Now I've Got Stuff To Say
4:41 PM - Posted by Shelly - 2 comments
In my effort to update things, i.e. blog, Twitter, etc... I realized that despite saying on my just-posted blog entry (and on Facebook) that I didn't have anything to say, I actually do have something to say!

So I went to Dollar Tree on my lunch break and saw some stealing going on. It wasn't shoplifting, per se, but it was definitely stealing. The man in front of me in line had an armful of random things: mustard, a plastic army hat, cards, a couple of toy swords, candy... just stuff. He also had a young boy with him, probably about 5 or 7 years old. When he got to the cashier, she seemed to know him (and especially the boy) and mumbled to the man something like "fifteen." The man got what looked to be three wadded five dollar bills out of his pocket and then put them on the counter. After she bagged his items, none of which were scanned or rung up on the register, she told me that she was ready to ring me up. The man left.

Interestingly, this has happened to me. A few years ago at my local Dollar Tree, I went in to get a few things and when the cashier "rang me up," he simply bagged my items, told me the total (somewhere around $3.28), I gave him cash, he gave me change and I left. I realized that he didn't ring up my items, but it wasn't until I got out the door that it dawned on me that he was stealing from the store. If he didn't ring up my items but still only charged me what I would have paid if he had, his register would ultimately show an overage at the end of the night and he would pocket the extra. Obviously this would only work if the customer was paying cash.

Now that I think about this, I seem to recall that this sort of scam got a couple of people fired from the Chick-fil-A that I worked at in high school.

Anyway, back to today... I wonder what was really going on with the cashier, the customer and the child. I didn't count the man's items, so I don't know if he had more or less than what she charged him. Since it appeared that she knew the man, was she just trying to help out a poor guy with a kid without damaging his pride? Or was she just using him to make a little money for herself?

After having had someone use me to make some easy money off Dollar Tree, I decided that if they tried that trick with me again I would ask for a receipt so that they would have to ring me up on the register. But I really don't know what to make of what happened today or what, if anything, I should do about it.


Where Have I Been?
3:47 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments
I didn't realize that it had been TWO MONTHS since I last posted anything!! Yikes! The slacking never ceases with me, I suppose. And Facebook does make it more difficult to come up with something new for the blog. I am so used to just throwing up a new status rather than writing out thoughts.

Nonetheless, there really isn't much of an update. My due date is less than three weeks away and we are getting more and more excited about Little Girl's arrival. Everything seems to be going well, and I have only a few complaints about the tail end of my pregnancy. I am generally uncomfortable a good bit of the time, but I hear that's to be expected. I think one thing that makes it difficult for me at work (and at home a little bit) is that my belly simply does not fit under my desk. If I lean forward to reach the keyboard, the baby kicks. If I sit back in my chair, I can barely reach anything. So I alternate to keep both of us happy.

The baby's room is pretty much finished, thankfully. We decided to paint each wall with a tree to represent a season of the year. I am very pleased with the fall and winter walls... not so much with the spring and summer. I think those will have to be tweaked at some point in the future. Below are some pictures of the walls.




Yeah, even looking at it on the computer, I see some real room for improvement on the summer tree. The spring tree isn't even worth taking a picture of. So sad...


To B'ham and Back
8:14 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments
So it's a week late, but Nathan's big birthday present was a trip to Birmingham to go to the Rick & Bubba radio show. This morning was the show and it was a lot of fun! We made R&B some ham and cheese rolls (which I hoped they liked) and just got to sit back and watch them do their morning show. During the commercial breaks Bubba threw a tennis ball up against the windows (literally at every commercial break... all 12 that we were there for) and Rick gave us a drum solo on the kit. He specifically played a Latin beat for me for some unknown reason (he said, "Mom, I know you like the Latin stuff" or something like that). After the show, we got a nice picture made with them.


After Rick & Bubba, we went to Vulcan Park, which I may or may not have been to as a child. We got some great pictures and I found out that my parents and/or grandparents lied to me about Vulcan's butt. I was told that there was controversy about his butt being exposed and that it was covered up eventually with some metal shorts or something. When I asked about this today at the museum, I was told that there was indeed controversy, but that his butt was not covered up, rather he was turned 17 degrees so as not to be mooning Homewood. Please do enjoy my picture of Vulcan's butt.

After Vulcan, I finally learned where Five Points is, as we went to a health food store there to buy incense and snacks. After that, we drove quickly by the place where my grandparents used to live (we drove quickly because it is now a very scary-looking place) and then stopped by the cemetery to see theirs and my uncle's graves.

Finally, we headed back home. However, we did stop in Cullman at Denny's to eat. Since we are deprived of any Denny's in the Middle Tennessee Area, this was a special treat. The food was excellent, but the service was bad. We were there for nearly an hour, and most of it was waiting on our waitress to come by so we could ask for our check and a to-go box. But, again, the food was fantastic!!

If this sounds a bit like "What I Did On My Summer Vacation," it's because I am just exhausted! Not only did we pack a lot into a short time, we slept terribly last night at the hotel. But I never sleep well in a strange bed, anyway. Still we had a great time!!



Not That It's Not A Sad Day
5:33 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments
Today is September 11. Everyone knows what happened today and what they were doing when it happened. I remember being at work that morning and hearing what was going on in New York. I also remember that I had to leave work early that day because we were having a new hot water heater installed in our house that afternoon.

Not that it's not a sad day or anything, but it's not that big a deal for me. Mainly because I associate it so much with what happened the following week. On Sept. 18, 2001 our house caught fire and we lost nearly everything, including five of our cats.

The thing is, when you hear about Sept. 11, you hear so much about how people came together and how much help there was out there for people in need. But the next week, we didn't experience much of that. I can't say that some people weren't sympathetic; I can't say that some people didn't go the extra mile for us. There were plenty of people who did. But there were plenty of people who didn't.

Yeah, I suppose I am bitter about it still. And I really didn't realize that I was until now. I don't know many people who have been through what we had, so I guess it's hard for people to really understand what it's like to lose your beloved pets, whose poor dead bodies were treated like trash by the authorities. It's hard for people to know what it's like to go to K-mart at night to buy clothes because all you have is what you wore to work that day. It's hard for people to know what it's like to be told that your possessions are irrecoverable not because they are damaged, but because the cleaning crew is stealing from you. Those are the memories that I associate with September 2001.

Of course, I can't forget that there were very, very kind people who were quite generous to us. The pet cremation company who treated our cats like the children they were to us (and, funnily enough, the company gave us a "bulk" discount because we had so many to be cremated). There was the church group who donated sheets and bedding for us once we had an apartment and some furniture. And there were the people who gave us money to help us until the insurance kicked in. Those were the real lifesavers, especially in those first few days when we really had nothing.

So, I am sad for the people that died in the terrorist attacks eight years ago. I am sad for how divided our country is after a brief time of being united. But mostly, when people talk about today, I relive the time just after Sept. 11, when we lost so much ourselves.


Midwives
2:59 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments
This past weekend, Nathan and I went to hear two midwives, Ina May Gaskin and Umsalaama Abdullah, speak at an event called "Labor (of Love) Day."

If you aren't familiar with Ina May Gaskin, she is the founder of The Farm Midwifery Center in Summertown, TN. She has written a few of books, one of which I have read, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, and one that Nathan is reading called Spiritual Midwifery.

As we plan on a natural childbirth, these books have been not only helpful, but very encouraging. I am excited to see how our birth turns out in light of all that we have learned recently about natural childbirth.

Below are some pictures I took at the event.



Oh, and I really wanted to title this entry "My Vagina Birth" due to a comment an audience member made, but I thought it would be too much for the faint of heart. ;)


I am a slacker
4:02 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments
So I have not blogged in nearly two months. Yes, yes, I know I am a slacker, but I have an excuse! I am pregnant, busy and forgetful. Pretty much everyone who could possibly read this blog already knows that we have a young'un on the way, and that she is a girl. Still, I have to put her cute little picture up:



That's my daughter! Which is just weird to say "my daughter." So, I will try to keep the blog better posted on the Rogers comings and goings.



Jon & Kate
5:05 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments
I have to put my two cents with the whole "Jon & Kate Plus 8" thing, especially since I wouldn't be surprised if Nathan is sick to death of hearing me going on and on about it. You know, we see it everywhere; on the magazines at the store, on the clip shows on TV (which, on a side note, if you don't watch The Soup on E!, you are missing a heckuva good time!!). The Gosselins are just plain everywhere.

Of course, last night was another two new episodes. I had them set to tape but only got to see commercials for them as yet (The Golden Girls was on and I didn't want to change the channel!). In the commercial for the "Kate's Birthday" episode, one of the sextuplets (a boy) yells loudly, "Happy Birthday Mom!" and a second later another sextuplet (a girl) screams a "Happy Birthday, Mom!" even louder, to the point that it was not a scream, but rather a screech. The next part of the commercial showed Kate and the kids at the Ace of Cakes (from Food Network) store and Kate was jokingly snapping at Duff, the guy who runs Ace of Cakes. Both segments stood out to me, although at the time I didn't put much more thought into them other than rolling my eyes at Kate being a bitch, again.

Currently I am reading a book called Captivating. It is what most people would call a "self-help" book or possibly "Christian inspirational." Either way, the point of this book is to kind of break down and analyze what makes a woman who she is and how to get past hurts in her life. In the chapter I have read most recently, the point was made that while a girl's father tells her (by his words and actions) what a woman's value is, it is a girl's mother who teaches her (also by her words and actions) how to be a woman. The mother is the example of femininity and shows her daughter how a woman acts and what the essence of a woman is.

Now obviously, many mothers do not teach true femininity, but rather a concept that was developed by their own experiences and their own mother's teachings. So we have a lot of women in the world who have no idea how to truly be a woman nor how to act like a woman.

How does all this tie into Jon & Kate? Well, I didn't realize it at the time I saw the commercial last night, but that segment was an excellent example of how our children, and specifically in this case our daughters, are who we mold them to be (unwittingly or not). I have watched enough Jon & Kate to realize that Kate often raises her voice when she wants attention focused on her. Obviously when she needs to be heard over a bunch of screaming kids, she must raise her voice, but when she wants Jon to pay attention to her, she raises her voice to him as well. When she wanted Duff at Ace of Cakes to pay attention to her, she raised her voice, even jokingly, to him. This not only shows her children that in order to be heard, you must be loud, but it also diminishes other people's, specifically men, roles in the world. In order for people to pay attention to you, you have to be louder than everyone else. It doesn't matter who the other person is that you have to be louder than, it just matters that you are louder.

Earlier in the commercial, when Kate's daughter yelled "Happy Birthday!" louder than the son that had yelled it first, it occurred to me that Kate may already be setting this standard without realizing it. The son's "Happy Birthday!" contribution was diminished by the daughter's louder scream. It wasn't an echo of the son's love for his mother, it was a trump. Is that how a woman is supposed to act? Is this what Kate is teaching her daughter? To be a woman is to be the loudest so that people will pay attention to you when you want it?

I am sure it could be argued that this is how kids are, and I am sure that there is a "multiple child" dynamic that is factoring into the children's behavior. Still, I can't help but speculate, and take mental notes, on what effect Kate's neuroses are having on her children. I have already seen Mady and Cara take on more responsibility since Jon's absence to help Kate out with the younger kids. Is this an unhealthy extension of Kate's controlling nature?

Who knows. I am not a psychologist and I sure ain't qualified to analyze anybody but myself. Still, it does help me to see these things happen if only to give me guidance as to the kind of parent I want to be to my children.