Proper Clothing

I wrote this a few days ago but due to some comptuter issues it had to wait to be posted until today! By the way case in point... Today while out I saw a young girl probably 13 or 14 wearing a t-shirt jogging shorts and Uggs... Just sayin, read on!

First off let me just say that I am not some up and coming Fashionista, yes I still have and wear the same shirt that I wore to my brothers graduation 3 years ago. I also still have and wear the same dress I wore to my friend Meagan’s wedding rehearsal in May of 2007.

But I will say that anytime I leave my house to go into public I make sure that my clothes are clean and my hair is decent. I also make sure I dress for the occasion and the time of year, IE: in the winter time you will NOT find me in shorts or flip flops.  I will wear short sleeve t shirts with the appropriate jacket, and the same goes for summer; I’m not going to wear my Uggs and turtle neck sweaters in July. So with that being said, I hardly see people wearing Uggs and turtlenecks in the summer time so why do they feel it necessary to wear shorts and flip flops in the dead of winter? During a snow storm…  I don’t understand. What goes through a person’s mind when they wake up and it is 17 degrees outside and they say to themselves “Hmm I think I’ll wear my flip flops today, won’t that be refreshing” Really?!?!  My toes freeze when I wear regular shoes in winter I can’t imagine what would happen if I actually exposed them to the elements. Now don’t get me wrong I am all for taking advantage of those “nice” winter days, you know the ones that allow you to leave the jacket at home and roll the windows down in the car! But just because it is 71 degrees on January 29^th does not mean you can bust out the daisy dukes and tank tops, IT’S STILL JANUARY!!

Oh and I’m sorry if this offends any mothers that I know (it shouldn’t because none of the mothers I know would do this) but seriously if it is cold enough that you need a jacket then put a jacket on your kid! And cover their feet, I realize that babies don’t walk but they make baby socks for a reason. And just because it is summer time does not mean you can bring your baby to Wal-Mart in nothing but a diaper. I realize that some of people, if they could, would only come to Wal-Mart in their underwear and some come very close to achieving this but just because you want to be half naked doesn’t make it right to haul your baby around half naked! They make baby clothes for a reason, buy them and use them!  

I’m sure you all are wondering the reasoning behind my little rant, well when you see a man dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes and you see someone with kid with no socks or shoes on, on a day when there is over a foot of snow on the ground… I think you might get on your soap box also!

Snow Shoveling!!

So this morning I decided to get out and shovel the sidewalk and driveway, it’s a great story so I just had to share. I decided to start with the driveway; I started at the top and worked my way to the bottom. I made one swipe down to the 3 ft snow drift at the bottom and stopped to reevaluate the situation… I then decided to move to the sidewalk and come back to the driveway!  Those of you that have been to our house know that we have 2 sidewalks one that has a few steps and leads from the street to the porch and the other is flat and goes from the driveway to the porch. I opted for the flat one first, this was a much better plan, the sidewalk was much easier and it went by very fast.  

After the sidewalk I moved to the front steps, I started on the first step and soon realized that the inch of sleet we got the first day of our winter storm had solidified under the 6 inches of snow that we got. So I ended up just scraping the snow off of the top of the ice. I cleaned off the porch next and then moved back to the sheets of ice known as our front steps, by this point my arms were tired and I had taken off my heavy coat and just had my jacket on, I was also sweating… A LOT!!! I went and got our regular shovel… I then began to chip away at the ice with the shovel, it was working, and I got into a grove and started to move faster!

By the time I was done with the bottom steps my arms were like jelly and the feeling in my legs was coming and going from the cold, but I was still sweating profusely! I FINALLY finished with the sidewalks and couldn’t help to think that the neighbors were watching and probably laughing, especially if they were watching my facial expressions… I can only imagine! For some reason after I finished the porch and sidewalks I still felt compelled to finish the driveway, I have no idea why!! So I started the driveway again and again I found the sleet/ice, I some how managed to work through the pain in my back and arms and I was able to uncover half of the driveway. I decided that I was done; the sun was starting to emerge from behind the house so I figured I would let it melt a little bit! So I went inside took a shower, did some house work and a few house later I went back out… BIG MISTAKE!!! I could feel every muscle that I had used earlier and none of them felt good! I managed to uncover about three fourths of the driveway and I thought my arm was going to literally detach from my shoulder! DONE… this time for good!! As I sit here tonight typing this I can hardly move my fingers, and it hurts to walk. I have worked out before and I know how sore can feel… but nothing compares to this. My back is killing me and it feels like my back should look ripped, like I have a body builder’s back or something! This is worse than the arms and back workout of P90x! I have attached pictures of my journey and somehow I have none of he driveway, probably because by the time I was finished I forgot all about the pictures I had taken!!

The steps before...   

 

The steps after…

This was a very fun experience!! One I hope to never have to repeat!! Incase anyone is wondering why I did this instead of Chance it is because he was working today and I just decided to get it done! I am a good wife!

OMG, Wat haz hppnd 2 diz wrld?

Like my title... There is a reason behind it, keep reading...

I received a text message the other day from an unknown number.  The conversation went like this: (all spelling and punctuation have not been changed *names have been changed)

Unknown #: Heyz waz up

Me: Who is this?

Unknown#: who diz iz

At this point I didn’t respond, I was not in the mood to play games and it was obvious they had the wrong number.  So 20 min later it starts again:

Unknown #:  Helloz diz iz *jane

Me: I think you have the wrong # this is Ashley

Unknown #: Oh well *mary gave me diz numba 2 txt and im in 7^th grade and I AM a gurl

Me: I don’t know *Mary and I’m 24. *Mary gave you the wrong #. I’m also a girl, like that matters

Unknown #:  Wat *mary  tld me waz dat u waz a gurl dat livd nxt 2 her and waz her best friend

Me: Ok I live in Berryville my next door neighbor is 94. I promise you have the wrong number. My best friend’s name is Meagan.

Unknown #: Oh so sry!

I’m about to get on my soap box…

More than just the grammar stood out to me in this exchange, but first let’s talk about that. Ok so I know that short hand is much faster and the words are still understandable, I get that, but when did it become ok to spell girl “gurl”. I mean really does it save you any time typing the “U” instead of the correct letter “I”? I don’t think so. Also short hand is for texting, when you are at a computer and you are typing an email, or you are posting a status to FaceBook spell out the words and spell them correctly. I am the first person to admit that I am the worst speller in the world but I manage thanks to Chance and spell check.  Another thing that stood out to me was the age of this “gurl” she is in 7^th grade, what if she had texted a pedophile by mistake? She obviously had no idea who she was texting. It is really scary to know the information she offered up without being asked, I hate to think of what she would have told someone that would have used this situation to a malicious advantage.  The youth of today are so exposed out there; this is not our grandparent’s world anymore. We have to be more cautious, when I was in 7^th grade I was not texting people I didn’t know I didn’t even have a cell phone till I was 16 and I didn’t get texting till I was 18! When I look at my FaceBook news feed I can’t help to notice the younger girls I am friends with, the daughters of some of my friends and my mom’s friends.  I notice how they post when they go to work, and when they are driving home. They post about going to the movies and what movie they are seeing, they now have the “check in” option which allows you to post exactly where you are. It is scary to think that just by looking at someone’s FaceBook page you can tell exactly where they are, if they are offering up the information. My privacy settings are very high on my Face Book and for good reason. I have had a person tell me that they can’t find me, it’s because my settings are so high. For me FaceBook is a way to connect with old friends and new friends that you have met face to face.  I won’t accept someone if I don’t know them and I would hope that today’s youth would do that as well. There is too much evil in this world for young girls, and boys for that matter, to be “friending” perfect strangers.  It scares me to think what it will be like when we have children of that age, will they be spelling “wrds lke diz”? Or will typing and writing be a thing of the past now that the “voice to text” is coming on the scene? Will they have all of their info online for the whole world to see?  Will they be careful about who they text, and who they message and who they are “friends” with? Or will FaceBook be obsolete all together, replaced by something “better”?

Ok I am now stepping down off my soap box.