Tagged!!!

My sweet saltwater princess has tagged me. I feel so loved!

Four movies I could watch over and over:
1. Ever After
2. Oscar
3. The Fifth Element
4. The Lethal Weapon Series

Four jobs I've had:
1. Demoing ice cream for Yarnell's
2. Drive-thru bank teller
3. Fish lady in a pet shop
4. Chaperone for day care field trips (when I was 15, I was actually paid to go to all the amusement parks, water parks, skating rinks, bowling alleys, etc...)

Four places I've lived: (Wow, I can just barely answer that one)
1. Benton, LA
2. Shreveport, LA
3. Stafford, TX
4. Sugar Land, TX

Four TV Shows I love:
1. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (the one Feb 19 is from an area near where I live!)
2. Alias
3. Seinfeld
4. ??? OK, I can't answer this one because I don't really watch TV. The episodes I've seen of the others have all been on DVD.

Four places I've vacationed:
1. Cozumel, Mexico
2. Pittsburg, PA
3. Albert's Pike, AK
4. Orlando, FL

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. Lasagna with Texas cheese toast
2. Enchiladas or quesadillas with a great margarita
3. Cashew Pork & Vegetables
4. Barbeque ribs by de hubby

Four sites I visit daily:
1. My MK
2. Blogs of all my friends (there's like... 15???)
3. eBay
4. News sites (Google News, MSN, CNN, NBC, ABC, etc)

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Rome
2. Ireland
3. Hawaii
4. In bed

Four bloggers I am tagging:
1. Erin
2. Hufflebinks
3. Potor
4. Thugar

Mon, you're going to have to tag Jill, Heather, and Steph for me!!! I can only do four!!!

A Bug's Life

I've decided to start walking every day with the kids. It's fun for them and exercise for me. Good all around. I'm also considering getting a physical and asking the doctor how many calories I should be consuming every day and actually beginning to track them.

But I digress. I have a habit of doing that.

So I decided this morning that I would take my hubby's dry cleaning to the store by walking it there instead of driving it there. I get my exercise, the kids get out of the house, the dry cleaning gets in before 9 so it's out by 5... all the good things in life.

I decided to take another couple of blocks on the way home to extend our walk. While I was pondering the meaning of life as many people do when they're walking aimlessly through their neighborhood, I began thinking about ants. Do they get really annoyed when someone knocks over their pile of dirt, or are they just in a frenzy to rebuild it? Do they even care? Or are they just like, "Well, Sam, it looks like we're gonna hafta rebuild that second hill again. The queen's not going to be happy. You know how pregnant women are." Imagine if they had news reporters:

"This is Ant Antly with a flash news report. Tragedy struck today as the Sidewalk Ridge Apartments were crushed by a passing stroller. 27 were pronounced dead at the scene, while hundreds of others are injured. The Hill Council is immediately planning a relocation for all survivors to the Tunnel Condos, while busy workers are scouring the ruins for more survivors."

Such is a bug's life, I guess.

Oh my...

Umm... no thanks.

Harmony

I have always wanted to sing. The funny thing is, I've never wanted to be a soloist. I've always wanted to be the harmony.

I realized that today while in worship. I told God that I really wanted to sing harmony on his praise songs, and I didn't know how. All I wanted was to make the music I sang beautiful to His ears so that it might be a worthy offering. It was then that I felt the Holy Spirit, and I got the very clear message that God was very happy with what I offered Him, because what I offered Him was everything I had, and it was given in love. And for the first time, I could harmonize with the music without having to learn the part and practice it. I knew it was a gift God had given me, a "red balloon."* I felt fulfilled.

It also gave me a deeper realization, though. Harmony in music is just the beginning. While I love getting attention, I don't like being in the spotlight. It almost embarrasses me. Like the harmonizing vocalist, I enjoy adding that extra layer, giving the music (or whatever it happens to be) depth and beauty. I think that's why I can successfully teach Crown Financial Ministries, because the way the class is set up is for it to be interactive, not a lecture with me at the helm. I think that's why I can successfully sell and recruit in Mary Kay... it's not about me selling and recruiting, but finding a niche for every woman I meet to fulfill HER needs. While I want to be someone who gets things done and makes things happen, I don't want it to be about ME. And it's even more special when it's all about GOD.

* The red balloon reference is taken from a MOPS daily radio devotional. The story was about how God loves us as individuals, with all of our quirks, cares about the little things in our lives, and wants to grant us the little things we want. The mother in the story retrieved a red balloon for her daughter that really brightened her daughter's day. In such a way, God wants to see us happy.

Kill, kill, kill!!!

Lately I've been so moody. I don't really understand why. I know I'm stressed. But I handle stress pretty well, I think. If I get too stressed I usually just shut down completely. Not get moody. Lately at the smallest annoyance I want to dismember something.

And I DON'T have PMS.

This is the first time I've been this moody since... well... ever. I don't think people around me can really tell I'm moody, but that's because I usually take my frustrations out internally, yelling at people in my head and envisioning their hurried and extremely apologetic groveling. It makes me feel much better. Unfortunately, it doesn't make the annoyance stop.

Luckily, my house is about to get very clean. When I'm annoyed, aside from the amusing musings, I take it out on my house with a broom and a cleaning towel.

By tomorrow morning you'll be able to eat off my floors and look under my beds without fear.

My daughter's latest sassy comment: When I discipline her, she says, "We love you Miss Hannigan." Darn musicals.

Seeing Red

Tonight my husband has my daughter and they went to my nephew's Christening out of town. That meant just me and my boy, lazing around all day watching soap operas and eating bon bons. Actually, poor pitiful me said to myself, "Wow, I have so much time I can REALLY clean up my kids' room!" I am so pathetic.

I did take some quality time to spend with a girlfriend I needed to catch up with, though. We live in the same neighborhood, so it's sad that we haven't spoken in a while. I actually really like hanging out with her, we're just both so busy...

So tonight we both had our boys. After a fish dinner (I can only have fish when hubby isn't around), we decided to make it a girls' night out. We watched a blatantly teeny-bopper feel-good coming-of-age flick, ate popcorn with M&Ms, and dyed our hair while drinking Jack n Dr. Pepper. What a girls' night!!! We didn't have to worry about her driving home, so what the hey!

When we went to go pick out the hair dye, I knew what color I wanted. I've always loved my hair a deep, rich auburn. Of course, that didn't stop me from drooling over about 20 other shades before I went right back to my original idea. That's pretty much habit with me. The funny thing is, she picked out the same color. None of this was planned. I wanted to go lighter and red, she wanted to go darker and red. And it actually does look different. Even though my hair looks lighter than it did before, it still looks darker than hers. At least we're not total Twinkies, just a couple of Ding-Dongs.

I wonder what my husband is going to think.

I hope my daughter recognizes me.

I need to go to bed before I pass out onto my keyboard.

Human Again

You know that song in Beauty and the Beast that isn't supposed to be there? This is nothing like that.

This is me, human again:


I got my nails done. Sometimes that's all it takes to make me feel human again. It's such a wonderful feeling to have pretty nails. It amazes me how much more beautiful I feel when I have pretty hands. You see, I'm a beauty consultant, and when I show someone a product, I don't like worrying if they're looking at my scraggly nails. I can even feel beautiful while stuffing my face with supreme pizza and drinking Black Cherry Vanilla Coke (which I am doing right now). And no, the coke is NOT diet.

*gasp*

Fake sugar and I just don't get along. It's like decaf coffee or Fazoli's without breadsticks.

Anyway, I start my Environmental Science class on Tuesday. Yay, one more class until I get my Associates!!! Of course, I've been in college since 1999, but... when you're a music major you spend your whole time doing music classes. When I stopped going full-time because I had a child, I had a total of 3 core classes under my belt. That's right, even my daughter can count them on less than one hand. I've been one-trucking it for the past, oh, I don't know... three years? Four? I lost count about six semesters ago. But next semester this rooster is flying the college coop! Yay!!!

So I got my nails done in the mall. Malls are interesting places. For one, you can always observe the "trends" that are running around. Yes, I remember being a teeny-bopper and getting all dressed up to go scour the mall for my next boyfriend. Apparently things have not changed. Except the clothing, of course. It's bad when you pass a clothing store and see the butt crack of the mannequin hanging out of the jeans. It's like they're trying to save money on fabric and decided to take it from the top. And this same store had two different windows: one with clothing that with a little work could fit a Barbie doll, and one with modest clothing. And by modest all I mean is that at least some parts of the teeny-bopper's body would be left to the imagination. Isn't that disgraceful, the way "modest" has become synonymous with "not naked"?

I just know my husband is going to post something about the clothing that I used to wear. Looking back, I guess it wasn't much better.

I saw skinny boys with their jeans hanging down to their knees, shirts that would fit a pro linebacker with room to spare, and hats perched precariously on top of afros. I KID YOU NOT. Afros. Wow. I was rendered speechless. I hope they don't think I was appreciating them when I was staring, jaw hanging, and trying not to laugh.

It makes me laugh when I see the teenagers strutting around too. Mostly because I remember doing it. I was hot. I drove myself to the mall. Look at me now! Yeah, baby!

I find it mildly amusing that I'm such an old fart.

Ugh... New Year

You know, I promised myself that I wouldn't make a New Year's Resolution. I never keep them, so there is really no point. The darn thing came up anyway.

Today I began a cleaning routine. I always work better on routines. I even made a chart. How corny am I? I have my daily duties, and my weekly duties. The bigger stuff I'll just have to squeeze in, I'm not willing to totally commit to a schedule for them yet. I was even thinking of making a chart for the kids with their chores. Yes, I know they're 3 and 1, but they would be thrilled by it anyway. Just like Mommy. I'm so proud.

Wish me luck, so far I'm ahead, since tomorrow's weekly task was half done tonight. My hubby was at a bar with a friend, so I didn't really have anything better to do. How sad.

Message in a... Potato???

I decided earlier that I would dice potatoes tonight for eggs benedict in the morning, since they take 45 minutes to cook. I wanted to save a little time, since neither waking up at the butt crack of dawn or getting breakfast on the table around lunchtime sounded like plausible options.

Why was I dicing potatoes, you ask? Because our eggs benedict is special. We dice our potatoes, throw in some diced onion and bell pepper, some oil and seasoned salt, and bake it. We then make homemade-from-scratch hollandaise. Our complete eggs benedict consists of a toasted English muffin topped with a poached egg, diced potatoes O'Brien and ham, mixed cheeses, capers, and hollandaise. It's quite a work of culinary art. Apparently we make it (or at least talk about it) enough for my husband's parents to get us a real live egg poacher for Christmas. Whoopee! Now we're professional eggs benedict makers!!!

But I digress.

So I'm dicing potatoes in an effort to save time, and I notice a very peculiar marking in a potato. I had to take a picture of it and share. I think it's a warning of the second coming via potato, like the dolphins leaving being a precursor to the destruction of Earth.

Thanks for all the fish.