Dios Mio

Took the girls to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua yesterday. We usually go to the library for "story time" on Wednesdays but the library was closed for in service. I thought going to the movies would be a nice change for them.

The last movie I took them to was The Chipmunks last Christmas....Kenzie did go see Wall*E with her grandma....

Anyways...they did great. They stayed with me, were mostly interested in the movie (it totally kept their attention, which Chipmunks did NOT do), and sat in their seats very well. They talked out loud and laughed and yelled at the characters (appropriately) and it was pretty cute. There was just a couple of older women and us there so I wasn't too worried.

It was a cute movie, good for kids. It actually had a decent plot, and the animal characters were well developed. You actually had feelings for them and what they were going through. My favorite bit character was a long haired chihuahua named Montezuma, voiced by Placido Domingo....hows that for cool. Main character I liked best was probably the German Shepard, Delgado, voiced by Andy Garcia.

The think I couldn't get over was how much money it cost the three of us to go to a 12:20 in the afternoon movie. Whatever happened to matinee pricing...and kids under 5???

I mean it was one adult and two kids: ages 3 and 4..it cost us 18.00 bucks for tickets....then to get drinks and popcorn....

The kid size drinks were almost 5 bucks each... a bag of popcorn was 5 bucks...so for the three of us it was cheaper to get the HUGE BIG ASS, GiGANTIC bucket of popcorn to share. Thoughtfully, they will give you two brown bags to share the popcorn out of the HBAG bucket.
So thoughtful....those drinks and the HBAGBP cost us another 19 bucks... so, basically for 2 toddlers and a mom going to a matinee it was $40.00 activity. That's ridiculous!!

No wonder NetFlix is thriving..who can afford to go out to movies? In this floundering economy? Ouch!!!

BUT...overall it was a good time, the girls loved it and that makes it all worthwhile to me.

Just Another Day

Not sure what to write about today. I said I was going to keep up with this blog so here I am pecking away.

The girls went to school today. Took them around 9 today..they had had enough of Mom for awhile and were being their little defiant selves this morning. Came home, exercised and cleaned up around the house.

My mom called and I talked with her for awhile. This is Veteran's Day and my best friend here had the day off. (she teaches school) Went over to her house and we went out for lunch. Had mexican food and a good long talk. She always helps recharge me and gives me some good adult time.

After lunch I went to the grocery store and then ran some other errands. Went and picked up the girl around 4. Came home and had a typical evening with Brad and the girls.

We are trying to get them to start eating what he and I are having for dinner. They are definitely old enough to eat the same things we have. They are just really really fighting it. It is a horrible power struggle. They absolutely refuse to try anything new. I make very kid friendly meals too. It's so crazy.

Macaroni and cheese, corn, green beans, tacos, sloppy joes, mashed potatoes, my little one won't even eat bread with butter....
I don't know what it's going to take to get them to try anything new.

We will keep struggling through this and they'll get tired of being so stubborn and get curious.

One of the things that I did during my long hiatus from the blog world was attend my 20 year class reunion.

Now I have to say I did go to the 10 year and it was the pits for me. I was in a horrible place in my life at that time. It was right before I asked for my divorce. I was not a happy person at that time.

The 10 year was just what everyone always says it is....a "look at me and what I have done" reunion. Most of the people still seemed to fit right back into their roles from highschool.

The 20 year was not like that at all. Everyone was so much more open and excited about seeing each other. It wasn't about what you had, or how you looked, or what you did for a living. It was just people who grew up together having a good time together. We had sooo much fun!

We had a nice reunion website for our class and most of us took part in the message forum there. Many people are still using it after the reunion. I found some of my old pictures to put up for everyone to get a good laugh. I'm gonna share some of the old with some of the new for you.

You finally get to see some pics of little kid me.

We had so much fun together that I don't think we are gonna wait another 10 years....I think we will have a 25 instead. A bunch of people want to go and take a 40th birthday cruise together...Brad didn't seem to like the idea too much..I think he thought we had TOO MUCH fun....hmmmm.

Post # 201!!! Yes, I missed 200 yesterday!

So yeah, I have offically made 200 posts. It has only taken me 3 years.... My first post was on Nov. 19, 2005. At the time I had a 15 month old and an almost 3 month old....hard to believe.
I was still struggling terribly with post-partem anxiety, and started blogging to try and do a little cathartic writing. It seemed to have helped.
I've learned alot about myself, others, and blogging in these 3 years. I've learned what not to write and what you can get away with. I've made some cool blogworld friends along the way.
My favvy people I have met through blogging would have to be: Ian, Diner Girl and Bernie. Thanks for sticking with me and reading all my crazy ramblings!
My first comment was from one of my former students, Nickey. She is a very cool person and I love when I have the time to chat with her. I am so proud of her and her accomplishments so far in life. And, hopefully I had a little bit of a hand in helping her get there.
I have my brother, my best friend from college, and one of my friends from back in Little Rock on my list over there --->

In honor of this momentous occasion I am going to put up a few links to some of my favorite past posts. Enjoy!

My ALL TIME FAVORITE! (in three parts)

"Bats: Part 1"

"Bats: Part 2"

"Bats: A Disclaimer"

"Weird Thoughts"

"Lunch with Friends and Movie Musings"

"So Much to Write about Today"

"Thinking Way too Hard"

"30 Years and Going Strong: The Force is Strong in this One"



I was gonna put 10 posts up but only really found 8 that I liked alot... if any of you have one you liked better, let me know!

A trip back to August: The Girls' Birthday Party

This year Kenzie turned 4 and Lyanna turned 3. I like to let them pick their birthday theme so when the birthday magazine came in I let them look through it and tell me what they liked. Kenzie wanted Spiderman or Star Wars...Lyanna wanted Hello Kitty.... Not a good combination. We managed to find a compromise: Scooby Doo.

I found a place here that rented a Scooby Doo jump around. I made a Scooby cake and a Mystery Machine cake. We had the back yard totally done with the playground ready for all the kids to play.

We played pin the tail on Scooby, we had a Scooby pinata, we had a dogbone hunt, and a doggy bone drop game. It was alot of fun and I gave out prizes. I found two stuffed Scooby Doos and 2 Double feature Scooby Doo videos.

We had hamburgers and hot dogs and it was a blast! I think everyone had a great time.

Get Out there and VOTE!

Yep, 2 in a Row!

Told ya I was gonna post. Not much happening today. It was a beautiful day, temps in the 70's.

Was awakened this morning by my 4 year old. She gets up almost every morning at 7 am and crawls into bed with me to snuggle. It is a most awesome way to greet the day. My 3 year old isn't too far behind...but when she gets in the bed it's play time.

Was in such a good mood this morning I made pancakes and bacon for the girls.

Got us all dressed and off to the park we went. We swung on the swings, played on the see saws, did a little sliding and ran around in the leaves. Got some awesome pics of the girls in the leaves.

Went to the grocery store, came home and ate lunch, watched a little T&J. (for those of you not in the know: T&J = Tom and Jerry)

Brad came home around 3:30 and we all messed around in the yard and played with the doggies. It was a really good afternoon.

Put the girls to bed around 8 and we have been alternating between the Skins game and the Saturday Night Live Election Bash thingy...

Just a little put out by the liberal media... out of all the skits they have done tonight there has not been a one poking fun at Barack. The only thing they show is a "commercial" they did when he and Hillary were still vying for the nomination. I think that is pathetic.. if they do have a skit poking fun at Nobama someone let me know....equal ridicule for all I say!!

Regardless of your political views...go out and vote tomorrow. It's a right and a priviledge. You can help shape the future!

Something freezeth over....

Yep, I'm writing again. I have decided in my efforts to keep from totally losing my sanity in the crazy ass world we live in, I NEED to express myself through writing. It is an outlet for me...so, I am going to put aside 15 minutes each day to try and get something blogged here for anyoone who happens to be around.



We had an AWESOME Halloween party Friday night. The basement was rockin'. As one friend put it..."you had line dancing in your basement...you know it was a great party."

We had a great group of people and almost everyone came in costume.

I will have pictures for you to enjoy. Don't have one of myself yet, hopefully one of my friends will send me one. I think I have pictures of everyone else though.



We had the bar offically open with a bartender and everything. It was actually a "stock the bar" Halloween party. We asked our friends to bring their favorite bottle of spirits or liqeur to stock the bar for this party and future gatherings. It was fun to see what everyone brought.



The girls stayed upstairs with the babysitter and went to bed no problems..amazing!!



We partied til about 1:30 am. Went to bed around 2...and Lyanna was up at 3....and then 4:30. THEN Kenzie was up at 7. I got up and fixed breakfast for the girls and tried to sleep on the couch while they watched cartoons. Wasn't going to happen..they would not leave me alone. I am still trying to recover some sleep.



Today: We went and saw Sarah Palin! Was very cool. Brad says she it even hotter in person than she is on the television. She spoke very well, and got the crowd going. Sad thing is the only news that was covering her....the local station and Fox News. It is such a sad statement of how things are going when there is only one national news program that is following a Vpresidential candidate two days before the election.



So....anyways.. there's a little of what went on this weekend. Hopefully I'll be talking to you again tomorrow!



Happy Belated Halloween!

New Friend in the Blog World

Everyone say hello to Carly. "Life According to Carly Q". Her blog is now listed in my roll.

She's another mommy trying her best in this crazy world of parentdom and recently started blogging. She so kindly found this blog o' mine and made some nice comments. :)

I think she is a great addition.

I Hate Fn Drugs!

Damn it, damn it, damn it! Expect more that sucks....

So...Kenzie has pink eye. I knew that was what she had Saturday. Luckily the doctor gave me extra drops the last time she had pink eye so I started giving her the drops Saturday night.

Tonight I start feeling like my eyes are itchy and I think "oh great, I'm getting pink eye now too".. the doc told me last time if I felt like I was getting it to just use the drops too....so I did tonight. Fuck if it doesn't have an anithistimine in it....

Unlike most people who get drowsy with an antihistimine I have the opposite reaction. So there I was at midnight, lying in my bed having hot flashes, my heart beating 100 mph, and with the shakes. I KNEW it was the eye drops but I was so messed up at the time that I didn't want to get up and look it up on the internet.

So now it's like 2 am and I'm up and typing and waiting for the drugs to start wearing off so I can settle down and go to sleep. At least I know I'm not losing my mind.... stupid ass drugs. Why can't I just be like most folks and get sleepy instead of wired.

Now I just feel sick to my stomach and all jumpy and shit. This sucks...

And now my Castles at the Beach!

We went to Florida this year for our July vacation. Found a lovely area not overdeveloped. We had a nice quiet beach house with white sand on the ocean. Loved It!!

Built two awesome sandcastles..at least we think they were. Here are our two efforts. :)

This first one is more of a traditional castle...a moat around the towers, bridge to the castle, open center for the girls to put their toys in.

This next castle was inspired by too many late nights watching King Kong movies and other sacrifice the virgin type shows...

Notice the grand central tower, huge moat and walls, crude wooden structures and the final touch...the guards. Some transformer dude and a couple of plastic sharks.

A Return to Older Ways

Sunday used to be poetry day. I think I shall try that again. I like poetry, I like to read it, I like to share it, and sometimes I even think that I can write it...

Looking foward to the next few months and my favorite time of year...a haiku. I think it is not that great..but I tried.

Autumn is now here
Crisp breeze blows bright reddish leaves
Crunch crunch underfoot

Another Day and Hey look! I wrote something!

Well, it has been a looong day. The girls go to their new "school" on Tuesdays so I had the day to myself...sort of.

After a bazillion gallons of rain turned our back yard into a muddy mountain, the landscapers decided to dig in anyway. We have a few strips of grass left back there. They made a dirt road down the side of the yard for the bobcat to carry the many loads of brick down. I do have pictures now to share with you..but I'm still working on the presentation. So...at 8 am the trucks started lining up again. We even have a beautiful blue Port a potty in our back yard!! I'm was mortified when they brought it and left it at the end of the street yesterday instead of taking it down in the back.... WHAT are the neighbors gonna say if a Port a potty is left in the middle of our street!!!???!! But whew...they took it down below the mud pit today.

We also had part of the bar finished today. All that's really left is the plumbing, electrical, and the actual bar top...we'll see how long that takes to get done.

I had a meeting with one of my Mom's Club buddies to work on our webpage and a survey...was over at her house til around 1:30 or so..then grocery store. Managed to do some laundry and clean the girl's car seats...ick!!! So was a productive day too!

I am also working on a memorial of a sort that I will be sharing with you all soon.

Just because I haven't shared in so long here are two pictures of the girls.

Reading, reading, reading, reading,reading.....

Got this from Ian at Perpetual Writer's Block...



The Big Read, an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts, has estimated that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed. How do you do?



1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.


2) Italicize those you intend to read.


3) Underline ( I just changed the color) the books you LOVE.



1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen


2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien


3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte


4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling


5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee


6 The Bible


7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte


8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell


9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman


10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens


11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott


12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy


13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller


14 Complete Works of Shakespeare


15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier


16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien


17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks


18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger


19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger


20 Middlemarch - George Eliot


21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell


22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald


23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens


24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy


25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams


26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh


27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky


28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck


29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll


30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame


31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy


32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens3


3 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis


34 Emma - Jane Austen


35 Persuasion - Jane Austen


36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis


37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini


38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres


39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden


40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne


41 Animal Farm - George Orwell


42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown


43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


WHERE DID 44GO?


45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins


46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery


47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy


48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood


49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding


50 Atonement - Ian McEwan


WHERE IS 51?


52 Dune - Frank Herbert


53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons


54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen


55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth


56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon


57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens


58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley


59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon


60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck


62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov


63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt


64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold


65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas


66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac


67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy


68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding


69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie


70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville


71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens


72 Dracula - Bram Stoker


73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett


74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill


75 Ulysses - James Joyce


76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath


77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome


78 Germinal - Emile Zola


79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray


80 Possession - AS Byatt


81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens


82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell


83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker


84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro


85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert


86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry


87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White


88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom


89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton


91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad


92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery


93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks


94 Watership Down - Richard Adams


95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole


96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute


97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas


98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare


99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl


100 Les Miserables - Victor HugoHey





36 out of 100 not too bad. Even missing a couple. :) How did you do? The ones that I marked in red (that I luv them) I have read multiple times.

Exasperations....is that a word?

Okay, I was all ready to put up my pictures of THE PROJECT and get to blogging again, but of course things never go as planned.

Since I wiped my laptop clean, I've had to put all my programs back on. There is a specific driver for our Canon Digital that I have to go and download and it is the most difficult driver to get to work after you have it downloaded. I can't figure the damn thing out. I open it and run it and hook up the camera and nothing happens.... I restart the computer and still nothing happens. So...as of right now, no pictures.

The landscapers wanted to wait til July to start THE PROJECT because they wanted to yard to be nice and dry. It is better for them to move all their heavy equipment and to pack the dirt down into the nice new level area they are creating for us.... Guess what happened over the weekend. You got it RAIN!

It rained more these past 4 days than it has all year long I think. Our back yard is once again a huge mountain of mud. So.. I don't know what they are going to do today. I'm worried that it is going to set them back a couple of weeks if it keeps raining and doesn't dry out some. UGH!

I will try and dowload the pictures on Brad's computer and see if I can't get something going with that. BUT... I did write again today! Two in a row! Whoo hoo!!

So.. I promise I will write now

I know I know, it has been FOREVER since I have posted with any sort of consistency. I am going to try and do better. I have been in the doldrums...bored...depressed...blah.

My computer had a virus and that didn't help things either. BUT, I have my laptop up and running like new and I'm feeling more "up" now.

I want to capture what is happening around the household again. So what if most of my posts are about my girls. They are cute and are my life, why wouldn't I write about them? DUH!

Right now we are starting on a epic project in our back yard. We are totally landscaping it out. A HUGE retaining wall is going in and we are planning for putting in a pool in the next couple of years. I am going to keep you all up to date with daily photos. I already have shots of the first three days which I will post shortly.

I hope that some of my old readers will wander back through and find me, and maybe I'll get some new ones as well...

So, I'm back ladies and gents!

The Adventure Continues.....

It has been a while. I have been very lax and un motivated. BUT....I just got home EARLY this morning from 7 days of fun in the sun and feel a renewed burst of writing energy....yeah that must be it.

I am practically sleep walking today... we got in at 4 am this morning. That is a very interesting finale' to the vacation story which I will divulge after I get at least one night of 8 hours of sleep.

I managed to keep up with the girls today until around 6 pm. Then I had to ask the gracious help of my inlaws. They are keeping the girls tonight for us so we can get a full night of precious precious sleep. I missed them like crazy, and I didn't really want to be away from them another night, but realistically..... if I didn't get some sleep, I wasn't going to be able to hang out with them anyway.

On a downside..... If you watch CNN you will know that tornadoes hit Arkansas Saturday night. My hometown of Stuttgart was hit by a F3. It did a lot of damage to the town. Luckily no one in my family was hurt. (My parents were here, my brother and his family were okay, and my grandparents are okay) There was some damange to their homes, cars, yards...but no deaths in the town and no serious injuries. God is good!! Whatever your beliefs, please pray for those less fortunate who have lost loved ones and homes. It is so hard to see the devastation left in mother nature's wake.

So... I am home, I had fun, many stories to tell, and everyone in the fam is safe!! Catch you all later!!

One Word Survey

The One Word Survey
Yourself: Frizzled
Your Partner: Busy
Your Hair: Long
Your Mother: Dry
Your Father: Goofball
Your Favorite Item: Dunno
Your Dream Last Night: Clubship
Your Favorite Drink: Coke
Your Dream Car: Convertible
Your Dream Home: Beach
The Room You Are In: Sunny
Your Fear: Sickos
Where Do You Want To Be In 10 Years: Here
Who You Hung Out With Last: Kids
What You're Not: Bored
Muffins: Stud?
One of Your Wish List Items: Time
Time: 3:40 pm
Last Thing You Did: Bills
What Are You Wearing: Blue
Your Favorite Weather: Fall
Your Favorite Book: The Long Walk
Last Thing You Ate: Oreos
Your Mood: Optimistic
Your Best Friends: Few
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: Reading
Your Car: Caravan
Your Summer: Outside
Relationship Status: Married
What's on Your TV: Nada
What is Your Weather Like: GORGEOUS!
When is the Last Time You Laughed: Minutes

BLEH!

I feel completely and utterly dull. I really have nothing to type about... I could put up the usual proud mommy drivel: Kenzie is starting to use the potty almost all the time, Lyanna is still very cute.... but I dunno that doesn't seem very exciting.

I could put up some new pictures ...the one's of the girls from Easter are really nice..but that goes along with the proud mommy stuffage.

I could talk about how my class is starting to get things rolling for our 20th class reunion...that IS kind of interesting, but I'm not sure what I want to say about that.

Our basement is almost finished. We got our jukebox last week. It is SWEET and I'm loving putting music on it and listening to it.

I'm reading Stephen King. Discovering how much I like his Dark Tower books again.. *I'm on the 2nd one*

Spring needs to get here, I'm sick of being cooped up in the house, I want to go visit my family in Arkansas, but that isn't possible right now...... and I wish I had more close friends here in Ohio.

BLEH!

The Flu

I have the flu..it sucks. I haven't had the flu since my sophomore year of college. I have been sick since Saturday. That is 6 days of feeling like crap. Sore throat, fever, coughing, aches, pounding heard, congestion, runny nose...

My poor legs hurt so bad the other night, it was like someone had beaten me up. I don't have fever anymore and no more body aches, but I am sooo weak feeling and still not up to really eating much.

The girls are sick too. We finally ventured forth from the house today...to go to the doctor. They were still running fevers after 5 days so I was a little worried. They had ear infections on top of everything else. So.. antibiotics for them and hopefully that will push them over the line towards getting better.

This sucks for our Easter though... I don't even know if we'll all be up for going to church on Sunday. I had gotten them the cutest little Easter dresses to wear too. Bleh!

Being sick sucks!! As always...

and many a Saturday afternoon......

If any of you had any doubts about my total geekdom, this post should but them to rest forever:

I was catching up on my news this morning before the girls woke up and found this obituary in the technology section of all places.

"Gary Gygax, Dungeons & Dragons creator, dies"

I was introduced to the game in 1981. I was chosen to participate in a gifted program held at one of the universitys in Arkansas. It was a two week program and we had one main class each day and then two side classes (one each week). I believe those two weeks help shape me and the person I became tremendously. My main class was "Medieval Studies". We talked about the Crusades, the Plague, Shakespeare, Jousting, Knights, Religion.... just what it was called: Medieval Studies. That began my love for the romantic notion of that time period: knights, maidens, kings, crusades... I also read the Arthurian Legend series by Mary Stewart during that time.

We had lunch and free time before our mini classes. One of the free time activities was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wanted to find out what it was all about and went and played. I was hooked! It wasn't long after that my mom found an add in our local paper asking for anyone interested in joining a D&D group to call. Of course I called and began playing almost every Saturday afternoon with a large group of guys. I was 11/12/13 years old playing this amazing game with a bunch of goofy guys.

I believe we had a good solid group of 8 players who met regularly and played together. We took turns meeting at each other's homes. I fell in love with fantasy books, games, shows, movies.... and I still am to this day. I've played D&D, and then later in life an online game called Evernight

I've been elves, humans, gnomes, dwarves, demons, fighters, pixies, magic users....I've been a good gal and a bad one...I've even been a guy a few times. I guess I just think it's fun to get to play at being someone or something else every now and then.

Good bye Gary, thanks for all the hours and hours of fun and fantasy!

Stayin Alive: A Music Meme

Got this meme from my brother over at Terhune's Tangent. It's a little varient of another meme that some of us have done before. Makes me think of making my own version up...something to work on when I have more time....


The rules:
1. Put your music player on Shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT. (This is in capital letters, so it is very serious.)

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
O.P.P. by Naughty by Nature
My goodness that's interersting isn't it?

2. WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Jaime's Cryin by Van Halen
Hmmm, what the hell does that say about me...Leahe don't you even say a word.

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Hot! Hot! Hot! by The Cure
Okay that one made me laugh out loud

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Shake it Up by The Cars
Sure why not..

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Cherry Pie by Warrant
Oh my Gawd....

6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Shake Me by Cinderella
Hmmm there seems to be a theme here

7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Wild Thing by Ton Loc
Damn...it just gets better with each song...

8. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Truth Hits Everybody by The Police
I just don't know what to say about that one..

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Planet Earth by Duran Duran
That's a nice one

10. WHAT IS 2+2?
Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran
2 in a row by a band with a double name....?

11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Toxic by Britney Spears
Hell yeah..

12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
I Beg Your Pardon by Kon Kan
This is so appropriate....

13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Real Gone by Sheryl Crow
"I was born in the south sometimes I have a big mouth....."

14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Poison by Bell Biv Devoe
so funny...

15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Stranglehold by Ted Nugent
That is hilarious....

16. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Living Dead Girl by Rob Zombie
Oooo that is so not right..

17. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Mambo #5 by Lou Bega

18. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Burning Down the House by Talking Heads
Excellent!

19. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol
That is soooo very true! LMAO

20. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
You Wreck Me by Tom Petty
um...okay...

21. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
One Thing Leads to Another by The Fixx

22. WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?
Stayin Alive by N'Trance
Ah ah ah ah....

Movies that Don't Suck....

I used to be a real movie buff. There weren't too many movies that I hadn't seen..even the very off the wall independent type ones. There are some movies that didn't get great reviews or didn't do well at the box office, but I LOVE to watch them. They don't suck. At least in my opinion.....as much as that counts. My husband doesn't share the same taste in movies that I do, so my viewing has dropped considerably since we got married....plus it's so hard to get to the movies when you have two toddlers and not a real good babysitter. AND when we do get a chance to go out, we really don't feel like sitting in the theater for two hours. We'd rather go somewhere where we can talk with each other and hang out together more because we seldom get to do that anmore.

So, I'm not up to date on my new movies. I have to wait for them to come out on one of the movie channels or on DVD so I can see them. I watched Casino Royale the other night. I was very impressed. It was like watching an old school Bond movie again. None of the political correctness bullshit that ruined the last few. Daniel Craig is an awesome James Bond. I have to admit I was skeptical about the movie. I was so disappointed with the "Remington Steele" set of Bond movies.. I watched the first one and said nope, not buying it.... After watching Casino Royale, I'm back on the Bond bandwagon.

Anyone out there have any suggestions for newer movies that don't suck? I like action, horror, suspense, sci-fi, fantasy, I'll even watch a good drama. I just have to be in the mood for a drama...sometimes I just don't feel like crying.

Stitches

So, I've had two or three people bust me out for not blogging. It is just sooo hard right now to sit down and put the time into a post. I feel like I have a bazillion different projects half assed done...things sitting around that I've never gotten back to finish that I've forgotten that they even existed to begin with.

As I sit here typing, my husband walks by and says: "What are you doing?". He is waiting for me to come down in our new basement "play room" and hang out with him. Which I also want to do, but want to finish this post too.

Many things have happend since Valentine's Day. Which, by the way, was a very nice day. The main incident being a trip to the emergency room with Lyanna. Nothing too serious, just a nasty gash under her lip that had to have stitches. It pretty much sucked.

We think Kenzie pushed her and she either fell into the gate or bit through her lip. She had like 5 stitches in her little face. It was so sad. They put her arms in a pillowcase and wrapped her up in a blanket so she couldn't jerk around and grab at the doctor and then we had to hold her down. It was totally traumatic for her. THEN we had to go and have the our this Friday..that was even worse. I didn't think the doctor was ever going to finish... she bled more when they came out than we she first got the cut!

She was very brave for a 2 year old who had a strange man sticking sharp instruments in her face.

Much snow has fallen, I am ready for spring....and that's all I have time for right now. I leave you with a picture of the stitched up li'l one.

Construction

Oh my Dear Lord...have any of you ever had work done on your home. I don't mean a little handyman job, but real construction done in your home...while you are living in it? Let me tell you, if you haven't, try not to.



Since the week before Christmas I have had strange men in my basement almost everyday. It sucks...

Manic Monday: Heart

Heart: Some Quotes


Chinese proverb
If I keep a green bough in my heart, then the singing bird will come.

Lao Tzu, 6th century B.C.
When pure sincerity forms within, it is outwardly realized in other people's hearts.

Confucius
Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.

Carl Jung
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart ... Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.

James Earl Jones
One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.

Goethe
All the knowledge I possess everyone can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul's emphasis is always right.

Benjamin Franklin
The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise man is in his heart.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The holiest of all holidays are those Kept by ourselves in silence and apart, The secret anniversaries of the heart...

Little Personalities

I used to wonder what my little brothers would be like when we all grew up. I would watch them playing or listen to what they talked about, what their interests were and wonder what kind of adults they would both be. Neither of them turned out quite the way I thought. They turned out better than anything I could have thought up. I think they are both awesome, and they are my best friends.

Now I watch my girls and think about their futures.

I always thought Kenzie was going to be the girly girl. She is so petite and has the long slightly curly hair. Lyanna is stockier and has a deeper voice. She doesn't have much hair and people were always calling her son, and little guy....they still do at times. We thought she would be the little tom-boy. Not so, not so...already their little personalities are shining through.

Kenzie is the drama queen of the two. Everything with her is traumatic and she uses lots of hand gestures and whining and manipulation techniques. I've never seen a little girl who can bat her eyes and give you "the look" like she can. BUT...she is our little tom-boy. She loves Superman, Batman, Transformers, and today she discovered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I take her to the library every Tuesday now. The book she picked out for herself this past Tuesday was a Marvel Comics book. It has stories about Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, and The X-men. I think that is pretty sweet cause I was a Marvel girl. Read all those comics. This book also came with a DVD with the cartoons of all of the comics. She has watched this DVD so many times now I'm surprised it's not warped. She wants to wear Thomas clothes, Sponge Bob and Transformer boys underwear. It cracks me up.

Lyanna is the easy going one. She has the worst temper and when she gets mad EVERYONE knows it. *must be the red hair syndrome* But, for the most part she is very laid back and just goes along with the flow. She has also turned out to be the frilly girly girl. She loves to put headbands on and a little barette in her hair, now that she has hair. She wants to wear dresses every day and gets mad if they are all dirty. She calls herself "Princess Lyanna" and dances twirls in the living room. She wants all her clothes to be pink too.

Total opposites... which is nice. It would be boring if they were just alike. I just wonder how much of how they are now will last. They are growing up so fast.....

Stubborness... I know where she gets it.

Just in a slump here in Crazy Mom world. Dealing with a strong willed child, which is sooooo frustrating at times. Defiance is just hard to deal with. Specially when it's coming from a 3 year old. You need to discipline, but you don't want to over do it. We are trying out this Dr. Phelan's "1-2-3 Magic". It seems to be working. Anyone else out there used it? Any of you tried to get a really strong willed child to start using the potty?

She will not go to the potty. Doesn't want to go, doesn't care if she goes around with poop or pee in her pants. It's crazy.... I think she just doesn't want to take the time to go to the bathroom. She's just too busy to go. She's smart, she knows when she needs to go..... she's so stubborn.

So we are up to trying anything. Went to the store and she wanted some underwear. Big boy underwear. I didn't care, she could wear boxers if she would just use the potty. Well, we picked out Transformers and Sponge Bog undies. Got home that night and got them out... if you have ever paid attention to little boys underwear, the pictures are across the butt.

Well, she wants to be able to see the picture of "Bumblebee" so.....she puts the underwear on backwards. Can't get her to turn them around for anything.... not a fight worth fighting in my opinion. Now, not only does she have on boys undies she has them on backwards. Is that not the funniest? Oh, and ....she still won't use the potty.

Welcome to Winston: AKA "Guchi"..and yes I meant to spell it that way

We have lost our minds here in the Smith house.

This is the newest member of the Smith family, Winston. Brad and I named him that, but the girls say his name is Guchi. I refuse to spell it Gucci because I'm not going to name my dog after some overly expensive name brand crap.

He is the cutest little dog ever!!! He is an 8 week old Lhasa-poo. We got him today...Brad says "Happy Valentine's Day".

The girls like him, but aren't real into him. I was sort of surprised. But that's okay because he's really tiny and we debated getting him because we thought they might hurt him. So far so good. He's really smart, and has even gone outside every time we've taken him. Only tried to pee in the house once and got him outside before he finished.

Just Randomness again...but I'm Posting!

So, in an effort to continue on, even though I don't really feel like I have much to talk about. I'm going to write tonight.

The hubby and I got to have a little time alone this evening. We took the girls to a "parents night out" activity. They got to play for three hours and we got to go out to eat alone. It was soooo nice. We went to the hibachi restaurant tonight. Yummy! I had part of a crab roll, seaweed salad, and filet mignon with fried rice and veggies. A nice glass of cabernet to go with it, and we sat with a very nice family.

Then we were off to the furniture store to look for a new love seat, and Lowe's to look for hardware for our new door we bought for the basement.

The basement is coming along well. They dry wall is totally up and patched and sanded. The ceiling is painted and they are going to texturize it tomorrow. THEN...they will prime the walls, and then they will paint!!! I can't wait to see how it looks once it is painted!! After the paint the moulding is going up and it will look like real rooms.

The girls and I spent the day at the in-laws house while the guys sanded the dry wall. I didn't really want Lyanna around all that dust with her allergies and asthma. We'll see how she does with the paint fumes....

Hmmm, what else is going on that I haven't gotten to share? I dunno.... still sad over Heath Ledger's death. Trying to get my husband to buy me a new cellphone. I hate the one's we have right now soooo bad that I've never even set up my voicemail on this one... I think I've had it over a year or so. I don't even have any contacts on it. It sucks much ass and I want to get rid of it so bad I can hardly stand it.

I've been reading alot, just finished the 5th Harry Potter book, Harlequin by Laurel K. Hamilton, and I FINALLY finished The Thirteenth Tale. Which I have to say was very good once I got into it a bit. I just started re-reading The Gunslinger books. I decided to re-read the whole series because I stopped with The Wizard and the Glass and I need to refresh my memory before finishing all the new books.

I'm in Mourning

So... I surf over to CNN to check out what's going on in the world, and here's the top story of the hour:

Actor Heath Ledger dies at 28

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Actor Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday of a possible drug overdose in a Lower Manhattan apartment, the New York Police Department said.
The Academy Award nominated actor was 28.
"Pills were found in the vicinity of the bed," police spokesman Paul Browne told CNN.
"This is being looked at as a possible overdose, but that is not confirmed yet."
The pills appeared to be over-the-counter sleeping medication, said police spokeswoman Barbara Chen.
Ledger was unresponsive when he was found by a housekeeper who had gone to wake him for an appointment with a masseuse in the Soho apartment, Browne said.
Ledger was declared dead at about 3:30 p.m., Browne said.

A crowd of onlookers, photographers and reporters gathered outside the apartment building after news of Ledger's death was reported. Police officers were guarding the doors.
Ledger was born in Perth, Australia, and named Heathcliff Andrew after the main characters of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights." He began acting at a local theater as a child.
Ledger's first American film was the teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You" in 1999, and he immediately attracted attention from Hollywood. He passed up several scripts before taking a role in the Revolutionary War drama "The Patriot" in 2000 and "A Knight's Tale" in 2001. He also played a supporting role in "Monster's Ball," among other films.

"In a way I was spoon-fed a career," he told the Glasgow Herald in 2005. "It was fully manufactured by a studio that believed it could put me on their posters and turn me into a product. ... I hadn't figured out properly how to act, and all of a sudden I was being thrown into these lead roles."
But Ledger was perhaps best known for his 2005 portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain," about two cowboys who had a secret romantic relationship. The role earned him an Oscar nomination.
"I felt that choices were being made for me, so I feel this has been my time now to find the good stories and test myself," Ledger told the Glasgow Herald in the 2005 interview. "It has been an interesting year, where I finally have a sense of accomplishment."
Asked how he felt about filming love scenes with another man, Ledger said he and his co-star Jake Gyllenhaal simply focused on their roles.
"We can't say that we weren't nervous about it," Ledger told Oprah Winfrey in 2006. "But once the first take was over, it's like, 'OK. So what? It's kissing another human being. How are we going to finish this scene? Let's get on with it and let's get out of here.' "
In a written statement, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said it mourns Ledger's death, adding that his portrayal of Del Mar "changed hearts and minds in immeasurable ways."
Ledger has a daughter, Matilda Rose, born in 2005 to his then-girlfriend, Michelle Williams, who played his on-screen wife, Alma, in "Brokeback Mountain." The couple have since separated.
"He was just so respected in the industry," said Kim Serafin, senior editor of In Touch Weekly.
"It's just horribly tragic. He was just a fine actor and a good person, so this is horribly sad and very unexpected."
CNN's Deb Feyerick and Susan Chun contributed to this story.

Anyone who has been reading my blog since the early days knows that Heath Ledger was one of my favorite actors. Such a waste of a young, promising life....

My first post for 2008

Hey ya'll. I know it's been awhile...wonder if ya'll are around to even read anymore? If you have come by and checked this blog I thank you for being so faithful. Leave me a lil comment so I know you're there.

Things here are crazy at the moment. We are finishing out our basement. It is going to be hella cool when it's finished. It has been dubbed "The Man Cave" by several folks.

There will be a sitting area complete with large screen t.v., kick ass surround audio, and nice leather seating. There will be a new fireplace. (pics of fireplace in progress to be added at bottom of this post) There will be a pool table area. (This all in a Razorback theme...Wooooo Pig Soooie!) There will be a bar for entertaining.

We also have a full bath, an exercise room and ...........

I will have my very own craft room to do all my artsy fartsy crafting stuffage. YAY!!!

I can hardly wait!!

The fam is doing well. The girls are great..they are going through a very defiant period right now and driving me and the hubby crazy at times. We took them for their first hair cuts yesterday...that was an experience. No one was hurt but many tears were shed.

Hmmm...Christmas was great. I will eventually post some piccys from that time too. As you can tell I'm not doing a very good job of keeping up with things right now. It's been very hard to post. Everytime I seem to get a moment to sit down, something happens or comes up and I have to quit. It will slow down again eventually.

Got to go and see what the oldest child is screaming about now....