Honest Scrap!

So, y'all may now, I'm a bit unawares of blogger etiquette... (I think it was like my second post...found, um...here).

But I do know this... I love winning blog awards! 

So, Stephani, at Writing Fuels My Soul gave me the Honest Scrap Award!  Woot! 

So, here are the rules...As part of receiving this wonderful Blog Award you are required to list 10 random things about yourself and then pass along this award to your 10 favorite bloggers.

1.  My fantasy job: soap opera actress and soap opera writer.  I adore Days of Our Lives.... and though I'm not hooked on any other soap, I can usually keep up w/ The Bold & The Beautiful, All My Children and One Life to Live via commercials.  I become emotionally invested in the DOOL and when talking to other DOOL fans I refer to charecters like real people...ie "That Chloe is such a whore.  She was married to Lucas and cheated w/ Daniel.  Now she's engaged to Daniel and cheating w/ Phillip.  Who is married to Melanie, who is Daniel's daughter.  So basically she's sleeping with her step-son-in-law.  Who used to be her boyf and then her uncle in law and then her brother in law.  Gross."  But what I really love about soaps?  Is when something that is actually plausible is going on in someone's life (say a rough time at work) something HUGE happens and makes everyone feel sorry for you. IE "I know you really suck ass at your job, but my God!  You just fainted and when rushed to the hospital it was revealed you have a rare genetic disorder.  So, it's not your fault you suck at work!"  That could come in handy is real life every now and again.

2.  I'm verbose.  See Random fact 1.

3. I got a text tonight "hey" from a number I didn't recognize.  I texted back "hey..."  Reply was "is this Nakoma."  Me: "nope, wrong number."  Not expecting a reply...but I got this "haha aiiight."  WTF?  Is there text etiquette I'm not aware of?  To text a response back to a wrong text number?  Not even an apology...  bizzarre-o.

4.  I'm secretly jealous of the hubs iphone.  But I begged for a blackberry and I got one (about 18 mo ago) and so I don't think I can possibly ask for an iphone for Mothers Day or our anny or my bday (all rapidly approaching...)  But if you talk to the hubs, you can drop a hint :)

5.  I think my husband has some awesome friends.  He has two really close friends that he has known for about 15 years and basically transitioned into adulthood with and really "grew up" with.  (Did I just end a sentence w/ a preposition?  Oops.)  But he has a really healthy relationship w/ these guys and I never worry when he is out w/ them (I don't really worry much about the hubs in general, though) and I like their wives and kids.  I think its good he has someone to hang w/ and go to college football games and nba games and with and retain his own identity.

6.  I basically grew up in libraries.  Love a librarian today.

7.  Despite the above I still totally regard In Touch weekly as something of literary merit.

8.  My fave people in the world?  My mom.  My dad.  My sister.  (Okay, obviously the hubs & the kids).  But my dad is funny and smart and is sorta quiet and sometimes his humor or his amazing insight just sneak up on you.  Sometimes my dad will take 45 min to tell a story and then you go home and two days later he calls you and picks up the story and 30 minutes in you're think "wtf, dad?" and then he floors you with something amazing.  My mom is the most practical person I know and someday I will write a memoir about her canning blackberries handpicked by me (as a 7 yr old)...not beacuse it was a fun thing or a hip thing or green thing...because it was free and practical.  My mom somehow went from being my mom and her whole identity being a mom to being a multifaceted, complex person and my friend in the past ten years... she is amazing.  My sister who knows every inside joke ("new socks are the shit" "I'm from the Lou and I'm proud") and every drama and every tragedy and every joy... plus she likes to eat vietenemese sandwhiches with me.  Love y'all.

9.  I love new-grass music (like bluegrass but w/ hipper).  Trust me, I'm not cool enough to like this music.  But I do.  (Splitlip Rayfield, The Dewayne Bros, The Asylum Street Spankers, Elexa Dawson, Kasey Rausch etc...)  This being said, I also like rap, pop, country and most top 40 autotune crap.  So, there really is no accounting for taste :)

10.   I believe the words of that country song "God blessed the broken road..."  Because I'm pretty darn content with my hubs, my kids, my job, my house, my basically everything... is it perfect?  No.  But I am content?  yes.  Has it been a journey to get here?  yes.  But worth it all.

Okay, enough of the cheese.

Now to pass the award on.  And I promise your ten random facts need not be as verbose as mine.

1.  Amy at New Adventures in Dreamland

2.  Rainy at A Rainy day... 

3.  Tb at Year 31

4.  Debby at Me a homeschooler?

5.  Lily Ruths Mama at Diapers, Dogs & Cooking in Heels

6.  Jordan at Now If you'll just turn your Kaliedoscope

7.  Living Shallow, Living Well at, well, Living Shallow, Living Well

8.  Dianne at My First Blog 

9. Erin at Clark Family Adventures

10.  Melissa at Think On It

Oh and my feelings totally would not be hurt if you didn't do this.  

Sally Field = me...or something

It's the witching hour and I am wide awake.

Why?

I slept in this morning and sorta napped (well I took two baths ----excessive, I know --- and so that was restful).  And my home team just kicked Kobe and the Laker's ass.  Thunder Up!!!!!

I started to fight sore throat, sinus pressure and fluid in the ears Fri morning.  I woke up this morning terribly congested and headachy.  By midday, I had cooked bfast, done dishes, picked up the living room (trying to keep up w/ the cleaning from Thur), done several loads of laundry, bathed the kids...and I felt like shit with a migraine coming on.  Have you ever had a migraine and a sinus headache?  Two separate and distinctive headaches at once?  It sucks.  So, I ran a bath.  I knew the terminex man was coming, but it was a 4 hour window for his arrival.  Of course, he arrived ten minutes after I ran the bath so I had to get out.  Luckily, my OTC meds finally kicked in and I even made a target run (sans kids) and went out to eat w/ my parents (w/ kids).  But there was another bath after the kids were asleep.  Now, I finally feel headache less, though still some congestion...and wide awake.

In other news...we took Syds crib down.  She has had a toddler bed and crib in her room for a while and we transitioned her to her toddler bed last weekend and she has done perfectly, so we took down the crib.  It was bittersweet...my baby's not a baby anymore.  Almost makes me want another one...but not quite :)

Earlier this week the hubs was out of town (notice I didn't mention this before or during his time out of town.  I don't think I have any internet stalkers but just in case I didn't want to announce it.  I don't really want my life story to become a made for tv Lifetime movie b/c someone broke into my house and  killed me and disposed of my body in a wood chipper and kidnapped my kids and sold them into white slavery... but if my life did become a made for tv Lifetime movie - but not for being killed just for being me -  can Sally Field play me?  I know she's like 40 years too old, but her performance in Not My Daughter and on Brothers & Sisters every Sunday just blows me away... but I digress....can you tell its midnight?)....

Where was I?

Oh yeah, the O fell asleep on the couch and I carried him back to bed and he said (w/o opening his eyes) "oh I'm just gonna take a little nap."

My heart melted.

some kind of wonderful

So my last post was fairly depressing.  But I felt it was important.  So I posted it.

I'll try not to be so depressing tonight.

But can I rant first?  And get it out of the way... then we can move on to more frivolous topics...  Thanks!

So, apparently there is a facebook group "praying" for the death of President Obama.  Now, it seems to me about 50% of Americans were not happy with our prior President and the other 50% aren't happy with the current.  But aren't we supposed to be Americans?  And be respectful of the role of the President even if you disagree with their politics.  I mean we have freedom of our own ideas and proper, respectful, healthy channels to express these beliefs.  (And by channels I don't mean FOX or CNN...I mean like going to town hall meeting or joining a civic group.) I figure everyone has a right to their own beliefs and I'm fairly tolerant of others...but I was simply appalled to discover there is a facebook group "praying" for a death of a President. I think you have complete power in choosing your President - VOTE.  If he/she doesn't work out, vote again in 4 years. There are proper channels for discourse and working to find a different solution to public policies - say emailing your congressman or joining a civic group...NOT PRAYING FOR SOMEONE TO DIE.  

That is my 2 cents for whatever it is worth.

Okay, so enough of that.

So...I might be high maintenance.  My first clue...my sbux order:

Iced Quad Non Fat Grande w/ whip Carmel Machiatto

Uh, try saying that out loud before you have had your caffeine...

And I know the whip cream cancels the non fat milk but the non fat tastes better. So there, snobby barista.  I pay your salary.

My second clue... I had someone come clean the house today.  As in I paid someone.

It really isn't like I called Merry Maids.  It is my mom's best friends daughter in law who is a SAHM and just usually does her MIL's house and agreed to tackle mine.

And I'm a little uptight about it.  Not her.  Or the AMAZING job she did.  It is all me being a dumbass and not knowing what proper pay or proper expectations to have or cleaning supplies to have ready or what to ask her to clean.... so I have called and texted the poor girl like 12 times in the past week....just OBSESSING over this going well.  With all my obsessing I am surprised I have not scared her away.  

But I have always been the hired "girl."  My employment from ages 16-21-ish did literally involved me being "the girl."  Like middle class suburban moms saying to their friends "I hired a girl.  Y'know to help with the kids and the laundry and the cleaning and getting the car detailed and going to the dry cleaner."  So, it's a bit bizarre that I am in a position to hire a "girl" even though it's not even like that - more like a friend of a friend doing a small favor.  But it's still weird.  And I'm obsessing again, which only makes it weirder.

But I can just say..it's some kind of wonderful to walk into a clean house smelling like lemons.

We remember: 4/19/95

Do you remember?

Do you remember where you were on April 19, 1995?

I do.

I was 12 years old.

At 9:02 am, my world, our world was changed forever.

It has been 15 years since the bomb shook downtown Oklahoma City.

It is still shaking us today.

I was a child when this happened, yet the impact on me was so immense. I cried and cried and watched hours and hours of footage. Of the firemen and rescue workers. My heart broke in a million pieces. I was much too young to understand what it meant to be a mom. Nonetheless, my heart was breaking for the parents, of all ages, who lost their children. I wrote a lot of really bad poetry about the bombing, the humanity, the pain, the loss…and the triumph of the human spirit. I’m not sure how normal it was for a 12 year old to obsess over this but I suppose it was in a way a healthy way for me to deal with the complex emotions a tragedy like this brought forth. I had no friends or family member in the building… but, that didn’t stop me from being human and feeling the range of emotions.

The Oklahoma City bombing was the largest act of terrorism on American soil at that time and still the largest act of domestic terrorism. 168 lives, including 19 children (the building housed a daycare) were lost that day.

This photo, of baby girl Baylee still makes me cry (I’m crying as I write this) and makes we want to puke b/c of the sorrow.

1200 rescue workers – from across the country and across the world – the National Guard, firefighters, police officers – came to OKC to help. The outpouring of support was overwhelming. Quickly, we realized that good would come and goodness and light would outshine the evil of the bombing. (Cheesy, yes, but true)

The fence, to protect the public from the debris was put up…and to this day visitors still leave notes, poems, stuffed animals…

This message (sprayed on the wall on the days after and still there at the Memorial site) says it all:

Ten years ago, the Memorial opened and a few years later the Museum. In the past few years downtown OKC and Bricktown has undergone a makeover. We have Fortune 500 companies and a NBA Team and hip new night clubs… our downtown is much more hustle and bustle than 15 years ago. But what stands strong and proud – a silent beacon of peace and hope – in our downtown is the Memorial. 

The chairs, representing the victims, stand dignified. The reflecting pool allows for silent remembrance. And the survivor tree stands with grace. The Survivor tree stands tall and proud to show that inherent goodness we have as a human race.

I like to visit the Memorial at dusk. The lights glimmer faintly as nighttime envelopes the city and the contrast is hauntingly beautiful. I go to the Memorial and I take my children. To remember, to pay honor and to respect those who lost their lives and those who came together as a community to survive.

So the bombing is still shaking us…shaking us to remember to do our best each day to live with love.

I try to teach my children to love. Love those who are the same as you and love those who are different. Perhaps you will not always agree with someone but you should always respect them. I teach my children history. I teach them that evil exists in this world, but they can handle evil if they have faith, hope and love. I teach them about humanity and tragedy. I do my best to show them all the good that has come from this tragedy. I show them the bad too. If we don’t know our history, we are doomed to repeat it.

I ask you too to remember. Remember Baylee. Remember the others who were there that day. Remember the rescue workers. Remember to love someone today.

Slummy Mummy

My two year old daughter (nearly 2 1/2), Sydney (aka Miss Priss aka Miss-Chievous)... seems to be having issues.  Or maybe she is just giving me and her dad-o issues.

The child has a pretty great vocab for her age.  She knows:

1) her colors ("puw-pal" is her fave)

2) her body parts (even tricky ones like elbow and hip)

3) Her name ("S-ninny"), her bubba's name (she says "OOOO-weee") and of course the requisite Mommy and Daddy

4) Animals and animal sounds (dog, cat, barnyard animals like chicken, pig and cow and zoo animals like lion an monkey...heck, she even says "SNAP!" for alligator)

5) Food and drink (especially chocolate milk and cookies... but also banana and apple and good stuff)

6) Basics like up, down, yes, no, please, thank you, hello, goodbye and goodnight

7) Everyday things (park, bike, walk, home, bath, baby, diaper, bed, sleep, kiss, high five, flower, swim)

The child has words.  It's not like she doesn't have words.

Yet when she is sad or mad or wants/needs something...she screams.  She cries.  She wails.  She whines.  She doesn't say "Mommy, I'm hungry.  May I please have a banana?"  Okay, she's 2.  She's not going to say that.  But she is perfectly capable of saying "Banana please" or "want banana."  But noooo.  She breaks into tears and collapses into hysterics at the drop of a hat for no apperant reason whatsoever.  

I do my best to calmly say "Sydney, use your words."  Or help her by saying "Sydney, say 'Mommy, I want' and then tell me what."  I get tired of playing the game "banana?  your brother hit you?  You want to go outside?  You're cold?" until after 20+ questions I figure out what the deal is.

Any suggestions for coaxing my daughter into being a better communicator?  Am I a slummy mummy?  Too impatient?  Demanding too much from a toddler? Perhaps she mostly lets her big bro talk for her?

Why I heart the Walgreens

1.  Smart water - ice cold - in the 33.8 oz size.

2.  Tabloids galore.

3.  Paperbacks - super cheap and super cheesy - just the way I love 'em.

4.  Drugs.  Y'know the good kind.  Like Claritin.  After all, the pollen count around here is so high the meteorologist joked "we need a new scale."

4.  The best skin care and hair care products.  On the cheap.

5.  Make up.  Make up.  Make up.  Did I mention the bright shiny glimmering aisles and aisles of make up at reasonable prices?

I won the lottery! Okay, not really.

So, I'm not even going to acknowledge that I went like 10 days w/o blogging.  I could list out what we did, but that would be immensely boring.  (If you must know there was gardening and more gardening and European sandwiches and camera shopping and lots and lots of whatnot.)

Tonight I bought four powerball tickets.  By sharing that with you, I just jinxed myself and I will not be 175 million dollars richer in 24 hours.  But let's just say I did.  And let's say I paid a shitload of taxes on it.  I'd still be like 75 million richer.  That my friends is nothing to sneeze about.  So, everyone has a "lottery list."  Here's mine

1) Pay off debt: school loans, mortgage, car loans... pay off debt for immediate family (my parents, my in laws, my siblings my hubby's bro).  I have to draw a line somewhere.  I can't pay off debt for some 7th cousin twice removed that I have never even met.  But the immediate fam, I can take care of.  They take care of me after all.  And at this point, I doubt I will have even touched a million.  (Housing is quite affordable around here, y'all)

2) Set up some trust funds.  Like "can't touch until you are 30 and a college graduate and your parents aren't allowed to touch" trust funds for my kids, my nephew and both my nieces.

3) Save that shit.  I doubt I can walk into a local Canadian State Bank and try to deposit 50 mil in a plain old ever day savings account.  Might have to hire an attorney or an accountant or both.  But some sort of IRA or 401K or something.  Something that I can't really touch or see the money and it just sits and grows.  And I get a monthly allowance.  Maybe $10,000 a month?  Seems reasonable seeing as how I will just have normal grocery, gas, electric, cell phone, cable bills.  That still gives me room to buy a crap load of costume jewelry at Forever 21.  Plus, I doubt I'd quit my job (wait, who I am kidding?! )... I'd work in some capacity, so I would have that fundage. 

4) Charity: Autism Speaks and America's Harvest (Regional Food Bank of Ok)... and I am sure plenty more.

5) Okay, now after I have taken care of that practical stuff and ensured that I will not be on one of those "where are they know" programs after blowing 175 million in 5 days...  I can succumb to vanity.  Porcelain veneers (mom, you can have some too!).  Boob job.  (Don't hate.  Y'know you'd be tempted too.)  My dream house...aka The Father of the Bride house.  (I've already downloaded the blueprints, y'all.)  A Disney vacation.  A car with heated seats.  Maybe a Volvo.  Or a Land Lover.  Whatever.  Let the hubs finally get a truck.  

6) Lot's of travel and extended family time.  Making memories.  

So, what's on your lottery list?