Are you kidding me?

I went to the dollar store today. I have a love/hate relationship with stores like this.

I LOVE the price. I love that when I take my kids there I can "splurge" and let them get something without feeling like I've wasted a large sum of money. The kids feel like they've won the lottery and I can feel better when I see the item tossed aside knowing I spent a mere dollar on it.

I HATE how dirty some of them are. I feel like I need hand sanitizer after pushing a cart from there. :0( I HATE knowing that even though it's called the "dollar" store....I spend far more than ONE dollar. It's inevitable...I can't resist the "deal".

Today, though....my frustration was magnified exponentially when, in line at the check out counter, the little 4 year old boy in front of us flipped off my daughter. My innocent daughter who has NO idea what a middle finger being waved at her means held up her hand in an "OK" symbol. This is how she tells everyone she is three. :0) To her, the only reason a kid would hold up fingers would be to let others know their age.

Well, the kid kept flipping her off, and she kept holding up her three fingers....him first, then her, then him, you get the idea. Apparently the little boy was not pleased that my daughter was not understanding the meaning behind his "naughty" finger and so instead he decided to TELL her.

Yes, you heard me.

He said "F*%# you" to my daughter. I looked at his father who surely had heard him...right? Nothing.

How does a FOUR YEAR OLD not only KNOW that word...but also know HOW to use it? I could go on making all sorts of assumptions about his parents, siblings, or home life...but that's all they would be. I have no idea what this kid experiences on a day-to-day basis.

Sigh...anyway, the mom pays, and dad and son and mom all start walking away. I sigh a breath of relief, though apparently I did this a tad too early. Since he still got no reaction out my daughter {who has never heard that word before} he decided to tell her again.

What did my daughter do? She smiled and waved goodbye to her new "friend". She still had no idea what he was saying to her, but she was sure that they had somehow "bonded" over hand gestures.

I should have said something. The problem is...I don't think the parents would have cared. So what was the point? Thankfully my daughter was left unaware of what had really happened, but I was ANGRY!

I'm trying not to make rash judgments about these people. I'm sure they're very nice, right? But how in the crap does their son know about fingers and "F words" at four years old? I realize that kids hear their parents swear sometimes. I am not immune to this. I slip...I'm human. But my kids are NOT allowed to use profanities. Sure, they'll get older and do whatever they want anyway....but right now....when they are still young and moldable...bad words are BAD. In our house bad words are things like stupid, butt, ugly, and stuff like that. Words that are part of most people's vocabulary but that can be gross or hurtful.

Sorry for my rambling here....but seriously...am I the only one shocked by occurences like this? All of these little kids with potty mouths? It's sad.

Snow Shmow

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate snow? Sigh. It's been a long day.

I hate driving in the snow. A lot. It's not my driving that I'm worried about so much...it's all the other crazy drivers out there. Anyway...we won't get into that. I had to go into work today for payroll and it took me a couple of hours to get through everything for the day. When I went outside to leave....my windshield was covered in ice! Are you kidding me? Sigh. So, I got out in the insanely cold snow and scraped my windshield so that I could see. {Just so you know...it was completely clean before I went to work. This was all new ice!}

Then...I got back in my car and as I attempted to pull out into the road, I realized my car was stuck. Yep. Tires spinning, not moving...stuck. Are you kidding me? Thankfully I had drivers education with Mr. Mecham and so I knew all about the "rocking" technique. You know...reverse, forward, reverse, forward...back, forth, back, forth...until you are able to "rock" out of the sticky spot. I made it out...whew. Off to Costco.

Did you know that apparently it was A-ok to ride your bicycle down the middle of a busy road if the sidewalks are covered in snow?

I didn't know that either. Hmmm.....

Did you know that apparently it is A-ok to WALK down the middle of a busy road if the sidewalks are covered in snow?

Again...me either. See where I'm going with this?

Did you know that if you drive a BIG truck you don't have to worry about slick roads because...hey! You're in a BIG truck. Those other people in their cute little Pacifica's? They should stop for you. Oh wait! Not all Pacifica's have 4-wheel drive or all-wheel drive? That's right! Wow....should have thought twice when you thought the lady with the angry eyes behind the wheel would actually stop for you and your BIG ass truck.

Ahem. {Calming down now}

Yeah...some dumb guy in a truck tried to pull out DIRECTLY in front of me in a non-snow plowed parking lot. My car doesn't stop on a dime in the snow. Let's just say he learned a lesson today. And that is....don't pull out in front of people in the snow! Dumb!

Continuing on...

Did you know that snow tires are about $150 each? And that by the time you pay for all four of them and have them installed and balanced and whatnot it's going to cost almost $900? FOR TIRES! THAT YOU ONLY USE WHEN IT'S SNOWY OUTSIDE!

Have I mentioned that I hate snow?

Mediocrity is the new black

I had an awesome day yesterday. Got a lot of stuff done, which is always rewarding for me. Even though Kenzee wouldn't take a nap, I wouldn't let it bother me. Got to go send off a friend who is having her baby in Utah, and heading out this weekend for there. I won't see her again until after baby comes. We had fun chatting. I came home excited for things to come.

And then I came home. I ran online to check on something I had been anxiously waiting on for about 5 days now. As the screen popped up, I saw that my wait was over. But, then I was really nervous and didn't want to look. So, I said a silent prayer, hoping for the best, and scrolled down the screen. I wish I wouldn't have looked. I wasn't so happy anymore. I was angry at first. I ranted and raved to the hubby about it, and though he tried to make me feel better, I wasn't wanting to be told it was going to be ok. I wanted to be angry. I was going to tell this lady off and let her know how wrong she was. Ok, so I wasn't...but I thought about it for a long time. And then I started thinking of how I could convince her about how wrong she was. Yeah...can't do that either. There's nothing I can really do without making things worse. I hate that. I don't like feeling defeated. But that's how I feel right now. DEFEATED. Thankfully, I'm a bit of a fighter, so I'm not backing down. But I lost that round. And it really just.....sucks. {that's a naughty word in my house}

So, I'm in a bad mood today. I can't help it. I'm not angry anymore, just really sad. I hate that you can work so hard for something, and mediocrity is all that is wanted. Going above and beyond is frowned upon apparently. I feel like I've been deflated. Do I cut myself short and be mediocre? I don't know...

Thankfully, I went over to my friend, Katie's, blog and she had some really awesome quotes posted today. Thanks so much! It helped me to remember a few things. I'm still not a happy girl, but it made me stop and think.

"Life is like riding a bike, in order to maintain your balance you must continue to move forward."

I'll get over this....eventually....but I don't know where to go from here. If mediocrity is ok, and creativity is not; but I'm a creative person, and hate mediocrity...what to do? Be bland, I guess. That's what I've resigned myself to. Bland is just so much harder for me.