I was also trying out my new Photoshop actions and maybe played a little too much with them.

For more Wordless Wednesdays/Wordful Wednesdays, please visit 5 Minutes For Mom, and WordlessWednesday.com {HQ}

Just Another Wordless Wednesday…{Mommy’s Love} is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

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Then go climb a tree or make mud pies.

She is a girly Tom-Boy.

Just like her Mama. Only I was always shoeless. Climbing trees, playing in the dirt…beating up the boys who annoyed me.

Ahhh, to be five again.

We got her a basket for the decidedly boyish bike that Grandma and Grandpa got her for Christmas…before she was two years old! She was pretending to be the paper delivery girl.

Then she was a vampire.

Then she was the Vampire Girl Newspaper Delivery person.

See what I mean?

For more Wordless Wednesdays/Wordful Wednesdays, please visit 5 Minutes For Mom, and WordlessWednesday.com {HQ}

Just Another Wordless Wednesday….{The Many Styles Of The Diva} is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

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It’s time to list all your contests here at The Asylum. I don’t have time to search for giveaways anymore, because I’ve started my design business, Shan’s Shreds, so this makes it easier for me to check out what the latest ones are.

Link away, my friends. And come back here every Monday for a fresh Giveaway Mondays linky.

Happy entering, guys. May you all have a successful contests and may those that want to win cool items, win them.

Please leave a comment after linking. It’s just good manners, people. And it gives me the warm fuzzies when I see comments in my inbox.

This linky is for Monday, August 23, 2010.

PS: If you spam my linky, I will ban you. Both from my blog and Mr. Linky themselves. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Giveaway Mondays is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

1. Being Alison -6 winners - 4 $50 AMEX GCs and 6 BruiseMD Packs - 9/13 2. Being Alison - $5 DQ GC - 8/25 3. Being Alison -2 winners for SafetyTats - 8/27 4. Being Alison -Powermat - 8/31 5. Being Alison - Memphis Beat - 9/6 6. Cheryl- Executive Gift Shoppe 7. 2 Wired 2 Tired - Cafe Press Custom T-Shirt (8/26) 8. Three Different Directions - Monopoly Game (8/24)

9. Play That Now - Memphis Beat Tshirt & Hot Sauce (9/6) 10. Play That Now - Dinosaur Train DVD (9/2) 11. Musing Mainiac - Guidecraft Drivetimes Signs - ends 9/20 12. Musing Mainiac - IHOP Rooty Tooty Frsh and Fruity T-Shirt - ends 9/15 13. 2 Wired 2 Tired - Dakota's Personalized Gifts $50 GC (8/27) 14. A Hen's Nest - Seventh Generation "Back-to-School" kit 8/28 15. The Review Broads - 2 Winners - "Marmaduke" DVD - 9/7 16. AutismLearningFelt/Dinner & Ice Cream ends 8/30

17. My Little Review Corner - Blockbuster GC (Canada) 9/02 18. My Little Review Corner - Memphis Beat prize pack ends 09/10 19. Nolie's Place - K'Nex Big Building Tub 8/27 20. Nolie's Place - Amazing Hot Massager 8/27 21. Parazul Designer Classic Handbag ARV $250 22. You're next!

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I have put an ice pack on my feet to feel comfortable enough to sleep.

I feel like I’m walking through Jell-O with this waking up at o’dark-thirty to get The Diva off to kindergarten.

And The Free Range Stupid always seem to find me wherever I go.

This last one at the park I take Ro to after school most days almost got a punch in the face from me for insulting my daughter. You DO NOT insult my five year old and expect to walk away from me unscathed. And if it is a 23 year old chola girl saying it, really expect me to kick your ignorant ass.  {More on that one later…}

Oh, yes, and as expected, The Diva got a “Sad Sam” today at school.

It took her 5 whole days to piss off her teacher enough to get her name on the board and no sticker on Friday. She got it for twirling in her pretty dress when she should have been frozen in place, touching the hair of the child sitting next to her and pulling toys from a bin when she was supposed to be reading a book.

I TOLD her teacher that if she did not keep The Diva engaged academically or creatively that this would happen.

She blew me off.

That’ll teach her.

I’m Melting… is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

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Damn it.

She wouldn’t look at the camera and smile.

But isn’t her outfit adorable? I just love a little girl in plaid. It’s all so dang cute!

She picked frogs for her backpack and matching lunch box. Frogs. I expected TinkerBell.

For more Wordless Wednesdays/Wordful Wednesdays, please visit MomDot.com , 5 Minutes For Mom, and WordlessWednesday.com {HQ}

Just Another Wordless Wednesday…{First Day Of Kindergarten} is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

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So this one was 80′s New Wave. Right up my alley. I am a child of the 80′s. I graduated high school in 1989.

Yes, I’m old. So?

I played this in the car. The Diva loves it.

SCORE. The kid inherited my taste in music.

But there is a problem.

On this CD are:

The Cure- Just Like Heaven

Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax

I’ll give you 1 guess as to which song The Diva likes most.

Got it?

Ok, here it is.

Relax.

Yes. THAT song.

The one by the completely gay band who’s videos were so filled with homo erotica that they were banned in some countries. Yes, I’m not kidding. This band came out {Ha! Double entendre} in the 80′s. That was back when Madonna’s Like A Virgin, Like A Prayer and Papa Don’t Preach were controversial. Today, they’re considered tame. I mean, when songs like Milkshake and Oops! There Go My Pants are normal, a little song about cumming and gay sex is nothing, right?

The Diva announced this while we were driving. My Husband and I were laughing so hard I thought I was going to crash. Then we got the fear. The fear that she will be singing this song in class. And then we imagined what the phone call from the teacher would be like.

Yep. That school is either going to love me or hate me. Or be very afraid of me.

The jury is still out on that one.

Now, for your viewing pleasure is Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Uncensored.

This is the version we were allowed to see:

And this, is the BEER COMMERCIAL featuring a reggae version of the song:

Reason #31 Why You Should Not Introduce Your Kids To The Music You Grew Up On is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

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These are the last two pages. You can read for yourself. Anyone who knows anything about my Diva will understand that the second page made Daddy and I both laugh hysterically and fill with dread.

Bonus points to anyone who can tell me why I am now afraid for my daughter’s academic career after reading the last page {HINT: It has nothing to do with the fact that I think she wil have more “Sad Sam’s” than “Good Guys”}.

For more Wordless Wednesdays/Wordful Wednesdays, please visit MomDot.com , 5 Minutes For Mom, and WordlessWednesday.com {HQ}

Just Another Wordless Wednesday…{The Kindergarten Files} is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

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It gave me chills.

I especially like the chorus:

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn?

Well that’s alright because I like the way it hurts.

Just gonna stand there and hear me cry?

Well that’s alright because I love the way you lie.

I love the way you lie

How many times have you known someone in an abusive relationship that either stays or leaves and keeps coming back over and over again?

This is the “abuser” talking. Sound familiar?

Now I know we said things, did things that we didn’t mean

And we fall back into the same patterns, same routine

But your temper’s just as bad as mine is

You’re the same as me

But when it comes to love you’re just as blinded

Baby, please come back

It wasn’t you, baby it was me

Maybe our relationship isn’t as crazy as it seems

Maybe that’s what happens when a tornado meets a volcano

All I know is I love you too much to walk away though

Come inside, pick up your bags off the sidewalk

Don’t you hear sincerity in my voice when I talk

I told you this is my fault

Look me in the eyeball

Next time I’m pissed, I’ll aim my fist at the drywall

Next time.

There won’t be no next time

I apologize even though I know its lies

I’m tired of the games I just want her back

I know I’m a liar

If she ever tries to fucking leave again

Im’a tie her to the bed and set this house on fire

Anyone who has been in an abusive relationship can relate to this song. It’s scary how true these lyrics ring. And I don’t generally like Eminem. I don’t generally like rap, either. Years ago, my best friend, Carol, caught her eldest listening to an Eminem CD. He was about 12 years old. She immediately took it away from him. Then she listened to it herself and came to the conclusion that Marshall Mathers is a brilliant lyricist. But it was still not an appropriate CD for her son to listen to. While I don’t agree with her, I do think this song can have an impact on people. Getting Rhianna to sing the chorus makes it all that more powerful considering what we now know Chris Brown did to her.

Everyone always asks why a person stays in that cycle of abuse. Why don’t they tell someone, call the cops, report it, LEAVE.

As my friend told me many years ago when she finally admitted that her last boyfriend had physically abused her. “You never know how you are going to react until you are actually in that situation.”

This friend is strong and intelligent. She even worked with abused women. Yet she got caught in a cycle of abuse that she couldn’t get out of for a long time. After she told me the truth, I finally understood why I had gotten such a bad vibe from this guy the first time I met him. And I had told her that night that I didn’t like him and I thought he was hiding something. I have no idea if the physical abuse had already begun at that time, but I do remember that she was not happy about my assessment.

I also want to stress that you don’t have to be hit to be abused. Verbal/emotional abuse can be more devastating than being beaten. At least with that you have bruises to show the effects of the abuse. With mental abuse, it’s all inside and sometimes people will not believe that is actual abuse. But it is the same. Abuse is abuse is abuse. Some wounds manifest physically, some manifest in your mind.

Just Gonna Stand There And Watch Me Burn? is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

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Then something happened.

What, exactly, I’m not sure.

But something happened.

I used to get an idea for a post and rush to get it written. Now, although I still get fabulous ideas, I forget them seemingly as soon as my mind thinks them up. They get lost in that vast, twisted darkness I call a mind, rattling around like a wayward pinball.

Until the idea resurfaces.

At exactly the wrong time.

When I’m not near a computer. Or I’m outside watching The Diva play. Or I’m on the phone. Or otherwise engaged. And I promise myself I won’t forget this time. I will finally write that post and share something deep, intellectual and substantive with my readers.

But it inevitably flutters away again, destined to be remembered at another inopportune moment.

Is it my age? I am bumping 40 {Dear God, did I just say I was going to be 40???}. Is it the fact that I have a rambunctious 5 year old and not any real time to myself? Did starting a graphics business suck the good writer right out of me?

I need to figure this out. I don’t want to say in 6 months “I used to be a pretty good writer, but…”. In 6 months I want to say “I am a good writer, but nobody knows it because I don’t have a huge following”. At least that is better than saying “used to be”.

I need to reorganize, rethink, re-something. I need to find my voice again. It seems as if it has laryngitis lately and I’m not sure a simple gargle with warm salt water will cure it this time.

In the meantime, I will continue to wander around half blind and directionless in the dark twisted place I call a brain.

Wish me luck.

I Used To Be A Good Writer… is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

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At least I was seven when my Big Bro found mine. Heh.

I plucked that sucker out, put it in an envelop and marked it “The Diva’s 1st Grey Hair 8/2/10, Age 5 years 5 months”. Now she has an envelop in her baby book just like her Mama.

Only I was a little older when my grey hair started.

That kid always has to do things early…

PS: Daddy says there is a second grey hair. I haven’t found it. But DAYUM. {See part about kid doing things early above…}

For more Wordless Wednesdays/Wordful Wednesdays, please visit MomDot.com , 5 Minutes For Mom, and WordlessWednesday.com {HQ}

Just Another Wordless Wednesday…The Diva’s 1st Grey Hair is a post from: Last Shreds Of Sanity | Mom Blog

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