I think, “I’ll do that after I read the hundred or so blog posts that I haven’t read yet.  I’ll exercise in a half an hour.  Oh, I need to water the plants first.  I’d better unload the dishwasher.  Figure out why I can’t transfer my photos from my camera to my computer anymore.  Figure out which PDF converter is best.  Read my book.  Finish crocheting that washcloth that’s been sitting there for weeks.  Vacuum the dust bunnies…”  Then suddenly it’s time to make dinner and I’ve skipped exercise for another day.  Sigh.  What motivates you to get out there and just do it?

Okay, I’m going to go put on my sneakers and get out my weights and work out now!  Right after I get rid of those dust bunnies…

Here’s a photo from my archives, because I’ll leave the photo transfer problem for another day.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I just wanted to in and say hi.  I’m sick.  A nasty stomach virus found it’s way to me.  I’m daydreaming of a warm June day and wild roses.  I’ll be back soon!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Awhile back I was given the Honest Scrap Award by mrs. e at Easy Street!  Thank you, mrs. e!  The rules are to post 10 completely honest things about yourself.  The thing is I’m having a really hard time thinking of 10 things that I haven’t told you already, and 10 things that wouldn’t completely bore you out of your mind!  So here they are.  Just skip this part if it’s too boring.

1. In 5th grade I had a crush on the cutest boy in my class.  He was smart, blond, athletic and outgoing. He didn’t know I existed.  He liked the cutest girl in our class and it wasn’t me.  In high school I saw him get into a fight with another boy in the cafeteria.  It brought me to tears.
2. I like liver.  As a special treat for me when I was a kid, my mom would occasionally buy chicken livers and cook them for me!  She would just boil them with dried minced onion and I’d eat them!
3. I brought a photo of our dog at the time, Bart, into the labor room with me when I was having our first child.  The birthing teacher had told us to bring something to focus on, you know, to make it hurt less.  It didn’t work.  The epidural worked much better!
4. In grade school and middle school there was a girl that was horrible to me.  School administrators either didn’t or couldn’t do anything to stop it.  She was gone in high school.  I’m thinking she ended up in juvenile detention, or something like that.  Then, many years later, my husband and I bought our first house.  Her parents lived right next door to us.  Her adult brother still lived at home.  He and his father had weekly fist fights.  We only lived there a year.
5. I drink green tea iced tea and black tea hot tea, and almost nothing else.  Both with only a little bit of sugar.  I love me some tea!
6. Ever since my mom died 14 years ago, I dream about her almost every night.  When she first died, the dreams were bad nightmare dreams.  Now they are good, or silly!
7. I was in a car accident with my dad when I was pregnant with my daughter, one month before my mom died.  My dad and I and my sweet baby were all fine.
8. When my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer I was eleven.  She was seeing doctors a lot.  I decided I wanted to be a doctor.  That didn’t happen.  And now I realize that my feelings back then were that if I were a doctor, bad things couldn’t happen.  A kid’s way of thinking.
9. My favorite pair of shoes is my children’s size 3 North Face Prophecy sneakers.  I cannot believe that I used to wear heels every day when I worked in an office!
10. The nicest dress I have ever owned is a maternity dress that I bought to wear to a wake.  I don’t spend a lot of money on clothes, ever.  Even my wedding dress was cheap!  But, I was pregnant and had nothing acceptable to wear for the wake, and obviously, I had to get a dress quick.  I’m sure I cringed when I paid for it.  I still have it hanging in my closet, 12 years later.  About once a year I still admire how nice it is!

I know everyone is very busy at this time of year, so I’m not going to pass this on to any specific bloggers.  If you want to tell us some honest scrap about yourself, I would love to read it!

And…not as long ago, the creative blogging team of Kelly and Victoria at Design Ties gave me the Kreativ Blogger Award!  Thank you, Kelly and Victoria!  Luckily, the rules for this award are to tell seven things about myself that you might not know!  Pick any seven things from my list of ten above and you’ve got them!  Also, I need to pass the Kreativ Blogger award on to seven other bloggers!  Here they are!

• Maya at Springtree Road – Dyeing yarn, spinning yarn, knitting, photography!  Maya is an artist with all of it!
• Tracy at Pink Purl – I just met Tracy through Se’Lah and I’m so happy I did!  I know she makes beautiful jewelry and beautiful cupcakes.  I need to do some more exploring on her site!
• Lailani at The Green Grass Grows All Around – Lailani is an entrepreneur.  I so admire her can do, positive attitude.  And…she just posted a really beautiful shadow box that she made for her mother-in-law!  I love hand made gifts!
• ELK at Red or Gray Art – ELK just finished a month of posting collages that she created daily on her art site.  As with her photography, ELK’s art is something that makes me feel joyful!
• Leslye and Taylor at Spread Your Wings – A mom and daughter team of artists/photographers!  Beautiful!
• Katie at Can’t Get There From Here – Katie brings us her creative writing every day.  I love her style and I always look forward to reading her stories about her girls, Gracie and Bee, and about her running and her family, and her Love Thursday posts are always something to think about.
• Kimmie at Words on Paper Scraps – Kimmie combines her words and photography so beautifully!

Please don’t stress over passing this award on or posting your seven things.  Only do it if you want to!  Enjoy this season as I enjoy your blogs!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Maya said she would love to see a picture of the tree, so I went looking through old photos and found one!

Here is it and here I am, when I was nine months old!  I don’t see the color wheel in the photo, but I do see that my mom got an iron that year for Christmas!  She must have been thrilled. 

Me and the metal Christmas Tree!

Do you have a memory you would like to share today?  Just leave a link to your blog post or photo in Mr. Linky!  If you don’t have a blog, tell us about a memory in the comment section.  I want to hear from everybody!  (If Mr. Linky  isn’t working, you can put your link in the comments section.)  Please remember to:

• Leave a link to the specific blog post, not to your general blog address, to make it easier for people to find your memory post.
• Make sure your link works and that it goes to your specific memory post.
• Put a link back to here in your post so that your readers can come and read about everyone’s memories!
• Visit the other participants and please leave comments on their posts!  We all love comments!
• Enjoy the party and come back next week for Monday Memories: The Forty-first!

Don’t forget, Se’Lah’s Gift of Jewels giveaway is open until Jan. 6, 2010. Get on over there and enter for each day’s gift!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Some simple sweet memories from my childhood are~

• The old wooden plank floor of the tiny neighborhood store where I lived as a kid
• The wall filled with plaques that my mom collected over the years
• The feel of my guitar in my hands
• The smell of pot roast, cooking for hours
• The soft curly fur of my childhood dog, Muffin
• Visiting the shoemaker’s store in our neighborhood. Yes, when I was a kid one of the stores necessary in a small neighborhood was a shoemaker!
• Visiting the dry cleaner.  I loved the smell in that place!  Must have been steam and chemicals!
• Using paste in kindergarten.  Rubber cement, too!  Loved that stuff!  I never tasted it, but I remember one kid I saw eating the paste!
• The way summers seemed so very hot and winters seemed so very cold!
• The excitement of Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy!
• Spaghettios – Do you remember the jingle?  “The neat round spaghetti you can eat with a spoon! Uh-oh Spaghettios!”
• Pine cones

Because this is both Simple Things and Monday Memories, if you would like to join me in walking down memory lane today, leave a link to your blog post or photo in Mr. Linky!  If you don’t have a blog, tell us about a memory in the comment section.  I want to hear from everybody!  (If Mr. Linky  isn’t working, you can put your link in the comments section.)  Please remember to:

• Leave a link to the specific blog post, not to your general blog address, to make it easier for people to find your memory post.
• Make sure your link works and that it goes to your specific memory post.
• Put a link back to here in your post so that your readers can come and read about everyone’s memories!
• Visit the other participants and please leave comments on their posts!  We all love comments!
• Enjoy the party and come back next week for Monday Memories: The Thirty-eighth!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I think this is turning into a complaining post because it’s that time of the month.  Warning: Leave now if you’re not in the mood for whining!  I think a list would be good for these complaints!

• It’s that time of the month
• I’m losing a lot of hair!  What’s with that?!  Is 46 1/2 the magic age where things start to go downhill?!
• I have been having bad dreams and I keep waking up.  All night.  Probably goes back to the “that time of month” thing, or the being 46 1/2 thing.
• My husband refuses to go to our middle school open house night, so I need to split myself in half to see some of my 8th grader’s teachers and some of my 7th grader’s teachers.
• My girl (8th grader) is having tummy troubles.  I’m going to need to get the school nurse and the people in the counseling center a good Christmas present!
• Timmy has a sore back leg since yesterday morning.  I don’t know how he hurt it.  He’s holding it up and walking on three legs.
• My husband doesn’t like our vet.  He told me to wait a week and see if Timmy is better by then.
• My oldest son has a cold.  He has to go to school anyway.  AP classes don’t sit around and wait while you’re snorking at home.  Oh, well, he must have gotten it at school, he’ll spread it around some more.
• I think my girl is getting my son’s cold.
• I think my husband is getting my son’s cold.
• Oh, and the photo above?  I forgot to change the settings in my camera. AGAIN.  I took it it 1600 ISO, which my camera is not good at!  Grrrr.

Ahhh, that feels better!  Thank you for letting me unload all of that!  Now I can relax!  Don’t worry if you skipped my whining list.  It’s okay!  I just needed to type it!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I am too short. 4′ 10 1/2″ Strangely this doesn’t bother me except when I have to get a step stool out to reach the top shelves in my kitchen cabinets.

I think, actually, I over-think.  Almost everything.  Why can’t I just take some things at face value and move on!

I have a really good life. Way better than I ever imagined it would be.

I wish that Timmy didn’t pee in the house.

I have only 3 pairs of jeans that I like.  And the only pants I wear in the cool and cold weather is jeans.  I do a lot of laundry.

I miss Razzles.  I know, they still make them. But they just don’t taste the same to me anymore.

I fear dying while my children are still young.

I hear chainsaws and a wood chipper.  My neighbors are having tree work done.

I smell nothing.  My nose is stuffed up.  My youngest son was kind enough to pass his cold on to me.

I crave salty food, since yesterday.  I don’t know why.  Last night I grabbed the Feta cheese out of the refrigerator and cut myself a bunch of it and ate it.  It was so good.

I search.  No, I don’t really search.  Oh wait, my youngest son, a chef in the making, asked me to find cherry extract for him.  I have been searching local food stores, but so far no luck.

I wonder if anyone will bother to read all of this.

I regret my husband having thrown away our Intellivision and all the games we had for it.  The artwork on those game boxes was so cool!

I love Mexican food!  Only if it’s not too hot. I can’t take it hot.

I ache once a month.  But Advil helps.

I am not brave.  I’m pretty much a total chicken.

I believe love is the most important thing.

I dance never.  I have no coordination, or rhythm, or athletic ability.

I sing badly. Even to my own ears.

I cry too easily.

I fight procrastination. I don’t often win.

I win books!  I’ve won three books on blogs!

I lose socks.  Where the heck are they?

I never want to speak at meetings.  But sometimes I do.  It’s not so bad.

I always tell my dogs and fish to be good before I leave the house. And I tell them I’ll be back in a little while.  Really.

I confuse my husband and children.  I don’t know why.  I am always totally clear when I speak!

I listen if it’s interesting.

I can usually be found at my computer or in the kitchen.

I am scared after I watch a movie like The Exorcist.  I will never watch that movie again!

I need Lindt Truffles.  Any flavor.  Every. Day.

I am happy about my husband getting my car inspected for me this year!  Woo hoo!  I don’t have to sit at the car place and wait for it to be done!

I imagine that some day I will be able to make money doing something I love.  Don’t know if that will happen, but I imagine it!

I tag everyone!

I would love to see your responses to this meme so that I can learn more about you!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Red

Cactus in my kitchen

My daughter’s shoes

Tomato

Brick

Impatiens

Radio Flyer (Inspiration came from ELK!)

Tulip

Lime Ricky with Strawberry

Gumdrop Tree

Is there a color that you aren’t crazy about?  Wanna try the color smackdown?!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

• Lost in Space – I think this is my #1 all-time favorite show.  I wanted to be Penny. My 1st grade friend, Jeanie, also wanted to be Penny.  It was always a problem at recess because Jeanie always got her way. I was an unhappy girl most days at recess.
• The Brady Bunch – I wanted to be…yep…Marsha.  I loved her long straight hair and I wanted to get braces when she got them. I thought Jan and Cindy were dorks.  I got the Brady Christmas album and played that thing over and over.
• Gillian’s Island – I wanted to be Mary Ann. I thought being ship wreaked on an uncharted desert isle was about the coolest thing ever!  I loved the theme song.
• The Addams Family – Even as a child I noticed and loved how much Gomez loved Morticia.
• Mr. Ed – A talking horse!  What’s not to love!
• Get Smart – CONTROL, KAOS, Shoe phone!
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir – I think this was the beginning of my love of supernatural tv shows!  Oh, and I thought the ghost was handsome.
• That Girl – I don’t remember much about this show, except that I liked it.  Soon after I met my husband he said he thought I looked like That Girl.  I never saw the resemblance other than I have brown hair and so did Marlo Thomas.
• Green Acres – It had Arnold Ziffel.  He was a pig but he was treated as a human!  Also, I had Green Acres paper dolls that I loved!
• I Dream of Jeannie - I wanted to be magic. I wanted to be able to disappear into that bottle sometimes.

Now it’s your turn!  What are you remembering today?  If you have something to share with us today, leave a link to your blog post or photo in Mr. Linky.  If you don’t have a blog, tell us about a memory in the comment section.  I want to hear from everybody!  (If Mr. Linky  isn’t working, you can put your link in the comments section.)  Please remember to:

• Leave a link to the specific blog post, not to your general blog address, to make it easier for people to find your memory post.
• Make sure your link works and that it goes to your specific memory post.
• Put a link back to here in your post so that your readers can come and read about everyone’s memories!
• Visit the other participants and please leave comments on their posts!  We all love comments!
• Enjoy the party and come back next week for Monday Memories: The Twenty-ninth!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Today my kids and I have to head over to our high school.  I was not looking forward to it.  My son’s schedule for this year, 11th grade, is not what his teachers recommended.  An email to his guidance counselor got me an email back that said something along of the lines of there’s a scheduling problem with his AP Biology class and his Honors Chemistry class, so he has to either drop AP Biology, or drop down out of the Honors Chemistry class to a regular Chemistry class.  My son was told at the end of 10th grade that there was only one AP Biology class being offered this year, but it is really hard to believe that there is only one Honors Chemistry class being offered, and that the are both in the same period of the school day.   My husband was all peeved last night upon hearing all of this and he handed out the orders (yes, that’s what it felt like, orders) for me to march over to the school today and throw a hissy fit (okay, he didn’t say that exactly!) and get this fixed!  Mind you, my husband will not go to the school and do this himself.  It’s my job.

I am not a hissy fit throwing kind of person.  So I was all worried last night about how the heck am I going to do this?  I am not happy that they are telling us that his schedule won’t work.  While my husband is sure in his mind that the schedule could be fixed, but they just don’t want to bother fixing it, I’m not sure.  So after a while of worrying, suddenly it popped into my head, the solution to my worrying!  I’m not going over there today to throw a hissy fit.  I’m going over there today feeling happy and positive that we can make it work.  If they don’t want to take the time to look over all of his classes to see if rearranging can be done, I’ll offer to do it!  I figure I just need to see when each of the classes he is taking is offered and my son and I can see if this can be worked out!  When these positive thoughts popped into my head I had a couple more thoughts.  One was of the sweet vchelle of Operation You.  vchelle, this may sound silly, but I really felt your positive energy and optimism!  Thank you!  Also, I thought, can I be turning into an optimist?!  I think so!

I will now make the phone call to make the appointment to make things work out!

Please ignore that I took all of these flower photos with my camera’s ISO set on 1600.  I may be becoming an optimist, but my memory to check camera settings isn’t getting any better!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites