Gimme A Break

Many of my daughter’s classmates are working this holidays. Times are bad and this is the time of year when expenses usually run pretty high because of the festive season.

It makes sense that many parents want their teens to use their holidays to make some pocket money. In fact, many of the more enterprising kids started their job search way ahead of the holidays and are already making money as we speak.

I let my kids decide if they want to get a part-time job outside but they prefer to stay home and try to make some money online. Let’s see how far they go with that.

• work hard but won’t spend
• looking for a job?
• two kids and a job
• add another white elephant to the heap
• full of initiative

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The kids and I drove all the way downtown this afternoon just to enjoy some free coffee and donuts. We have some coupons expiring tomorrow so that was the perfect excuse I needed to pack everyone in for the somewhat long drive into town.

I know how that sounds but really it’s because we didn’t want the coupons to go to waste. I mean, we’re talking latte at San Francisco Coffee and donuts from Big Apple here.

• hillbillies in the city
• unsweet jam memories
• early mornings and late nights
• window-shopping day
• visit from grandpa

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I tell you teens these days are so worried about their looks. Every day when my girls come back from school, I get an earful of stories about what their friends at school get up to.

Of course, they start prettying themselves up much earlier than we ever did. One pimple on their face and it’s like the sky just came crashing down, and they start applying all sorts of creams and lotions and popping acne pills.

I really wonder if they’re going to school to get an education or is school some sort of a beauty contest to them? Luckily for me, my girls are very down-to-earth and I still have to nag them about taking care of their skin, etc.

• of acne and nagging
• growing up fast
• mom, the toiletries stockist
• maybe a boxer
• have I lost weight?

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My 15-year-old’s best friend has a birthday coming up. I’m not sure when but I know it’s soon. Last weekend, my daughter was asking what she should get for her friend.

I told her chocolates would be a sure winner and her friend will love it. Tell me who doesn’t love chocolate, especially toffee and dark chocolate?

As it turned out, we didn’t have time to buy them when we were at the mall. We needed to get home as my Dad was going to be dropping by from out of town.

This morning, my daughter tells me she’s found a great chocolate place online at chocolatepath.com. They have chocolate toffee, her friend’s favorite, and they even do gift-wrapping.

I had a brief look at the website and man, I have to say even I am tempted to order some dark chocolates for myself.

But hey, look at the gift that my daughter has picked out. Isn’t it sweet? I’m sure teens being teens, her friend is just going to love the pink detailing.

I honestly can’t tell you how relieved I am. With my dad coming to visit, I simply won’t have the time to take my daughter shopping for her friend’s birthday gift.

• what do gym freaks want?
• gourmet gift baskets
• stretch your creativity with Aqua Dots
• diaper-changing robot?
• mom’s day out

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I guess everyone must be feeling the effects of the weakening economy. The malls are so un-crowded this weekend that I’m both shocked and happy.

The kids and I practically had the entire Carl’s Jr to ourselves. We had such a nice laid-back lunch with plenty of free refills that we didn’t even want to leave.

The music was great. The air-conditioning was fresh and cool. It was like we owned the place. I think we might consider going back there again tomorrow.

• all set to go again!
• mirage
• sunny days
• how to keep your home cool
• rainy days

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Admittedly I am just a tad disoriented and distracted right now. Nothing to worry about though, I haven’t been drinking and I sure don’t need alcohol rehab .

I think I wrote about my youngest daughter just having finished her major exams. Prior to that, I was, of course, like a flustered mother hen making sure she stuck to her revision schedule, ate brain the proper food, got enough sleep, bla bla bla.

Well, that’s over now and it should be a big relief to me… except my other daughter is going to be sitting for HER major exam next month. Okay, so you get the picture now?

I confess me being a worry wart isn’t helping at all. The vicious cycle starts again. I’m getting all worked up again over the study hours and the food and the sleep. Duh!

It sure looks like I could use a drink, a strong one right now. Only trouble is I don’t drink. So I’ll probably grab myself a coke and hope that that’s not going to send me into alcohol rehab .

• how to get over jet-lag
• when kids swear
• rare morning out
• wanted - more zzz’s
• catching up on my beauty sleep

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We’ve had a very quiet weekend, quieter than almost any recent weekend. It’s only this quiet when the kids are busy preparing for their year-end exams.

Now that they are teens, I don’t really have to be constantly on their backs to study any more. They pretty much know what they have to do.

What puzzles me though is how they can concentrate when they’ve got MP3s plugged into their ears all day long.

I mean, they can’t even hear me when I shout for them to come down for meals, so how can they hear their internal voice when they’re studying?

• a nice, low-key day
• hello, John?
• nothing like a home-cooked meal
• where have all the voice talents gone?
• and I will brag

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Can you believe I actually dragged myself to watch two kiddy movies last weekend? We got free tickets to Wall-E and Star Wars, the Clone Wars.

We couldn’t give the tickets away and we didn’t want them to go to waste. So we went. Of course, the hot dogs and popcorn are always a good reason to go to any movie, free or otherwise.

• switching to movies at home
• movie freaks
• popcorn monsters
• much ado about movies
• quite da Iron Man

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After last week’s near miss with a school van, I almost collided with a car that was turning out of a gas station when I went to pick up my son from college Friday.

The lady driver never even so much as turned her head in my direction as I was turning the corner on the same road she was trying to get on.

Gosh, I tell you, I’ve really almost had enough of these drivers with bad attitudes. I’m careful to a T as a driver since I always have kids in my car with me. Safety is a big thing for me.

From young, my kids have been in Britax car seats and later in booster seats. So they’ve been trained from birth that the first thing they do is put on their seat belts even though the law here does not require back passengers to be strapped in.

That’s Mom’s law they have to obey!

Through the years, driving has gotten more stressful for me because of the increasingly bad attitude of drivers. People turn without looking out for oncoming traffic. They run red lights.

They cut into your lanes without signaling. Gosh, I could write a book half a foot thick about the lousy drivers I encounter on the roads every day!!

• sheer stupidity, bad attitude
• my top 5 driving peeves
• three kids and completely clueless
• stupid, in a word
• the stress of driving

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Yawn, I haven’t been sleeping well these few nights. The weather’s hot and dry. We haven’t had rain in a week or more.

I’d say this is the best weather for the beach. I might just pack a picnic basket, bring along my favorite Beach Chair and take the kids out there this weekend.

Only problem is the beach is 60 miles away and I’m not sure I even feel like driving that far in this heat. My poor kids haven’t been there in months since it’s quite out of the way for us.

Well, we’ll see how it goes. I hear there’s some new restaurants that have just opened up there so it might be worth killing two birds with one stone.

• sound of the falling rain
• a prestigious address
• the hula-hula awaits
• back to the grind
• sparkling clean car, yeah right

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