  I just want to see them.  But then again there are so many places I want to go.  I want to see Seattle.  I just want to go there.  I think it would be cool.  For that matter, I have never been west of Nebraska, and I have been in a lot of places!  I would like to go back to Maine (where I am from) with my husband so he can see it too.  I want to go back to Chicago (where I lived nearby for a short while as a child) and see all of the museums and Shedd Aquarium.  I would love to go back to Disneyworld, but this time with the kids.  I’ve been there several time, I just want to take them once.  And the biggie-I want to go overseas.  I have never been out of the country except for Canada.  I want to go to Australia and China.

• I want to go back to school.  But of course, I have to figure out what I really want to do.  Therein lies my problem…

So that’s really it.  I don’t want much, do I?  I’m hoping that once our little situation gets straightened out that perhaps we can start going places.  Right now, I’d just like to be able to occasionally buy myself a frapuccino.

Ah yes, the Starbucks coconut mocha frappucino. It rates an honorable mention on my list of faves. I may have to start that list for a future post…

It’s My First Blog Post! Truths About Me, Scary or Otherwise

I am not a cat… but I like this picture…

Apparently, I amuse people.  I find this quite hard to believe, but at least in print I have been told I am somewhat entertaining.  Not just me, necessarily, but me and the combination my two children, who are as unique as they come.  Somehow the mix here just works.  Time and time again I keep being told I need to blog.  Things that are true about me:

1-I am a Mom.  I guess I just said that.  I have two children, a boy and a girl, ages 7 and 4.  I also have a husband who can be a child.

This is not my family.  But we are very strange.

2-I used to have a life.  Ok, not much of a life, but I used to frequent places that didn’t feature groceries and one stop shopping in them.

There are usually two children crying when I am at the store.  Yes they belong to me.

3-I used to be a teacher.  I even went to school to be one.  The kids were great, it was the grown-ups who sucked.  I think the teacher choice was correct, it was the field that I chose to teach.  Hence the name of the blog, The Sadder But Wiser Girl. A gold star for you if you know what movie had a song in it of the same name.  Currently I am a KOSAHM (not to be confused with KOSAMA)-A kind of stay at home mom.  I work some, my hours and where I work vary greatly from week to week.  I don’t make much therefore I must take my kids to work with me when I work outside the house and attempt to work while I am home with them.  As a start this blog my elementary aged child has been out of school for a week, and I am already nearly nuts.

No this wasn’t me when I was teaching.  I didn’t really have a desk…

4-I live in a very small town in the Midwest.  One of those towns where the streets literally had no name until recently.  One of those towns where every event is done on the same date, at the same time, at the same place.  I am not from this town, not even from anywhere around here.  Therefore, I do not know what is going on.  Ever.

These are all everyday images for me.

5-I would like to be one of those moms who bakes everything from scratch, sews and makes all her own clothes, grows all her own food, and uses only all natural and organic products.  You know, I’d open my windows and start singing and small animals and birds would gather and join in.  Guess what, I am NOT that person.  Instead I am an anxiety ridden, ADD mom who makes a lot of food from a box that people in this house don’t eat, loves the organic grocery store but can’t really afford to buy anything there, and has a garden planted by my husband that I know the location of but really can’t tell you where anything is in it.  I also spend a lot of time clipping coupons and looking at those blogs that the frugal thrifty people have that I never actually use much of the advice on there-mainly because I lose the coupons before I get to the store or the recipe before I make it.  But I try.  What were we talking about again?

This isn’t me by the way.  That isn’t either.  But I’d kill for that hair.

6-Which leads me to this-I’m looking for something.  Really I am.  Most of my time is spent looking for something.  Keys, my son’s glasses, the remote, the box of pasta I KNOW I bought last week.  I’m also REALLY looking for something.  Purpose.  What I want to be when I grow up.  Inner peace. A good nights sleep.

And with these truths I start my blog.  Remember when reading it some important advice-enjoy it if you like it, stop reading if you don’t, and if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all!