I'm Tryinggggggggggggg....bleh

Okay, so I haven't been blogging much lately. Even Jason is complaining. How can he keep up with his family's gossip, if I don't post it on the Internet for the world to see?

But, you see, it's hot. Really hot. And I am so drained. Not a witty bone in my body.

Tomorrow, I will receive my Club Digital (several scrapbooking kits) plus my DET list of kits to use for the month. And I won't know what to do with any of them. And my next session of DSU 198 starts tomorrow. Thank goodness that class is already written and I can wait until chat day to be inspiring. And I'll need a blog prompt for tomorrow morning. Got one?

Yeah, I'm thinking we need to move to Alaska. I'm melting here, and my brain is fried.

Thank you for stopping by to view my ramble. Send me a good thunderstorm to break the humidity and I might just have something interesting to say!

What a meme!!!

1. Have you ever been searched by the cops? Um, no. My car has been searched by MPs though. No worries, it's common practice on Army posts to do random searches. They didn't find anything more incriminating than a dirty diaper and migraine medicine.

2. Do you close your eyes on a roller coaster? Heck no!!! But I do hold my breath on steep slopes, it keeps my stomach from zooming up through my mouth.

3. When's the last time you've been sledding? Sorry to say, never.

4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone? Welllll, I'll preface this by saying I love my husband very much and value our time together. That said, he just got home from 24 hour duty and I did sleep REALLY well last night, right smack in the middle of the bed!

5. Do you believe in ghosts? Yup. And our dog, Gracie, can see them. It's the only time she ever barks.

6. Do you consider yourself creative? I am wondrously creative!!!

7. Do you think O.J. killed his wife? Yes. 'Nuff said.

8. Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie? (silly, I know ... but very "now") Jennifer Aniston. But I'm not a big Brad Pitt fan, so he can have Angelina and let Jen get someone better.

9. Can you honestly say you know ANYTHING about politics? I know a lot about politics. But I don't enjoy politics, so I don't pay a lot of attention.

10. Do you know how to play poker? I did in college, not sure if I remember everything now. A pair of two's will beat just about everything, right? No?

11. Have you ever been awake for 48 hours straight?! Hmmmm, I don't think so. 24 hours, definitely. 36, probably. 48, no.

12. What's your favorite commercial? I hate commercials. But the PetSmart (or is it PetCo?) commercial with the dachshund that has a toy longer than himself is hilarious.

13. Who was your first love? Mike Webb. (Ooooh, I wonder if that will get me some interesting Google search links? Hi Mike!)

14. If you're driving in the middle of the night, and no one is around you, do you run a red light? Nope. I'm horribly boring like that.

15. Do you have a secret that no one knows but you? I don't think so. Jason and my best friend from college know just about everything there is to know. OH! Um, yeah, I just thought of something.

16. Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees? Couldn't care less. Now ask me San Francisco Giants or Oakland A's, definitely the Giants!

17. Have you ever been Ice Skating? Not for years, but I loved it when I was a kid.

18. How often do you remember your dreams? The scary ones I usually remember, that's about it though.

19. What's the one thing on your mind? I'm hungry.

20. Do you always wear your seat belt? YES! Why wouldn't you?

21. What talent do you wish you had? I wish I could really dance.

22. Do you like Sushi? I've had some I liked, but I've had more that I didn't.

23. What do you wear to bed? Really sexy cotton boxers and an old t-shirt. I can't sleep if I'm not comfortable.

24. Do you truly hate anyone? Wow. That's a serious question. I really don't think I do. I dislike some people, dislike their actions, but hate is stronger than that.

25. If you could sleep with one famous person, who would it be? Sleep as in "rest quietly beside until morning"? No? Um, I don't think I'd turn away Joaquin Phoenix if he came knocking on my door. And Jason would leave me in a heartbeat for Kira Kneightly (pre-skeletal days).

26. Do you know anyone in jail? There are a few friends from our past that it wouldn't shock me to learn they're in jail.

27. What food do you find disgusting? Brussel Sprouts for me, artichokes for Jason, anything covered in sauce for the kids.

28. Have you ever made fun of your friends behind their back? Heck yeah!

29. Have you ever been punched in the face? By my kids as they flail, yes. By an adult, no.

30. Do you believe in angels and demons? It's hard to believe in one without the other, isn't it? And yet I find it easier to believe in angels. Let's leave it at, I believe in ghosts or some kind of spirit activity left behind after people are gone.

Whew!! That was crazy! Make sure you click on my DSP Blog Pals over there ---> to see what everyone else said!

Are we ever good enough?

Are you pleased with what you look like? If you could change any part of yourself what would it be?

Yikes. I can't believe I chose this as today's prompt. Let's see how honest we all can be, shall we?

I can be typical and say I would love to lose a few pounds, or a few more. But really, I'm okay with where I am in the grand scale of things. (Adam, that pun was for you!) I actually have no idea what I weigh, I just like to make sure my clothes fit right. And right now, they fit. I do want to join a gym when George goes to school in a couple of years. Not to lose weight, but to maintain some semblance to fitness. I want to be able to be as active as I want to be as the years go on, not have to debate an activity because it might be too exhausting. (Wow, any English teachers please ignore all the passive verbs in that last sentence, I don't feel like rewording it, but boy is it bad!)

I have freckles. Lots of 'em. But I've never minded them. Without them, my skin would be so white, I would blind people. And since I don't want to be responsible for that, I'll keep the freckles.

I do have an issue with the fact that my face is losing color. What is it? Age? Childbirth? What makes all the pretty pigment in lips and cheeks disappear? I've never been big on make-up, but I find myself in that aisle more and more these days.

And then there's my hair. I love it. I hate it. And it's turning white. What once was gradual, is speeding up at a frightening pace. I'll put off dying it as long as I can, but when I start looking like a skunk in photographs, let me know, will you? I chopped it off recently, here's the layout that paid homage to that grand tradition:

All in all, I'm happy with myself. I recognize myself, anyone else in the mirror would be frightening. So? How about you? What would you change?

Birthday Fun

My Baby

The Man Who Wouldn't Give Up

We're supposed to tell our proposal stories today. Jason says that I agreed to marry him to get him to stop pestering me. Boy, that backfired!

The story of our courtship can be read in these two layouts:
Soul Mates, left
Soul Mates, right

We dated on and off for more than eight years before we married. The off times were not due to a lack of love, just wrong time, wrong place. We both had things we needed to do and we needed to grow up some before we were ready to be adults. But we both knew when it was time. Jason had come to visit me from Italy (where he was stationed at the time) and we had actually gone ring shopping.... for the future..... or so I thought.

I was in college and working full time and had to do both on the last day of his visit. He took me from place to place so he could use my car. We had planned on going out to dinner after I got done with work and then I would drive him to the airport for his red-eye flight.

I worked for Sony and they had a policy of not letting visitors past the lobby unescorted. We had arranged that I would meet him in the parking lot. But when I got done with work, I walked out to find Jason in his full set of dress blues in the lobby. Mind you, nobody that I worked with had ever met him, since he was stationed out of the country. So we got a LOT of sideways glances and grins from my coworkers. He said he wanted to take me out to a nice dinner and his blues were the only nice clothes he had with him. Okay, that sounds reasonable.

But neither of us were very hungry, so we decided to go for a walk first. We drove to a park that meanders along the McKenzie River and walked for a while. I led us to a bench just outside a beautiful rose garden. (It was late April, they were gorgeous, and am I psychic or what?) After a few minutes of mindless chit chat in which I kept tearing up because he was leaving that night, he got down on one knee. Yup, I lost it. About the only things I remember are taking his sunglasses off so I could see his eyes and some middle-aged women walking by on the path behind us, smiling broadly.

The worst part? Within an hour, we were on the road to the airport. The best part? I got to shock my friends at school and work the next day with a gorgeous diamond ring on my finger.

Happy birthday, Jason! I love you, even when you pester me!

Big Beds, Baby Breath, and Boy Am I Tired!!

So we finally decided that George was trying to tell us something with his weekly, well, almost daily, catapulting out of his crib. And even if he wasn't trying to tell us anything, I REALLY didn't feel like making another trip to the ER anytime soon. Partway through yesterday's nap (after his final leap to freedom that resulted in a scraped nose), I took hex wrench in hand and changed his crib into a toddler bed. He was intrigued at first, but not so much after I turned off the lights and left the room. But, after a lot of crying, he fell asleep for the last 15 minutes or so of nap time.

Last night, he went right to bed without a fuss and fell asleep quickly. Victory! Well almost. He woke up sometime after 2 am and I found him crying in a corner of his room. I think he just got disoriented, but it really freaked him out and he was NOT going back into that bed. After listening to him cry for a while, I took a blanket and pillow into his room and prepared for a long night. I rocked him for a long time, then I got him to lie down with me on the floor next to his bed. As long as I had my arm around him and he could bury his face in mine, he was happy.

When does that switch happen? The one that pollutes sweet, baby breath and turns it into nasty, night breath? Emma could raise the dead with her morning breath, but I was nose to pacifier for at least an hour last night, and loved smelling his still babyish smell. It amazes me that at some point, he will become a "real" kid and I won't want to be that close to him in the wee hours of the morning.

Anyway, sometime after 4 am, I put a relaxed but no-where-near-sleepy boy back into his bed. He spent another 1/2 hour or so laughing and playing and I escaped back to my room.
This morning, I found an exhausted little boy, sleeping soundly in his bed. Today, for nap, he seemed excited to go to bed and didn't fuss as I left. I had to go in there once after some overly enthusiastic jumping put him on the floor once again. But, my fingers are crossed that he will sleep and tonight will go easier.

Wish me luck!

I took a stand!

There are all sorts of quasi-political reasons for not shopping at Wal-Mart. They've had union trouble, they've been accused of various prejudices, they tend to find their way around zoning laws whenever they set their mind to building a new store, etc. I've seen small businesses shut down by the introduction of a Wal-Mart to a rural area. But that's not my fight. My reasons are much simpler.

Yeah, you can go to one store and buy fresh watermelon, new socks, Playstation games, engine degreaser, a swing set, and a dozen goldfish in one swoop. And often for several cents cheaper than the other stores. But you know what? I got really tired of spending any money at all for products that fall apart, malfunction, fade, die, and generally disappoint. Plus, the added bonus of going through check stands (slowly) only to be "greeted" by a surly clerk (after she was done chatting about her no-good boyfriend to the clerk at the next stand who was filing her nails) who obviously didn't want to be working there any more than I wanted to be shopping there. I was usually lucky to get a "hello", even luckier if I could understand the mumble coming out of her mouth. And God forbid that you ever have a question. Blanker looks you never did see.

So I stopped going. As of today, I have been Wal-mart sober for one year.

I'm not against big business. I will sing the praises of Target until you forcefully remove the vocal chords from my throat. I am against poor customer service, shoddy products, and the assumption that just because you have a big name, you have the right to be and do wherever and whatever you want.

I urge you all to join me in my fight! Not that it will possibly make a difference, I'm not that deluded. But, really, it is amazing how wonderful it feels not to struggle your way through that accident zone of a parking lot. To go to stores where you are smiled at and *gasp* offered help! To pay your money, knowing that you may actually be able to use that set of Ginzu knives for more than a week!

Come on!! I'll see you all at Target tomorrow morning!

Busy livin'

Sorry. I'm a lousy blogger right now. My mom is here on an unexpected visit, which means that I actually have an adult here to talk to during the day instead of just spending vast amounts of time on the computer! And it's funny, you think having two kids at home all day instead of one wouldn't be that big of a change. But it is. Especially when the extra kid gets bored easily and is smarter than I am!

But I'm keeping the blog prompts going, so visit my DSP friends for fun stuff ------->

And I'm still creating scrapbook pages, so visit my DSP gallery for pretty stuff ----->

And Jason keeps changing my radio stations, so visit Pandora for a sound thrill ----->

And here's a picture of a Mega Blocks tower, just for fun!

Dessert Test

Dessert Test No cheating. If all of the desserts listed below were sitting in front of you, which would you choose? Pick your dessert, and then look to see what psychiatrists think about you!
Sorry you can only pick one.
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Angel Food Cake
Brownies
Lemon Meringue Pie
Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Icing
Strawberry Short Cake
Chocolate Icing on Chocolate Cake
Ice Cream
Carrot Cake
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NO. You can't change your mind once you scroll down, so think carefully what your choice will be!
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OK - Now that you've made your choice, this is what psychiatric research says about you:

ANGEL FOOD CAKE... Sweet, loving, cuddly. You love all warm and fuzzy items. A little nutty at times. Sometimes you need an ice cream cone at the end of the day.. Others perceive you as being childlike and immature at times.

BROWNIES... You are adventurous, love new ideas, and are a champion of underdogs and a slayer of dragons. When tempers flare up, you whip out your saber. You are always the oddball with a unique sense of humor and direction. You tend to be very loyal.

LEMON MERINGUE... Smooth, sexy, and articulate with your hands, you are an excellent after-dinner speaker and a good teacher. But don't try to walk and chew gum at the same time A bit of a diva at times, but you have many good friends.

VANILLA CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE ICING... Fun loving, sassy, humorous. Not very grounded in life; very indecisive and lack motivation Everyone enjoys being around you. You are a practical joker. Others should be cautious in making you mad. However, you are a friend for life.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE... Romantic, warm, loving. You care about other people and can be counted on in a pinch! You have many friends who love to be around you. You also tend to melt. You can be overly emotional at times. Your sense of loyalty and devotion are paramount.

CHOCOLATE ON CHOCOLATE... Sexy; always ready to give and receive. Very adventurous, ambitious, and passionate. You can appear to have a cold exterior but are warm on the inside. Not afraid to take chances. Will not settle for anything average in life. Love to laugh.

ICE CREAM... You like sports, whether it is baseball, football, basketball, or soccer. If you could, you would like to participate, but you enjoy watching sports. You don't like to give up the remote control. You tend to be self-centered and high maintenance.

CARROT CAKE... You are a very fun loving person, who likes to laugh. You are fun to be with. People like to hang out with you. You are a very warm hearted person and a little quirky at times. You have many loyal friends.

I chose Chocolate Icing on Chocolate Cake. The description is frighteningly accurate. I know some people think I'm stand-offish until they really meet me. I'm just shy, which comes across as cold. I absolutely will not settle for average; I don't believe in complaining, I believe in changing the situation. And I LOVE to laugh!

So, what are you?

Oh, you wanted fireworks??

Yeah, that wasn't happening. It was a beautiful day, all day. The kids played outside, we bar-b-qued, all the normal 4th of July fun stuff. Until 6 o'clock. Then the thunderstorms rolled in. Jason and Emma went off to post anyway after the first one. Every year they host a festival that is really fun for the kids. Emma talks about it all year. We decided they would go ahead so she could play in the bounce houses and the bubble machine and George and I would join them later, just in time for the fireworks.

So they get there. And walk through the rain to the stadium where it's held. When they get there, everthing had been shut down due to the metal stakes that hold down the bounce houses and the metal framing of the bubble machine. Emma's quivering lip scored her a frisbee and a ball. A very sad little girl came home last night. But all was not lost!

In between thunderstorms, all the neighbors who had purchased fireworks (it is amazing what is legal around here) gathered in the street and put on a show. Here were our little contributions. We had fun playing anyway!

Happy INDEPENDENCE Day!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!! What a fun holiday!! No responsibilities, just good food, friends, fireworks, and fun! Some great friends of ours, that we haven't seen since we moved from our last post, came to visit us yesterday and we spent the day laughing, reminiscing, and talking about the future. What a GREAT day! But as this is a celebration of independence, I asked my blog pals to think about what that word means to them.

If you think about it, the origin of Independence Day is not about having no responsibilities, but the opposite. A bunch of really gutsy people breaking away from everything familiar in order to live as they believe. These days that doesn't sound so unusual, but stick me and a bunch of strangers in the middle of a remote wilderness and tell us to create a New World, and I think I might start looking around for the Survivor cameras and begging for a cell phone! As much as I like to think of myself as an independent person, I know I really am not.

Back when we were first dating, when I was still in high school, I remember telling Jason that I wouldn't marry him until I had completed college and lived independently for a while. I needed to know that I could survive on my own if I ever needed to. And I did. But you know what? Being independent is a lot more fun with someone else! I'm still very much my own person, as is he. But we like sharing our independence and helping each other to be "the best we can be"!

Now the main focus of our life together is to help our kids become happy, healthy, INDEPENDENT people. Crazy! We will spend the next 15 plus years teaching our kids that they can live without us! That is amazing to me. I know that some animals give birth and then walk away, with the baby instantly able to survive on its own. But we human animals are drastically different. I want my kids to be independent, but heck, I want them always to need their Mama!! Hopefully, their version of independence will end up the same as mine. Able to live their lives with confidence, knowledge, and opinions. Not ever afraid to be "the best they can be"!

Have a wonderful Independence Day, and remember to thank everyone that works together to give you your independence! For our part, we thank our parents and ancestors for creating strong, independent children, I thank Jason and we both thank our military friends and leaders for working for freedom, we thank our friends for enriching our lives, and we thank our kids for inspiring us to enjoy our lives and the freedoms we have!