OMG {Oh My Gray!}

I was in the bathroom washing my face with my hair pulled back in a ponytail. After I dried my face off I looked in the mirror and shrieked! I could not believe how much silver I was seeing. I normally have like 8-10, but this many?! So many people tell me I don't look old enough to have teenagers but they might change their mind if they see this! I guess I better get used to it since I have vowed never to color my hair. Yep, I'll be silver and sexy or as my hubby says I will look like one of those hot older chicks ;-)

Reason #582 why I hate spring

Most people want to go into hiding during the winter months. Not me. That's when I am thriving the most and feeling very upbeat and energized. Spring is the worst time of year to me. I have been so sick for over a week now because of the pollen clouds. It's just not right when you see cars driving next to you and it feels like you are driving on a sandy beach. It's just that bad. I wash off our cars each morning and it does not make a difference.

Dwayne's car is black so his looks even worse. I have never wanted to see rain as badly as I do right now. I'm talking 2-3 days non-stop.

On another note, if you are an allergy sufferer I suggest Allegra-D! It has been a lifesaver for me.
Has spring sprung in your neck of the woods?

WTH? Wednesday

I just had to share one of my latest WTH moments. This happened yesterday as Dwayne and I were walking to the check-out area in Walmart. We see this older Indian couple walking toward us. The wife was looking at something on the aisle but the husband was looking over at us. He was staring with his mouth wide open. I know that look all too well since I have been seeing it for over 20 years. Any time Indian people see me with Dwayne they have a problem with seeing an Indian girl and a black man together. I tell you, I have only felt racism from my own people my whole life. I have always gotten those comments about marrying a black man. How sad!! Oh well, the funny part is just as the man was staring us down Dwayne stared back with that "gangsta" look. How about dude just put his eyes to the ground in shame! Bahahaha!!! I guess he got told!!!!!!!!!!

So what's your WTH moment of the week?

Random banana story

A couple weekends ago I was in Walmart during the super stupid busy time on a Saturday evening. Of course I know better but the daughter's needed some things so what's a momma to do? We planned to make banana splits that night together as a family. We bought vanilla ice cream, nuts, strawberries, hot fudge sauce, whipped cream... We get through the check-out line only to realize we forgot something. BANANAS. There was no way I was getting back into a 50 foot long line for a few bananas plus I had ice cream in my cart. I ended up driving home to unload my groceries and decided to go to another store for bananas. It dawned on my that at 7:30 pm you might not find any bananas in the produce section. I then came up with a brilliant idea~ Sonic drive-thru. Yeah, they sell bananas. I know I would be spending a buck for each banana but who cares at this point. I just need 2 of them for tonight. My kids made so much fun of me and said that is was so tacky to order bananas from Sonic. So of course I made them ride with me.
I get in the drive-thru and politely ask if they had any fresh bananas. The fella told me that they sure did. I drove up to pay and then was handed my 2 bananas. The freakin things were damn near frozen! There was no turning back at this point. I brought them home and they tasted fine. Will I buy bananas there again? NO. I told you this was a random banana story! BTW, it was DWAYNE that made the big deal about needing bananas. Just thought I would add that in there :)

Clenching, biting and grinding at night

Some of us clench, bite or grind our teeth at night while we are asleep and are not even aware of it. I have been noticing that for the past few months I have been waking up to having my teeth clenched down tightly. It really has been even worse in the past few weeks. I don't even know why I do it. I found out that I am a clencher from a dental visit last year. The dentist asked me if I grind my teeth and I knew I didn't since my husband would know since he sleeps next to me every night. She told me that I clench since my teeth showed signs of it. Honestly, if she never said anything then I might still be completely oblivious to it. This really concerned me so I thought I would do some research of my own to get some idea of why the heck I am doing it. It turns out that it is very common and can be triggered by stress, anxiety or even restlessness. I don't have any of these problems so it still puzzles me. I was reading on Facebook the other day about a friend who grinds her teeth so badly at night that she fears she will become toothless. My daughter told me that one of her friends bites the insides of her cheeks at night and wakes up to a bloody mouth each morning. So it appears that so many people do it and I am not alone. Last night I purposely kept my mouth open a bit and tried to catch myself in the act of clenching down. I don't know if it will help me to reverse my problem but I am sure am aware of when I do it. There may come a day that I will be forced to sleep with a night guard. I think I will address it with my dentist on my next appointment that is coming up in a couple months.

Question: Do you or someone you know have a problem with clenching, biting or grinding their teeth at night? If so did you have a particular solution that worked to remedy this problem?

WTH!? Wednesday

There are so many things lately that have me saying WTH!?

I will kick things off with skinny pants. Not all of us are cut out to wear them. I accept that. Why are boys wears them tighter than girls? Also WTH is up with dudes wearing them with a belt but the waist part is around their thighs? Perhaps I am a bit too antique to appreciate that type of fashion.

The other day I went into the gas station to pay for my purchase and there was an interesting character ahead of me in line. The cashier asks him “how can I help you” and he proceeds with “umm umm umm, gimme a, umm umm umm…” He went through that for an entire minute and ends up buying 2 scratch-off lottery tickets for $5 each and then asks for $5 on pump 8 {blank stare} WTH?!! He was driving an old Chevy with 22’s that were worth more than the actual vehicle. I’m sure the $5 in gas bought him enough to get him 2 miles up the street.

My son. Oh what a chip off the old block. Why oh why does the boy child insist that he needs to kiss me on the lips? No matter how much I have taught him to give kisses on the cheek he insists on the lips. He also has some thing for touching boobies. He gets in so much trouble for doing it so he found a new method. He takes his hand in a cup position and holds it about one inch away from the boobies and smiles. Bad behind! WTH!?

So now it's your turn, please share your WTH moments in the comments...

WTH? Wednesday

Seems like this cold weather blast has brought in a whole lot of WTH moments.

• I am going to start with teachers...Educators...Why in the world are some of them Tweeting and Facebooking during school hours? I know that the schools and probably just about every workplace has a very strict policy about the use of social networking sites. Then again most of them seem to be doing it on their BlackBerry. Funny how they like to talk about how bad the kids are and how they don't listen. Hmm....
  
• While on the subject about FBing and Tweeting from work...If you are going to do it, DO NOT complain about your boss or your co-workers. Not smart at all especially if someone rats you out.
• Why oh why must my son hand me "things" and say "thank you" in such a sweet voice. I won't even go into the "things" he gives me....YUCK!
  
• We put our old big screen TV on the side of the road with a sign on it that said "take me, does not work". Why the hell did people come up to our door to ask if the TV works? WTH! Seriously, would we put something like that on the side of the road if it was working? We would have been Craigslisting that bad boy!
• Why do people get in a long ass line at Walmart with a bunch of things that they do not know the price? Then they get up to the register and complain that the item costs too much. WTH! Do you not read the shelf label when you pick stuff up?
  

So now it's your turn to share your WTH moments in the comments...

WTH? Wednesday

Ah, it's Wednesday... Where do I start?

• My 16 year old daughter does not care for meat at all. Even the sight of a steak or pork chop will make her feel sick to her stomach. She won't eat burgers or meatloaf or any red meat related dish. She is my chicken and seafood eater. Why does she LOVE pulled pork? WTH? How does that make sense?
• When Dwayne and I were shopping on Black Friday we actually heard people complaining about the lines being too long. Really now? It's Black Friday ya dummie!
  
• I saw this gorgeous young woman the other day looking over the cosmetics at Kohl's. She was dressed really well, nice hairstyle, the whole nine yards...until....this heffa was trying on the lip gloss sample directly on her lips!!! I could not believe my eyes. WTH? Who does that? Oh yeah, cheap broads with no class.
  
• Our big screen TV died on us. Life is not nice without HDTV. I hate that we have to get a new one.
  
• I am still not over Dwayne saying that I look like I am trying to steal from the stores.
  
• I can't stand when I am Facebooking and Twittering from my smartphone and I accidentally retweet or "like" something bad because my touchscreen is so sensitive. Makes me look like a jerk!
  

Now it's your turn to share a WTH moment with us in the comments...

Sometimes stupid just comes out

I was at the grocery store this weekend with the kids. I was shopping in the later part of the evening so I was not as familiar with some of the night shift workers. I got in line to pay for my stuff and the cashier was staring at my kids. She then asks me if the girl was my daughter (meaning Briahnna). I told her yes and that all 3 of the kids were mine. She then goes on to say (in front of my kids and other people around) "Oh, I did not think she was your child since her skin is dark and her hair is different". All of our mouths were on the floor and in my head I cussed somethin' nasty. Of course I am a lady and I told her that she was indeed my daughter. The lady then feels like an ass and makes some other comment about hair straightening and I just took my receipt and left. I felt so bad for Brie since she looked like she was confused. How could someone say something so ignorant and stupid and make a kid feel bad? I told the girls that I was really annoyed about what she said and they both told me they too were very annoyed. We spoke about it for a few minutes and had to chalk it up to ignorance and the fact that just because you are blood related to someone does not mean you are supposed to look like them. I think it took me 24 hours to get over it. I just know that people should never assume anything when they see that kids of the same family do not look alike. I have seen families with kids of multiple races and it does not phase me. I just know that I reassured all my children that they are all beautiful and uniquely themselves. There will never be anyone else like them in the world.

WTH? Wednesday

Well I have some things to get off my chest.

• I will start with your boy Dwayne. I was in the shower the other day and he came home early (unexpectedly) and he knocked on the door, opened it up and stuck his head in. I then stick my head out of the shower to greet him. Why did he give me this look and call me the lunch lady?! I was wearing a clear shower cap and this fool said I looked like the lunch lady! WTH! I hate him...hahaha!
• I recently wrote about how I ordered some 5"x7" greeting cards (for hubby's business) and the company (one I use ALL the time) sent me envelopes that were too small...well how about more than a week later I finally get my new envelopes only for them too once again be too small! Now I am expected to wait another week for the what will hopefully be the correct sized envelopes. WTH?! Guess where I will NOT be ordering holiday cards? humph!
  
• I had a $5 off $45 purchase coupon for Kroger the other day. My purchase came up to $46. Why did I not have my coupon? Grrrr...
• What's up with folks who never update or comment on Facebook and all of a sudden their birthday or anniversary come up and the are an FB addict for a day? Wow, how tacky.
• WTH is up with fake a$$ people?
  
• Last one, why in life do people smoke in the car with the windows almost all the way up with babies in the back seat? WTH?!

Please be sure to leave your WTH moments in the comments....

WTH? Wednesday

I don't I have days anymore that something does not jump out at me and make me say WTH?!

~ So I watched last night's episode of the Real Housewives of Atlanta to see what all the hype it about and all I kept saying was...um well let's pretend I was saying WTH?! I know a lot of you love that show but I just keep shaking my head. I will leave that one alone.
~ WTH is up with everyone putting their calls on speakerphone?
~ WTH is up with teenagers always taking pictures of themselves with their tongue sticking out to the side?
~ I ordered some 5x7 greeting cards the other day for the husband's business. How about the company sent me 4x6 envelopes. GRRRR!!!
~ I'm such a grumpy, mean mom this Halloween. I really don't care. There will be no candy. No rubber hand in the punch. No eyeball cupcakes. No tricks. No treats. The end.
~ I just sent off some blog related things in the mail yesterday and how about I receive my business cards TODAY. Nice huh?

OK, it's your turn. Share your WTH moments with us in the comments.

When watching TV with me...

I have a very simple rule for when Dwayne watches television with me. He is not allowed to watch:

• reality TV (unless it's a fishing or nature show)
• comedy of any kind (especially Kathy Griffin or Monique)
  
• Tyler Perry films
• Nancy Grace, Wendy Williams or Geraldo Rivera
• inappropriate cartoons- Family Guy, South Park
• No MTV, BET or VH1
• no gossip or talk shows
  

I know, I'm so mean and boring :)

Does this happen to you?

You know how it is said that the average person loses over 100 strands of hair each day? Well I think it is true in my case. How in the world do I shed like I do yet still have a full head of thick, healthy hair? I don't get it. Also is it just me or do you get all sneezy and sick feeling when you are in a room of sick people? Do you take on symptoms even if you are not really sick? I must be paranoid or something! I was in the same space as someone who was coughing and I really felt a cough coming on. Now today of course I am perfectly fine :) Crazy me....

WTH? Wednesday

I am going to get things kicked off by saying WTH is wrong with Bishop Eddie Long and the bathroom pics? WHY?? First off all I am not and never will be a fan of bathroom mirror pics. You are pastor and older than me (not to mention a man) and you are doing this?! UGH!! Next up, I took Dwayne to the office supply store and I was waiting in the car with William so he could get the item he needed...There was a worker out front smoking a cigarette and she was striking up a conversation with a customer. The subject was smoking. She was complaining about the fact that she has some problems with her health, specifically her lungs. She said that she is 30 and really needs to quit smoking. All this as she deeply puffed on her death stick. Smart, real smart. Oh and if you read my WTH Wednesday posts please don't go getting all bent out of shape and taking my foolery all serious. This is a fun post so chill okay? Maybe I need to put out a disclaimer or something. Well that's all I have right now because there are some things I really can't say on my blog ( I hate censoring myself). So now it's your turn to share your WTH moment of the week....

Addicted much?

It's no surprise that my family loves Carmex lip balm. It is a must have for us and we don't go a day without it. Now William on the other hand has a fascination, perhaps obsession with Carmex...stick, tube, strawberry, cherry, original...he has no preference. He does not actually use the stuff, he just likes to hold on to it. If any of us have one in our posession and he sees it he will yell out "carwex!" and we prepare to say good-bye to it. He will seek out his Carmex all over the house. Yesterday I caught him with 4, yes FOUR of them at one time. I am not making this up. I had to grab him to snap a photo.
He has even fallen asleep clutching a Carmex in his hand. I really don't know what it is but I won't complain. It is like a compact little soothing device for him. The parents from Brie's volleyball team are always so amazed at how calm Will is when Carmex is in his hand. They said they need to go try it out with their little ones! I am sure they also think the Ismails are a bit crazy, haha! Hey, it beats having a 2 year old sucking on a pacifier or carrying around a blanket all day.

Y'all better not be making fun of his big head!! haha :)

Question: Does your child have a fascination for something unusual?

WTH? Wednesday

Here are some of my latest WTH moments...

~ I just can't stand when I am watching something on TV and then the commercial comes on and suddenly the volume is loud as hell on its own... WTH? That's annoying!
~ I was at Walmart the other day and had 3 coupons (I was only purchasing 5 items). I clearly had the 3 items and the cashier (who has rung me up many times before) goes to approve them with a manager because they were for FREE items. Now these were manufacturers coupons with the little logo emblem thing and it was still questioned. WTH? You are Walmart for crying out loud! You got 500 bagillion bucks and then some. I was really disturbed.
~ I simply can't stand dealing with insurance companies. Need I say more?
~ Why is my son obsessed with Dora and her monkey Boots? He could watch it all day long if you let him. I guess I better not complain since it gave me a break from the annoying ass Wonder Pets. If any of you go saying "This is sewious" Imma fight you!
~ I get really uncomfortable in front of super religious people. If you are super religious please do not take offense. I'm just sayin'.
~ WTH is up with "reality" TV? Can Dwayne and I get a show please? We won't even ask for that much money. Seriously!
~ One last one. WTH is up with the dudes that do the fishing shows where they are looking to catch monster fish and they are going into crocodile and hippo infested waters to find one? WTH????!!!

Okay, I'm done...please leave your WTH moments in the comments :D

Another dinosaur

I wanted to share another dinosaur that lurks around the Ismail domain. It is my most FAVORITE cooking utensil EVER. I got it as a hand-me-down from Dwayne's grandmother when we left to move to South Carolina 15 years ago. She had it for 20 years+ before then. I remember my mother having a similar pot spoon growing up.

I have searched high and low for a new one since the handle broke about 5 years ago. No luck. I don't care if I spend a lot to get a new one, as long as it is as good as this one. I will use this one forever or until it gives out. No other pot spoon can compare. It is so well made (probably the reason I can't find one nowadays). When I update my will next year I will give it to one of the girls (of course I have to be dead first). I'm serious. I love my spoon! It's a shame that things just aren't made as well anymore.

WTH? Wednesday

So it's Wednesday and as always there is so much that makes me say WTH?

• I want to kick it off with lateness<---my #1 pet peeve. It is so inconsiderate to always be late. Of course there are those few times that you might have a really good excuse but every day? Then you have folks that almost brag about being late--"Oh I'm always running late" WTH?
• Now I know you know several people who always have their cellphone attached to some part of their body. They have the internet, Facebook, Twitter, unlimited text...the works. Now how come when you call or text they want to boldly LIE and say they did not have their phone on them or they did not hear it ring. Really?
  
• If you are a grown man (especially over the age of 35) and you put as your relationship status--"in a relationship but it's complicated" you need to man the hell up! Grow a pair!
• WTH is up with adults doing a birthday countdown? What are we supposed to do? Throw a party, buy you a gift or build a monument in your name? Come on now, that's really tacky. Oh yeah and saying "happy birthday to me" is tacky too. #justsayin
• You know football season is in full swing when adults act like children and I'm not talking in a playful way. Just straight up stupid and childish over a sport.
  

Okay, I'm done. It's your turn to share your WTH moments in the comments!

WTH? Wednesday

Wow, so many WTH moments recently, where do I begin?

~ WTH is up with high school kids wearing Dora the Explorer and Yo Gabba Gabba backpacks that are preschool size? I have seen football players do this. WOW.
~ Also WTH is up with the school fundraisers? Remember when they used to sell candy bars? Ah the good ole days. Now they have to sell $25 cakes. Who in life is spending $25 on a cake living in a recession? Speaking of fundraisers...please, don't ask me to buy crap from your kids and I won't ask you to buy from mine. Deal? I think sometimes it's just better to stroke a check and be done.
~What's up with all the users out there? They sure know how to find your number to call or text when they need something don't they? Pulease. Don't even start that crap about "I was just thinking about you"
~ I really wish my little boy would stop being so darn cute when he gets in trouble. That smile is lethal. Makes me crazy.
~ WTH is up with people trying to sound intelligent but can't spell worth a lick? And on the spelling subject please take note that these are not words.... mkay, gud, wat, werd and I can go on for days. If you are an adult you really need to cut it out. Seriously.

Okay, I'm done for now. Please share your WTH moments in the comments...

WTH? Wednesday

So many things have me saying WTH? Here it goes...

~Why do people choose not to use a car seat or booster seat for their small child? Why?
~Do you ever have someone who calls you ALL day long and they are talking about NOTHING?
~I really don't like when I make a mountain out of a molehill. I'm working on that.
~I can't stand rude, disrespectful kids. There is a serious epidemic of bad parenting going on (just sayin')
~Carpool rule breakers. I am not going to say another word.
~Why do people who get speeding tickets get mad? Were you not speeding?
~I get tired of PR firms asking me to do things for FREE. They obviously do not know my husband!

Do you have a WTH moment you want to share? Hit me up in the comments!