Holy Run-on Sentence Batman!

I have one specific person on my Facebook who never uses any punctuation. Her posts read like this: "kids are driving my crazy wish I could go out ribs for dinner no oven need to grill them wish it was warm out again Girl Scout cookies in soon can't wait for the weekend husband being mean again wish I had a job"

It takes all of my willpower to not write "Holy run on sentence Batman!" on every one of her posts. Sometimes I have to read them several times before I understand each sentence. I know that it's "just Facebook" and not a huge deal, but it makes reading anything she posts difficult. Is it really THAT hard to stick a comma in between your thoughts? Perhaps I should just put "Dafuq?!" on her statuses. That'll show her ;)

Dafuq??

Dafuq. I hate this awful non word so much. In case you don't know what it is/means, (I had to ask someone) I'll teach you. It is apparently another shortened version of "what the fuck?". The evolution went something like this: people would type "What the fuck", but that was too long. So they shortened it to WTF. Then that was either not cool enough, or just kept getting confused with "where's the fudge?", so it became "the fuck?". That, of course, was not ghetto enough, so it had to be changed to "da fuck?". Then, someone, somewhere, still wasn't satisfied. So, they smashed it together and stuck a 'q' in there. I still don't know why, and sadly, probably never will. I just know that I hate it very much, and if you type it, my opinion of your maturity goes down. A lot. Now, if I just saw this written by young teenagers, I would roll my eyes, but whatever. Usually (hopefully!!) teenagers will eventually outgrow that. However, the main place I see this, is on Babycenter. That is a website filled with full grown woman, with children. Most of them are pretty sanctimonious, but it's hard to take them serious when they write "dafuq?" on a post. It takes all of my willpower to not ask every person who types that, their age. I really dislike that slang, and I hope it goes away, fast. Now here is my question for anyone reading this. Do you know anyone who types this? Does it bug you as much as it bugs me? More importantly though, do you know anyone who actually SAYS "dafuq"? Is it just a typed thing, or will have have to see it in the dictionary some day?

Holiday Cheer ;)

Merry Christmas everyone!

This is gonna be a sad one....

Sorry for the bummer post, but it's that time of year. Today is October 29th. To most of you, this day means nothing more then any other Monday. But to a select few, it means everything. It is the day, 17 years ago, that my father died. I'm not going to go into the details of that day. Everyone who needs to know already does. But it was the day that changed my life, and my family, forever. I miss my dad every single day. Some days less, and on those days I'm grateful for the 14 years I had with him. Other days, I'm sad that my kids will never know their Grandpa. My dad would have been the best Grandpa! Seriously, he would've rocked at it. And it's total crap that my kids, and my niece and nephews miss out. Yes, they have family that loves and adores them, grandpas included. But it's not the same as the awesomeness that was my dad. A lot of things changed when he died. So much more then most people realize. My sister Heidi moved away, and we didn't see her for several years. My mom had a tough time dealing with the loss of her husband. She STILL has a tough time with it. She will until the day she gets to be with him again. They were a forever kind of thing. My sisters and I were lucky to have each other. It definitely changed us all. But it wasn't just us that things were never the same for. Some friends stopped coming over so much, because it was too sad, and those friendships were lost, or changed. Some family members came around even more, and some friends became like family. Take my friend Jennifer, for instance. She is not just my closest friend because we have been friends for 23 years. Also, because aside from my mom and sisters, she is the only other person in the world who knows every detail of that day. She was there that morning, having slept over the night before. She literally stood next to me through the entire ordeal. She held my hand at his funeral. And that makes her family. There is not a single day that goes by that I don't think of my dad. Thankfully, it's usually with a smile from a happy memory. But even then, I sure do miss my daddy....

Please Say Please!!

I am a mean mom. I will freely admit that. I am also a mean Aunt, babysitter or hostess of sleepovers/playdates. In my home, manners are not optional. I drive my niece Lilli crazy when she visits. She will come up and say "I'm thirsty." I will reply "It's nice to meet you Thirsty, I'm Aunt Toni." She will then say "No! I'm THIRSTY, like for a drink." I will follow up with "Okay Thirsty Likeforadrink, I'm Aunt Toni Pleaseaskcorrectly." This can go on for awhile, but eventually she will ask if she can please have a drink. I think now she might do it just for fun. However, most children whom I encounter these days do not use basic manners. I have heard several parents proclaim that their children are "too young" to learn manners. That's interesting. My nephew Tyler is not yet two, and has been saying "please" and "thank you" pretty much since he could talk. My own son, also nearly two, has said "thank you" for months. We just finally nailed "please" in the last few weeks. The look of shock on our faces when I said "Can you say please Lucas?" and he said "Peas!" instead of "Uh huh!" was pretty comical. I don't understand not teaching your kids manners. Why wouldn't you? My children learned simply because I use my manners. I will ask them to do something, and say please and thank you, so they do it too. I am constantly told how well behaved and polite my children are when they go to their friends' homes. My oldest calls his best friend's mom Mrs. Herlastname, thanks her for letting him visit, and according to her, uses his manners while he is there. I would be mortified if he didn't! Now, don't get me wrong, my children are not perfect. They can be downright monsters! The older two are awfully snotty sometimes, and my youngest is in a super fun screaming-when-he-gets-mad stage. It's truly amazing. However, they still use manners, even when tattling. Yesterday, Matthew came up to me and said "Mom, may you please tell Alyssa to stop jumping on my bed while I'm trying to read?" After I complied, he thanked me. To them, manners are just second nature. They very rarely even need to be reminded. Teaching your kids manners is very, very easy, and can begin at birth. If you use your manners in front of, and with, your own children, they will follow suit. My sister Tracy used to make fun of me for making my kids ask for things correctly, even at very young ages. Now that she has her own child, it doesn't seem so silly to her anymore. I feel the same way about manners as I do about grammar. When it comes to my kids, I don't care if they are gay or straight. I don't care if they get married and have babies or stay single and have cats (or married with cats even). I will not care if they decide to be doctors and lawyers, or instead move to Paris and become starving artists. As long as they are safe and happy. AND as long as they are polite, well spoken individuals with a good sense of right and wrong. Oh and as long as they NEVER think they are better then anyone. EVER. (But that is a blog for another day.) That is really all I can do as a parent. It's not too late for you either. If your children are among the ones I see out there that aren't required to use manners, now is the perfect time to change that.

"I Seen...."

Yup, that about sums it up. I hear, and see, this frequently. It drives me crazy, and quite frankly, lowers my opinion of the person's intelligence. You SAW it, you did not SEEN it. I just don't understand how that even sounds right to anyone. People who say it have to know that it makes them sound unintelligent. Right?! The way you speak matters! It really does. You can be a super smart Harvard graduate, but if you say things like "I seen", or "I ain't got none", you sound like an idiot. I am sure that seems mean to those of you that say "I seen", and you are probably right. It is mean. Go ahead and tell people how mean I am, heck, even write your own blog about it. Just please, please, don't tell people that you "seen" this blog...

Get Over Yourself

A trend I tend to see a lot on Facebook is the "Too cool for Facebook" poster. You probably all have at least one person like that on your friends list. If not, it's probably you ;) They join FB with much fanfare, posting about how a friend/family member/coworker finally convinced them to join. Even though they are MUCH too busy, because they actually have a life. Then they proceed to post every couple days about how they are "never" on, because they are much too busy, and so on. About three months or so after joining, they post a long status update about how they are deactivating their FB. Of course you know why, too busy, actually have a life, etc. If you want to get a hold of them, call or text, like in the old days. Naturally life goes on as normal, and you may, or may not give that friend any thought for the next three months or so. Then suddenly, a friend request pops up from them. Again. You may briefly be confused. "Aren't we already friends??" But then you'll remember how they are, or were it seems, much too busy for FB. Guess they must not have a life these days. You accept the request, and first thing you see is their post about rejoining Facebook. As it turns out, they are still much too busy, and still have a life. They just rejoined FB to keep in touch with family and friends far away. Whew! Good to know, you were worried for a minute that maybe they weren't busy anymore. Cue the daily, or semi daily posts about the evils of FB, and how busy they are. They actually HAVE a life you know....