Holy cow, the summer went fast, and my lil’ pumkin is going into 10th grade.
This is Evan waiting for his bus (I had to take this photo through a window). God forbid I wait out there with him. He’s much too cool for that!
Funny how life turns out. 10 years ago I got teary when I put Evan on the bus for his first day of school. Now I get weepy the week or two before classes start, hoping that I’ll be able to get through the last days of summer without losing my mind or damaging my credit score with multiple purchases from Abercrombie, Pacsun, Hot Topic and other bastions of hideous teenage fashion.
Look who visited us in the backyard today!
It’s the turkey I talked about in a previous blog — She hatched BABIES! LOTS of babies!
Speaking of animal babies. . .
Take a look at how Petunia has grown! She’s just a terrifically sweet dog! Tulip still isn’t crazy about her but Petunia is even growing on Tulip!
She’s still only a couple of pounds.
SPEAKING OF TURKEYS AND BABIES. . .
Ironic that our newest political celebutard has more in common with Mama Lynn Spears that she does with the average American voter.
It is amazing to me that Jamie Lynn was vilified for getting pregnant, her show put on ice, Lynn Spears lost her mothering book deal, and even poor Miley Cyrus was all but KILLED for posing for a photo, totally covered by a towel.
My, how things have changed in a few weeks . . .
Now everyone seems to think that Spread-em-wide-Bristol and Don’t-keep-it-in-your-pants-Levi are some super role models for getting knocked up. Not that it takes a brain surgeon to get preggers, but must we all act as though this has no affect American youth and obey the urging of the politicians who would like us to cease talking about it?
Mark Lipinski's Blog 
Dear Mark,
I love your word choice. (Weird, huh?) So many bloggers (me included) have diarrhea of the keyboard and just ramble on, occasionally reaching the point. But not you, you say what you mean and mean what you say. There are two people in my world of reading blogs who have the skill of vocabulary/diction: you and my friend who is a poet. The adjectives you use for (1) your son and (2) for celebrities tend to be pointed, hilarious and dead on and make your blog entries a joy to read. Know that your work is appreciated on many levels and when in doubt, keep the snark! with appreciation, Colleen in Oakland CA P.S. If you haven’t discovered Graham Norton on BBC, I’d bet you’d laugh as loud as DH and I do. Plus, he has a sexy ass smile! Damn, I am such a f** hag! 🙂 XO
LOVE Graham Norton! xoxom
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You are so spot on, my friend. ‘Nuff said.
xoxo
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you are too much! thank you for speaking your mind — keep it up!
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Amen to that!
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1. They grow up too fast don’t they?
2. That’s a lot of turkeys….
3. Is Petunia bigger than the chickens yet?
4. Sigh….our kids have a LOT of examples of what NOT to do don’t they?
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your observation in the yahoo group – about Palin-in-the-butt and avoiding unwanted pregnancies? you aren’t going to deprive your blog readers of that one, are you? 😉
Some things are better left just for “family”! LOL xoxom
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Teenage boy, I am willing to gift wrap mine for the right offer. He costs me a bomb.
Cute dog; LOTS of turkeys. LOL
As for the other, the irony of someone who insists on teaching abstinence-as-contraception as being the only acceptable sex education in school having a pregnant teenager just seems to have passed the Republican Party by.
Maybe folks are dumb where I come from, but I just can’t see it with the “proper” spin.
Ooh, I wonder if a picture of Bristol has hit the “fail” blog yet? Must go look.
I guess that’s why I’ll never be a part of the Republican elite. When my teenager asks me to “pass the mashed patatoes,” I pass him a box of condoms instead!
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Hi Mark,
I’m so glad to see you back in the blogosphere. I kept checking and I was beginning to have withdrawal symptoms. You made me laugh on the first day of school which was sorely needed. I love, love , love the new line especially the blue and green! I’ll have to use it in the “blue room” in Point Pleasant. I also love your comments about Sarah Palin. I’m all for supporting working Mom’s, but isn’t anybody appalled that she is voluntarily willing to leave a special needs infant to go to Washington? I’ll be looking forward to the next issue so I can laugh out loud some more. Hope to see you soon.
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At the risk of calling you all judgmental…things do happen that we cannot control. Our children do things that we counsel them not to, and somehow they process our words selectively. You have the right to your opinions but I would say reserve judgment until it happens to you and see how you feel then….when you walk a mile in their shoes you can have your say. Until then, it’s their won business not the rest of us….the only thing we can control is the way our quilts turn out and sometimes there is an OOOPS there as well.
I AM judging the hypocracy of it all. I just keep thinking of Miley Cyrus and what that poor kid went through for nothing as well as Jamie Lynn Spears, and a pregnant teenage friend of my 16-year-old — I don’t care who knocks up whom, or when, but Miley and Jamie Lynn were treated like whores and practically stoned and pubically humiliated! I’m reacting to the fact that the new “it’s just an oops” of this couple isn’t after years of social evolution,it’s been just a matter of weeks and, of course, there is a big money presidency at $take. xoxom
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Mark you crack me up with your plain speak. Gotta love it.
BTW……well said!!!
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My mind races with logistical questions…Will Bristol and Levi stay in Alaska? If so, how will Sarah help them with the baby? Will they have to live as a married couple in the VP mansion? Who wants to live with their parents after they’re married? If they live in the VP mansion, does Levi have to get a job? Will Sarah set them up in their own place in DC? Won’t it be weird to have your son (Trig) and grandson play together? This is better than reality TV!
Sue in NJ
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Governor Palin is a DISTRACTION. I can’t believe thoughtful women who voted for Hilary Clinton would remotely consider switching to the McCain Palin ticket, which stands AGAINST equal pay for equal work, against a woman’s right to choose (Ms. Palin may be ‘proud of her daughter’s choice’ but she doesn’t want anyone else to have that choice), and blithely indifferent to the plight of the many people in our difficult world who are dealing with economic and domestic problems too overwhelming to be handled by her breezy ‘can do’ attitude. Her claim to disdain federal aid while accepting plenty of federal tax money both for her community and her state is deeply hypocritical, and her lack of a sense of the international picture is pretty scary. Add to that her Ann Coulter-style vitriolic scarcasm, and I find myself hoping SO strongly that we can get off the gossip and back to the real ISSUES in this campaign!!!
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Saw you at the show on Friday, but didn’t want to interrupt your gabfest to say hello. (You were sitting in the refreshment area quenching your thirst and resting your tired puppies). Love the mag, Love the yahoo group, and Love the blog. Just ditto my previous comments by Penny re Sarah Palin. Unfortunately, the democrats have nothing better to offer either.
Oh that’s too bad. You can always say ‘hello!’ xoxom
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I’ll probably get stoned for this one but I too was disgusted by the way Jamie Lynn Spears and Miley Cyrus were treated. But what really grabbed my attention was that the folks who were giving them the hard time were the media, whether it was a conservative or liberal editor/owner. And I’ll just stand in my lonely little corner over here and say three cheers for Palin. She’s the only one on either ticket who is not part of the established elite, and that takes courage. Ouch..quit throwing things at me!!!
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I for one am really tired of hearing about the “elite”. This is another distraction. People are who they are and should be judged on record. When someone talks about negotiation and Americans working together again instead of against each other, I get excited. Four years ago when Barack Obama said, “I am my brother’s keeper!” I cried. I have long thought that we have forgotten the second greatest commandment of “Love they neighbor as thyself.” I also think about all the lessons we learn and young children. The bully does not win out in the long run. I hardly think I want anyone who thinks being a “pitbull” is a good thing anywhere near the White House.
I just stumbled across this blog this morning. Wow! I love it, but of course I love the magazine, too. I am all signed up for the show in Des Moines and am looking forward to taking your class!
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“Speaking of Turkeys and Babies”
Well, you see, most of the world knows what’s happening in America, and America hardly knows what’s happening in most of the world. Maybe if you did you’d know a lot of us are shaking our heads and saying “only in America”, as we often do. Sometimes I feel I’m watching the blackest of ‘black comedies’. But then like the others here have said – media and propaganda are almost the same thing these days.
Please don’t get me wrong though, there are some incredibly wonderful, inspirational, creative and funny people there in the USA and I’m thankful to blogland for being able to meet so many.
So keep ‘pressing peoples buttons’ Mark! 🙂
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In the real world lots of teens do get pregnant. I’m just glad the Palins are the right kind of role model of supporting and not condemning their daughter. It wasn’t that long ago that it all would have been hidden and there would have been lots of shame. Isn’t this what families do for each other?
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Ditto on Palin!good luck with the 10th grade!And my son is a senior & wants me to sign him up for the army this week! Can I do that?! It will be the hardest thing I have to do this year I think. Love the pups, I always show your pics to my 2 wieners!
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Hi MArk,
Loved the pics of Evan. Does this make us OLD or do I just feel this way when looking at your handsome young man in HighSchool Garb after knowing him toddling around the SSS.
As for Palin’s preggy daughter and her BOYFRIEND- I think you are RIGHT-ON. Sure, support your child if a mistake happens BUT DON”T make it sound like it’s OK and FLAUNT it so all the kids see it as “the way”. What happened to morals and “just say no”? (Ok that’s for drugs but it’s supposed to work for.. uhem ..sex too-no?)
What hipocracy! And why do we want our kids emulating Hollywood’s morals anyway. Maybe I’m old fashion but I still believe in marriage first and then babies… NOT knock them up a few times, live with them and then find someone else.
Love the pups..my Zoe (White Akita and 118lbs) would think yours are a squeaky toy.
Thanks for saying it straight.
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Thank you, Mark! As you probably know from the list, I’m an Obama/Biden volunteer here in Pennsylvania, and the thought of having that Palin person anywhere near the White House is terrifying to me. It seems that both she and McCain think that if they keep repeating their lies, they will become the truth. Her comments concerning foreign policy (I can see Russia from an Alaskan Island) and her feminism (I always had Title IX growing upso there wasn’t any discrimination) are inane. Does she realize that if it were not for Democrat Patty Mink, there would be no Title IX. And that it was Democrat Jimmy Carter who expanded the criteria for Title IX. Oh I could go on and on and on
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Way back when my boys were teens (they are the fathers of teen boys now themselves) I would keep a box of condoms for the taking and stressed the use of. I would not let them go out with their friends unless they showed me that they had one to take along. They hated it and always stressed that they weren’t planning to have sex. Things happen you don’t plan on and when they do I want it slip-covered I would tell them. That little pocket in their 501’s was a perfect stash place. I never found an unused one there come wash day. Now my sons have a box of condoms stashed in the kitchen for when their boys go out. Keep it covered they say. Boys need to be taught to be responsible for their own fertility just like girls do. They hated it when I would say “you need to be responsible for where you put it and what happens while you are there” but they listened and now I am the the proud g-mom of five grandsons. All but the youngest is old enough to heed the message and hopefully they do.
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Mark – Just found you, and was loving your blog until I read the ugly comments about Sarah Palin’s daughter.
Here’s the difference. Jamie Lynn Spears and Miley Cyrus have been in the public eye for years, teenagers who dance and sing in front of preteens. They are professionals AND teenagers, enjoying and profiting from their public role. They were considered role models long before their recent problems. Because they are role models, parents (especially) get upset when their behavior isn’t what they want to see in a teenager.
Bristol Palin is the daughter of a politician. She hasn’t made a career of dancing and singing in front of preteens, she wasn’t a role model before her pregnancy and she isn’t one now. She is ONLY the daughter of a politician. If you’ll remember, her parents tried to keep her pregnancy out of the public eye – there hasn’t been any attempt to make her a role model, just let her deal with her problems alone.
Hate the mom – not the kid.
We’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one. As the parent of a teen, Bristol Palin has unwittingly become, is, and will (should her mother become Vice President) continue to be a teen role model whether she wants to be or not. I might also add, and this would be a personal choice, but I would never put my teenage, pregnant and unmarried teen in that kind of spotlight and situation no matter what my personal professional or political goals may happen to be. I like to think that my family has values and more respect for each other than what has been exhibited by the Palins. For the record, I kinda like Sarah Palin. My personal opinion is that she’s about as qualifiied for the Vice Presidency as I am, but she’s certainly pleasant enough. xooxm
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Maybe a roll model.
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Thanks be to God, only 3 more days! What a campaign…the first in which I’ve been actively involved (aside from local environmental issues) since John F. Kennedy was elected (that was my first presidential campaign…when I could finally vote). It has been a long, hard road. Truths have been denied. Lies have been repeated incessantly. Half-truths have been thrown to the four winds. But change is in the air and the truth will set us free!
Thank you, Mark, for allowing us all to have our say. I’ve learned so much from the yahoo crowd. One way and another!
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Mark I write this as I sit here putting the finishing touches on the monthly treasurers report for the local band booster organization which, like your soccer organization, is run by a small group of parents representing the interests of all the kids. It is very frustrating, this is my fourth year (the first three as president) and I have finally moved from frustration and anger to resignation. It’s almost beginning to be amusing to see how many balls the few of us can keep in the air at the same time….(and we’re even soccer parents..lol)
Keep up the good work at least your child knows your there for him!!
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I was married for three years when “woops” . He’s thirty now and the JOY of my life.
From this side of the election, I wonder if some of those who posted here are just upset because it turns out Republicans do fall in love. We do have sex. And we are as complex as Democrats.
My mother was very instrumental in bringing sex education into the school district when I was young. Her intent was good. But she’s appalled by how it was used and affected society.
Congratulations to President Elect Obama and his campaign. Things are very difficult all around. I hope that however you chose to deal with problems, your decisions are not met with the public pettiness that abounds. By pettiness- I mean- most of those who were critical of Gov Palin, her daughter and her boyfriend- NOTHING the Govenor could have done would have pleased them.
That is the definition of petty.
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