I love my rotten children.

Have you ever noticed mothers love to say "I love my children but ." I say it all the time. Being a mother is difficult because we feel guilty for expressing any negative feelings we might have about our youngins. That is why we feel the need to start every sentence or rant with that tag line, so here you go. I love my children BUT...

Sometimes they just drive me insane. My daughter is in preschool now, so her time to annoy is limited and usually I miss her during the day so the things she does to get under my skin (getting into my things, talking non-stop or asking questions non-stop, making a mess, getting make-up everywhere,etc) don't bother me so much.

My boys really know how to get it started. Logan is 3 and autistic, Vincent is 2. Together they cry, destroy and make messes of epic proportions. Vince should be employed as a professional cry baby. He cries on average roughly 8 hours per day. He starts from the moment he wakes, until he finally falls asleep. Just for good measure he makes sure to wake every night around 1am to cry some more. He is also quite good at throwing a crying 'fit' and will throw himself upon the floor and proceed to scream and thrash.

Then you have Logan. Logan doesn't talk much. It takes him really wanting something before he'll finally help you out with one word demands. "Drink, Eat, Yummies." Otherwise he will throw a tantrum and cry, while holding this or that and wanting you to fix it. You see, he is terrible about breaking his toys and when they break, he expects you to repair it. Unfortunately, some things are beyond repair. So he will just stand there, holding said toy, and crying for up to 30 minutes at a time. Sometimes he'll bring the toy back to you over and over and finally in frustration I'll usually throw the toy away since it is broken and it's presence will only cause another fit at some other time in the future.

Then we have the messes they make. God forbid I leave them to use the restroom. Usually if I do, when I return to the playroom, they will have their snacks and drinks smeared into the carpet. Due to this we are having tile or linoleum laid in the room. Carpet cannot survive these terrors. Add in the fact they have broken almost every single lamp we've brought in, we now have nothing of value in the room except toys.

Being a parent is tough, especially when you stay at home day in and day out with your children. We still love em' But...

Rude people and just plain sicko's!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've been a bit under the weather and my boys have colds. Got to love the winter time huh?

So today while surfing the net, I go to my favorite forums anywhere, makeupalley. I'm a nail polish junkie and I get my "fix" from the lovely ladies there. As a matter of fact, those little digits in the pic above are mine.

One of the gal's made a post regarding letter she received to her criticism over advertising and packaging of the nail polish Koibox. You see, the MUA poster had decided to look at the company's website along with her soon to be step-daughter who is only 8 years old. (She had received the Koibox polish Uncle Vince from a friend and wanted to see other colors) The site depicts a nude girl covered in what appears to be powder, her nipples are evident. Concerned, the poster sent a letter (email perhaps) to the company, voicing her issues with the nudity (nipples) and also with the packaging the bottle comes in. (Basically, the bottles are covered in a "wrap" so to speak that lists the ingredients as well as the polish color. With the wrapper in place the bottle is unstable and it is very difficult to paint your nails. The wrapper has to be removed to remedy this and in doing so removes the ingredients and color information.) Here is the response she received:

Well (***Name Removed***) seeing as how you took the time to voice your opinion and elucidate your rather obviously limited knowledge of branding, packaging and design, I thought I might also take some time too respond.First of all thank you for showing an interest in our product glad you liked the color of Uncle Vince unfortunately everybody does so that makes you.. not so astute.

As for the packaging, we let the professionals determine what is good and what is bad. When we designed the packaging for KOIBOX it was a deliberate move to "wrap" the bottle in a manner that was different and unique, that is what good branding and package design is about..stirring interest and conversation. I say this in confidence given the award KOIBOX received from Communication Arts Magazine 2002 Design Annual..Best of Packaging. The award was given along side a few other notable companies like Evian and Sky Vodka...but what do any of us know about package design especially Communication Arts Mag!I am certain that you don't even frequent a newsstand that carries such high brow periodicals.

As for your second issue. To begin with we did not intend to sell this product to women that are pent up with personal biases towards the beauty of the female body, in fact the reason we chose such a demure and unclothed women was to fortify the notion that all women are beautiful and the same in general terms...it is color and accent that makes them different to the eye of the beholder. You will notice that the model was dusted in white and posed in a manner to suggest that she was not the focus or the impetus for our campaign..the polish is. I feel sorry for your daughters that they should grow up in an atmosphere that obviously has disdain for the female body and anatomy..remember they too carry the same equipment and should be proud of it.

As far as you and your friend are concerned...sounds like one guy was dumb and the other was glad of it.The TITS stay.Go find another product to bitch about... Quaker.

Best,***Name Removed CEO Koibox***(If you want his name please click on the link below, it will take you directly to her post)

PS. check our feature out in the March Issue of Lucky Magazine..just another publisher that doesn't know anything about women.
http://www.makeupalley.com/board/m.asp/id=50225197/iPN=1/

Now isn't that just a lesson in customer service? I certainly hope he doesn't deal with all of his clients in this manner! Of course, I will never purchase anything from this vendor after reading this. As with anything of this nature, some claim the post to be a hoax. Personally I am still waiting to see how Koibox responds to this claim before I decide. They haven't responded in 3 days thus far, doesn't look good for them in my opinion.

As far as the advertising. More than one person has compared the nude girl modeling the polish as a corpse. I have to agree. There have also been complaints on the front page of the site as to where the Koibox box is strategically placed, I also see the argument there. Honestly, I don't know what kind of person would want a nude, pasty, corpse looking model in their adds. It isn't on the "edgy" side of advertisement to me. It just looks ridiculous.

P.S. If you are running a reputable company, why in the world would you describe your pink polish "Baboon" as -just like it's ass.? That just exudes class to me.

Now on the the second part of my blog. After checking up on my MUA pals, I decided to venture over to CNN. Yes I keep track of what is occuring daily in our country. On the very front was the headline of a person I had nearly forgotten. It was enough to get me all riled up again and out for blood.

U.S.: Killer confesses to 3 more child killings

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/23/abduction.killing.ap/index.html

Do you recall this piece of shit? He is the man that murdered a family and kidnapped the two youngest children (he killed the oldest, 13 year old alongside the mother and father) and took them into the woods and molested them for weeks. He then killed the boy and thank god was captured with the girl in a restaurant.

It seems that this dirtbag had been convicted in the past of sexual abuse on children, yet he fled the case only to keep going and killing! This has to STOP in our society and now!! Children are defenseless, it is up to each and every one of us to stand up and enforce stern penalties upon anyone convicted of these acts. I want to take this to the next level, castration, death, you name it, I want to see it. If a person ever touches a defenseless child inappropriately I say they immediately lose any rights they may have had. They certainly didn't mind taking the rights away from the children (or in this case the lives of those children).

I live in fear for my children every single day. My neighbor is a pastor and I wouldn't even trust him with my children. You never know who will hurt them. Anyone in my family will tell you just how strict I am with who my children stay with. My mother and my husbands mother are the only two people my children have ever stayed overnight with, and even then they cannot leave the children with anyone else. If something comes up my children are returned home to me. I'm a stay at home mother, I don't trust daycare systems. It is difficult for me to even send my little girl to school. Violent acts such as these are why. I know that anything can happen, you can't prepare for everything, but I'm determined to protect my children with everything I am capable of.

My heart aches for parents who have loved and lost children to monsters such as these. I know that if I were ever faced with what they are I would go insane. My thirst for vengeance would know no end. I would want the person(s) to suffer as my child suffered.

The problem with our country is that we smack sex offenders on the wrist and they walk away free after. Yes I realize we are supposed to be notified when an offender moves into the area but let me tell you, I know of cases where an offender didn't register and a child suffered as a result. Making pedophiles registers isn't the key, taking away the tools that help them function is.

So there you have it, rude people and just plain sicko's. I can deal with anyone that's rude. Let's just kill off the sicko's already. Make the world a happy place. Oh in the meantime, tell your children each day just how much they mean to you. If you can't express the extent of your emotions, a good hug and kiss should let them know.

Happy New Year!!

So another year has come and gone. It never ceases to amaze me just how fast life passes us by. My little girl will turn 5 in only 7 days and not to sound cliche but...it seems like only yesterday she couldn't even walk. Now she's this stubborn, independant, resourceful little girl. Her brothers are following closely behind and I get sad sometimes when I think about how quickly it all goes.

My great-great Granny Kelly passed away two days before christmas. She was 99 years old. I was pretty torn up about it but know that she's no longer in pain and can see Grandpa again. I've decided if this baby is a girl to impart Granny's beautiful name Josephine to her. I miss her and wish that my children had the chance to know her better. I hope that my children and grandchildren think the same of me when I go.

Ok enough sad stuff, I saw Rocky and LOVED IT. I don't care that others say it's the same ole blah blah. This movie, to me, is a perfect ending to the franchise and to Rocky himself. I was cheering in my seat and just happy as a squirrel. Great movie!

We stayed up for New Year's. I got to drink sparkly grape juice (sucks but what else is there?). Then we watched My Super Ex-Girlfriend. What is up lately with all the suck ass movies? I admit my choices lately have been kinda cheesy but still, they all just plain suck!! The one exception is the movie An Inconvient Truth. Everyone should see that movie. It really opened my eyes.

I'm off again, have chores to do. Jimbo says not to do them. That what you do the first of the year dictates what you do the rest of it. I'm tempted to just let it go for the day...hmmm decisions, decisions.