is this totally queer*?

(* queer as in weird, odd, geeky, stupid or silly)

i have written the following letter and plan to give it to Kasey Kahne tomorrow when Sam meets him. i know he can't read it on the spot - but was hoping he'd read it after the event. this is going to be such a HUGE deal for her - i just want him to know that. is that just too weird/odd/geeky/stupid/silly??? (in the actual letter, I put a picture of Sam in her Kasey Kahne t-shirt)


Dear Kasey,

This is my eight year old daughter Samantha - or as she prefers, Sam.

I am certain it is a HUGE deal for all of your fans to meet you in person & I am most grateful you make yourself available like this. I briefly wanted to share with you how BIG a deal it is for Sam to meet you & what it means to her to be a Kasey Kahne fan.

Sam has many challenges. She has normal intellect but works very hard to overcome ADHD, dyslexia, apraxia (a neurological issue that causes a profound speech delay) as well as the behavior issues that go hand in hand with the rest. She attends a private school in Dallas that provides an extremely intensive curriculum & therapies geared to her specific challenges.

Sam discovered NASCAR & YOU two years ago at Texas Motor Speedway. She earned a trip to the races because of her school work. We have 8 PSLs at TMS & each family member has their own driver they cheer for. Sam chose you as her driver (with a little direction from her Dad.)

At her first race, she did not leave her seat. Not for food, drinks, to explore & seldom for the bathroom. She did not fidget. She was transfixed. Through her headphones, she asks her dad repeatedly, "Where's #9, Daddy?" He helped her keep up with you throughout the race. And all this from a kid with severe ADHD.

She has worn out at least two Kasey t-shirts in two years. Is overly protective of her Kasey hats & sleeps with a Kasey pillow every night. And I do mean every single night. She lost the pillow once while she was visiting my family in Mississippi last summer. Pandemonium broke out & it NEVER happened again! (Her granddaddy actually put a nail in the wall by her bed to hang the pillow on.)

I know you have devoted fans. Some likely know every single published fact about you. Sam's not one of those. But she is devoted nonetheless. She's not into Disney stars, singers, actors or boy bands - you are IT for her. Rarely does a day go by without your name coming up in her conversations.

Meeting you today will be an experience Sam will never forget (and we'll likely never hear the end of.) If you have ever made the mistake of thinking that your life's work is only about cars, appearances, sponsors and the next big race - please allow me to convince you otherwise. You bring a great deal of happiness, excitement & joy to the every day life of one very special little girl in Small Town, Texas.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

*******************************

Feedback please. and QUICKLY...

there will be no dried ink

what i couldn't tell you earlier this week - what i wanted to tell you - but didn't want to jinx - was that we had a contract on our house and had put a contract on a new house.

the contract on our house fell through last night because the buyers could not come up with the funds. therefore we had to opt out of the contract we put on the house in the city. a GORGEOUS house, inside and out, pool, new everything, almost a half acre lot, et al.

the funny thing - i am okay with losing that house. not thrilled about it - but okay. i believe completely in Divine Intervention. and if we were (are) meant to have that house - it would have (will) happen. though i doubt seriously that house will last five minutes on the market. it is perfect. we put a contract on it the day it was listed. so for all practical purposes, we have lost that house.

but i have to believe that just means that a better house is waiting for us. something closer to Sam's school. or with a three car garage for the hubby. or one with five bedrooms instead of four so the girls don't have to share. or a better school district for Savvy and Smith. who knows...

what i am not so kosher with is the CRAZY STUPID IDIOT woman that tried to buy our house. it was to have been a cash deal. she was to have taken a check to the title company for the entire amount when she executed the contract. we signed the contract, got it to her and she never took it in. so we were left hanging for 10 days by this vile, evil, unscrupulous woman. last night was the end of her option period so she had to 'fess up that she did not have the moola.

the first time i met her, she looked me in the eye and lied to my face about having just bought a $750K house down the road.

fool me once...

Planned Parenthood & Me

i am a huge proponent of Planned Parenthood. have been for many years. i don't usually broadcast it but am not afraid nor ashamed to admit it either.

and for those of you innocently ignorant of the facts, Planned Parenthood in NOT synonymous with Abortion.

nothing could be further from the truth.
PP is about informed, professional health care for women AND men.

in fact, PP probably does more than any other US agency in existence to prevent abortions.

huh?! you ask...

PP is one of the largest providers of birth control to women out there, particularly low income .
shut down PP and you shut down women's access to birth control.
then let's talk about unwanted pregnancies and back alley abortions.

anywho, there is a renewed attack on Planned Parenthood and their clinics lately.

it makes me crazy.

in response, PP has a new blog - and I want to share it with you. .
It's I Am EmilyX.
I am adding it to my links on the left..
In addition to the link to the Planned Parenthood site.

Read it; if you agree, ADD IT TO YOUR BLOG!

in sharing this here, i am doing my small part to educate and support a woman's right to excellent health care as well as her right to choose when and how to start a family.

i am the mother of three small children. two of them are daughters. i don't want them to get a tattoo much less have to choose whether or not to have an abortion. but i will defend to my death their right to make any and all health care decisions that relate to their bodies.

will you?

hey, can i get a valium with that?

i have not blogged here lately. (made an update on my other blog yesterday)

not b/c i have nothing to say (get real people - i always have something to say!)

but because there is something going on that i don't want to talk about

oh, i really do want to talk about it.

want to tell everyone about it.

but i am afraid if i talk about it, i will jinx it ...
and the situation is precarious enough without me putting a hex on it.
and it is HUGE!

my stress anxiety level is off the freaking charts.
can't even put it into words.

here's a hint - it has to do with us moving...

that's all i will say until the ink is dry.

crazy.insane.pee.in.your.pants.EXCITED

that would be me.

this would be my girl, Sam, completely unaware of the upcoming excitement!

this picture was taken at Texas Motor Speedway. wearing her favorite driver on her shirt.

this would be her driver, Kasey Kahne, #9, red and black Dodge car.

Meet Kasey.

isn't he just adorable? i mean pinch his cheeks, cute as apple pie adorable.

and Sam ADORES Kasey. and has for two years. since her first NASCAR race. (click and go read the original post on Sam and NASCAR- it's priceless)
but know - there are no rock stars, disney musical stars, tv personalities she is crazy for. it is nothing or nobody but Kasey for Sam.

she sleeps with her Kasey pillow every night. in fact, this house cannot go to bed in the unlikely (and catastrophic) event that pillow goes missing. this past summer when she visited with my folks in Mississippi, my Dad put a nail in the wall by the bed so every morning he could hang the pillow on the wall (the pillow has a handle.) this way, every night they would know exactly where it was. i think the pillow went missing once and he was making darn sure it never happened again.

that's all well and good - but why the excitement you ask....

NASCAR is in texas next month. which means Kasey is in texas next month. of course Sam has her very own tickets to ALL the races. and that's pretty darn cool that an eight year old has $230 worth of race tickets for herself. but not pee in your pants exciting...

Kasey is doing a meet and greet for his fans at BONOS RACE PLACE OF PLANO a few days before the race. And guess who is going to be there with bells on!

YES, US!!!

it gets better.

the HUGELY nice guy that owns the store is a long time friend of my brother in law and his wife. that's how i even knew Kasey was going to do the appearance - from bil & sil. so at the urging of my sister in law, i phoned this fella up and explained to him about Sam and her challenges. not so much because i wanted to ask for special treatment for her but to let him know what a HUGE Kasey fan Sam is and explain how she has issues that might possibly intrude on her experience of meeting him in person.

the owner guy was great about it. could not possibly have been nicer. even talked to kasey's people about her. (I!love!this!guy!) They told me that if she wigs out because of all the people or just meeting him in person that she can meet him quietly in a back room. HOLY CHIT!

and I am crazy, not stupid (see previous post). We are not telling her about this until it is time to GO to the race store and meet him. not a word. hubby, me, and the rest of the family are about to pee in our pants we are so excited for her. this will easily be the biggest (good) thing to happen to her in her life thus far!

i have it all mapped out in my head. she gets out of school at 4:15 that afternoon. the meet and greet is from 7 - 9 PM. she does not have school the next day. (thank you Lord for small blessings!)

so MIL will pick Sam up from school and take her to her house to clean up and get dressed. i have bought her a new Kasey Kahne t-shirt for the occasion.

i will go around 3 or 4 and get in line. you have to have a wrist band to get an autograph - and I already have mine (sam's).

hubby will go pick her up after he gets off work and they will meet me at Bono's.

two weeks from today.
and counting.
i don't know if i can stand it.

my near brush with stupid

tonight, my mom had a three hour layover at DFW on her way home to Mississippi from Oregon. So the kids and i loaded up and drove to the airport to meet her. It was dinner time. And due to all the new security rules, only ticketed passengers can get to the restaurants at DFW. So we just picked her up at the curb and headed to McDonald's. As Mom pointed out as I begrudgingly agreed to a meal at Mickey D's "The kids can play as we can visit." That sounded good.

so we got there. Made a bathroom stop and then the kids went straight to the inside playground. Mom said she would watch the kids while I go order dinner.

So I went and ordered our meal. paid for it. got mine and mom's drinks and brought them to the table. As i put them down, i heard Smith screaming. (and only mom's know when it is the real scream or the fake scream. this was a real one.) i darted over to the bottom of the slide where all the kids appeared to be, looked up the slide and could see my son trapped and panicked under other children - all bigger and older than he.

I looked at Sam and she was upset trying to help him. I first pulled on Sam and she would not budge. So I grabbed the little boy (b/t 9 and 11 years old) on top of them and pulled him out. Then I could reach Smith and pull him out. I immediately set Smith down and before even checking to see if he was okay, turned to the other little boy I had just pulled out to apologize. I knew i had not hurt him but wanted to make sure his dignity was in tact.

no sooner did i get the words "I am sorry, are you okay?' our of my mouth that this mountain of a woman came lumbering up to me and grunts,

"Did you just put your hands on my nephew?"

Not wanting to start a fight and wanting to clear things up immediately, i replied, "Yes, Mam. But i immediately apologized to him."

"Good" she snorted.

trying to explain myself, I said, "My son was trapped and I was trying to get him out."

"You shouldn't let him play in there if he is too little."

WTF!

I am thinking to myself, he's three years old. bigger than most kids his age and gets the shit beat out of him regularly by his two older sisters. this kid is NOT too little for the playgrounds at McDonalds'.

"He's not too little." i snap back.

the gloves are off.

She started telling me how he was too little if he got trapped.

all I could think was that if your kids knew to get off a freaking slide when they got to the bottom instead of trying to climb back up, none of this would be a problem.

But I did not want to involve the kids, hers or mine.
She kept at me, I returned fire.

Finally I told her to "SHUT UP!"
She replies "You gonna make me?"

Then and only then did i realize I was dealing with a really stupid person that apparently was taking some perverse pleasure in spoiling everyone's good time.

I walked away. Sat my kids down with my mother and walked back into the restaurant to get our food. After a brief exchange with the managers and trying to find out if there indeed was a size/age restriction on the playground and telling them about the crazy woman in the play room - I could still hear her in there yelling at my Mom. Then she walked up to the counter with a cell phone and said "You da manager. My sister want to talk to you." Apparently she needed back up.

At this point I told them to bag up my food, I was leaving.

Went back in, got my kids and walked out. While sitting by the door, putting on shoes and socks, i could still hear her at the counter ranting and raving. "My kids were just fine till they got here."

and then i heard one of her kids out by the play yard yell, "you need to teach yo kids how to behave."

i am not kidding. you cannot make this stuff up.

At this point, i told my Mom that if I had to walk over there by her I was likely going to punch her lights out. So Mom sent me to the car with the kids and she got our food.

Mom tells me the employees apologized. whatever.

that woman and her kids followed out shortly behind us and were getting in their car when we left. I can only hope that the manager asked them to leave.

In the van, one of my kids says, "That woman was stupid." I always try to separate the person from the behavior and was opening my mouth to say "No, she just acted stupid."

Before i could draw breath, my mom responds, "Yes, she was very stupid."

this time, she got it right...

i went to the animal fair

truthfully, i went to the State Fair of Texas.

and i met brutus.

i am posting this picture for my friend, scarlett wanna be

she needs a pick-me-up today. and the other day when i met brutus at the Texas State Fair, i immediately thought of my new blogger bud, Scarlett WB.

um, ms scarlett - i don't think there's any mistaking the anatomy here...

whadaya say?

and you know what they say (and apparently there's some truth to it) EVERY THING'S BIGGER IN TEXAS!

we want the funk

Here's mine. I love this...

the au pair has a wicked sense of humor

this happened friday night and i have been dying to blog it all weekend...

so late friday, kids are all home, i am getting dinner ready, hubby is running late from work.

kids, all eight of them (okay, so it's really only three - but it feels like EIGHT!) were running through the house playing, screaming, yelling, whooping and hollering at the TOP of their lungs. Having a ball - being relatively nice to each other - but louder than a rock concert on acid.

i walk over, grab a beer out of the fridge, pop the top, take a long draw, turn to the the au pair, nod my head toward the melee and tell her...
"my kids make me drink beer"

in her delightful german accent she tells me, "i think it should be whiskey."

we've got a live one!