Wordless Wednesday - Ahh, the Honeymoon.

Wordless Wednesday - Have a glow worm type of day!

Christmas Tag

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial (borrowed from Mom and Dad)

3. When do you put up the tree? Anytime during December.

4. When do you take the tree down? Depends on how long I want to sit on my bum and drink hot chocolate and use the excuse of staring at the tree to be lazy. ;)

5. Do you like eggnog? yes, but only AE - 1/2 milk, 1/2 nog - not a big fan of the Milk Nog.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A vantriliquist doll named Howdy Doody.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? yes, but I confess - it's not out this year, and it was a dollar, which is why it's in my Christmas tote, cuz it looks like it was a dollar.

8. Hardest person to buy for? The possibilities are ENDLESS when you're talking about gag gifts. Those take the most thought. I'm WAY behind this year.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Whoever I'm done with already. :)

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Peacock feathers - that was just mean.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Charlie Brown Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? The very first garage sale in April-ish. Gotta love garage sale Christmases!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Uh, is file 13 recycling? That's right where those peacock feathers went.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Mom's soups.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I would love white, but hopefully we'll get those at Clearance time this year for next year. This year the "purple" looks like pink. And a little blue set.

17. Favorite Christmas song? I LOVE THEM ALL! All I want for Christmas has been one I always have to turn up when I hear.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? both

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? yep

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? whichever the whole family can be there for - maybe we'll start a new tradition and a "set" rule next year to follow.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? People (myself included) forgetting to spread joy and cheer.

I tag: Angela and Melanie

Wordless Wednesday - Naps aren't always good.

Thankful

I was listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about missionaries and being overseas "roughing it" (sorry if anything was understood wrong here - I was changing diapers and wondering if lunch was burning as I listened). One woman met a 10 year old girl, her younger sister, and older brother. Their mother had passed away - she was a prostitute. The middle girl does everything she can to provide for her brother and sister, working in an all day factory job for next to nothing in profit. Their home has no washer/drier, fridge, sink. . . . beds. . . . light . . . extra clothing, you get the picture. They have an outhouse 3 blocks from their home. 3 blocks. No "toilet" closer than that.

This woman asked how much it was to build an outhouse onto their home. 24 US dollars. She gave them the money and weeks later received a photograph in the mail with the 3 children with their new addition onto their home in the background . . . and they were smiling. This had changed their life. 24 dollars. Now, I can't help but shed tears when I think of what one of those families would do for the uncontaminated water that goes down my kitchen drain every day - from rinsing dishes before they go into the dishwasher. Running water for 10 seconds just to wait for it to get warm. . . that would be unheard of. They might not even have dishes to clean. And here I sit in a heated home with food in the fridge if I get hungry and a healthy husband and children. Not to get you down today, but why aren't we over there living that life? Why do we think we are entitled to everything we think we want? They were excited about a toilet for cryin' out loud! New clothes, fruit snacks, calendars, microwavable lunches, and heaven forbid us having to park in a full parking lot and walk 200 feet into Kohl's in the cold weather to Christmas shop for our healthy loved ones. We have vehicles to drive, resources of any sort, helpful neighbors, people that pray for us, and give us gifts on our birthday because we are loved.

How can I look at my surroundings and still have one ounce of unthankfulness? I spent 24 dollars on gas the other day. Groceries. McDonalds (although it's been a couple months). I'm a little torn this holiday season. How can I teach my children to possibly begin to fathom everything they have when I have trouble with it myself?

Ten Words

Ran into a great blog with this on it. "Alexandra Stoddard, in her book Feeling At Home, said '...write down the ten word symbols that tell who you truly are. Don't think. Your subconscious does all the work. Be there to record what emerges from the deepest recesses of your heart. This may be one of the sweetest moments of your entire life. Try it, and see for yourself how you feel.'"

I thought it would be neat to try, so here goes:
1. Behind
2. Comfortable
3. Games
4. Groceries
5. Kids
6. Wife
7. Stories
8. Accommodating
9. Surrendering
10. Peaceful

Try it out.

Today.

Okay, I just made Spiced Pumpkin Tartlets. They are AWESOME! I hope they make it to craft night tonight. I'll have to limit myself to 3 . . . or 5 would be okay I guess.

Went grocery shopping today and spent $35.25 on groceries. Not bad. The egg nog won't last long, either. Mixed with mostly milk - new craving. OH! Wanna know my brand-spanking new craving? The Farting Goat has chicken wings. Breaded. Chubby Style. Yum. They are the best when the sauce hasn't gotten to the breaded part yet and it's still crunchy. I'm hungry.

I sit here at my kitchen table with the curtains open watching the big heavy wet drops of snow fall all over my van. Maybe I should get a scraper this year, eh? Nothing like waiting for the first big snowfall, Amie. Good work.

I need to go gather my crafting things for tonight - I'm bringing Olivia (7) if she wants to go - she loves being crafty and I don't let her do it near enough. She can have tartlets and hot chocolate with me. . . right after she clears off my van. I'm not really that mean. . . well, unless I can make some sort of game out of it - then her brother can join in.

What's that about?!

Harry is taking me up into the air once in a while and it looks really high up. I'm not deathly afraid of heights or anything, but we always manage to get back on solid ground before I get too scared. But not this time. The hugest tree I've ever seen. He thought it would be fun to go that high. So he takes me in his arms and up we go (how, I don't know - so don't ask). Sidenote: love his arms. Moving on ... err ... up, that is. I am freaked out. I have no idea how high he's going, but he's looking pretty excited to be going up so high. I start mimmering and feel a little sick, and finally get out the words (this is when the person at the bottom of the HUGE tree looked like an ant and I could see the top of the tree), "okay, that's high enough!".

He says, "Okay, here we go!" And I am not kidding you, I feel a lump in my belly move all the way up to my throat and I'm hanging on by the end of his shirt at this point for DEAR LIFE. We are ziplining to the ground. Not a straight down fall, but going at about a 38 degree angle... F-A-S-T. I scream the piercing kind of scream all the way down to the grass. Seemed like eternity to get there. Oh, the lovely grass. Didn't hurt to land. Then instead of beating him with any energy I had left, I kissed him - a lot.

Then his pocket made noise. Why? His grandma was calling his cell phone. Thank you Grandma for waking me up. I go into the kitchen feeling a panic in the depths of me and still trying to open my eyes. Harry is leaving for work and laughs at my plea for life at 5:30 am. Please don't do that again, honey! Poor guy. He's endured me actually hitting him when I wake up becase I was so furious by what he did in my dreams. Poor, poor guy. My constant vivid dreams are rarely a good thing. So needless to say, I will not ever - in - my - life go parasailing thank you very much. I'll be the ant by the tree.

Beef - meister

Why am I "Beefy"? I'm so glad you asked.

1. I love cows.
2. I am a black belt in TaeKwondo.
3. I love cow print anything.
4. I broke the push-up record in our school at 135 . . . and no, not on my knees.
5. I collect cows.
6. They just started calling me Beefy.
7. Moo.

Not that it's a compliment to be called a cow.

MOOOooooving on. Haven't had a whole lot to post about lately. Same old mess, same old "could use a little extra money" thing, same old "getting bigger" speech (and yes, I'm pregnant Mel), but I am very happy to report that my scrapbooking retreat is LESS than one week away now! :) I'm very excited, but will be WAY excited when I get all packed up and ready for it. My sister is coming with me, did I mention that? I'm stoked! Is that a word? That's all I got today.

Paul Harvey's On-Air Prayer

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance."

"We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "One nation under God."

Keeping Busy as Kids

I have this habit of watching movies over and over again until I have them memorized. Granted, I haven't been able to learn a new one for a couple years, but I still remember the ones I've learned. A few are as follows:

You've Got Mail
Liar Liar
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Finding Nemo
Aladdin
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
and....
The Little Mermaid

Now we used to take trips to Minnesota when we were little - 5 or 6 hours in the car. How did we keep busy?? My sisters used to use me as a human VCR. Any movie they wanted to see, they just put the imaginary tape in my mouth and pushed play (my nose). I'd recite the movie just as it is, and sometimes they'd fast forward and rewind just for fun. I usually kept up with them.

What else did we do in the car, you ask??
The Yay and Boo Game! TELL me you've played this. If not, make your kids. It's great fun. While driving, wave at cars (when you get good at the game, you'll be choosy about who you wave to) and if they wave back, you get 1 point. If they don't see you, you get 0. If they see you and don't wave back, well, then you get -1.

The alphabet game. Find letters A through Z in order one by one. I don't think we ever beat my dad at this game - and he was most always the driver. Either he's really GOOD or we really stunk. It has to be the first of the two. If anyone of us ever beat him, there was probably some cheating going on. If there was only 2 or 3 players, sometimes we said the letters aloud as we saw them, and then only one person could use the Q on Dairy Queen if we all saw it. The easier way was to do it silently and just say "Z!" when you get there. Letters you get stuck on are J, K, Q, X (unless you are on the interstate with EXIT signs), and Z.

Then there was the obvious, "Do I need to turn this car around?" game, or "Do I need to pull over?" game was okay, too. My brother sat in the back seat on the drivers side usually, with me next to him, and the guy has to part his stinkin' knees about as far as they would stretch and here I am cramped up in the middle and my sister on the other side. Then the middle sister sat in the front in between Mom and Dad. So then we have the "Jerry's hogging the whole back seat and I can't even move my legs" game. Those usually ended with the obvious first two games of the paragraph. We all know he would have pulled the car over. No empty threats from my parents. Ever. Good work, guys.

But the highlight of the trips may have been "THE Ski Hill". That was the landmark that told us we were almost there (unless we took the trip to the cabin with no stops). None of my or my sibling's kids have gotten even remotely close to being as excited about this landmark. Could it be all the room they have to play in the vans and toys to keep them occupied? Do they even know what the yay and boo game is??? Will they ever play tin can alley (kick the can)??? Ghost in the graveyard??? Red Rover?? Croquet?? Tag - water balloon fights - snow angels - King on the Mountain?? Come on! When was the last time you saw kids outside playing Annie Annie Over? What ever happened to Do-Overs? Are the classic games lost somewhere in the midst of portable DVD players and iPods and Playstations? For cryin' out loud - these gAmEs WiLL NOT DIE!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What? NO, I don't need sleep! What kind of question is that?

Out of the closet.

Left side: (In order) navy blue, white, grey, and black shirts
Right side: It's a rainbow!!!
Left side shelf: Jeans
Right side shelf: PJ pants and other pants

Guess which side is mine. This might help you.

FYI: Harry's shirts don't get to see how soft they have the potential to be. They don't see the drier, well...that's not comletely true. They see it from the outside while they are hanging to dry....and a select few I've personally chosen get to rejoice with all the other clothes once in a while as they tumble happily round and round. Those are the "special shirts" though. The ripped and holey Harley shirts don't qualify. If they ever heard me say that, though, they would have me for breakfast. They far outnumber and outweigh me. I don't remember the last time Harry has purchased a Harley shirt.....hmm. Which tells you he's been collecting these for at least 20 years. He got rid of over 10 of them last year at a garage sale. $1 per shirt. One person bought all of them. So, we're out. We've blogged out of the closet.

Wordless......(okay I'm a day late)

Monday

"Are you going to come quietly, or do I have to use earplugs?"

There are millions of people thinner than I, and millions of people bigger. But I did NOT enjoy a feeling over the weekend. Pregnant as I may be, Saturday I took a couple of steps at work and felt my butt jiggle as I walked. What a stupid blog, right? I know. Really. I do. BUT......put in the earplugs! It's funny to make your butt jiggle on purpose, not so funny when it just does it on its own. I'd rather not have to buy all new jeans after this baby, ya' know. Like I'd buy new jeans anyway - I'd end up shuffling through the garage sale tables. That's really not the point, though. Hey, could it possibly be all the junk I eat all the time? Maybe I'll look into that.

On a much better note, Tiffany and I read a book before bed at night. We have mostly read "Time For Bed" - Time for bed little calf, little calf. What happened today that made you laugh?. It's been our book. Lately, I'm loving "Just In Case You Ever Wonder" though. I will give you the last page, it's very sweet, and I'm betting some of you have it.

In heaven you are so close to God that He will hug you, just like I hug you.
It's going to be wonderful. I will be there, too. I promise.
We will be there together, forever. Remember that . . .
just in case you ever wonder.

Butt jiggles and Bedtime books are all you get today.

Just to blog again...

So, today is our IowaFathers.com meeting. Every tuesday my house smells like chocolate and some kind of chili-konkokshuun :) I did that because I don't, in reality, know how to spell it (I got as far as 'con'). Today it's chocolate chip cookies, chili, Twizzlers, Cheetos, and Nips - love Nips. Is that man food, or what? All in all, we have quite a bit of females in the group, too. Who else would volunteer to feed 'em every week? Any takers? I'm sure you guys would be much better at throwing things together than I am!

Yesterday, we ...... I canned tomatoes. Harry worked. All day. Left at 5:40 am and got home 8:30 pm - what a man. Put some stuff on e-Bay Sunday night - 14 items ranging from a HD torque plate set to maternity and baby clothes to a framed and matted Marilyn Monroe stamp thing-a-ma-bobber....it's stated differently in the actual auction. And....my parents came over for a few hours on Sunday - know what we did? Froze corn. All afternoon. 80 cups. They visit, and we put them to work. Isn't that nice of us? Mmmmmmmmm, sure is good in the winter time! Mom gave me her housekeeping secrets, so this week I'm trying to put them to use. Come on over next week and see if it made any difference, would ya'? If it didn't, lie. Please. :) Dad had a lot of fun with Tiffany, I think. They might even be pals now. They brought pictures from vacation and here's me and the man that takes care of me. Look closely - who's paddling and steering?? just kidding - actually, my feet and hand were just resting in the right places to make it look like I do the work, which is usually how it works out anyway.

I don't have a whole lot to say today, I guess. Just sitting here eating the "reject" cookies from the batch. It's quite possible that I ruined them on purpose. Oh, yeah! Garage sale next week - I'm having one. Anyone have stuff to sell? Lemme know! We'll put an ad in the paper and get some tables. More stuff, more people. Okay, I have to finish my chili and sweep my floor - it's not funny....I haven't cleaned it since corn and tomatoes. Aren't you glad you wasted that 4 minutes reading my blog today? lol, I know you are.

Already?!

Ahh, the sound of paper ripping.....


tissue paper crumpling.....


the Happy Birthday song....


the look on a one-year old's face with a lit candle on a whole cake all to herself.....


the sound of warm water running to clean up this:

There was no puking, no crying, and no stopping this little girl from devouring her own big fat cake. My baby is one. She's seen the "outside world" for one whole year. As I went through her baby book to fill in her birthday activities, I was skimming through the pages.....so much of what I wrote down about her first months I had already forgotten about! I don't know what to write about today, other than how much I love my baby and how every quality minute I spend with her goes by too fast. If I don't stop to breathe in the days, they will pass me by. They already are. :) Here's to smelling the roses....

Baby Tag

All about me! Tiffany, that is.














3 Things That Scare Me
Being without Mommy and Daddy
The end of chocolate
A missing bottle

3 Things I Love
My sister
My piano
Music

3 Things I Hate
Diaper Rash
Loud people when I'm trying to sleep
Being without sweets

3 Things I Don't Understand
How Daddy makes that duck noise with his mouth, but it's funny!
Why Mommy doesn't let me have chocolate for snacktime
What's the big deal about Cheerios?

3 Things On My Floor
Food that I drop there for snacks later when I get hungry.
ALL....I mean A-L-L of my toys.
A new kitten that needs a new home because the smell of kitty litter makes mommy gag.
(sidenote: Anyone want an adorable tiny kitten that is litter trained already????? Very cute and quiet and playful)

3 Things I'm Doing Right Now
Sleeping
Dreaming of chocolate
Making that little lip movement - dreaming about my bottle of juice

3 Things I Want To Do Before I Die
Scrapbook with Mommy
Have a whole cake all to myself
Experience hot lunch at school

3 Ways To Describe My Personality
Determined!
Hungry
In-the-action

3 Things You Should Listen To
Mommy - she's always right. can't that count for 3 things? I feel very strongly about this.

3 Things You Should Never Listen To
My brother - he's a bad influence. All you'll learn from him is armpit farting. Which I think is quite amusing for a boy to do.....it even makes me laugh....but I will never armpit fart.
The "no singing at the table" rule - who made that rule anyway? It was Grandpa, wasn't it.
The word "no". This word is trouble.

3 Absolute Favorite Foods
Chocolate
Yogurt
Fruit - covered in chocolate if applicable.

3 Things I'd Like To Learn
TaeKwondo - just like Mommy.
The art of Scrapbooking.
How to make that noise Daddy makes - you know, that duck noise.

3 Beverages I Drink Regularly
Milk (chocolate milk if I can talk Mommy into it - Daddy's easy....note to self: get bottle from Daddy)
Apple Juice
All other kinds of juice

3 Shows I Watch
What's a show? Sometimes I watch bits of movies if one is already playing. But, what's a show?

Babies I Tag:
Madyson
Any other baby that has not been tagged

Tagged, Yeah!

1. What was your favorite thing about being a kid?
The swimming pool e-v-e-r-y day in the summer, and putting on the practice green until someone could pick me up.

2. What was your favorite subject in school?
Keyboarding. Not kidding. Well, or band and choir and study hall and music theory and math classes. Get me OUT of science or history, though.

3. Who was your best friend when you were 10?
Catherine. When we were starting middle school, her mom made her "break up with me" because we merged schools and popularity was very important to her mother. We cried together, I remember her being SO upset with her mom. We were "secret" best friends. It was very dramatic. LOL Funny how we ended up popular "separately", isn't it.

4. . If you could be any animal what would you be?
I would like to say I'd be on top of the food chain, but who would want hairballs? Maybe I am an animal. Maybe a kangaroo would be fun....then I could hop around, and hold onto my babies and be hands free forever!

5. What would you change about your school, occupation, life right now?
Naps. I want naps.

6. What's your favorite color?
Pink, I think.

7. What's your favorite type of crust and topping on a pizza?Pan Pizza from Pizza Hut - extra cheese. Or EBD Pizza - Thuringer and Sausage. Or OP Pizza - BBQ. Don't laugh at me, I'm pregnant and hungry.

I tag --Natalie

Come on, who REALLY missed me?

It's been a summer of Cheerios and Planning and Laundry. My better half took care of getting us back online. Wasn't that nice of him? I'm sure you all appreciate that, too because now you can read my ramblings again. :) Welcome.

Now the real trick of it is figuring out how far back to read on all of yours to catch up on everything. Maybe I'll tackle that this week. Today I am organizing my craft things because TONIGHT IS CRAFT NIGHT!!! I believe I have taken it over because Michelle is gone *tear*. It may possibly never be the same. I'll just pretend that she'll be there, and then something last-minute came up and she had to (keep) miss(ing).

I am assuming that Yahoo can be on my Outlook Express, so I need some ID ideas. mylastname6@yahoo.com maybe. Got any good ones?

Other items up for bid? I'll think about it and write about something a little more eventful next time. Oh, other than the 2008 Presidential Candidate, Mr. Klein, is speaking in CF Tuesday about shared physical placement - that will be fun! K, I have stuff to do. Later bloggers!

All and Nothing

Good Grief, June 25th is my last blog?? Save me people. Besides being baptized yesterday (YAY!), I don't think I have anything to write about. I look around the room and think, "hmm, what can I take a picture of and blog about to show people how much of a dork I am?" but alas, nothing comes to mind - or eyes I guess. Then I could pretend it was Thursday and blog about my favorite 13 colors, but then I might lose visitors. I am in desperate need of a scrapbooking day - or week for that matter! I won't take a picture of the spare/craft/scrapbooking/sewing/Tupperware/computer room because you'd never come to my house again. It's that bad. And my sister is staying here next week. She can sleep on the tote of garage sale things we've gotten for Christmas this year so far, or the laundry basket filled with parade items for IowaFathers.com, or she could even sleep on all my embelishments for scrapbooking, paper, box of pictures from the 70s, tools, letter trays, picture frames, envelopes with who-knows-what-in-them-but-don't-want-to-throw-them-away-or-go-through-them stack. That's right, I'd rather blog. about nothing. Suppose I should clean it before she comes next week? lol, or make her do it? I wouldn't do that, Bren.

I do have to go through my things down here and take a load to T&T. Hey, is there anywhere else I could bring this stuff? Like, a donation place where they just give it to people that need it? Not where they can take a shirt I've had for 12 years and mark 3.50 on it. Any churches around here do donations like that? Shopping at T&T is like an overpriced garage sale lately. Okay, I'll tell you one little thing before I go. I CAN'T STAND it when the person having the garage sale follows you around and tells you what everything is and how reasonable of a price it is because they bought it for twice that 50 years ago. lol I always try to change the subject, anyone else? TELL me that's happened to you at a garage sale? Cuz if it hasn't, I'm a garage sale junky - and that's never good. WOW - always and never in the same blog. Awefully strong for a blog about nothing. I can't promise anything, but I'll try to be more interesting next time. You can't help but read it anyway. :) You're sick.

Sudoku

Here. Everything will have all 0-9 numbers. If you guys haven't tried this, try it. All rows up and down, left and right, all square blocks will not duplicate a number. Say wa-hoo if you love it!

SOAP

S-2 Kings 10, 30-31. Nonetheless the Lrd said to Jehu, "You have done well in following my instructions to destroy the family of Ahab. Bcause of this I will cause your descendants to be the kings of Israel down to the fourth generation." But Jehu did not obey the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He refused to turn from the sins of the idolatry that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit.

O-Jehu killed many men for the Lord and followed instructions exactly of what the Lord wanted, but his heart wasn't in it. If we did that today, it'd be the end of the light of day for us! I wonder if I would be so willing to DO great things for the Lord? And if it would mean as much to Him as if "just" my heart were His? I can go through the motions of the "Christian life" and most likely not-a-one would second-guess the purity of my heart. Maybe that's where I am today.

A-I read the laws of God and try to obey them to the best of my ability (or at least what I see as "good enough"), but how much of that is because I "should" and how much is because the Lord lives in my heart? And who on earth would think to question my motives?

P-Lord, I thank you for showing me this scripture - I obviously need a heart transplant. I am so sorry for going through my routine every day with a selfish heart. Make me a new Christian! I need guidance to stop being an instrument, and start being a servant for the glory of Your kingdom! Thank you for humbling me with your Word today.

Mess!

Anybody know any cleaning fairies that come out at night when no one is watching? Send them my way please! Maybe we should just take all of this outside, put it in a pile, and light a match. It's not like we'll miss that 20th paper in that stack of 200-some. Why'd we keep that paper anyway - and where did it come from? Quite honestly, I do clean. I clean every day I'm here and do you think you'd notice? I'll give you one guess. Please tell me someone else feels like that! Didn't I just do the dishes? How did that humongo pile get there??????

Have you seen the Suave commercial that the "mom" is invisible? I laugh so hard when that's on. Some days I feel invisible - I'm the one that takes care of the little stuff no one else would worry about, but notice pretty quickly if it wasn't done. So, I NEED cleaning secrets so you can actually TELL that I've just spent the last 5 and a half hours cleaning. All I can do is maintain this place - I can't get ahead of the mess for some reason, and I'm sure it won't get any better with more children. I'm also quite sure it's not just hormones. So please either send a cleaning fairy my way, or tell me how to stay ahead of the mess! Secrets, I NEED SECRETS!

Plan F is a good thing

Why am I up so early yesterday, she asks. Well, this is the story. Harry ended up on my side of the bed after much shifting last night. Woke up to an alarm going off, but he couldn't get to it because of the baby rail I put up on my side just in case I fell asleep nursing Tiffany. So I tell him to stay put and I'll turn the alarm off. Snooze exactly 3 times. So I was kind of up at 5:15, but really up at 5:45. He can't listen to the radio for more than 10 seconds in the morning, you see - bugs him. Bugs me not to. How on earth did we get paired together? What was He thinking?? :) It was lucky that I was awake anyway, because my sister is having a Tupperware party for me on Friday so I can get qualified in my 30 days, wasn't that nice. She's the best. So I came downstairs to get on the computer to print off labels for the party to send out invites. Finish them and they look great! Print. OH NO! I put 1:00 instead of 2:00 on it. I let one print and figured I can change them with a pen later, but pulled the paper tray out so it would think "out of paper" and cancel for me. Too late, it grabbed the paper too quickly. Paper jam and I mean PAPER JAM. 10 minutes later I went to

Plan B. Well, we have another printer. I'll just hook it up to this computer and print it from that one. No such luck. It wasn't installed on my laptop (which is the computer I'm most always on). Well, it's going to take more time to install it than it is to just type it up on Harry's computer that IS hooked up to that printer. So we move on to

Plan C. Now, I adore my laptop, but something just had to be done. Turn the other computer on, 20 minutes later, I got it typed up and looking great. Matching colors, lines up great AND it says 2:00....Sounds like a big fat "print" to me. What? What's ink? Obviously, someone forgot to let the printer in on a little idea called "clarity". Couldn't even hardly read it. Whatever. Is there a

Plan D? Okay, I'll e-mail them to Wendy because I'm getting my hair done anyway today. And I'll open them on her computer and print them over there before we go to the salon. Woke her up - whoops. She opens her e-mail because, like I said before, she's the best. Can't open it on her computer - probably not because she doesn't have Microsoft WORDDDDDD, but we didn't know why. *grit teeth* and on to

Plan E. By this time it's 8:45. If I get Tiffany up and ready, we can be over to Harry's work on his 9:30 break and he can print them there. So I e-mail the document to him, but have no way of telling him I'm coming because his phone is on the way (from ebay) and I can't text message him. So we run around getting things ready for Wendy's party, doing hair, and our doctor appt all in one. Harry calls and I tell him we're sitting outside, and after explaining all this to him, I give him the labels and asked if he could try to print it for me. Well, in the 1 minute (well, maybe a little longer) I alotted for him to figure all this out, the best he could do was the copy machine, but the paper wasn't going to work in there for the time he had. Do we even HAVE a

Plan F??? Get to Wendy's house by 9:55. Type all the labels up AGAIN and click on the little "print" button. SUCCESS! Sorry you asked about how my day has been? But by Saturday my hair will be just right for the parade. :) 3 cheers for plan F!!! Hip Hip Horray!!!

Trouble

My happy little girl is now finding trouble all by herself at 8 months.

Maybe it's the influence of her siblings, or maybe it's the "Harry blood" in her. She crawls up on the trampoline downstairs and can't figure out how to get down with yet another bruise. People are going to think we drop her in our spare time. She crawls up the garbage can and walks over to the CDs next to it, and smiles as they all hit the floor. Today, she got into the plant/tree thing in our front room and took handfuls of dirt and scattered it all over around the pot. These are things she's never done before. There are just too many new things to explore. You think you have your house child-proofed, until you have a child, that is.

Opened the dishwasher to unload it, and quickly went to the bathroom (cause I'd rather do anything than dishes). Came back to find this. Guess I'll be hand-washing my knives from now on.

Will anything change? Yes, it will.

This is the man I married.


















Sadly, so is this.
















I have 2 step-children, 1 baby, 1 Harry, and
we'll add to this craziness in 8 months.
This is what I get to look forward to again.
Bring it on, baby! :)

A Taggable Meme

I have been Tagged! How exciting!! :)
Two for Togetherness. A meme.

2 things you compliment your husband on while in his presence.
1. How great he is at researching things
2. I'm gonna say it's just a general "feeling" toward him to let other people know he's loved. I really think that means so much to him.

2 compliments you make about your spouse to your friends.
1. That I'm SOOO glad he doesn't have a clue about women flirting with him. I adore that about him.
2. I couldn't have asked for a better provider.

2 traits you married him/her for.
1. I knew he'd always take care of me. (I was right! He was with me when I had my surgery, and he was there making sure I had what I needed, felt okay, was getting enough calories and protein, and could get around okay.)
2. He LOVES his kids.

2 days you cherished the most with your husband being together.
1. Uhh, THE WEDDING NIGHT!!!!! Now, THAT was cherishable! lol
2. I had an AWEFUL nightmare once, and I was shaking so badly and couldn't calm down for anything. He grabbed me and brought me to the floor on our knees and prayed over me until a literal physical weight was just lifted from me and I felt completely better. I guess that's more of a time than a whole day, but that's my answer anyway!

2 material things you could give your husband if you just inherited a fortune.
1. A Heritage Softail Harley Davidson
2. A maid, so the house would actually get clean.

2 things you would miss the most if she/he left for two weeks.
1. The way he slaps my butt every other time he walks by me. It's sick to think I'd miss that.
2. Just hangin' out with him.

2 thoughts that crossed your mind when you first met/saw your spouse.
1. WOW! I was walking into church and our eyes met and I froze. Then I saw he had two kids with him, and thought "oh great, I just met my dream man and he has this perfect little family with his gorgeous wife taking a bathroom break or something". Boy, was I wrong.
2. My sister and brother-in-law (works with Harry) were trying to set me up with this guy and said he went to my church. They described him, and it clicked. I've never been so happy to hear anyone was divorced in my life.

2 favorite dates
1. Panara Bread, December 1, 2002. How many cups of coffee did we have together that day?? Then I really knew it was meant to be when he carried this big box of candy (from his vending machine candy) to my car after the date (later that day). I guess he caught on to how much I LOVED sweets. That was possibly the sexiest thing he's ever done - showing his muscles from the heavy box, showing he listened to me (by knowing how much I loved sweets), and going out of his way to make me smile.
2. Meeting his kids for the first time - I'll never forget the way he looked at me that day.

2 funny odd things you love
1. His frown. He frowns at most things. See, that made him frown as he read that, I'm sure. Now he's smiling.
2. His goofy smile after he farts near me. Sicko.

2 places you have lived with your spouse.
1. Here.
2. And....here.

2 favorite vacations
1. Our honeymoon was spectacular!
2. Our trip to the cabin last summer.

I tag:
1. Angela
2. Natalie

My Husband

Okay, here is my goal. To make my husband comment on my blog. Who's rootin' for me?

Harry's middle name is Leviene. He can't stand his belly button being played with. On a RARE occasion, he lets me put my finger in there 1) as long as I don't wiggle it around and 2) for a time limit - usually around 5 seconds. Now he LOVES it when he's sleeping. His right eye even twitches when I do it. HAHAHA I even videotaped it once. lol

He's bald. Loves to shave his head, and says even if he could grow hair he'd shave it off. He has never been a jealous person what-so-ever! He has changed a few of Tiffany's diapers, but is still uncomfortable wiping females bottoms. He is a work-a-holic. He goes to work at 6, comes home at 4:30, then finds some other work to do. Even if it's in his head, the man hardly ever stops working. Tonight he fixed my cell phone all night. We took 20 minutes to ride our bikes to the park, though. Way to go, honey!

When Harry and I have arguments, he likes to run away from me. I spent a good part of our first year of marriage chasing him around the house just to get him to talk to me! He's getting better - he even initiated resolution once!

He loves cold snacks at night. He'll crawl in bed at night and get comfy, then say "what do I want?" or "what do we got to eat?". So I list off a few things and he'll say "do we have anything cold? What do I want?" in a very indecisive voice. Many nights it results in a can of black olives (that we store in the fridge), ice cream, a lemon freeze cup, or fudge bars (or any other Blue Bunny treat we pick up now and then).

Harry frowns a lot. So does his son. I wonder if his dad did. I LOVE it when he laughs. What makes him laugh, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Any bodily sounds. Farts ESPECIALLY, even when the kids make farting noises - he always has a laugh in there somewhere, burps, blowing nose, pimples, talking about anything coming out of the body will get a little smirk out of him. If he sees a pimple anywhere on me, he'll poke it hard and say "does that hurt?". I usually respond with something like "you suck".

He has a need to say I love you at the end of any conversation. If he doesn't say I love you, he's angry with me and wants me to know it. Usually he just won't call on his 9:30 break. That means, "I'm still mad". He loves to turn music phrases into something else. One time the radio was on and the song "Above All" was on. "Crucified" turned into "Soup or fries". The song has never been the same for me. He has "working hands" cut up, rough, and bruised sometimes. I love it!

He turns his snooze button exactly 3 times each morning before getting out of bed. He puts his thumb over one eye at night and his first finger on the other eye. Falls asleep that way, what's that about anyway? Then does a very exaggerated squint if I turn the light on. lol, sometimes I do it just to see the face. haha Okay, if this doesn't do it, I'll try again in a few days. :)

The lilacs are looking a little sad. Maybe if I pretend the lilac season isn't over, and give them more water and light, they'll come back.

And now for the REALLY exciting news! I am, as of last week, a Tupperware Consultant. Thank you, Miss Mary. I was SOOOOOO excited that I got to shop for school supplies for a REAL reason! Did I mention I L.O.V.E. school supplies?? Well, I do. My challenge is to find "out of the box" ideas for the pieces I will be selling. Cute ideas that no one else would think of - that's my angle. I get to make business cards this week! YAYAYAYAYAY! And type up fliers - I can't even stress to you how much I love all the creating of paper work and new ideas....okay....

:) My husband even did the dishes for me today! How nice was that!

Washing our socks together.

...Or is that underwear? I Love to fold socks on laundry day! Know why? Because my husband and I have such GREAT taste in socks! His are completely the same. He doesn't really like to leave his comfort zone. He throws them all away at the same time when they're done. I've witnessed this once. Got rid of a bunch of worn out white socks and bought 5-6 packs of the same kind of socks. SO easy to fold! Thank you, honey.

Then we have mine. I'm not nearly so predictable. As you can see (and this is even with quite a few of them sitting in my dirty laundry pile), I LOVE my socks! They have to match the outfit I have on for that day. The one thing I'm lacking in this beautiful pile is brown. Do you see brown socks of any kind?? Now, I'm kind of on a brown kick - so I've been going with brown sandles instead. This is quite the ordeal for me, you know. How do you like my fish socks at the top there? Most of these were aquired in my Minnesota days, but once in a while I'll find some adorble ones I can't pass up....Wal-Mart, garage sales, whatever.

How can two people that are SO SO different get along this well??? You'd think we'd want to kill each other by now, not even close. I love this man more and more every day, even though his sock collection (though quite handy for me) is BORING. Maybe this one will make him comment. :)

Updates!

HIIIIIIII again! :) I missed you, Mr. Posting Create tab. My wonderful husband fixed my laptop cord tonight - I think he could see I was about going CRAZY without my computer! I haven't even checked my e-mail in 2-3 weeks, go ahead, cry for me. I give you a minute.
10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 1. Thanks.

Tina, I PROMISE I tried to blog that night. It was all about junking (which I'll get into) and my computer screen got dim and said "CRITICAL BATTERY". Makes me cry just thinking of that poor weak battery. It's all better now, though. Items up for bid:

1) For May Day, Olivia and Darin brought us a little (approx. 2 cup capacity) bowl with a little goldfish in it - who needs candy, right? Olivia named her Rose.

2) In the cities in Minnesota (Bloomington to be exact), they map out assigned areas each weekend to put all their junk out on the side of the road and the city will come and pick it up Saturday. We call this Junkin' with a well-deserved capital J. Want to know what we got last time we went? Oh, a piano, a free trailer (to haul stuff), some garden fence, potential e-Bay items to sell, benches, an indoor grill (looks new) to go on my counter, and that sort of thing. Yes, all of this stuff is laying on the side of the road and people drive by and pick it up. The first time of the day feels like a criminal act, but we quickly get over that when you find your first "FIND". I sit here and smile just thinking about it. So this is for the last weekend of Bloomington Junkin' Days *moment of silence*. I leave Thursday and come back Saturday.

*sidenote - they have this juicer on TV for ONLY 2 Payments of 49.90 Plus S&H. Now if you really made this much juice, wouldn't you already have shopped around and gotten one of these? Or maybe all those people sitting at home thinking "Wow, if I had that thing, I'd actually eat healthy cuz...cuz... then I could blend all my food.???" *end side note

3) I'm seriously thinking about becoming a Tupperware consultant. I have a seminar on Wednesday. Pray for me if you'd like - I could use it - thanks. :)

*sidenote1 - this guy on the juicer advertisement just said with much enthusiasm that this thing could save your life. HA - that'll get 'em to buy it! *end side note1

4) Tiffany has started crawling a couple weeks ago, and now has learned to pull herself up to a standing position, and just last night stood up to look what was in the bathtub and walked (with the tub's help) to the other side. This is going by WAY too fast. Better have another one. :)

5) Darin colored a picture on Sunday for Mother's Day that read "I Love You Because" and he said "Because you tuck me in at night" and gave it to ME, his step-mommy. Usually he'll make things and tell us he'd like to give it to his mom. I'd call that progress. It absolutely touched my heart. :) They went out shopping during the Tupperware party and got me a bunch of gardening things, then brought me some fresh lilacs! (Speaking of, Mary, I still have your vase at my house) I'm so excited for a garden! Bring out the tiller, baby!!!

Gosh, is that all that's new in a months time? It's a long enough blog anyway. It's time to end a blog when you realize you'd be extremely upset if the computer shut off for some reason and you lost the whole thing. It's time. :) now I have to go read everyone else's for the last 3 weeks. c-ya!

Toxic Johns

Nothing really big happening, which is why I haven't blogged after I said I was back. Well, nothing big except I feel like I actually accomplished something as far as housework goes! Almost forgot what that felt like. Would you like to know the motivator? It was the oatmeal creme pie that we gave Tiffany last night and let her crumble all over the table and kitchen floor. About 1/25 made it into her mouth. :) And I didn't even make coffee today! Where on earth did the energy come from? I have no idea, but I'm absolutely not opposed.

Now, here's a question....make that a thought maybe? I went to a meeting last night, and wandered over to Toxic Johns afterwards because their hard shell tacos are 2/1.00 after 8 pm. Yes, I've been craving tacos. No, I'm not pregnant. I pay the guy and wait for a couple of minutes. As I wait, I can't help but want to invite this guy to the Good Friday service at church. Why? No idea. Now, if I say "hey, what are you doing Friday night?", it sounds like I'm going to ask him out on a date or something. So I look for a pamphlet I had in my van, and realized I gave them to Harry for his work. Okay. "I'll go home with my beautiful tacos and if there's a pamphlet at home, I'll drive it back up to him and still have no idea what I'm going to say to the guy." Get home - they're all at Harry's work - not one in sight. So I made my mind up to get one on Wednesday while at church for worship practice and happen on a couple more toxics on my way home.

I am no good, never have been, at talking to people. My question to you is: Do you have any tricks or special mind frames while you're talking to people you don't know? I can't stress how bad I am at this. How do you get comfortable?? I'm all about the comfort, you know.

I'm Back!!!

Oh, goodness. Back to blogging. I missed you guys! Want to know why I haven't blogged? Well, I'll tell you. My compuker has had a pop-up problem. A major one. Every time I tried to blog anything, a zillion pop-ups (like the one that just came up) interrupted me. I didn't even check my e-mail forever! So...Harry, being the wonderful husband he is, is working on fixing it. And whatever he did to it tonight - definately helped! Yay for the husband that takes care of my beautiful laptop. Now, we do have a computer downstairs, but I'm just too lazy to turn it on, and sit down there, and bring the monitor down to make sure Tiff is still sleeping. So, it all comes down to - I haven't blogged because I'm lazy. Deal with it.

Second now, today was another laundry day. I waited and waited until I had a full load of pink/reds. Put them all in the washer. Sidenote - this is, almost ALL of the clothes Tiffany has. Clothes, smelling much better now (which may just be in my head), go into the drier. Little did I know what was actually going on in that drier. The crayon that my darling little boy left in his pocket had made its way out and had to adventure onto each of the pink clothes. Now I'd love to tell you it was a white crayon, or a pink crayon (how lucky would THAT be). Red would have even been nice. No, no. It was a dark blue crayon. I found the evidence in with the drier lint - a broken in half paper crayon wrapper. Did I mention it was dark blue? I could have cried. So I Spray n Washed it all, and soaked it in Oxy Clean for quite a while, then washed it in hot/warm water. It's definately better than before, but still looks like a pen exploded in the drier - a dark blue one. I have a few more miracle works to try before I give up hope, but if you see my daughter with, yes, blue - dark blue - spots on her once-adorable pink clothing, pretend you don't see it. Good thing she changes sizes every few months. :)

:)

CLASSIC, ISN'T IT. HAHAHA

Make-up. Ugh, so much work! These are my two sisters. Brenda and Wendy. Brenda, 1.5 years older than me, may just be the luckiest person I know. She wins everything, or as close as you could get to everything, anyway. Drawings, contests, name it. You couldn't not love both of them. And Wendy is the one who loves Pepsi, fast food, and figuring people out. Fascinating woman. Now, I love my family to pieces. When we get together, there's most likely a game going on at the table 'til the wee hours of the morning. We're a game kind of family. Dominos, Scrabble (which my mother will win about every time), Balderdash, Like it or Lump it, Scategories, love games. Anyway, I had to share this picture. It's one of my favorites! Love you guys. :)

This week in review

Had my scope and dilation on my esophagus yesterday. Afterwards, Harry and I went to Subway and I ate a 6" sub with NO trips to the restroom. Yay! It was still a little difficult to eat, and since then some things have gotten stuck, but I can definately tell a difference! Still probably looking at more surgery, but I'll be able to nourish my baby 'til then! So there's my big fat praise report.

Have company this weekend. Harry's aunt, uncle, and cousin are coming. Guess what I've been doing this week? Uhh, yeah - cleaning. And organizing. And I even cut the dog's hair - it is SOOO funny! Putting it nicely, I did a terrible job. We still have to take the clippers to him, though.

Went through Tiffany's "old clothes". Do you KNOW how many 0-3 month outfits I had?? Enough to put a lot of 29 and another of 30 on eBay this Sunday. And I still kept a ton! ugh, where am I supposed to store this stuff? Maybe a fairy will come while I sleep some night and organize it all for me. :) Anyone have any pulls there? Notice my lack of nouns today?

We are trying to get a bill passed (House File 2658) that will automatically award joint physical placement (each parent has child = time) unless there is burden of proof why it's not in the child's best interest. So today I'm typing up a pamphlet to pass out to the legislators and all those special political people that persuades them to vote YES! Did you know I'm a lobbyist? Is that cool, or what? It's not like picketing. We are actually in the capitol building and call the representatives out one by one - by filling out a piece of paper saying who we are and who we'd like to talk to. Then the door person gives it to the rep, and they come out and talk to us - we tell them about the bill, and they can ask questions, and then we move on to the next rep. Now we'll have a little packet to give them when they come out to talk with us.

Page1 For Iowa's Children (scrabble letter font), Vote YES (big bold green lettering)
Page2 Copy of the bill
Page3 Facts and Myths page about this bill
Page4 Benefits of Shared Placement - each bulleted with their own green smiley face.
Might take 2 pages.
Page5 Conclusion

Pull quotes in there? Not sure. Hope the draft will be done by tomorrow, so we can get them printed and ready by Tuesday for sure. Better get on it....I think I need some coffee....still feeling a little groggy....I should be sitting at the table instead of reclining in bed....

Johari

Pick 5 words to describe me?? This was hard for me to do! I wish "indecisive" were one of the choices!

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Beefy86

Title? How could I choose?!

Laying in bed watching Braveheart. I love this movie....gets ya' a little pumped up! Fighting for the cause! The plot goes something like this: the authority makes rules that should not be. Everyone lives by them. One person stands up and says no. Others follow. He tells them, "You've missed your God given right for something better." Together, they overcome this obstacle. They stick together and come out on top. Now who couldn't learn a little something from Braveheart?

These people were living by the rules thinking it was not a great life to lead, but that's just the way it is. ONE person started the revolution. My question is, what do we compromise and just live with? And honestly, where do you start to change something. Let's start with society. Premarital sex has become so normal, that if someone actually stands up for purity, it's viewed as abnormal. I remember telling certain people that Harry and I were going to wait until we were married - I will never forget the looks on their faces. "Why on Earth would you do that?" was what it looked like. "Test the waters" was the advice I got. Thank God for the Bible!

On a lighter note, we actually went out today! We went to a movie - Failure to Launch. It was a cute movie. Tiffany did very well. Sat and stared at that huge screen for a good hour. :) Then she ate and fell asleep. She did get a little Slo Poke, I confess. Felt good to get out anyway.

And I am going to advertise to scrapbook other people's pictures. Goofy idea? I looked up pricing, and the going rate is about 12 bucks a page. Does that seem low or high to anyone?

Now, for Rice Crispy Bars. Marshmallow Creme, Marshmallows, or something else? I use 1 cup light karo syrup and 1 cup sugar (and peanut butter if I feel like it). Top with chocolate chips - they're great! And I am out of liquid smoke. Looked at Fareway, Hy-Vee, Super Wal-Mart, and Super Target. Any other ideas?? Do you find it sad that I can't post about one topic? What am I supposed to title these? Maybe I should make up a title first like T, then just stick with it. But what would the fun of that be for my wandering brain?

5 Thoughts for the Day

First, I was in the Dollar Tree yesterday, and I was walking down the cleaning isle. As I passed by an elderly couple, the man says "This one should work". The wife replies, "yeah, it'll work - if I work". :) I thought it was just the cutest thing ever.

Second, I found a great new picture to put on my blog profile, but can't figure out how to get it to work. It says enter URL address, and it's on my C drive. A little help from a willing computer geek would be much appreciated. :)

Third, I was shopping yesterday with Natalie, and I'm gonna post this 'cuz I don't think she will. The kids were playing with 2 plastic cups, and pretending to pick strawberries and fill their cups up. Then Mel sounds like she needs a little help with the situation. "He has all the strawberries and he won't give me any." And Robbie just grins a little. It was just too adorable. Then Natalie explained that you can't run out of pretend strawberries, unless you pretend them away. Isn't it funny how someone can be so persuasive and believable? I wonder if I ever think my cup is empty, when really it's overflowing - maybe I just needed to look at it from another angle.

Fourth, I'm going to set up another blog about my medical condition. I searched for achalasia, and came up with a couple new sites - got me thinking - maybe I could be of help to someone else looking for support or answers. I'll work on that next week.

Fifth, goodbye. I have an overload of housework that went from a quiet whisper in my brain to a piercing shrill.

Mmmm, The Schwan's Truck

Okay, so our latest discovery is blackberry juice from the Schwan's truck. It's the BEST! You know how you get nice cold water, and about 3 minutes later, it tastes warm? Well, not our blackberry juice! No, no. It tastes cold a good couple hours later (which is about how long it takes me to drink something!).

We love Schwan's hot dogs - the skinless franks. I don't know what it is about them, but they're the bomb. They come in a box with 5 hot dogs in each pack - not quite sure how many packs there are.....8 maybe?

And the Lemon Freeze Cups. Run out of these constantly. The cherry kind are good, but a little too sweet. Lemon gives you a little refreshing kick, and it's nice and cold, but sweet too. We bought 2 boxes of these last week. 24 in the 2 boxes, and we've gone through 9. Not bad, eh? Why you ask? Cause we've been busy drinking the blackberry juice, I tell 'ya!

The downside of Schwan's is the price. Wowee! You can spend 60 bucks a month if you're not careful! We're sitting at about 30 bucks a month this month.....but thanks to my Aldi trip today, we're sittin' pretty good. Yes, I - Me - bought crab meat for 1.99 today at Aldi. Any good crab recipes? I spent an hour - could have been longer - looking through cookbooks tonight when I could have been doing something productive....like cleaning the mirrors and windows in my house? That would have been productive.

And the last thought of the day: there's a new garage sale thing in Cedar Falls. I've only heard about it, so correct me if I heard wrong. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. There's a building that will be set up for "garage" sales. Costs $1 for admission into the place, and a certain amount to set your own table up in there. So there's lots of different family sales in one place - now why didn't I think of that??? So I'm going this week. Yes, 2 days. I'm counting down already.....now it's less than 1 1/2 days to be exact.....urr, more exact anyway. Completely excited! :)

Letting kids be kids.

Welcome back, me! Harry has a computer downstairs that he uses, and I use the laptop that stays upstairs (unless I'm printing something). Well, the plug-in on the back of the computer was broken. I had to wiggle the cord until the yellow light came on in the front telling me that it was plugged in. Well, it would flash, go off, stay on, and it was an ordeal for a few weeks. Then he ordered a new plug-in, so he had to take the whole thing apart to get the old plug out - it was stuck. Gets it put back together. Doesn't work. Sits on the counter for two days. Fixes it tonight! Happy wife! :)

We've had Olivia and Darin for a couple days, and I must say, I like the school week better than the weekends. We get to see school work, chat with other parents, do "homework" checks, read books assigned, have a BEDTIME, and they get to play with the neighbor kids 'cause no one does anything special during the week - the kids are all home. :) So the two neighbor kids and one from another home come over. Harry has this car he got for free in the driveway outside.....(sidenote: duh, why do I type "outside"....like it would be inside??).....and the kids have had a great time playing with it. They get in, pretend to drive, crawl in the trunk (which isn't really a "trunk" - more like an extra backseat), and they even found out how to open the t-tops by themselves today. Have you ever let a kid just play in a car and let them push whatever buttons they want? Or pretend to drive....push the gas and not worry about flooding the thing? And how about to sit on the hood and hang out with your friends? They have had the BEST time this week playing with this cruddy car. Found some old hot chocolate packets in the back, and pretended to have a great party. Then found money, which found their pockets, which found smiles on their faces, which found suspicious parents. One of those....."uh oh, I don't hear him. What is he into?" I'm sure you know the kind.

So the neighbor (father of the 2) came home and saw them crawling all over this car, and yelled at them to come in the house "right now!". Oops, hope they're not in trouble. We told 'em to. No, really - we started it!!! We don't know them very well, but I'm sure to get home and see a bunch of kids having the time of their life with this car isn't a calming moment, especially if you think it's a usable car that shouldn't be for playing. Guess we'll see if our kids ever get to play with them again. lol, oops. The irresponsible people that we are, and all. What kind of parents would let their kids play in a car unsupervised? Certainly not us!

They were distracted for about 10 minutes all afternoon when they took shovels and found what was left of the snow, and scooped it out all over the driveway. Snow on grass? Nahh, more fun this way. My point is, why not let kids be kids? Drive over the snow - big deal. Go ahead, climb on a car. Play with your food. Wear a dress to bed. Wear pajamas all day. Have a toothpick race when it's raining! Sit down looking at each other and make all the silly faces you can think to make until someone runs out of ideas. Then make silly noises. Let them sit on your lap and turn the steering wheel into the driveway when you get home from somewhere. Let them be kids! It annoys me when people won't let their kids be silly in Wal-Mart because someone might be watching. Let them put the rubber snake up to their ear and pretend it's growing out from their head - who cares? Laugh with them. Be silly with them. Be kids with them. Watch a cartoon together - all of it. Eat cake for breakfast on their birthday. Let them play with a toy in the cart until you get to the checkout line - then put it back. :) I wasn't so free with daycare kids - they were all different ages, and you never know how they respond to a little more-than-usual slack in the rope. I knew with 2 of them, and we had a good time most of the time. They knew when it was time to get serious, but we laughed until then. Tell the blogger to shut her trap. Hahaaaahaha Wow, I thought I had a point 'til now.....looking pretty pointless and I don't remember where I was going with this. I could delete the whole paragraph, or just make you suffer through it. Suffer! Like I always say, you can't help but read my blabbering......I feel kinda' bad for you.

Surgery Update

Can I do a Pre Signiture? Is that what that even stands for? Thanks.
P.S. If I got another tatoo, I would love one on my toe. I haven't really decided what, but it would be a good conversation starter if it were strange enough. :) I'm all about conversation starters. (or is that a side note?)

Now is this the body of the post? Here you go then. I have a scope and dilation scheduled for March 15. Why? Well, I'll tell you. I did my barium swallow Thursday morning, and it looked exactly the same as before pregnancy! Still having a lot of trouble eating. Had my follow-up appointment directly after, and it looks like more surgery for achalasia, but they want to "scope it out" before they go back in. HAHAHAHAHA, I'm really not laughing if you think I'm that big of a dork. :) The word you're looking for is...."Anyway"...The two options he gave me were 1) going in through the belly again, or 2) going in from the chest area on my side. #1 can only cut the front of the muscle more if they didn't cut it enough. #2 is more recovery time, but they also are able to cut the back of the muscle, as well. It could be that the stomach is wrapped too tightly around my esophagus, but here's one surgery for you that d i d n o t work! My doctor is going to call his friends that work at Mayo Clinic and see if they have run into this, because he's on new territory with me, I guess. That's where the "situation" sits. No, quite honestly I don't feel better. lol, is that okay just to blurt out like that? Oh yeah, I can if it's not in passing! You deliberately came to my blog, so that's not really in passing, is it. I'm a bit discouraged, but hopeful at the same time. Hope can be a scary thing, but necessary.

So more soup for me! I don't mind that part - I very much enjoy soup. Especially Long soup. lol Maybe I could grab some cheesecake and more peach jello? Okay, I guess I've hit my deductable anyway, right? Bring on the peach jello!!!

Who is Amie?

I was talking to my friend, Kodi, the other day and she said "Who's Amie?" is a very complex question. So I thought I'd let you in on the little tidbits that not a whole lot of people know about me.

1. I am a first degree black belt in TaeKwondo
2. I grew up Catholic
3. I lived in the same place K-12
4. I love peach Jello
5. I can touch my tongue to my nose
6. I love pink, red, and purple....and yellow, and black........
7. I was engaged to a guy I met on the internet
8. I've been to Paris - just for fun - with my mom, her sister and daughter
9. A few months ago my ponytail, after being cut of course, was the "star" on my sister's Christmas tree at her salon (thanks for reminding me, Heth). It was an inch or so shorter than what was required, so she kept it. She decorated the tree with hair supplies - I felt so special. :)
10. I love to scrapbook and make cards
11. My dad's an electrician, my mom's a banker
12. I have 2 sisters and 1 brother. I'm the baby
13. I like to be alone
14. I love doing nothing
15. Cooking is one of my favorite things......I wish it were more affordable :)
16. I love to make flower pens - just got my spring pens done, so IT BETTER COME SOON!
17. I like shopping if I know I won't spend money
18. My pink fuzzy robe is my favorite piece of clothing
19. I have socks and underwear, and earings to match any outfit I wear. Sad, isn't it.
20. I never remember to flip my calendar until it's well into the month
21. I LOVE school supplies. Pens, paper, markers, crayons, more paper, notebooks, name it - I love it.
22. I line most of my dishes with foil because I don't like to scrub my pans and baking sheets
23. My favorite kind of cake is plain old WHITE. I used to just eat the mix....those were the days.
24. I lack obedience
25. I played the trumpet for about ever. Loved it. I was even first chair most of the time.
26. I also play french horn, guitar, harmonica, and keyboard
27. My name would have been Brian if I had been a boy
28. I beat the high school push up record at 35 for girls with 115
29. I love cows - I collect them
30. 28 and 29 should explain my nickname "beefy"
31. I worked at a girl scout camp in 2000. My camp name was Lullaby.
32. In that era, I got my belly button pierced and a tatoo. Lips on my backside if that tells you anything about the way I used to be! :) Can't wait to see what it looks like when I'm 80.........
33. I love American Idol
34. I type 78 wpm
35. I'm not a big fan of pop. Soda pop, that is.
36. My right eye is green, my left eye is brown.
37. I could watch the same movie over and over....until I've memorized it.
38. When I was a toddler, I used my bottom to close cupboard doors - not my hands.
39. I don't comprehend things I read very well.
40. Math, English, and Music were my favorite things in school. Couldn't stand Science and History.
41. I do most things in pairs. Eat 2 at a time, oh, the OCD in me, I guess.
I could say so much more, but there you have it. 40 tidbits about me. It's not really a "tag" kind of blog, but I'm going to tag you people anyway. :) What are the little things that make up who you are?

Something New and Someone Growing

It occurred to me today that I haven't posted anything since the 6th!!! Where have I been?!

I want to thank you for the coupon ideas. I think that page is about finished because of you! :) Did I tell you guys that I'm starting a site? Well, that's what I'm doing. And I'm going to set it all up, and make you review it before it's ready for outsiders. Aren't you special? Oh, what's it about? You really want to know? Okay, I'll tell you. It is a website for married couples. Romance, intimacy, and everything else. No nudity, no pornography. A tasteful, wholesome site that people aren't going to feel bad about going to. Does such a thing even exist??? I know what you're thinking.....a little too brave, aren't I. Yes, I am! IJustLoveYou.com It's still on Microsoft Frontpage, so you won't get anything when you go there, so really...don't bother yet. :)

This is something I know I've been called to do, and I am absolutely excited! If you know anything about my past, it would be better understood why I feel so strongly about this. We're running into a lot of questionable items, or questionable packaging on some of the nice items, though. What do you do about that? Anyway, if you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know - I'm completely open to any ideas!!!!!! Or if you see me sometime, just come tell me. People are a little uncomfortable talking about things like that, though. I won't be offended if you don't. :)

On the other side, my baby is 5 months old tomorrow. She has just figured out how to throw things. "If I swing my arm and let go, it will fly and make a noise." Or maybe it's just fun to grip, swing, and let go? She's chewing on anything she can reach, and drooling like crazy. Those teeth are coming - I just know it! She's eating cereal and baby food every other day and doing a great job when I can keep up with her. She loves sleeping on her belly. So when I put her down to sleep, she'll roll over and then not be able to fall asleep. What have I done?? :) She ends up on her side sucking her thumb most of the time. And I printed off quite a bit of information on making our own babyfood, so I'm hoping to start that next week. Does/Did anyone else here do that??? I might need lots of help!

Okay, short blog, but that's all for tonight. I promise I'll try to do better about keeping up on it! Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is on tonight. I've never seen it, and Harry had a calf when he heard that, so here I am watching it. It's a good movie.....good flick.

Love Coupons

This weekend Harry is getting Darin some water, and Darin says "um, I can smell the caffiene in this water". I'm thinking he meant chlorine? :)

Okay then....this may all make sense later, but I need some ideas from you! Know those coupon books for your spouse? Well, part of the website I'm doing will include a coupon book. Customers will be able to choose what coupons they want in their own book. They choose, I create and send. We have the usual massages, romantic night in, romantic night out, household chores, date of my choice, outing of my choice, ___ hours of the remote control, and of course - a "get out of the doghouse" coupon. I need some more.....help a girl out! What would you love for a coupon from your mate? As many as you can think of - we need OPTIONS here!

Boring....

Oh, what to blog about tonight.... GUESS what I'm doing?? I'm eating my long-awaited thickburger! Chewing so much my jaw is sore, but WELL worth it! Who's happy for beefy? I am, I am!

I had an AWESOME weekend, everyone! I went to my scrapbooking retreat in the NE corner of Iowa, and it was amazing! There were great meals, about 60 great women, and a TON of great crafting. I didn't actually sleep on Saturday night - I pulled an all-nighter and scrapbooked all night. I got my entire wedding scrapbook done - minus embelishments and journaling. I was in the gym by myself (and Tiffany) from 4:45 am until 7:15 am. Just us and Casting Crowns. Michelle was working with me all weekend on how to ask for help. I've always been terrible at asking for help. I even thought about wearing a sign around my neck that read "Approach me if I don't ask for help". How do you suppose that would have gone over? This is the best burger EVER!!!

This has to be the most dull blog ever - and I don't remember what T told me to write about, because I have the worst memory ever! So you have to put up with this. :)

My little girl finds her thumb now - officially a thumb sucker. She loves sitting up. She loves being held. She loves Hawaiian Delight baby food and loves peek-a-boo. She also loves to eat, so I'm going to leave you already and feed her! :) I love to eat Thickburgers! Later taters!

A Little Challenge

Try this out! The Red Square Challenge! Can't for the life of me get a link to work today, sorry - you just get the address. :)
http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html

And I am GOING AWAY this weekend! Wanna know where? No, I won't keep you in suspense like the Laundry Lady - when is she back, anyway? I am going to a SCRAPBOOKING WEEKEND! My husband shelled out the $75 and is sending me away (could be to have lots of extra time in the garage, but I'm OK with that!) I leave first thing in the morning and come back Sunday afternoon/evening. Isn't that great? At least 2 full days of scrapbooking - what's better than that?!?! We have devotional time and hot meals AND.....ready for this?...... I only have to take out and put away all my stuff ONCE! I'll give you an update when I get back of what an awesome time I had. I've been looking forward to this ALL OF LAST YEAR! C U L8ter!

Names Please

Why is it that men's middle names seem to be a whole lot more amusing than women's? My middle name is Jean, and Harry's is Leviene .... and he's a Jr.

I went to school with a guy named Glenn Orndorf - and was a Jr. the III. Is that just mean, or what? I mean, imagine any phone call to the house. "Is Glen there?" Well, which one? What kind of business would know if they're calling for Glenn the II or Glenn the III?

My name has been mistaken for Arnie a few times. I guess the m looks like rn? And I get Annie all the time. There were 3 other girls in my class with my name. 3 of us spelled it "Amie" and one "Amy". Isn't that funny? And we thought we were going to be unique. People spell my name Amy or Aimee all the time. But all in all, I really like my name - Mom, Dad; you did good.

So today I want to know your middle name please, and your mate's middle name if you could. :) This should be good.

My Brother

Okay t, I looked through my comments, and I haven't heard from you since January 5th. Get on it! Is she on vacation or what? COME BACK TO ME, T!

On a lighter note, I thought I'd tell you a little story. I used to have this crush on one of my brother's friends. His name is Andy (no relation to my future son, who will be named Andy - err, I mean Duane). Let's see, my brother was 6 years older than me.....so I would have been 12 years old or so? We used to hang up a wire in the backyard between 2 trees and tie water balloons onto it, then use them as target practice and shoot 'em. Anyway, all of us got into a water fight and I soaked Andy. So he picks up a pitcher of water and starts chasing me with it. Well, I run into the backyard under the wire and, yup, you guessed it. He followed and had no idea the wire was there (cause we have great aim and were no more balloons hanging from it). He probably still has a scar on his nose from it - it may have gotten him on the side of his eye, too. Poor guy.

How about I tell you about my oldest sibling? My brother used to practice his boyscout knots on us. He would tie one end on a door knob, then put it over the top of the door, and hang us by our feet on the other side of the door. He always defends himself and says he never left us up there for very long (20 minutes at the most, he claims) and always put a chair by our heads so ALL the blood never had a chance to rush there all at once. Eh, I'm sure we deserved it.

I thought he was so cool growing up - he had this motorcycle for a while (well, I think it was his anyway). I wanted a ride on it so bad....and he said the only way I could get a ride was if I drank this bottle of breath freshener. I don't know if you people have ever tried the stuff, but one drop on the tongue and a little burn later, and you have some great breath for a while. And to his defense, the bottle wasn't big.....just enough to last you a couple months or so. Yeah, I drank it for a motorcycle ride.....after I recovered, of course. Man, that burned!

My brother was always pretty good to us, though. The only time I ever saw him really mad was when I was trying to get downstairs (all of our rooms were upstairs). I was following him down and he was taking his precious time because he knew I was in a hurry. And being 6 years older than me and male, obviously stronger than I was. Well, I knew about next to nothing about the male anatomy, but I had heard some people at school talking about kicking a guy in the ....well, you know. I didn't know what happened if you did that, but boy I found out. I was trying to push my way through, and he turned around so I had a pretty clean shot. Oh was he ever mad. Needless to say, I never did that again! Is it too late to say sorry for that?

We weren't ever allowed in his bedroom, and had this trick about cracking the door the perfect amount every time so he would know if we had been in there or not. We could never duplicate the length - I still don't know how he ever got it to stay that way. Anyway, my sister had started a fight with my parents downstairs and I started crying and ran upstairs screaming - I didn't do well with fighting because I didn't see it very much growing up. And I heard the slightest knock at my door, so I opened it. And there stood my brother holding out his arms to give me a hug. He must have known how scared I was because this was just not his personality. He was too relaxed and cool to be scared or frazzled. Then he invited me into his room and let me play his guitar and mess with his stereo (which was normally forbidden). I felt pretty special.

Before he turned 30 this year, he had a heat stroke, and later found out he had a heart attack. Gave us quite a scare. Hopefully the smoking comes to a permanent end. So this blog is for my brother. Sorry for taking you for granted those many years and never really got to know you all that well, even though we're only a few miles apart now. I always admired your "relax" (his senior saying in the yearbook) attitude and your kindness to everyone you came into contact with. I always saw you as a role model, whether I ever let you in on that or not. Thanks for being the best big brother! I love you.

Illusions

You may have to open this in a new window. No animations today!
Now look at the picture. Just pink dots, right? Stare at the middle cross

and the rotating circle turns green. I just love illusions.

Even though it's not the best illistration of it,

I love the thought that things aren't always what they seem.

A little hidden something-or-other that no one else sees.

We love to hide "the other side".

Maybe it's the thought of getting too personal.

Or maybe it would be a little too inconvenient to be held accountable.

Or could it be that we want everyone to think we have it together?

I think we all should lay it out there at the same time.

But here I could lay it all out, and come to find out there would only be 2 comments.

And that would kind of defeat the purpose.

But just so everyone knows,

I have issues, yes I do. I have issues. How about you?

Know what else?

Oh hello there blogging friends. I don't really have a lot to say today, but I'm bored. So I'm blogging about nothing. :) Well, not nothing - I'll tell you the highlight of my day.

Know what? Had a GREAT supper tonight! A supper from the church crew. I won't mention any names, but her initials are Chris Long. Oops. Heth, you must have had it made when you were a kid! Chili for Harry and Potato Soup with Ham for me. Fresh Rolls and Tapioca. Boy, oh boy it was good! I saved some for lunch tomorrow. Mmmm! I can't sleep cause I'm excited about eating it (among other things), but I want to save it for tomorrow. Potato soup is the best! I think we have the best church ever - the meals they bring are awesome, and I think we have some of the best cooks ever right here in Waverly.

Know what else? I don't like to sleep. I love getting rest, but the sleep part isn't my favorite. Nightmares and vivid dreams always accompany my sleep. I go to sleep always after 1, usually 2:30 or so - and I don't really like to get going right when I wake up in the morning. I'm a slow riser. I mean SLOW. No matter what time I "wake up", I'm not really awake until noonish. lol, isn't that sad?

Know what else? I like to watch movies over and over and over.....until I have them memorized. I figure that way I don't ever have to sit down to watch it again - I can just recite it in my head. :) My sisters used to use me as a human VCR on our trips to Minnesota when we were younger. They would have parts of my face that were fast forward, rewind, play, stop, slow, and pause may have been their favorite. Oh, the things you'll learn when I'm bored.

Know what else? I'm not a great conversationalist. I love talking to people, but run into not knowing what to say a lot of the time. I'm getting better about asking questions to keep it going, you'll be happy to know. Well, I don't know about "happy" to know, but you're going to know cause you just can't stop reading this, even though you have a hundred things that would be better to do. Stupidity fascinates people. Welcome.

Hahaha! If you could only see me laughing at myself! I'm just too funny. I have nothing better to do and you're suffering through it. Glad to have you here.

Know what else? At the last garage sale we had, I had the BEST idea! Oh, it was funny. We've had this big off-white sweater with an american flag on it that was passed down, and all 3 of us girls wore it. Anyway, I pull the thing out and am ready to mark 10 cents or something on it and my sister says, "Ugh, put that in the free box! I don't EVER want to see it again!" Know what I did? I wrapped it up for Christmas for her......oh, it was the best!

Know what else? I'm going to tell you everyone's gag gifts for Christmas. When I was little (5 or so), we were at my great-grandma's farm. She had peacocks. I hate peacocks. The feathers freak me out. Completely give me the willies. My lovely sisters put a couple peacock feathers under the sheets of the bed I was going to sleep in, and when I pulled back those covers, I screamed and cried. Aren't they mean? Anyway, I always get teased about the dumb things and I open my gift this year and here are these 2 stupid metal peacocks you can hang on the wall. I "accidentally" left them at Mom and Dad's. :)

Know what else? Jerry (my brother) goes hunting with Dad and sometimes they drive through Strawberry Point. Well, Jerry tells my dad every time they go through here that he absolutely hates Strawberry Point. Don't know why. Just hates it. So Dad gets a thermal coffee cup and has my sister write "Strawberry Point" on it in neat lettering. Souvenier for the Strawberry Point fan.

Know what else? When my sister (mommy corbie) was in high school, she got her thumb drilled through. She was in shop class and holding this metal thing and someone else was drilling a hole in it. It was one of those hand-held drills, and it slipped. Went in at the bottom corner of her thumb nail and came out the other end. Then the shop teacher has a great idea and drills it back out. lol, obviously it wasn't funny at the time, but she still gets teased about that. So dad (or was it my other sister?) wraps up a handheld drill he found on the side of the road on "junking days". That was a good one.

Know what else? We LOVE junking days! In the cities (Minnesota), they have days where they just set their "garbage" out on the side of the road and people drive by and go through it and pick up the stuff they want. It is the BEST time! We actually plan for this every year. Anybody wanting to come with this year is completely invited! It's like garage sales only you don't have to park your car (cause it's all on the side of the road) and it's all free! Last year I got a bunch of bikes (for daycare) and a vanity for the downstairs bathroom (sink included). Harry got a few weed eaters that he's very happy with - gas and electric. Dad really racks it in, though. We're comletely jealous. He finds the most awesome things - new sterio/CD player with a remote. Works great, beautiful. Free on the side of the road. I won't mention digging through the actual garbage and finding cool stuff. And I won't mention that I found my FAVORITE Christmas decoration dumpster diving. lol, The things you learn when I'm bored.

Know what else? This is a long blog. I think I'll spare you now. See ya' tomorrow! I'm sure I'll be bored again soon. TTFN, Ta Ta For Now! I usually proof-read before I publish a post, but it's too long and I'm lazy. So I'll let you do it. Let me know if I have too many typos! Cause I know you read all of it. :) You just can't resist stupidity, can you. Sad, isn't it?

THE Surgery

Here's what the surgery was about. I have a condition called esophageal achalasia. It's where the tissue in my esophagus doesn't work quite right, and the muscle around it has been working so hard to try to get that tissue to work that it's gotten so strong and grown so much, that it's blocked a part of the esophagus off. Did that make sense? Anything that is in my stomach stays there, but the hard part is getting it to the stomach. Point being, it's hard to eat.

Had surgery last Tuesday. They did laproscopic (spell check that!) surgery with a robot. I have 5 incision marks on my belly - the middle one going right through the belly button. It was pretty crazy to learn, but the doctor didn't hardly even touch me. He controlled this robot from a "booth" and there are big robotic "arms" that come out from it. He had some assistance from other doctors (next to me) placing the robot arms where they needed to be. I remember "coming to" and not able to open my eyes, but I was shaking so bad. I could hear a guy asking if I could hear him, and asking me to respond and I just couldn't - I just kept shaking. Ugh, it was scary.

Then I have a lot of sleep, and then more sleep - that medication is some good stuff. Then a barium swallow the next morning. I hadn't had anything to drink or eat at that point - just the IV. I know it sounds simple, but all I wanted was to EAT normally. I go in and stand in front of the X-ray machine, drink the chalky white drink, and watch the monitor. Some of it goes down, and some of it doesn't. It was just sitting there at the bottom of my esophagus, the same way the tests before surgery were, and I started to cry through the rest of it. Not saying anything, drinking, holding my breath, and turning when they told me to.

On the positive side, there were no leaks in the esophagus. That was the biggest concern with the doctor. Mine was that things still wouldn't go down. When I talked to the doctor later, he said it was a toss-up with me and one other, but it was the worst case of this he had seen. The surgery included cutting the muscle inside and "butterflying" it, and pinning the sides back. And then wrapped my stomach around my esophagus to prevent a lot of acid reflux.

Doesn't feel one bit different as before surgery except it burns now. lol, I'm hoping the muscle is swollen and will feel better next week. I am taking in 2300 calories and 70 grams of protein on a liquid diet. Have you guys tried those nutrition drinks? Then Harry bought me baby food and apple sauce-type things. He's been wonderful with getting me things and making sure I'm drinking enough. Coudn't have asked for more out of him.

Honestly, though, I would love a big juicy Bacon Cheese Thickburger with curly fries! Haha!

I Love Being Tagged.

Four jobs you've had in your life
1. Waitress
2. Receptionist at Bank Mortgage
3. Business Manager at GS Camp
4. Making omelets for people at a restaurant on weekend mornings

Four movies you could watch over and over
If I must just pick 4………….
1. The Princess Bride
2. Secondhand Lions
3. Step-mom
4. You've Got Mail – good call, t!

Four places you've lived
1. Monroe, IA
2. Minnesota – in the cities
3. Boone, IA
4. Waverly – now home.

Four tv shows you love to watch
1. Good Eats
2. Supernanny/Nanny 911
3. Everyday Italian
4. The Price is Right

Four places you've been on vacation
1. Disney World
2. Paris
3. Our Minnesota cabin
4. Tennessee

Four websites you visit daily
1. Uhh, none daily. I visit blogs the most.

Four of your favorite foods
1. White cake with funfetti frosting
2. Lasagna
3. French silk pie
4. Angel hair pasta with anything!

Four places you'd rather be right now
1. Uhh, standing up comfortably……..anywhere!

Four bloggers you are tagging
Everyone reading this, Brenda especially!

No Cap

Okay, it's 1:45 am and Harry's asleep as I watch Iron Chef America and blog. I love the word "blog". Anyway, I hear him startle a little, and he says, "oh, good. I'm okay!". So I ask him what he's dreaming about, and he responds.

"I couldn't find the cap! It's okay now."

Hahaha! It was worth waking up and realizing it was only a scary dream. How horrifying to not be able to find the cap, honey. Hehehe

I consider myself tagged.

1. What did you do in 2005 that you had never done before?
Celebrated our first anniversary. Had our first baby. Had a family get-together at my house! for Thanksgiving! Timed an entire breakfast just right – oh, it was so exciting! Eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, toast with butter and jelly, coffee, and apple juice. All done in perfect timing. 20 minutes. Everything was nice and warm served – it was this morning and it was perfect, my friends.

2.Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Ahh, I don’t remember if I made any.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Ahh, me. Is that close enough? Lot of friends, too.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My grandmother on my dad’s side.

5. What countries did you visit?
This one. :)

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
An esophagus that works, please! One more week – yay!

7. What dates will remain etched in your memory and why?
Tiffany’s birth, first anniversary, grandma’s funeral, birthdays were great.

8. What's your biggest achievement of the year?
FINALLY understanding that I have a self-discipline issue. And the Lord says….Duh! I’ve been trying to tell you……

9. What was your biggest failure?
Golly gee, I dunno.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
All year long with the esophagus thing. Man, that’s not fun. No real illnesses or broken bones or anything, though.

11.What was the best thing you bought?
My rug in the front room. It’s my favorite.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Harry’s. He’s come such a long way – I’ll just leave it at that. I’m proud of you, baby!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and disgusted?
I can’t answer that, sorry. My mother told me if I don’t have anything nice to say – to not say anything at all.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bills. Period.

15. What did you get really, really excited about?
Having a baby! The whole experience was and is wonderful!

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?
I don’t have any song that reminds me of any year. That would require memory that I completely lack.

17. Compared to this time last year are you?
a) happier or sadder? happier
b) fatter or thinner? Thinner by 5 pounds
c) richer or poorer? I second Angela’s answer. richer in many ways

18. What do you wish you had done more of?
Laughing.

19. What do you wish you had done less of?
Ha, cleaning? Which now somehow seems painless.

20. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
We went over to Dan and Tammy’s. We ate homemade ice cream, played games, and talked ‘til the ball dropped.

21. Did you fall in love in 2005?
Every day.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Everyday Italian. Unwrapped is a good one, too. It’s something Harry and I both like to sit and watch together. OH! And Supernanny or Nanny 911. Those shows amaze me.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope. Honestly, I dislike someone a little more, though.

24. What was the best book you read?
The “What to Expect” books. They were very helpful throughout the year.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That my trumpet valves are hard to unstick after a year of storage! Sad. I really miss playing.

26. What did you want and get?
I wanted a candy dish for each season. And here we are. Now I just need help eating all these M&M’s……

27. What did you not want and not get?
More than 10 unexpected bills?

28. What was your favorite film this year?
Secondhand Lions took the cake – love it!

29. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I was 24 and I was at a funeral home in Minnesota all day for my grandma visiting with relatives.

30. What one thing would have made your year measurably more satisfying?
If only there had been no bugs………

31. How would you describe your personal fashion in 2005?
Can you say, Maternity?

32. What kept you sane?
Uhh, I’m sane?

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Alton Brown on the Food Network. Good Eats, baby! I love that show, too!

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
I can’t stand politics.

35. Who did you miss?
All my relatives far away, and MY BETH – I miss you, Flower!

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Kodi – she’s been wonderful.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005.
Breathe life in. Knock off the worrying.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
That would require memory. I’ll sleep on it.

Hey, no more? That was kinda' fun. :)