With all the snotty noses and piercings going on around here, who has time to post?

Sick kids, is there anything worse? Maddie and Brenna both have horrendous colds. Coughing, sore throat, snotty kleenexes all over the place - yuck. You see, I'm a germ freak. Nothing unnerves me more than having to go to the doctor and sitting in the waiting room with all the other sickos and just knowing I'm going to catch whatever it is they have, not letting my kids touch ANYTHING in the waiting room, serious germ freak.

So, I'm driving my kids crazy with all the "wash your hands after you blow your nose!" shit that I am sending their way every 2 seconds - but I don't want that crap the week before Christmas! I'm so mean that I even made them still do schoolwork yesterday even though they felt like crap. This is the hardest time of year when it comes to schoolwork - there are so many things that need to be done and we are running in 100 different directions - so we need to squeeze as much in as often as possible. They were really fine with it - just napped heavy afterward.

Yes, I mentioned 'piercings' in the title, didn't I? Well, judge if you will, but I allowed my 16 year old daughter to get a nose piercing last night. Nothing too radical, just a very, very small diamond - you really can't even see it if you are standing 5 feet away from her. Anyway, she came to me wanting this and we had many discussions about it and the consequences, blah, blah, blah - and in the end, I thought "why not?" The way I look at it, wrong or right, it could be a lot worse. She is a good kid - she gets nothing but A's & B's in school, she plays sports, she follows our rules has never been in any trouble with the law - so, why not?

Hell, I'm just glad we aren't dealing with any alcohol or drug issues, no teen sex issues, no school issues, so to me, this seems mild. My husband on the other hand was against it - he just didn't see the point - but when I reminded him of a few things he did when he was a teenager - which his mother didn't see the point of - it made him feel old and he caved.

So, she and I headed down to Minneapolis to the tattoo/piercing parlor that was recommended to us by John's sister, she lives in Minneapolis and is in the 'know'. The guys in there were great and really supportive of the fact that Alyson was scared shitless. She paid her $40 (!!!) and jumped up into the chair and before she had time to be scared, it was done. She's happy with it and it does look cute.

My biggest concern was when she gets sick of it and takes it out - will there still be a hole there? That wouldn't be so cute.

I'm pretty strict with my kids, but for some reason, this didn't seem like a big deal to me - I'd be interested to know what the rest of you think.

Have a good one.