She's Making A List

"I'm not buying a giant box of Junior Mints."  Mrs F admonishes Baby.

"Fine.  I'll put them on my Running Away List."  Baby replies.

"Why do you need Junior Mints when you run away?"  Mrs F queries.

"I don't need them to run away."  Baby explains, exasperated.

"I'm putting them on my list of why I'm running away."  She continues.

If you'd like to see Baby in a holiday performance, fear not, there is still time... and plenty of them.

You can catch her in Concordia University's Boar's Head Festival this Saturday, 

December 1st at 7:30 PM.

Ann Arbor, MI

($8-$15 tickets)

Having seen the rehearsal I can say this is a pretty good holiday production.  No need to pay more for the expensive seats.

Baby and Kid are also performing in the Messiah at the Concordia University Chapel

Sunday, December 16th at 2 PM.

Ann Arbor, MI

FREE

Again, if there is anything I've learned in the past few months it is that the Lutherans know music.  

I haven't seen the rehearsals for this yet, but I'm sure it will be fantastic.

Baby will be in a small holiday tap dance recital at 

Dancer's Edge Dance Studio

Thursday, December 20th at 12 PM.

Dexter, MI

FREE

Baby is also dancing in a ballet performance as part of a Christmas Eve service 

at the Dexter United Methodist Church.

Monday, December 24th 4:30 PM.

Dexter, MI

FREE

If you are around and in need of a little holiday cheer... you know where to go.

It's A Long Story

So, I know things have been weird around here.

It comes down to this:

either you believe a victim or you blame a victim.

Mr F and I fall into the former category,

while sadly a SHOCKING number of people in my extended family fall into the latter.

It's a pretty sickening discovery.

And sad.

How someone can believe a boyfriend's story hook line and sinker...

even after the police had been called...

so willing to write off their own daughter as an hysterical idiot rather than abused?

Not willing to drive 1 hour to verify her safety, when no one could locate her.

While Mr F drove 600 miles there and back TWICE in one week to do so.

Not for his own sister... but for MINE.

Only to have him accused of overstepping his bounds (not by the boyfriend but by my own father).

We've been threatened, maligned... it is unbelievable.

People, our minds have been blown.

Blown.

It never occurred to me that I was supposed to get approval from my father to help my adult sister.

Or that he would be so threatened by our doing so.

And, yet, the abusive relationship makes a LOT of sense now.



So the question is:

If you have opened up your home for an extended period of time, how did it go?

What things worked and what did not?

What do you wish you had known or done differently?

Did you have some kind of set agreement about responsibilities?

When Your Life Is Taken Over By Full Time Craziness

guess what the last thing you are thinking of is?

whether or not you look fat

so, that is one upside

the downside?

everything else... haha... just kidding (kind of)

the downside is discovering that people who should treat you with respect (at the minimum) don't

maybe because they don't know how to

but also because they are way too busy protecting their egos

sometimes when you start to solve a problem that other people have deemed unsolvable

only because they were not able to solve it

those people will lose their shit if you dare to think you might have a workable solution

they'll do just about anything to prevent you from being able to prove them wrong

even if it requires them to sabotage their own offspring's welfare to stop you

sometimes the truth is so much more disturbing than you ever imagined

and you'd already imagined it to be pretty damn fucked up

What Up

It's like we've been thrown into a bad bad episode of Jersey Shore or something.

It's definitely a hot bed and I forgot all about my fake/real mentor,

because "What Would Julie Do?"...

um... I wish I knew.  Seriously.  Cleaning up this mess is like 10 full time jobs.

It's so crazy that the girls have often called out from their crafts, or reading, or whatever with...

"You know what the smartest thing to do would be?"  and then they'll lay down the truth.

And we're like... word.

Some things are obvious to everyone but the person that needs to see it.