Thursday, May 31, 2007

It's Thursday Thirteen again!

Can you believe it? nah, me neither. ha ha

I got this idea from Uisce. So enjoy these random thoughts about my life (and send any blame to Uisce ;) )

1. After Darly & I went to see Rose on Monday morning we haven't been back to see her. I think we are both suffering from kitten withdrawl.

2. I still haven't heard from Rose's owner and that bothered me, but I saw the owner's sister yesterday at Church. Turns out they had gone together on the trip so she (the sister) was able fill me in on the return. I gave the house key to the sister.

3. I was asked to come into Church on Tuesday to get the newsletters ready for mailing at 2pm.

4. The Church secretary left the newsletter on the Office Manager's desk but didn't leave any instructions. So the Manager ran the copies and had the helpers who were already in the office begin to work on them...so by the time I got there at 2pm, most of the work was done!

5. All I had to do (with another helper!) was to tape the newsletters shut and count them for the post office paperwork...and I really didn't have to count them, I just did that 'cuz the other helpers had done all the real work.

6. Tuesday night I met up with some friends at Panera Bread for dinner. I like their Half & Half...you get to choose 2 from 1/2 a sandwich, soup or salad. I like the sandwich & soup...but last night I tried the Spring Vegetable soup. WARNING this soup is NOT Vegetarian! There was so much meat in there and the only vegetable that I found was some tomatoes...I found some beans too (but I don't consider them veggies). I was very upset about that and didn't finish the soup. I should have had the Black Bean soup that my friend had. And when I went to get my refill on coffee, I got a cup full of grounds. BLECH! So I tried a different blend which I didn't like. Oh well, I didn't need a second cup anyway!

7. My one friend is remodeling her kitchen and she decided to get rid of some grape jelly that she had made last year. I ended up coming home with 5 jars! Anyone need some grape jelly? I'm sure it's great, but 5 jars is going to last us until Darly goes to college!

8. Yesterday was the Church Volunteer lunch. They invited everyone who helps out at Church to lunch as a thank you.

9. They ordered Panera Bread sandwiches for lunch...the sandwich was good, but the bread was a bit moist and stuck to my teeth. The rest of the food was very yummy though.

10. When I got the invitation, they had not invited Darly (again! >:( ) So I asked if she could come and since many folks who were invited could not make it, the Office Manager said that yes she could come. When we got there many folks made sure that Darly got as much recognition as I did because she helps out just like I do. I'm not sure that Darly appreciated it much, but I did. She deserves to be thanked as well. They did not give her a Thank you card or even put her name on mine. a bit miffed at that.

11. Last night was Darly's Gymnastics class. Between doing laundry and all the other stuff around here, we ended up running late. Which made me in a bad mood that Darly thought was directed toward her. Poor kiddo. Yes, I did appologize.

12. A few weeks ago there was some flood damage at the Gym from the melting snow (so hard to believe that we had snow such a short time ago!) so they've done some repairs and rearranging of the gym equipment. Normally for each bit of equipment they have a circle of equipment & skills for them to work on. So like if they are working on the bars there is a station where they work on chin-ups, a station to work on full extension swinging, a station where they work on flipping up on the bar...etc to have each girl in the class working on something and they rotate until each one has done everything in the circuit. Well with the new set up, I don't think they've quite figured out how all the circuits will work. I didn't see any groups (they run about 4 classes at a time) on the Tumble Trac (long skinny trampoline for tumbling runs).

13. And finally last night I gave Darly a choice of having KFC or Chicken dinner from our grocery store...do I even have to say which one she chose? LOL! So at the KFC I was trying to decide what to get. We like the Chicken strips, but the Family Sized Chicken Strip meal is way too big for the 3 of us (supposedly it feeds 4, but it last two nights for us!) So I saw they had a 6 piece. I asked if that was just 6 pieces of meat or if there were any sides with it. The counter person said it came with two sides & a biscuit (THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY CLUE, IF I WERE PAYING ATTENTION!!!) I assumed the sides would be larger. They weren't! They assumed that one person would be eating 6 strips of chicken. So after waiting forever and getting my meal for one I went home and tossed a bunch of left overs in the microwave so we would all have side dishes. Then DH says that I ordered too much food and we all could have shared the one meal without all the extra food I made! LOL! I don't think so. I gave each of us 2 chicken strips and a biscuit (I did order two more biscuits) then I reheated some leftover corn from dinner the previous night...so one of us got the ear of corn from KFC and the other two got the left-over corn. I had some noodles from the previous night that Darly ate, I ate some potatoe salad and DH ate the potatoes & gravy from KFC. No one was stuffed but no one was hungry either.

Bonus: Why are restaurants serving such HUGE portions for meals. Doesn't it seem very odd that a family of 3 can share a dinner meant for one? Waitstaff at most places give us weird/dirty looks when we go out for dinner and tell them that we are sharing a meal, but that's all the food that we need...it stuffs us. And then the silly folks come and ask if we want dessert.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

Dh found out that he could get tickets to the Rockies Baseball game for today for a really cheap price. It took come convincing but we talked Darly into it (she didn't want to give up her day with Dad for a dumb old ballgame!). So Dh ordered the tickets.

Today we woke up to a GORGEOUS DAY! The weather couldn't have been more perfect for a ballgame.

But first we had to go check on the kitten (see below), so Darly & I did that quick this morning while DH packed up our snacks. When we got back we loaded up and drove over to the Light-Rail (our city's public transportation train) to take it to the game instead of driving and paying for parking. When we got to the station we first ran into our first snag... A HUGE line of folks waiting to buy their train tickets. Only two of the four ticket machines were working (I think the other two were down due to either lack of paper or lack of change.) DH & I both figured that by the time we got our tickets we would have just missed the train. We were right! But luckily they run the train every 15 minutes.

We caught the next train and had a plesant, but crowded trip to the end of it's line which was about 2 blocks from the baseball field. I had wrote down the directions on how to get from the train to the ball field, but I didn't need them. We just followed the crowd.

As we were heading to the field on one street corner there was a guy trying to buy tickets...right across the street was a scalper who was selling tickets at 1/2 price. Hummm... we were wondering why the buyer didn't cross the street.

Next we had to find the Will Call booth to pick up our tickets. DH asked the ticket taker who must not have heard him or didn't really care because he sent him to where you buy a ticket. So I decided to leave DH in line and go ask an employee that we had passed earlier. She told me that we needed to be on the other side of the field. Which was fine...we walked over there and found the line we needed to be in (thanks for nothin ticket taker guy!)

We missed the National Anthem but got to see the fly-over...and hear it! Darly wasn't too pleased with that. I couldn't believe all the people shouting for extra tickets. "Hello? We're in line to get our tickets...we don't have any extra yet! I wonder if those folks were scalpers or if they were cops? Another thing that bugged me were the folks crossing through all the lines. We had one guy who crossed through with his party behind him and then stopped, leaving his party still in front of us! I don't know what was up with that, but I got mad.

We had finally got about half way up the line when I noticed that Darly had already ran out of patience. Poor kid. but the line moved very quickly and we got our tickets and were just inside the stands when the Rockies scored their first homerun. We missed it, but got to hear all the excitement of it.

I needed to find a restroom so DH & Darly went to our seats and I headed there. When I got out, I noticed that each section could be accessed by two sets of stairs...one on either side. So I located our section and asked the man in a Coors Field uniform if I should use the stairs by him or the other side...he told me that my seat was right on that eisle! Woo Hoo! Easy access to get back out again. I quickly found my seat by finding DH & Darly. We broke into our snacks and enjoyed the game.

We had AWESOME seats! Sect 144. We were in the left field foul area, on the lower level and back far enough that we were in the shade the entire time. We're gonna keep track of our tickets so we can try to get close to that area if we go back.

The game was AWESOME! The other team (St Louis, I think...pshaw!) didn't score until the 8th inning (we think...I could go look it up, I suppose). But the Rockies were already so far ahead that St Louis had no chance of winning.

I went and bought us a ridiculiously expensive hot dog...but it was a foot long that I shared with DH. Darly didn't want any...she just had the snacks that we brought, Cracker Jack, Twislers, Pringles...ya know the healthy stuff. We also brought our own water & lemonade.

They played lots of cool music and when the Rockies scored their second Homerun (which brought in two runs) they played "We Like To Party!" And they have fountains that they shoot off for that. It was very cool. My only complaint was that they never played enough of any of the songs...I would just get into a song and they would quit. *sigh*

I think the best part was that Darly said that she enjoyed the game and had a good time! I spent quite a bit of time explaining things to her, but she appreciated it all because she doesn't really know that much about the game. She wants to go back! Yay. This was my first ever Professional Baseball game too and I really had a good time. I liked it better than watching Professional Football.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Guest Blogger today:




Hi! My name is Rose. I’m a Maine Coon kitten and I’m about Furrteen weeks old.

Yesterday my Mom & funny looking sister (she’s a poodle) left me all by myself all day long. But then this little girl and her mom came right in my house. They had been here before with a man a few days ago, they tried to play with me then, but I wasn’t too happy about them being here and now they were back.

At furst, while I was happy to see someone, I was concerned that these new folks were in my house. The girl tried to give me a treat, but I wouldn’t take it from her hand… so the fury smart mom said to just putit on the floor. The little girl listened and I gobbled it right up.

Then the mom said they should go upstairs and check my bedroom to make sure I still had food & water. They went upstairs and I followed them to see what they were up to and to make sure they didn’t mess up my stuff. They just looked around a bit and came right back downstairs afor I could efen get up the stairs.




Then the little girl gave me some yarn she had broughted with her for me to play wif. I liked this new yarn and we played some…but I still didn’t trust her to pet me. And I kept looking to see when my Mom & sister would come home. I missed them a lot.




The little girl got my favoritest toy…the flashy fast red fing. And I chased it all ofur the place. I really liked it a lot. And these two seemed pretty nice. So eventually I let them pet me a bit. But mostly we played.

Parently this girl didn’t have much perience wif kitties, ‘cuz the mom hadded to keep telling her how to pet me and give me skritches…not like a dog likes them. Soon the girl seemed to know how to do it right.

I was beginning to get tired, but I didn’t wanna stop playin wif the girl. I layed down in her lap for a bit and chewed on her shoes some. And we played some more.

Then the girl’s mom said it was time for them to go. I was fury sad, but they said they would come back tomorrow. I cried a bit at the door.

And then they cammeded back! I was so fury happy to see them! I ran right up and started purring and gaved them hugs. Again the mom saided they should check my bedroom and when they was done wif that it was playtime!

The mom fedded the swimmy fings while the girl played with me. I showed her how fierce I am and I tacked the balls & yarns & toy tigers. I was the fierciest kitty efur, but I also letted her pet me bunches. We also played with the spinny toy.



It makes noise and has balls that I can’t get out. Me & the girl played with it bunches…she would bat the ball to me & I would bat the ball back to her. It’s a good game to play when you should be napping.

All too soon it was time for the girl & the mom to go. I cried at the door for them to stay wif me, but again they saided they would come back soon. I hope so. I’ll go nap now.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

How Well Do You Know Me?

I found this on Denise's blog. I figure I've told you pretty much everything about me, so let's see how well you've been listening. Post your answers in the comment section…let’s see how well y’all know me. Feel free to post this on your blog…just let me know so that I can visit and answer yours.

My name:

Summarize me in three words:

Where did we meet:

Take a stab at my middle name:

How long have you known me:

When is the last time that we saw each other:

Do I drink:

Am I happy:

Am I a good person:

What was your first impression of upon meeting me/seeing me:

What’s one of my favorite things to do:

Am I funny:

How do you make me smile:

What’s my favorite type of music:

Have you ever seen me cry:

Can I sing?:

What is the best feature about me:

Am I shy or outgoing:

Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules:

Do I have any special talents:

Would you call me preppy, average, sporty, punk, hippie, glam, nerdy, snobby, or something else (what):

What is my favorite food:

If there was one good nickname for me, what would it be:

What’s your favorite memory of me:

What is my worst habit:

Have you ever had a dream about me? If so, what?:

If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is the one thing I would bring?

Are we friends:

Do I believe in God?

Am I family oriented?

Who is my best friend?

Will you repost this so I can do it?

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Taged by cats

Darly:

I was tagged by The Meezers, two of the funniest cats in the blogosphere to tell you about my favorite things.

TIME OF DAY: 3 o’clock…but only on some days cuz that’s when Ruff Ruffman is supposed to be on TV, but I haven’t been able to watch it lately as I can’t find it.

DAY OF THE WEEK: Wednesday, ‘cuz I get to see my bestest friend.

SEASON: Summer, cuz I like it HOT!

HOLIDAY: Christmas, Easter & My Birthday or any day I get presents!

BEACHES: Waikiki Beach, Hawaii. Didn’t care for Bellows beach (also in Hawaii) much as I got splashed in the face by the waves.

SONG: “I Was Made To Love” by Toby Mac

FLOWER: any blue flowers & tulips.

TALK SHOW: Me don’t like talk shows!

MOVIE: Madagascar & Charlotte’s Web.

SOAPS: Dove

BEVERAGE: really lemony Lemonade

FRUIT: maraschino cherries

SNACK: Cheeze-it Party Mix

FOOD: Arby’s Roast Beef sandwich

RESTAURANT: Arby’s

Monday, May 21, 2007

email conversation with DH this morning...

sometimes these posts just write themselves.

This morning I woke up because I could hear my dog Lilly shaking her self. This shakes her collar which makes a horrible rattling noise. (I took the dog tags off of it a long time ago...who knows where they are anymore...I should find them one day.) The thing is that normally I wouldn't hear this noise because normally Lilly is in her bedroom (aka my laundry room) until I let her out in the morning. Because if I decide to sleep in if she were loose she would start whining and that just can not happen. I NEED my sleep.

So SOMEONE must have let her out this morning. So I emailed DH about it. Here's what has transpired so far...

ME: Any idea why the dog was out to wake me up this morning?

DH: She wanted to greet you first thing. Wasn't she smiling with a big waggy tail?

ME: Yup! She sure was. But how did she open the door?

DH: She is pretty smart. Maybe she pushed the food container over there and stood on her tippy toes and pulled the door handle, unlatching the door, then moved the container back out of the way and sneaked out?

ME: I think she had an accomplice.

DH: Is she talking?

ME: No, she's snoozing.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So far I haven't heard back from him. I guess he must have gotten pulled away to do real work. I'll update if I hear anymore from him. The Mystery continues...

BTW: I should note here that Lilly & DH are the bestest of buddies. He spoils her rotten. So I'm sure that Lilly enjoyed some Captain Crunch cereal with DH this am and got lots of rubs while DH ate his breakfast.
And before you ask...NO! I do not get up and make DH breakfast each morning. He and Darly are quite capable of pouring cereal into a bowl each moring all by themselves. Can you believe that I had a Church secretary ask me about that once. LOL! I guess times have changed a bunch, she must have been getting up each morning to make her husband's breakfast.

Friday, May 18, 2007

The Mud Clod incident

One hot boring summer day in Benton, Louisiana my brothers & a few of our friends were all in the field behind our house. Well you can't see the field too well there, but that's where is. My dad still lives in that house if you really want to go bug him...warning he keeps guns and knows how to use them.

So we're in the field and we were bored so we get the very crazy idea that we should dig ourselves a fort underground. The idea was we would dig two holes and then start digging toward each other and eventually we would have our very own underground fort! So we all ran home and got every digging device we could find and came back, plotted out our fort and began digging. after about 3 days we had one hole that was maybe a foot & a half deep and the other hole that was close to 4 feet deep (the better diggers all were in the same hole!) But we got borded doing that and then decided that we should have a mud clod war!

Well first let me say that Louisiana doesn't really have mud...it has clay! And lots of it. So all the dirt/clay that we had been digging from our holes had been laying around getting hard and we were going to be tossing that at each other. (yeah, we were stupid! We thought that we could dig ourselves a fort.)

So we each gather up some ammo and get down in our holes (I don't remember who had what hole) and begin to throw the clods. I'm not sure how long it took for someone (me) to get hit but I was hit in the head and the clod/rock made a cut. So I headed over to my friend's house as my parents weren't home. And their mom looked at my head and cleaned me up. She thought that my cut needed some stitches, but since I wasn't her kid, she couldn't take me in for them. And since I didn't want a spanking when my dad came home, I didn't bother to tell my parents about it. So no stitches for me.

I think it must have healed up pretty well as I don't have any problems with lack of hair where I was hit. And that, my friends is the Mud Clod Incident.

ER

My friend Jen has recently spent some time at the ER for her DD's foot injury and it got me to thinkin (don't cha love love how reading other blogs inspires you? hee hee) about my ER experiences. So here ya go...

My last visit to the ER was when I slammed my finger in the car door. It was one of those where I was holding onto the edge of the car door and distracted so I didn't move my fingers and closed the door while still holding the edge of the door. Totally stupid! I was icing the finger and holding it up over my head, but nothing seemed to be helping and it was turning all sorts of technicolors...so it seemed that a trip to the ER was in order. We loaded up DD & DH drove me in.

The tech who started the process had a good laugh at me and threatened that I might have to get my finger drilled to release the pressure...but I had to wait for the doc on call to drive over from where ever he was to know for sure... that took about 1/2 an hour. OH! This was on a military base in Korea to clarify things for you. And it happened on a Sunday. Doc looked at it and determined that I didn't need to be drilled. He just gave me pain killers and told me to keep it elevated & iced. So glad we didn't have to pay for that!

Previous to that was when DH brought home the killer cold that DD & I both got. He got us all sick on 4th of July weekend and this was still on the Korean base so all the places to buy children's cold medicine were closed. We had already spend one sleepless night in the recliner trying to stay elevated so we could breathe and I needed some sleep. So we went in just to get cold medicine. The tech made me take DD's temperature. Poor kid.

And before that my trip was for a sprained ankle when I was about 13. I was teaching myself how to do a handspring in our backyard and landed wrong. I'm not entirely sure if my Dad was going to take me if I had protested hard enough. At any rate we went in and got it x-rayed after waiting for what seemed like 2 hours and the drive was forever as we lived so far away from town. I didn't even get any pain killers from that trip.

And that's it for me! I've been in the hospital twice, once to have DD and once to get my adenoids taken out. So how about you? How many trips to the ER?

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

tu écrire le blog - voix deux

That's "You wrote the blog - Part two" in French...well I might have some of it wrong as I don't know the conjugation of the verb. I got a D in French. sigh!

Well the questions keep coming, so this post will be a work in progress.

Joan said...
Wow...I learned quite a bit. So tell me, does Darly like her real name?!?!!?

I'm pretty sure that she does like her real name as she doesn't like the nickname that DH came up with...he picked her middle name so he could call her by her initials as a nickname and she hates that. Her first name is one with a lot of letters and it has many shorter versions to use as nicknames. I picked her name because I wanted her to have something that would be popular enough that folks could know how to say it and I wanted her to have built in nicknames. This all comes from my past. I grew up where folks had no idea how to even say my name ("Ree Nee" was said a lot!) And I never had any good nicknames. So now the only problem I run into with Darly's name is folks not knowing how to spell it...I went with the very traditional spelling and many folks go for the current popular spelling. Speaking of the spelling, I thought later that we might have a problem teaching her how to spell her name, silly me. It was actually quite easy.

Bone said...
What is the significance of lillyput? It's related to my dog Lilly. When we first found her picture on the shelter's website, her name was "Sue Lee". When Darly & I saw the picture we knew we wanted her, but that her name could not stay Sue Lee. So I asked Darly to come up with a new name and it would be helpful if it rhymed with Sue Lee so the dog would pick it up right away. Darly picked Lilly. From that we get Lillyput from "Gulliver's Travels". Lilly gets called lots of things like Lillyput, Lillypuchian, Lillypoo & Lillypooch. I don't think now that it was all that necessary to give her a name that rhymes because she'll come to just about anything if you use the right tone of voice. However the guy at the shelter really liked the name Lilly and said that he would change her name on the name card that night...but as it turned out the original owner showed up wanting her back, so they didn't change her name.

What is one of your favorite Seinfeld moments, quotes, or scenes? Oh my, there are so many to choose from! I know when we were looking for our house there is a neighborhood nearby called Tuscany. So we had great fun saying "There's nothing available in Tuscany!" and as it turned out there wasn't anything that we wanted in Tuscany. I really like "I don't wanna be a Pirate!" and "can you spare a square?" But who can forget "yadda, yadda, yadda"?

What is your favorite part about Bone's blog? That's hard to narrow down to just one thing too. Probably my favorite would be your random thoughts or your "rules for life." The best would have to be Urinalysis : Male Restroom Etiquette. As a gal it's fun to see what makes guys tick.

Bone said...
You're telling me there wasn't one house available in all of Tuscany??? No, not a one! Can you believe it?

:)

I was talking with someone who is going to walk in an AIDS walk soon and reminded her, "Don't forget to wear the ribbon." "You HAVE to wear the ribbon!" Oh and don't pick up any phonenumbers from the sponsor sheet.

Rascal said...
I'd like to meet your rabbits and hear the story of how you got them. Personally, I like rabbits.

I like rabbits too. Here's an interview that I did with the girls a ways back that you might enjoy.

And the story of how we got our rabbits... We had been in our new home for a while and I was longing to have some animals. DH really didn't want any...so I had to bug him lots about it. One day I was surfing the internet and came across the website for the Colorado House Rabbit Society. They had lots of rabbits who needed a good home, so I looked and found two that I really liked. I filled out some paperwork and called the lady to pick a time to come and meet these rabbits. Well as it turned out the rabbits I chose were very big and not all that friendly. So she had us look at all the rabbits and see if there were any others we might like. We tried out lots of rabbits and Trina & Trudy were the friendliest. Trudy even let Darly give her some papaya tablet. A few days later we had our new rabbits.

You Wrote the BLOG!

Well I asked and you provided. Some with very good questions too. If you didn't get to ask, jump down and ask there and I'll make a part two to include your question.

Okay, here we go...


Jen said...
Burning questions? Ok.

What is the average temperature inside a retort when human remains are being cremated?
ah Jen, you’re so literal. And funny too…that’s why I love you so much. I could go google that answer for you, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you already know the answer. Wasn't this in STIFF?

Lynn said...
What did you end up doing with the microwave rack?
currently the rack to my microwave is sitting in the drawer under my electric stove (for you gas users this is where your broiler would be…electric stoves have a storage drawer instead). Another blogger said she keeps hers as a decoration in her garage. Mine might head there. I wonder if it would be any good for camping?

Anthony said...
I've noticed that sluggish thingy too. It's a little weird to type and wait.

Do you find it embarrassing to use the word "blog" in conversation?
Hey Anthony, nice to “meet cha!” Nope! I don’t find using the word blog at all embarrassing. Most folks I know have been told that I keep one and some even visit. The embarrassing thing is when I refer to my family by their blog names ie. “Hey! DH could you come here?”

Goofy Girl said...
What issues do you feel passionate about? a lot. I’m a very opinionated person. Just off the top of my head: animal rights, breastfeeding & homeschooling.

Why do you homeschool? I Homeschool because of many reasons. We live right near Colombine and that happening when Darly was 1 year and 5 days old was kinda the nail in the coffin for public schools to me. But long before she was even born, I knew that no child of mine would ever attend a public school. I just knew. As it turns out Darly's personality is such that public schools wouldn't be a good fit for her. She tends to get overwhelmed in really busy situations and she shuts down. I see her as the kid who doesn't get good grades for not participating or the kid who is always picked on.

Uisce said...
blogger? sluggish? I guess cause it's so darn popular! :) Ah! I guess we’ll be hearing of an outage for an upgrade soon? Not holding my breath.

Catzee said...
Yeah! How come ya don't got any kitties! A long time ago when DH & I were first married we had two bunnies & one dog. Then we had to move to another country and they wouldn’t let us take the bunnies and were going to make us put the dog in quarantine (locked up by herself) for a long time. We couldn’t do that to her, so we found her a new loving family (oh the bunnies too) to live with instead. As soon as we got back to the US I needed my bunnies & dog to complete our family. So we rescued them all from the shelter…but alas DH says there isn’t any room in our family for any more pets (it gets fun when we want to take a vacation finding someone to pet sit.) So for now, we’ll kitty sit.

Traveling Chica said...
Do your friends and family read your blog? Lots of my friends read my blog as all my homeschooling friends see the link in my siggy. No my family doesn’t read it. I’ve given them the link but they just don’t have the time…which is a good thing as I tend to vent about them a lot.

Why only Darly? You seem to love kids: I'd expect you to have like four :) (That one is nosy so feel free to not answer it if you don't want to.) Actually, I'm not such a big fan of kids. No baby lust here at all. I loved Darly at each stage she's gone through, but I don't ever miss Darly as a baby or Darly as a toddler. I was just reminded of when DH & I were just about to get married. We were out to dinner with his sister's family (she has 4 kids!) And Neice #2 sees this baby and she says "Oh Aunt Renee look at that!" I was like not impressed at all. Neice #2 is gonna be a great Mom some day to probably a large family.

Carmen said...
How did Darly get her name? Did you pick it out of a book? Is it a family name? Darly isn’t really my DD’s name…and she hates the name Darly. To get her real name, we did look in a baby name book. DH was picking really weird names like “Buffy” (yeah, after the Vampire Slayer!) and “Cheyenne” after where we lived…so he got demoted from picking the first name. I had two names picked out for a girl and just one for a boy (we didn’t know what we were having.) But a friend of ours pointed out that the nick name for the one name rhymed with our last name…so that one got tossed out! And how I picked Darly: Well DD is for Dear Daughter and Darlene means “Dear little one” so I shortened it.

The Meezers said...
how did you start reading kitty blogs? – Miles I used to do the Thursday 13 and I believe that I came across my first kitty blog there. Then I started clicking on their blogrolls for other kitty blogs because I found them so humorous. Then I picked my favorites and blogrolled them…so yes, that means you’re among the chosen few.

Mommy wants to know if you want 2 Meezers – Sammy

HEY, wait, i fink she means US. You’re always welcome for a visit, but after reading your antics (Miles too) I don’t think I have quite what it takes to take care of Meezers full time. You two are quite a handful!

Kailani said...
I'm so glad I'm not with blogger anymore!

Here's my question: Do you believe animals have emotions? Yes. I know it. I can read my dog's expressions and know what she is feeling. She gets very sad when DH is out of town (he is her bestest buddy!) and she mopes by the door waiting for him...she does the same thing when I'm gone I hear (I'm the one who feeds her.) I can also see when my rabbits are happy - they "binky" or when they're angry - they grunt at Darly (hee hee, they grunt at me and each other too.)

Joan said...
Actually Goofy Girl asked the question:

Why do you homeschool? I'd also like to know if you think all children could benefit from the homeschooling experience. I think that all children could benefit from a one-on-one education that is taylored to their learning style. But I don't think that means that all of them have to be educated at home. There are lots of kids who do really well in the public system and to take them out would be very bad for them. I think that teachers have the hardest and most important job on earth, and they deserve to be paid more than professional athletes or movie stars. I also think that every one deserves what works best for them.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

You Write the Blog...

With many appologies to Barry Manalow...

You write the blog that makes the whole world sing, you write the blog ... whatever!

Fellow blogger Carmen recently hit a blogging slump and asked her fellow bloggers to help her out by asking her questions for her to answer on her blog.

I just wanted to answer your burning questions so ask away folks and I'll give you my best answers. If I think your question is too risque, I'll probalby give you a very silly answer instad of a real one...but fire away.

While we're at it, I've got a question for you techy or geeky folks out there. Why is it that blogger lately seems to be very sluggish? Every time I try to post it seems that I type faster than blogger can process it and I'm typing blind for a few seconds and then suddenly it burps out my words. Because of this I end up having to go back and fix many typos from it not getting my spaces and such. Very annoying.

Okay, back to the program...ask your most inquiring questions in the comments. Your reward? Getting your answers here and getting me to link you to my answer. How's that for fun?

Friday, May 11, 2007

Tired and stuffed now!

Today my calendar was clear. If I forgot something important, I'm very sorry...it wasn't on my calendar and it is Scholastic Book Fair time! Everything in the Warehouse is on sale and at least 30% off! Most is 50% off. We love these sales and usually come home with lots of good stuff... today was no different.

Once Darly got up and I told her that we were going she got dressed in a flash...and she noticed that I was wearing one of the two shirts that we both have matching sets of...so she dressed like me. Awww how cute.

We got to the sale and started filling up our cart. At first I was nervous because we weren't finding all that much that we wanted...but then I found the 80% off area...whoo hoo! I was tossing all sorts of stuff in the cart. We went through the $1 a book area and found a few things for my nephew...the guy instead of charging us $2.50 (one item was from the 50cent area) he only wrote $1.50.

The sad part was that we came across a whole stack of "The Care and Keeping of You" books. I just bought that for Darly a while back... so I don't need one and I couldn't remember which of my friends needed a copy. I was kinda bummed...but I posted it when we got home so they should see it. Other than that we came home with lots of good stuff. I even found a lot for me to read...some of it in my age level too.

After we filled up our cart we went to the check out. Remember that $1 a book area where the guy wrote only $1.50 on my bag? Well when the gal rang me up, the machine only charged me 75 cents! Woo Hoo! Can't beat that. I just wish that there were more things I liked in that area.

*sigh*

So after the sale we had lunch and then decided to see if we could finally see the Ben Franklin exhibit at the Museum. We got there and did not see any school buses...good omen #1. We also noticed people leaving the museum...good omen #2. And once inside it wasn't crowded! Woo Hoo! It felt a bit like having the place to ourselves...well not quite.

The Ben exhibit was a bit crowded, but not nearly as bad as other times that we have tried to go see it. Darly & I were able to see and do most of the activities in the exhibit and were finally quite pleased. The only annoying part was this one kid (never figured out who he was there with) kept acting as if he were with us...looking over my shoulder at stuff or getting right up in our personal space. I kept trying to ditch him and he kept showing up. GAH! But he didn't say anything, was just extra nosey and interested in whatever it was that we were doing. Oh well. At the end they have a time capsule that they are going to put in the museum's vault to be opened 300 years from now. They asked us to either predict items that will still be of importance in 300 years or what we should be doing now to make the future better for 300 years. We decided to predict the future. Darly says that we'll still have computers of some sort, cars, Microwave ovens and in the future Robots will clean our house for us.

After seeing Ben we went to one of my favorite exhibits "Hall of Life." We had the place pretty much to ourselves and for the first time ever I got to take the How stressful is your life test. I'm like not even stressed at all...then why did I find grey hair this morning? gotta get my roots done.

After we finished the Hall of Life I decided that we should head for home. Darly mentioned that she would like a snack and I suggested that we get dinner. So after spending probably 45 minutes in traffic, we got to Old Sante Fe Grille and had our dinner. I'm now stuffed with chile reanaeo...who knows how to spell it? I just eat it. YUM!

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Re: 3 word wednesday post

As many of you who know me have figured out...that story was autobiographical. I don't have Darly in the story as she just didn't fit without making it a whole bunch longer.

When we put our house on the market, our next door neighbor had also put his up for sale too. He was desperate to move as he had a new job offer and needed to move and buy a new house in their new town...so he hired a realtor. Their house was built really weird so their asking price was $20K less than what we were asking. When you walked into neighbor's front door you entered a "great room" that was Living room, Dining room and Kitchen all in a row...then off to your left was the hallway and stairway to the basement which "killed" about 8 feet square worth of space. Both homes were roughly the same square footage with pretty much the same features.

DH insisted on trying to sell our house ourselves as he hates Realtors with a bloody passion and thinks they're akin to lawyers. (My apologies to any Realtors & lawyers out there who happen to stop by...why aren't you working? ;) )

So we got a lot of folks who came to see our neighbor's house (especially on open house days) who asked to see our house too. They would look at neighbor's house and say YUCK and see our house for sale and look at the price and say YUCK! They of course had no intention of buying our house as they were looking $20K less. So that's where the lady with the grubby toddler comes in.

The neighbor ended up selling his home by owner and we of course had to hire a realtor because we had to move...but it didn't matter to us how long it took to sell. As it happened as soon as we signed the paperwork with the realtor and left town the next morning, he showed the house to a military couple who were moving in. They put in an offer the day after we left town while we were driving through Idaho & Oregon. DH called MIL from the airport in Seattle and she told him that she had accepted the offer on our behalf, I think the offer was about $2K less than we asked.

We live close enough now that if we really wanted to we could drive north for 2 hours and go see our old house. I would like to do that some day.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

3 Word Wednesday ...can you believe it? LOL




Welcome to Three Word Wednesday. Each week, BONE will post three (or more) random words. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write something using all of those words. It can be a few lines, a story, a poem, anything. Bone'll also attempt to write something using the same three words.

Leave a comment if you participate. Many fun and interesting people might visit your blog.

This week's words are:
packed
cozy
anticipation


Sally knew this was coming. She and Harry had been together long enough for her to learn the routine. Every few years they got orders for a new location. It came with the job, the job Harry hated, but it provided quite nicely for them over all these years and so they accepted it.

Still Sally couldn't help the anticipation of what it would be like to move to a totaly different country. A country where the natives didn't speak english...but for the most part they would be on the base so it wasn't as if she had to learn a new language. And any encounters off the base property would be with natives who had learned some english...enough to get by and sell their products to the Americans with all the money. Money, isn't that what makes the world go round?

It took a lot of work to get all the necessary paperwork ready. Sally had to get a psychological evaluation and have her medical records checked before they would allow her to even go. She could only assume that they didn't want the expense of having to pack her up and send her home shortly after arriving.

Part of the snafus they ran into had to do with the fact that the position that Harry was taking was meant for someone going without a family (or solo). It seemed that no one in the office had ever figured out how to change the paperwork from an unaccompanied tour to an accompained (those are the military speak words for taking a new job without your family or with your family.) So they would get one part changed and then hit a new snag when the next part of the paperwork would still be for an unaccompanied tour. "Oh you won't be able to take that much of your belongings." "Oh that's right, this is now an accompanied tour...yeah your allowed this many pounds."

Speaking of the pounds, once all that was figured out their belongings had to be packed up. They sent packers to do the job. What a bunch of idiots! The moving company sent 3 packers...Sally thought they do this on purpose as they're are only two of them to keep an eye on the packers...so one gets to "run amock" with your belongings. She had to figure out which items should go to storage and which items should go with them. All the while making sure that they didn't take more than they were allowed. And also trying to make sure that her belongings were packed well enough that nothing would be broken.

Because of all the paperwork snafus Harry wasn't assigned living quarters until they arrived in country. So Sally and Harry had no idea when they were packing what furniture they should bring. They assumed that their quarters would be the ones the base had pictured on their website. So they had their items packed according to that. They were wrong but didn't know that yet.

Sally felt so weird watching her cozy home slowly reverting to the empty shell it had once been, like when they first bought it. Although it wasn't entirely the same as when they first bought it. Harry had put the shelf that Sally wanted up over the kitchen sink, that would be staying. There was also the storm door that they had put up together on the front door and all the window coverings that Sally had agonized over. The window coverings that Sally had cringed over when some stupid mother had let her toddler put his grubby hands all over when they were looking at the house they knew they had no intention of buying. Sally quickly learned that she wasn't cut out for tying to sell her house, it hurt too much to have someone be so critical of the place she had come to love.

Finally the time had come for them to leave. The house wasn't sold yet so they hired a realtor/shark who had a buyer for them before they even left the country...yeah, they had been taken, but at least the house was no longer a thing to worry about. As Harry and Sally drove their car to the nearest coast it began to snow...in June.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

It's too much for me to handle!

I'm talking about my new microwave of course.

Did I mention that this microwave is 2 cubic feet? My old microwave was 1.4 cu...and I never had a problem with space...well except for that one dish. Hey, maybe I can get my 9X13 dish in there? I'll have to check that out.

This new microwave came with a turn table and a shelf. I was in awe and star struck when I bought it. Then I got it home and installed it and wondered "Just what in the world am I EVER going to cook that I need to use the rack for?" You see when cooking in the microwave when you cook multiple items they should all be about the same size and same cooking speed. If you cook something very wet with something dry...your wet item will get all the heat while your dry item will just look at you funny. So I ask again "When will I ever use the rack?" BEATS ME!

It came with directions on how to cook a roast or a chicken in there...but who in their right mind cooks meat in the microwave? You can't make it brown and everyone knows a microwave makes meats cook uneven.

I might use the rack for thanksgiving...I cook a lot of veggies then so maybe I can use the rack to get them all done at the same time...well the brocolli & corn. The greenbean casserole goes in the oven and it's mostly done already as you use canned greenbeans for it. I've tried using frozen for this and it just never works...I could pre-cook the greenbeans I suppose...but the canned are right there and easy. Maybe if I grow my own greenbeans again, I could use them.

I could possibly use the microwave to cook pumpkin...that would be a good use of it. If my garden produces a lot of pumpkin this year. Which by the way I still have a freezer full of pumpkin from last year. Didn't need so much pumpkin this year. hummm I should make some pumpkin dessert...it's good stuff.

There's one thing I don't like about my new microwave...and it's probably because my old microwave spoiled me...the light isn't as bright. The light under the microwave that shines down on my stove. I used to be able to turn it on and prepare the entire meal w/o using my kitchen lights...now it's like flipping on a nightlight. And to top it off, it comes with a nightlight feature that is even dimmer...what a waste.

Friday, May 04, 2007

The one with the interview...

I've seen this interview meme going around and really didn't know if I wanted to do it or not, but then Kailani did it and it didn't seem all that bad, so I asked her to interview me. I figured I could just not answer if it was too bad...right? Well it's not too bad, so here goes...

What do you feel is the greatest challenge and reward of being a mother? Hummm I guess the greatest challenge for me was "bucking they system" as to how to do this whole parenting thing. I learned early on that it was okay (with some) to follow my heart and do this parenting thing the way that felt best for me...but I kept running into folks who insisted that they knew how to do it better and that I was all wrong. I'm glad that I am stubborn enough to ignore them and do it my own way because it has been great. And the greatest reward is that I have a really great kid, despite my "screwing it up" by not following the advice of all those who said I was wrong.

What is your greatest hope for Darly's future? My greatest hope is that she grows up happy. I want her to have the freedom to pick whatever path she chooses. For me, my Mom wanted me to grow up to be sucessful and not be just a housewife...which left me feeling undecided about what I wanted to do with my life. It wasn't until I became a mom that I finally figured it all out and I want Darly to have the security to try as much as she wants to but to be happy with all her choices.

If you could meet one famous person, living or deceased, who would it be and why? I've always said that I wanted to meet my Great Great Grandmother. She lived to be over 100 and was still living when I was a kid, but we never took the trip to go & visit her until it was too late. She lived through quite a bit of changes in our world and I would love to hear her stories. Oh and it would be cool to confirm what she thought of my grandmother...My grandmother says that they got along great but my great cousin says that GG thought my grandmother was a gold digging slut. =o

If you became President, what is the first thing you'd change?
Well first I would have to change how you become President because someone screwed up big time! hee hee Actually the job of President of the US is not something I would ever want to take on. I don't have the time or personality to give the job justice.

Do you think kids should be forced to try new foods? HA HA! This is so funny because Darly is the world's WORST PICKY EATER! She didn't start out that way...she used to eat anything I put in front of her. But thanks to me not following my heart and listening to the stupid pediatrician that she needed more iron in her diet she doesn't trust me anymore with foods and wont eat anything that "tastes funny." Yesterday at the zoo we got her a hot dog (I tried to talk her into the corn dog instead!) and it didn't taste right...I think they cooked it with the sour kraut that it was sitting in so she wouldn't eat it. I offered to trade her my corn dog, but she was warry of it too. Thankfully she did eat a good dinner.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Latest breaking news...

The Microwave was installed Wednesday night. The only problem we had was that there is some duct work behind that wall and DH had to avoid that...the previous microwave was drilled right into it! After we negotiated that it went in pretty easily.

Darly helped too by standing on the kitchen counter and pulling the cord through the hole...afterward there were little black footy prints on my counter! I so hate white counter tops!

But it is in and it works! Tonight's dinner was so much easier to make. AHHHH!

Pictures to come... I need to dig through my files and see if there is one that might show the old microwave.

Here's the old microwave...well part of it. I didn't think to ever preserve it.

And here is the new one. You might notice that it sticks out a bit more than the old one did. I didn't realize until we got it in that I bought one that was 2 inches deeper. I was just awed by it's size...did I tell you that it is 2 cubic feet??? I'm now wondering just what I'm going to do with all that space. LOL!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

I want my...I want my MTV...

"We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchens deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour tv’s"


Well yesterday my new microwave oven arrived. It looks great so far...it's sitting door side down on my kitchen's island. Still waiting to go up.

DH got home yesterday with the final part he needed to fix our sprinkler system. See somehow we didn't get all the water drained out of it and the pipe burst with all the freezing we had this winter. So he worked on that before we had dinner as he needed sunlight to work on it.

So after dinner we looked at the directions for the new microwave and decided to take down the old dead one. We got the screws undone and tried to tilt it forward, but this old microwave didn't attach to the wall the same way. I guess we should have looked at the directions to see that it had arms that slide into the unit. Oh well we did get it all down and we placed the old dead microwave in the cardboard box that the new one came in. It made a nice coffin. We carried it out to the curb in the rain. A nicer funeral it couldn't have asked for.

I just hope that the rain didn't weaken the cardboard box too much for when the trash men come to carry it away. That would be a mess if it falls in the street.

DH worked on getting the old brackets down and was reading the directions for putting up the new one. Of course it hangs totally different than the old one. He ended up quitting before we did anything to install the new one. So it is still sitting door side down on my island. Hogging tons of valuable kitchen real estate.

DH has promised that the new machine will be installed this evening. I'll keep you posted.

Oh and how have I been cooking without a microwave since the 23rd? It has been a challenge. See normally I make a dinner to have leftovers for a day or so afterward and heat the leftovers in my microwave. That doesn't work so well with no microwave. We had pizza when it first died. Then we had pre-cooked roasted chicken from the store...heated in my crock pot. But cooking veggies on the stove was interesting. Luckily they still put the directions for how to do that on the package. Reheating veggies stove top has been fun. Oh and try reheating mashed potatoes on the stovetop. I tried transfering them to another dish and popping them in the oven, but that dried them out.

I hope we have a microwave tonight. DH suggested that we just plug it in on the island and I may have to take him up on that. LOL!

Chinese Freeze Tag X 2

I’ve been tagged by Joan to come up with ten interesting habits or facts about me in a friendly game of Chinese Freeze Tag. So, ready or not, here they are!

1. If my feet are cold, then I am cold. If my feet are hot, then I am hot. So in the winter you'll see me with a few pairs of socks and slippers on and in the summer I soak my feet in cold water. I find it annoying.

2. When I'm cold, I like heavy blankets on me. I bought a blanket that is nice and heavy just for me in the winter. Love it.

3. I have to pee a lot. My friends all think it is funny how frequently I have to get up and go to the bathroom. As soon as we get to where we are going, I have to locate the bathroom...and I just went before we left the house.

4. When I'm cold, I have to pee more frequently. I was at this one girl's house and seriously had to go every 5 minutes. I had everyone in a fit of giggles.

5. I take it personally when someone is driving in a manner that I feel could endanger me or my family. Like a driver cuts me off in traffic.

6. Summer is my favorite time of year. I hate being cold.

7. When I was a kid I could touch my feet to the back of my head and as far as my nose. I could still do this in my early 20's but now, not so much as a regular back bend.

8. Speaking of back bends, they offered a class at Darly's gymnastics gym for Adults and I so wanted to take it, but they offered it when most kids are in school and I wouldn't have had any place for Darly to go while I was in class. I would soooo love to get back into shape enough to do what I used to do as a kid.

9. When I was pregnant with Darly my OB was shocked that I could still pull myself up off the table after an exam. I guess even pregnant I had really good abs. Even now they're still pretty strong, just covered in a layer of pudge.

10. I'm almost 5'3" tall but my lack of height isn't in my legs...they're 29" inseam which is considered "regular", my lack of height is in my torso. So I buy petit tops & dresses, but regular lenght pants. My brothers are all around 6 feet tall, so I've been saying that God gave my legs to my brothers but that isn't right as my legs are normal...he gave them my backbone. Oh well. I guess it's a good thing I'm this size as I'm a perfect size for DH who is also the smallest in his family.

Now how is this a X 2? Darly saw this and wanted to do it too. So the next 10 answers are hers...

1. She hearts cats. But we can't have one because we have one dog & two rabbits and DH won't let us have any more pets.

2. She likes lops. (the rabbits) She likes lops because they are normally friendlier than other breeds of rabbits. DH does not like lops as he feels they have broken ears. DH prefers wild rabbits.

3. She has no favorite flower.

4. Her current favorite color is blue. It used to be pink and that's the color of her bedroom. I'm not repainting her room.

5. She can not do oragami. I'm not sure why this bugs her.

6. She thinks our dog is a fuzzy doughNUT when she chases her tail.

7. She hates the "King of Queens" TV show...which DH likes very much and watches every day.

8. She can draw small pictures better than large ones. (her opinion here.)

9. She loves to read. And we need to go to the library to get her some more reading material as she is out.

10. Her 2nd favorite color is currently lavendar. (that's news to me!)

Well that's 10 from each of us... I could do DH too...but do you really care? Oh I could do the dog & rabbits too. LOL

I won't tag as this one requires 10 people and I stopped tagging a long time ago. Enjoy!