Homemade Water Slide: A Story In Pictures

Daily Lightening of My Heart!

Thank goodness for the silly people, both big and small around me. I love the way they make me smile.

Aimee, i.m.ing with grandma, told her about how wonderful Adam Lambert's performance was. When I read back through the transcript, I saw grandma correct her with a yahoo guy smile, that the proper term is "standing ovation." Sure enough, I looked a few more lines up, and Aimee had mentioned that Adam received a "standing novation." A simple mistake...anyone could make it, right?!

Polly (while sweating after treadmill, tidying around the kitchen while Dustin is making steak quesadillas): We need to get a clothes line so that our dryer doesn't heat up the house.
Dustin: hmmm, yeah. Or we could just save all our dirty clothes until winter time.

(another unpublished...saved until 10/20/10...I know that I had other quotes to add to this, and that's why I didn't publish it. Sad, sad, sad)

Manic Monday: Warm

Sweet arms embrace me

Welcoming me in my home

Love and Peace abide.

I've always loved this picture.

Disaster Relief: I.M. transcript

I was going to put this in paragraph form, but it's taking too long...

P:i just went on disaster control
P: or rather emergency cleanup
mom: uh oh
P: allie got a little art kit from her teacher for christmas
mom: what happened
mom: yikes
P: so...it's just been over on the bookshelf with the other crayons/playdoh...etc
mom: until now
P: well...what we thought was a small bottle of elmer's glue
mom: i like it already :)
P: turns out to be a little more opaque... like white paint ... white out...
P: i don't know
P: aidan dumped out the bottle...and fully used ever surface of his hands to paint his feet and the cloth box (which is already a light shade...) and the floor
P: luckily...it all wiped up with windex and paper towels
P: except on the green fabric of that box...I'll probably need to dab it off with a real rag...rather than paper towels
P: well...I needed to get it off the floor quickly! (luckily it was on the wood laminate...not the carpet!!!) so...no pics.

Twenty Minutes On The Treadmill

Nutrition labels are always changing. It has only been in last couple of years that companies had to list trans fat in the fat breakdown. As a child, I could look at the label on the cereal box and see how many grams of carbohydrates there were, multiply it by four, and know just how many calories from carbs I was eating. Figuring out the percentages was just something I did quietly in my mind while I ate. Now, the box lists the percentage of your daily caloric needs each macronutrient is providing. That's a good thing because it really frees up my mind to read email and catch up on headlines while mindlessly getting to the bottom of the bowl.
While I agree that it's important that fast food restaurants have made their nutrition information more available, perhaps they, along with food labels should, yet again, add to their breakdown. I'm not sure if we could convince McDonald's to change the name of the BigMac to "5 Mile Jog" but maybe they could add it in really small letter between the name of the product and the calories listed. Or, maybe just the fries could indicate that, yeah, eating the hamburger might be okay, but add the fries and you better get book yourself for an hour of aerobics.
With the success of dance workouts like "Zumba" and TV reality shows like "Dancing With The Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance," our local ballroom dancing studios could gain lots of new clients. Their marquee could say something like, "Drink a soda at lunch today? Come dance it off for an hour!"

I wonder if anyone would think twice about eating a 100 calorie snack pack of chocolate covered pretzels if it were instead called a 20 Minutes on the Treadmill Pack.

Where's Aidan?

His new favorite hideout!

TV Junk Food

Tonight on American Idol, Adam rocked it AGAIN...showing that he is in a whole different league! I'm waiting for his album!


This version is also nice, and the video is cool. (Although Adam's version added more range.)


AND... my Dancing With The Stars Favorite!

Trash Talk Tuesday: Hypocrisy

We like Harry Potter at our house. Allie actually was listening to the CD's in the car with us and decided she wanted to watch them.(We put her on a temporary pause between 2 and 3 because we're a little unsure of how she will handle the dementors.) I had read news articles about people boycotting Harry Potter books and movies because they dealt in "witchcraft" which was basically bad. Okay, well, since it was just "news," it didn't really affect me, although I did think they sure were missing out.

Now that we are living in a part of "The Bible Belt," I actually had to respond to someone chastising me for taking my kids to "Race To Witch Mountain." Seriously. We went with a friend from church (her kids, my kids, out for Spring Break). It was opening week and usually the theaters are more full, but this showing was maybe 1/3 full. No big deal. When we got back though, another man, who also goes to church with us but had converted a few years back, was dropping something off and was sure to tell us that "it's a good thing Sunday's coming soon, now that you got our sinning for the week out of the way." He tried to sound good-natured about it, but he meant every word. He followed up by reminding us that he hadn't read the Harry Potter books and he isn't going to.

I laughed and blew it off as "crazy old man." But, continuing the conversation with my kids revealed that his response is pretty much standard around here.

Alex and Aimee (middle school) always tell me about the really awful things that everyone watches, says, does, goes...etc. They have seen gratuitous violence, sex, nudity, NC17, stuff...unrated horror...all with the approval of their parents. They have also watched their parents' more questionable tapes, obviously without their knowledge. So, when Alex and Aimee confirmed that most of these kids haven't watched or read Harry Potter because their parents think it's evil, I really was speechless.

I'm gonna go ahead and say that's slightly hypocritical...although they are probably all saying the same thing about me monitoring what my kids watch and then letting them engage in withcraft...whatever.

**Side note...the public library here and also the middle school library have the Twilight books in the Horror section, rather than Young Adult.**

Manic Monday: Trip

When we first moved here, we knew that we would need to make some adjustments. It's a much smaller town than we are used to, and, admittedly, I have yet to make some of those adjustments (okay, most of them). I have been resistant, both consciously and subconsciously, which might take a little away from the small town feeling, but I tend to be defensive about it.

One thing I won't give up, is my trips to the "city." It's not huge; the population (of the combined metro area of the nearby cities, really) is about 255,000. But it's an improvement to me over the 10,000 in our little town. Initially, I thought I could just make really good lists and minimize by trips to the stores. Save money, save gas, save time...it sounds good. But in reality, I like my trips. I like the drive over. I like the time there. I like my friends, I like the stores, I like the parks, I like the sense of normalcy.

When I realize that I feel I have to "visit" normal, I feel guilty about not just being happy with the small town time while we are here. I want to take the kids to lessons in the city, rather than here, because they are better. I don't want to just accept this other view of 'normal.' In theory, I easily accept that I don't have to love everything all the time, but actually feeling okay about it takes more effort.

Come to think of it, a trip to the store is definitely warranted today. I need some new mascara, and I'm pretty sure Aidan wants to play at a new park today.


For a little less of my guilt trip version on the word "Trip" today, check out Mo's Manic Monday.

Friday Fabulous Five

1. Girl's Night Out is at our house tonight. Aimee plans to do makeovers with her friends and watch Twilight. It should be totally fun.

2. Since we are having GNO tonight, we actually got the kids (specifically Aimee) to help clean and actually do her chores. Total score!

3. Looking forward to General Conference this weekend. I don't need to prepare a lesson, but I still get to be fully spiritually nourished!

4. I cleaned out my kitchen junk drawer (which had become 2 drawers actually) and the kids coloring box. Yes, that phrase shouldn't really exist, but it does. And it's clean.

5. I bought cucumbers today at Sam's Club. Unfortunately, when I got to the car I realized that one was squished at the end and totally gross. I was so happy that I discovered it before I got home...they are returned and I don't have liquid cucumbers at my house!

The coloring box...it tends to drive me crazy when all the crayons, markers, colored pencils aren't separated and in their proper containers.

Daniel Hannan British Parliament

I'm wondering why our CSpan meetings aren't as interesting as this. Where are our politicians that will stand up and actually speak up for their constituents and represent the American people? I'm not posting this in opposition to the Prime Minister. I think he has done well in many instances. I don't follow British politics, so I'm not well educated on them. I'm posting it only to show that there really are some people willing to speak out against socialism and spending money to get out of debt.

We had a financial class a couple of months ago where we walked in and the room was a disaster. There were chairs knocked over, out of rows, you couldn't really get to the chairs that were actually still upright. So, are you the kind of person who is going to clean up the chairs and get them in order, or are you going to walk around them and ignore them and try to make your way to the ones that are still up? Even worse, are you going to just get more chairs and try to put them in any spot available?




(Sorry if you've already seen this. It seems to be going around in emails and blogs, even though the speech was only last week.)

April Fool's On The Web

It's so odd that a single day could make news organizations all over report "jokes."

Today, if you visit Wikipedia, you will be greeted by an entire home page of fake info.

Screen shot of Wikipedia's April Fool's Day...completely inaccurate facts.

On youtube, the homepage actually looks normal, but click on any of the videos that are there, and your next page all loads upside down and backwards. (Happily, I get Corbin Bleu and The Jonas Brothers on my home page...a preteen music lover favoriting all her stuff will do that. :) )


Check out more web April Fool's Day jokes here, on Fox News.

What Do You Miss About Your Loved Ones That Are No Longer With You?

I miss their presence. The little things that I could always expect from them. It might not have even been something that they realized that they did, but when it's gone, I realize it.

My grandma and grandpa were the definition of unconditional love. They loved their family, their neighbors, nature, and life. I can still hear in my memory and in my mind their very distinct laugh of pure joy when we visited in Halloween costumes, or when my little brother learned to walk, or just said something silly while we had them over for dinner. From my grandma, it was a giggle that could hardly be contained, my grandpa's was a shaking laughter with a face full of pride in his family. They loved every moment of life...even the small moments. In hindsight, I can see those moments from their eyes. I was young enough that I just thought that's what grandparents did, but now, I realize, that's not what grandparents do. That's what MY grandparents did. They were special for every thought and action of love.

(This question was posted on a forum....and this was my answer...)

25 Random Things

A few months ago, I was tagged with the 25 Random Things meme on Facebook. It took me long enough to come up with it, I thought is deserved to be posted here as well. Apparently, since February, it has been a crazy internet sensation. In addition to the multiple articles trying to find out just where it actually started, there are web pages about the best and strangest random things posts.

1. Thanks to this tag I learned how to make a "note" on facebook. (EDIT...see how long ago I started this dumb thing.)

2. I am still thoroughly enjoying previewing the YA books for my children. I have been really glad about a few of them because they are "hiding" in my closet until the kids are at least a couple years older, but most of them I just enjoy reading. I definitely didn't read enough as a kid. (I like to read boring grown-up books too.)

3. I'm glad that my daughter is now enjoying teeny-bopper cheesy movies because it gives me an excuse to enjoy being cheesy.

4. I enjoy shopping alone more than I do with children and husband. (This may be the understatement of the year.)

5. Shopping is therapeutic in so many ways. (I kind of love it.)

6. I should be in bed right now, but I find the peace of the night, while the rest of the house is sleeping, to be very replenishing to my sanity and soul.

7. Opening Band-Aids in the dark is cool.

8. I love trivia and random facts...the world is a fascinating place....

9. ...I also have a craving for knowledge, so when I come across a random fact that grabs my attention (often) I find out all I can about it. Then I'm an expert...until the next thing comes along...then I mostly forget all but the important parts of all the knowledge that I gained.

10. I like IMDB too...not a lot of usable knowledge, but interesting nonetheless. Today, while the kids watched The Fox and The Hound, I learned that not only was Paul Winchell the voice of Boomer, the bird, the voice of Tigger, but he was also the voice of Gargamel. Now that is some invaluable info!

11. Love Love Love CITRUS!!! I love lime squeezed on/in most things...love lemon water...love grapefruit, oranges, blood oranges...mmmm....makes my mouth water and rejuvenates my body and mind...even just thinking about it!

12. One of my gifts to myself at Christmas is to have a pretty present under the tree. It just seems 'perfect'. Sometimes it's the dumbest actual gift, but that's okay...as long as it looks good.

13. I don't think baths are relaxing. I'd rather take a steamy shower and then be done with it...and spend the "soaking in the bath" time doing something else. My brain and body just get annoyed sitting hanging out in a bathtub....

14....but hanging out getting a massage, either from my husband or at the spa...I could do that for a very long time. :)

15. I'm allergic to cats, but not dogs.

16. I don't watch TV without the aid of my DVR. It just makes me antsy.

17. My "Brain Age"(DS!! :) ) is 23 and my "Real Age" is 24.6, both of which I consider better than my actual calendar age.

18. I don't like rules that are there to just be there. I think that rules should be justified, or thrown out.

19. I don't remember ever having just one favorite song, movie, food, book, color...I always think those kind of questions are strange.

20. When I first got this tag, it was only 16 things...so I'm wondering if the original one was actually 16, and then some stupid person thought they were way cool and somehow had 25 things on the tip of their tongue that they just had to share...then they just changed the numbers. That's my theory on how this lovely 25 Random Things meme got started. (And a very good argument against procrastination.)

21. I drink a lot of water...in fact...I think I might have a FAVORITE drink!!!

22. I'm a pretty big sucker for GOOD dark chocolate, but...standard Hershey's milk chocolate is not the least bit tempting, or appealing (it actually smells like vomit to me...ask my kids.)

23. If you ever find a sippy cup under the couch, it's just a really good time to buy a new sippy cup. Trash it.

24. I don't take enough time to be with friends. Other stuff gets in the way. I need to work on that because I love my friend time.

25. I have the best husband and kids in the world!