Guys and Dolls

Last night I took the girls to see Theatre Albany's production of Guys and Dolls. It was actually the dress rehersal, and we got to go for free. The music teacher at Bella's school was the Musical Director for the show. We ran into him at Sam's Club last Saturday and he invited us to the performance. How awesome is it to know people who know people??!!?? Benefit of small town living, indeed!

The show started at eight and the curtain didn't come down until almost 10:30, so they are probably pretty tired today. Oh well. They can just sleep through whatever movie is being shown in class today, because heaven knows they probably aren't doing anything with 2 1/2 days of school left! ;)

The Clines came with us, but Jaws stayed home to enjoy a much-needed "All By Himself Guy Time". I keep trying to think of thing for the Clines to do here in town so they won't move to North Carolina. ;)

I had seen the show before, but the girls hadn't. It was fun to listen to their reactions, and even MORE fun to hear them make suggestions/compare it to the two shows they have been involved in. (They're seasoned vets, you know. ;D) The best part was when it was time for intermission and Bella asked me what we were supposed to do during intermission. At first I was confused, but then I realized that she had never been in an *audience* during intermission- she had only ever been in the cast! Hee!

Decompressing

That pretty much sums up my state right now. I'm decompressing. It's something I have to do before I can move on to the next thing, whatever that might be. Summer is rapidly approaching (although you'd never know it by the weather for the past four days- lows in the 40's and highs in the 70's! In south Georgia! In the middle of May!), but before I can fully enjoy it, I have to process this school year.

I will admit it- this was not my personal best year teaching. It was challenging, and I learned a lot (about myself, about balance, about how to be a better teacher, what mistakes I don't want to make again) but it was flat-out draining. So I have to let it go so I can have a good summer and recharge my batteries for next year. I do a lot of deep breathing and meditation. It's one of the many coping mechanisms I've learned over the years in dealing with my anxieties. It's a way to "let go", which I think is pretty vital in for a healthy mental state.

We have all of these blow-up Letter People that we use in my classroom. There are 26 of the suckers, and the air has to be let out of all of them so they can be packed away for the summer, or else the pressure of the air will cause the seems to burst. It's really hard, as you have to simultaneously squeeze the air valve while pushing on the Letter Person to squeeze out all of the air. But that's what it's like for me when I have to decompress. It's hard work, but if I don't do it I know I'll burst.

Here's to not bursting for the next 2 1/2 months.

OH HAPPY DAY!

For the past month, I have been overly occupied with some stuff. Stressful stuff. Important stuff. Stuff that kept me awake at night and mainlining carbs, dark chocolate and Dr. Pepper during the day.

So you know how I have that anxiety problem?? That didn't exactly help me deal with this stuff very well. Such is life, though. If you don't know the trials, you can't appreciate the joy; It's only after the rain has passed that you appreciate the sunshine; insert comforting homily that helps you get through the day.

But today, TODAY, everything is bright and shiny and the weight on my shoulders feels ten times lighter. You see, CRCT test scores came back today. Stupid, stupid five days worth of standardizing testing scores that, in Fifth grade, are an all-or-nothing deal; if you don't pass the CRCT, you don't go into Sixth grade. Period.

See this girl right here???


She's smart and funny and creative and energetic and a fabulous person in general who, like her equally talented, funny, smart, etc mother, happens to struggle in math. Math is our Waterloo. It's our Spanish Armada attacking the English Navy. It's our Custer's Last Stand. (You get the idea.) We don't need ONE day of STUPID STANDARDIZED testing in math to judge our worth. But sadly the state of Georgia doesn't agree. So she's been prepping all stinking year. Getting extra help and tutoring. Working on extra math work over every holiday break the entire school year. Sweating and cursing the entire time. (Well, I was cursing. Bella doesn't curse, but I expect she will start sometime around the time she encounters Trigonometry.)

Three days into the RIDICULOUS, STUPID, IDIOTIC standardized testing and it was finally time for the math portion. Oy vey. The stress. The worry. The fear. On all of us. No 11 year old should feel that much pressure.

And then, today. TODAY. The test scores come home. Passing grade! A COMFORTABLE passing grade!! No more worry!! No more stress. We are the RUssians, beating back Napolean! We are the English Navy and a fearful hurricane! We are multiple Indian tribes kicking Custer's arse!!!!

But then I remember my baby is going into Middle School in the fall. MIDDLE SCHOOL. She's so little. And young! The worrying starts all over again.

Y Halo Thar Blog!

April went by in a haze of Spring Break, realizing that preschool graduation was only 2 1/2 weeks after Spring Break and my kids weren't ready, (commence MAJOR panicking) my co-teacher's father getting seriously ill and me dealing with a round-robin of subs (thank heavens my friend Jamie was available- she knew a lot of the songs we were singing; thank you Primary Songbook!) Easter parties, Easter, car malfunctions derailing Easter, stupid state-mandated CRCT testing, graduation itself and a big field trip. Then to top it all off I got a cold. I'm glad it's over and done.

Next week is my last week of school for the year. Suh-weet. They did great in our preschool graduation- seriously, they were awesome. I love the little buggers but I'm *tired*. May brings family stuff (birthdays and baby showers) the Family Reunion, more graduations, end of the year parties, Honors Days, more field trips, packing up parts of my classroom and for some reason teachers keep assigning MAJOR projects. WHy not just give the kids a test and be done with it. Let's not get creative and overthink it here at the end, shall we?

But I know why you're here. You want to know about my couponing exploits, don't you?? Yeah you do!!

I tried to keep up with everything by taking pictures of all of my shopping hauls, but it got to be a pain. And I'm lazy. Still the picks are on my harddrive, and what kind of couponer/blogger would I be if I didn't share them with you? A lousy one!

This was a CVS purchase. Total cost was $38.84, but I spent 14.91 Out of Pocket (OOP). One thing that I learned during this whole "WILL COUPONING REALLY SAVE ME ANY MONEY?" thing was about razors. I don't know if y'all realize this, but razors are NOT cheap! We have four people in this house using razors, so we tend to go through them. James doesn't like electric shavers and disposable razors tear us his face. The brand of razor he uses currently isn't even a fancy-scmancy five blade deal, but a refill pack of 8 cartridges costs almost $20. On one of the couponing sites I frequent it said that in order to get the best deals on razors, watch for sales and coupons for ANY razor and then buy the refills as they are on sale.

I don't know why I didn't think of that before, but it was seriously a revalation for me. I was SHOCKED to see how many sales AND coupons on razors and/or catridges there were over the course of the month. So now we have a stockpile of five different kinds of razors and probably 40 or so refill cartridges, and I only spent about $25 OOP. In the future I can look for sales and stock up the catridges as necessary without worrying about the brand of razor because we most likely already have it! And how sad is this? We have a razor basket in the closet to store the razors when we are out of refills.


Another CVS run. $99.21 in product, 35.69 OOP.


This is from a BIG Publix run. At first I was really concentrating on getting out of the store with spending as little as possible. That is still my overall goal, but it's not the only thing I'm concentrating on now. We've never had a huge amount of food storage. Years of moving and living with family never made it really practical. But now that we are settled, it's important to start building up those supplies.

We lucked out that, in April, we had an extra paycheck. I decided to concentrate on stocking up on as much as I could for during April and May since I won't have a paycheck again until September once school is out. I'll worry about the bottom line during the summer and stock up now while we have the financial means.



So this Publix run was $397.24 in product and $222.24 OOP. And as you can see, that included meat, fresh produce and dairy items. Madeline had to pose with the receipt to show you how long it was!


What's the bottom line, though? I estimated that I spend between $400-$500 a month on groceries, household supplies, healt and beauty stuff, etc. I definitely went past that! But as I said, I decided to focus on stocking up as much as I could.

At CVS I got $693.76 worth of product, but I spent $249.51. My math skills are horrid, but I think that's a savings of 75%, and I have $20 in Extra Care Bucks that rolled over to May. I don't think I did too bad.

One awesome thing that came out of all this is that I got most of my household and health and beauty supplies at CVS. Normally, this is the stuff I would buy at Target, along with all sorts of other things that would find its way into my buggy! That didn't happen at CVS, so I saved money that way, too. If I had bought everything at regular price, or even on sale, the prices would have definitely been more at CVS. But because I 1)watched the sales 2)combined with coupons and 3) used Extra Care Bucks, I spent less that I would have at Target. We now have a GREAT supply of soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, shampoo, toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies and over-the-counter medicine.

At Publix I got $1341.64 worth of product, but I spent $782.67 out of pocket. Included in this total is cat and dog food, which I normally would have bought at Target, but because of coupons and sales I ended up buying at Publix. At the end of the month my fridge was full, the pets have extra food, our chest freezer was well-stocked and the pantry has more in it than it ever has before.

My grand total between both stores was $1032.18 OOP, (and I got close to $2000 worth of product) almost double what I estimated I would spend in a month. Do I want that total to go down?? Absolutely!! But I'm fairly confident we could eat a nutrious and varied diet for the next month and not spend more than another $25 on fresh produce, milk and bread. But most importantly, WE WOULDN'T RUN OUT OF TOILET PAPER!!!!

So the big question becomes: IS COUPONING WORTH IT?? In the short term, I bought more and spent more that I normally would have, but I wanted to build our supplies. I didn't "rob Peter to pay Paul" in order to afford it, either. I went to the stores more often that I would have (usually I would only go every two weeks, when payday comes around), but knowing there would be sales I wanted to take advantage of made me 1)plan my budget better and 2) plan my grocery lists and menus. These are all good things.

What about the time I spent cutting, searching, printing, planning and organizing all thouse coupons?? At first it wasn't hard because I didn't have a lot of coupons. Now that I know 'how to play the game', so to speak, I have a *LOT* more. Consequently it takes me more time to get ready to go to the store. I estimate at least 10 hours a week, maybe 15.

Luckily both Publix and CVS list on your receipt how much you saved, just in coupons, in addition to how much you saved altogether. I think this is a pretty good gauge of seeing if the "time" is worth the "money".

All total, my savings on coupons alone came to $435.41. Let's say I spent 10 hours a week for the five weeks in April. That means for every hour I spent "couponing" I "made" $8.70. Frankly, that's more than I make at my REAl job, LOL!!!

I'm definitely not an EXTREME COUPONER (and most of those people are abusing the system) but I think I've made a good start.

Am I Not Mormon Woman??

Yes, yes I am. Which means, by definition, I need to be thrifty and resourceful and not spendy and lazy. A couple of the ladies in my ward have really gotten into the whole couponing thing (**waves to those who might be lurking**. Feel free to say hi!!) I'm lacking in hobbies right now, so I figured what the heck- I'll give it a shot and see if I can really manage to save mucho dinero.

I laid down some ground rules for myself:

1: I would only shop at Publix, CVS and Target.
Publix is my grocery store of choice, as is Target for 'house stuff', like soap and toothpaste, and since they just built a new CVS closer to my house, it's now worth my while to make a special trip there to take advantage of their sales and Extra Care Bucks. I have no desire to spend hours in Wal-Mart just on the hope I could save $5. At some point, my time and dignity are worth more than money. And while there is a Winn-Dixie fairly close to me, I really don't want to spend a whole driving around town to all the other grocery stores. So the BIG THREE it is.

B: In spite of the size of my arse, I really do try and limit the amount of processed foods I buy. You can stop laughing now. As I scanned the couponing blogs, it seemed to me a lot of people were buying a lot of (in my opinion) junk food, just because it only cost 25 cents. Some people have the willpower to limit themselves to just one small treat a day. I don't. My husband doesn't. My children don't. If it's in the house, we'll eat it, and probably pretty quickly, too. (An open bag of M&Ms lasts approximately 5.6 minutes.)

To combat this I decided that I would only buy "treats" if they were on sale AND I had a coupon AND it would be something that I would possibly buy anyway. (For example, Chips Ahoy cookies are pretty good, but not as good as a homemade chocolate chip cookie. So I don't buy them ever because they will always be a disappointment. Oreos, on the other hand...)

Thirdly: I would ignore what seems to be a cardinal rule of couponing- forget brand loyalty.
Here's the dealio: I like the stuff I like. Some stuff just doesn't work as good as other stuff. There are two kinds of deodorant that work for me; Degree Powder Fresh and Arm & Hammer Baby Powder scent. I spend my mornings wrestling preschoolers. It's hot outside 8 months out of the year. These are the ONLY two deodorants I've found that keep me from sweating like excessively AND keep me from smelling like a bum who lives under a highway overpass.

Along those lines, I have a *very* sensitive nose. VERY. Ask Jaws. He will confirm. So there are some things I just won't use because, to me, they stink. Also, Bella has sensitive skin and allergies. You know what makes her break out in a rash and itchy eyes? Most lotions. You know what doesn't? The not cheap (read: expensive)bottle of lotion I order from Basa Body. I also refuse to use cheap (not inexpensive, mind you, but cheap) toilet paper. I just don't want to fool around, ya know? So, I'm not stressing about brand loyalty. I'll just do the best I can.

Soooooooo, with all that in mind, I set out to start couponing.

So far I've done three trips with couponing in mind. I went online to Southern Savers, matched up the sales with my coupons and made my shopping lists. I've been twice to Publix and once to CVS.

I typically do "major" grocery shopping every two weeks and spend anywhere from $125-$200 for our family of four. I probably spend another $75-$100 a month on health and beauty stuff and household-y items. I typically watch for the sales and only by that kind of stuff when it's on sale, but if you're out of tampons you're out of tampons, right? Mother Nature doesn't wait for a sale! ;D But I know that since I'm keeping track of what I'm buying with couponing, I'll be able to do better at REALLY stocking up when something is at a great price without robbing the budget in other places.

My first Publix trip was a big one. I went last Thursday afternoon. It had been at least three weeks since I had done 'major' shopping, and we were out of a lot of our basics. I also bought a lot of stuff I would typically have bought at Target, but because it was on sale at Publix *and* I had coupons, I spent the money there.

I know you aren't a REAL COUPONER unless you unpack everything on your kitchen table and take a picture of it all, but there was so much stuff (not to mentio I didn't get around to unpacking it all until two days later) that you'll have to take my word for it.

I got $283.68 worth of products. After coupons and store sales, I spent 182.19 out of pocket. That includes produce, deli items, dairy, meat, etc. No joke, my receipt was FOUR FEET LONG! Bar soap was on CRAZY sale, so I now have 36 bars of soap. We should be good for a month or two. LOL If I didn't go grocery shopping (for food) for the rest of the month, I'd only need to replace bread, milk and some fresh produce. For me, not too bad.

Next I went to CVS, where I DID take a picture!! LOL


Got $101.70 worth of product, spent $25.38 out of pocket, plus I got $18.50 in Extra Care Bucks to spend next time. Some people like to do multiple transactions in order to roll their ECBs into their purchases and walk out spending only a few dollars (or even just a few cents!) out of pocket. I'm not one of those people. ;D I'll just save it for next time, thanks very much! Even at their sale prices, the toilet paper and the Tide came to almost $25 before coupons by themselves, so this trip was DEFINTELY a money saver!!

My second Publix trip was today. It was much smaller, but I still did pretty well.


I got $104.54 worth of product, but only spent 52.57 out of pocket. I have to 'fess up, though. I bought a lot more processed stuff that I would have had it not been on sale+coupon. See those Milano cookies? 75 cents each. The Jello puddings were $1.50 each. But the girls have some major testing at school this month, so I figured they deserved a little something special for their lunches.

So to wrap it up in a more concise fashion, so far I have saved money. I imagine now that I've got a decent coupon supply going I will continue to save money as long as I match up the coupons with the sales. My biggest hope is that I will get really good at this and save money over the summer.

Keeping It Real

Ahhh....Sping Break. I've been waiting for you too long and now you're finally here! We tentively had some plans as a family, but Madeline got a better offer from a friend and she abandoned us. Bella decided she would head over to Tifton since Madeline was gone, because Tifton is always more fun that Albany! I thought we had at least another year or so before we became obsolete, but the time is here, I guess. *sad face*

I decided to take advantage of having two less people in the house and do some deep-ish cleaning. James cleaned the carpet and I attacked the kitchen. However, in the interest of KEEPING IT REAL, I took pictures of things I haven't done (and to be perfectly honest, probabaly won't any time soon).

I hate dusting. It's a waste of time. It just comes back and this time of year it brings pollen with it(especially if you like to keep your windows open, which I do). DOWN WITH DUSTING!!!




The food side of the laundry room is pretty organized, but the laundry/storage side? Not so much.


I despair of the craft closet. In spite of my best efforts, it's always messy. Darn kids, it's their fault!


Preschool books in the playroom I need to put away. These are the books I've ordered and/or used since December. I'll probably clean it up in June. There are probably two hundread books in those stacks. I have plans of cataloging them all, but probably won't complete that task until sometime in 2015.




It took me ten minutes to find a pair of matching flip-flops the other day. Pitiful.


I seriously have no idea why all this STUFF is piled up on this shelf. It has no business being there. But Have I done anything about it? No.


Other things I haven't done but should? Windexing the front windows where the cats and dog press their noses, mopping the kitchen floor (the red clay blends in with the tile quite nicely) and cleaning the shelves in the top of my closet.

Just keepin' it real.

Whinging Wednesday

A few days ago I posted on Facebook that I used to think Spring was one of my favorite seasons, but now I know that it is most definitely NOT. (For the record, the order is 1) Fall 2)Summer 3)Winter 4)Spring).

Yes, the renewal of the earth is lovely and the cool mornings and mild afternoons are nice. But the renewal of the earth brings a metric ton of pollen, and the cool mornings and mild afternoons last few about two weeks (sometime between Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day) before the stiffling heat and humidity make their triumphant debut.

And there's always SO MUCH TO DO. Weeding the flower beds, mowing the lawn, getting the garden ready, changing out the bed linens and clothes from winter stuff to summer stuff, spring cleaning; the chores go ON and ON and ON FOR-EV-ERRRRRRRRRR. I just want to curl up with a book. (But I must take advantage of the two weeks of beautifulness outside! Or else I feel guilty! And I hate feeling guilty!)

And then there's preschool. I hate spring at preschool because
1) everyone (including the kiddies) has spring fever and Spring Break never gets here fast enough, nor does it last long enough
2) graduation is looming (and that's a LOT of work too!) and
3) T-BALL.

****DISCLAIMER*****
This is WHINGING WEDNESDAY, a time when I can hyperbolically complain about whatever has my knickers in a twist on that given day. It is not a judgment about you. (Okay, maybe a *leetle*.) But seriously, take everything I say with a grain of salt.
*****END DISCALIMER*****

Let me tell you the evils of T-Ball as it pertains to children between the ages of 4 and 8. For some reason, "ball" practice seems to happen 3-4 nights a week. It's been my experience that these practices are later in the evening. And you know how soccer and football games are typically played on Saturday mornings? Not ball. They have weeknight games, and usually more than one a week! Kids who are playing ball get home late, eat dinner late, get to bed late, wake up grouchy and still tired and invariably come to school in the most rotten of moods and their behavio shows it.

With eight years of teaching experience under my belt I can raise my hand to the heavens and SWEAR this doesn't happen in the fall with soccer and football. It doesn't happen in the winter with basketball. It doesn't happen in the spring with soccer or swimming. IT ONLY HAPPENS IN THE SPRING WITH KIDS WHO PLAY BALL.

One year, most of my class was on the smae T-Ball team. Their practices and/or games (and sometimes they had BOTH on one day!) were on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Wednesdays and Fridays, February-April, we had at least ONE kid fall asleep in class on those days after practice/games. Sometimes it was more than one. It was awful.

I think a lot of it has to do with the structure of ball. Yes, you play with a team, but there is so much pressure on the kid as an individual. Throwing and catching and hitting are great skills, but I have tons of hitting and throwing behavior problems at school and almost NO kicking problems. And lets face it, compared to soccer and football kids running up and down a field, ball kids aren't getting quite as much exercise. There's a lot of standing around and waiting, you know what I mean? So these kids are all pumped up and there's very little *physical* way of releasing it. Hence, tired kids and behavior problems galore at school the next day.

Don't get me wrong- I *LOVE* baseball as a sport. (Go Braves!) But I'm telling you- younger kids aren't getting much out of it at all. I want to plead with my parents sometimes, "Please wait until your little darling is older! They will enjoy it more, and so will you, and you won't have to have these little chats with me each afternoon about the bad choices your child made today!" I am alsways happy when ball is over and done with (only two more weeks! I can make it!).

And I hate spring because the sun is still shining when I need to go to bed. BOO DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!!!!

In conclusion, Le Sacre du Printemps and Vivaldi aside, Spring holds no particular charms for me.

Although, I am looking forward to the return of gardenias.

Third Person Thursday

Back in December she won a raffle for a handmade quilt.

She emailed the quilt maker with some colors that she liked and told the quilter to surprise her with the end result. Every few weeks the quilter would send an email updating her on the progress, until last week the quilter told her it was in the mail.

When she opened the package, her breath was taken away. The quilt was gorgeous. The colors were perfect. The size was perfect for snuggling up in on a rainy (or not so rainy) day. The thickness and weight were exactly what she wanted. If she had been there in person, picking out fabrics and laying out the pattern, it could not have been more perfect. (In fact, it probably would have been worse as she tends to get overwhelmed with color choices and design schemes and so forth.)

It reminded her of another perfect quilt that is no longer with her. That quilt was made by her grandmother. It was a crazy patchwork, with no rhyme or reason to the color or fabric selection. It was on her bed from the time she was 13 until the time it was lost in a move at the age of 22. She wept over the loss of that quilt. She knows it seems silly, crying over a quilt, especially one that was starting to get worn and threadbare with use. But she doesn't care. In the eleven years since it went missing, no other blanket has ever felt as good as that quilt did.

She knows that quilts are often used as metaphors when people are speaking of feeling the Holy Spirit at work in your life; warm, enveloping, conforting. It's a good metaphor, she thinks. The arrival of this new perfect quilt just happened to coincide with some crazy deep soul searching she had been doing. She thinks she'll spend some time wrapped up in love, just as she did so many years before.

A-HA!!! (And not the Norwegian Pop Group)

I HAVE HAD AN EPIPHANY, PEOPLE!!!

I know no one likes reading "Woe is me" blog posts, but if that's how you're feeling then what else can you say? For a few weeks now, I've been trying to get to the root of exactly *WHY* I've been feeling this way, because believe it or not, I don't like mopey me and more than you do.

And then tonight, while listening to the rain and trying to get the dog to go out without me having to go with her, IT HIT ME.

I HAVEN'T ACCOMPLISHED ANYTHING PERSONALLY THIS YEAR!

Let me explain. By this time last year, some of my writing had been published in a magazine and on a biggish LDS blog. I had contributed a few pieces to the AMAZING Betsy Bird's blog in reference to her Top 100 Children's Book poll and I knew they would be published in the spring. My creative juices were flowing.

Right now?? Not so much. So clearly I need to do something creative and exciting. But what??????? I've been wanting to learn how to play "Jesus Loves Me" on the guitar so I can accompany my preschool class for our graduation. I have no idea how to play the guitar, though. I need to find a teacher. This can be my project!

Running on Empty

Last night I ran away from home. I didn't run that far, only into town to a local coffee shop for some hot chocolate. It had been a long week and I was tired and worn out and feeling unloved and underappreciated. I parked in the movie theatre parking lot because it was well lit and there were people around, so if I got car-jacked maybe someone would notice. I called my oldest friend in the world and cried, but then she made me laugh and I love her for that. So I decided to come home and get some much-needed sleep.

Beauty and the Beast

Now in a limited engagement....



P.S.- James' sets are A.MAZ.ING!!!

In the manner of a headless chicken...

Friday is OPENING NIGHT for Beauty and the Beast. James is still feverishly building sets. Bella is trying to get used to dancing in her big poufy costume. Madeline is learning patience as a crew/tech member working backstage helping with cues, getting 3rd, 4th and 5th graders (so young and immature, compared to her, a 6th grader). I think the director might have a nervous breakdown before the end of the week. And I'm realizing that it's MARCH and technically there are only 10 WEEKS of school left and I still have so much to do before the end of the year. Wasn't it just Christmas break??

City Girls, Country Girls

As I was brushing my teeth last night it occurred to me that the girls are growing up the exact opposite way I did.

I grew up in mainly urban/suburban environs. On most of our family vacations/getaways we escaped to the peace and tranquility of south Georgia, visiting Grandmom and Granddaddy. And I loved it, even as a teenager. I loved that there were no city lights to block out the stars. I loved helping with the chickens and in the garden. I loved the quiet of the country and taking walks through cotton fields along dirts roads. I loved sitting on the porch with Granddaddy watching the occasional car go by. I loved seeing the Christmas lights that Tifton put up "downtown" every year. I just loved the coziness of it all.

Now, I live in that (somewhat) cozy environment. When we take our family vacations we usually head to the big city- Jacksonville or Atlanta. Mostly to visit friends and family, but also so we can hit up the big city stores and museums and restaurants. I love having lots of choices as to what we will do for the day. I love knowing that there is a good chance I won't run into someone I know. I love looking at the skyline at night, all lit up. I love the excitement and energy.

It will be interesting to see where the girls settle down when they grow up.

A List of Things for Yoooooooouuuuuuuu!

Men I Have Been Unreasonably Attracted To At Some Point In Time:

1. TIM CURRY


Was it when I first saw him as "Rooster" in Annie? No, I was only six. Was it when he was "Wadsworth the Butler" in one of the greatest movies of all time, Clue? I was ten. Definitely getting closer. What sealed the deal for me was seeing him in full-on drag as "Frank N. Furter" in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. How twisted is that?? But really, it's his voice. Deep and British! His laugh is pure evil (in a good way). And he sings!! *swoons*

2. PRINCE


Look, he's only like 4'11, he's skinny, a little too fond of the color purple (Not to be confused with The Color Purple, Mom. Hee. That joke WILL NEVER GET OLD.) and he wears too much make up. But the dude oozes pheromones. And somehow he manages to go between a smooth baritone and a sweet falsetto and he pulls. it. off. What's up with that?

Songs and/or artists that are COMPLETELY OVERRATED and I Unreasonably Hate:
1. FIONA APPLE


UGH. I cannot tell you how much I despise Fiona Apple and every song she has ever sung. Her voice is average at best and her lyrics are bad middle school diary. Not to mention she is completely full of herself. I am really glad she was basically a one hit wonder and hope she never attempts a "comeback".

2. NEIL YOUNG


He looks and sounds like the abandoned cat that lives behind your local gas station. Crosby, Stills and Nash are better off without him.

Two Documentaries Everyone Should Watch:
1. Grizzly Man


Timothy Treadwell lived in the wilds of Alaska among Grizzly Bears. Timothy Treadwell thought the bears were his family. Timothy Treadwell was completely NUTS. Spent the hour and a half watching this movie. You won't be sorry.

2. The Endless Summer


It's so retro it's hip again! I love this movie. (I even love its not-as-good sequel.) Who hasn't dreamed of travelling around the world visiting beautiful and exotic locales? Who hasn't dreamed of having a rockin' surfer body? Who hasn't dreamed of a cure for skin cancer so we can all be tan and beautiful year round?? I still think, given half a chance I could be an awesome surfer.

It's Friday, I'm in Love

1. Isabella has been home from school for three days now because of a sinus infection/fever/bad cough. The antibiotic *finally* seems to be kicking in and she's feeling better. James stayed home with her on Wednesday, and I've been home yesterday and today. I've been able to cath up on a few things around here, which is nice. Around 10:00 or so this morning I folded a load of laundry on my bed and then put it away. I sat down for a minute to survey the joint, fully intending to get back up, put my shoes on and go get some more Ginger Ale (Ginger Ale fixes any illnesss. Did you know that??)

Nex thing I knew I was waking up and it was 1:00! What kind of person have I become?? One who falls asleep for a three hour nap, evidently.

2. I am feeling quite motivated to rearrange my books on the bookshelves in the living room. Right now everything is (mostly) arranged by author (but not in alphabetical order) and the occasional genre. I think of moving all the genre books together and making a larger shelf for books I haven't read yet. I'm hoping this way I'll remember what I haven't read when I go looking for something before I go out and buy something new.

But the thought of rearranging 500+ books is a little daunting. Maybe I'll just run down to the library and pick up the books I have on hold first.

3. You know I worship at the feet of The Pioneer Woman. Everything she does is magic and all that jazz. But the last few recipes I've made from her have only been so-so. The Cherry Cake Pudding was especially disappointing. But it's okay, Ree. I still love you!!!

4. I am so very glad we don't have school on Monday.

Third Person Thursday

Tip 'o the hat to Kage for the format idea.

She knows this time of the year is the winter doldrums, so she tried to compensate by keeping her home tidy(ish) and cozy, cooking pots of hearty soups and the occasional yummy dessert and looking forward to spring and sunshine, which isn't too far away.

But just like clockwork, the moody blues hit with a vengeance. She's tired and worn out from dealing with the flu on top of life. She knows her partner is also tired and worn out and worst in his mind, COLD. (He doesn't like being cold.) She's trying to be supportive, but the energy battery is already running so low in spite of the extra rest and vitamins and cutting out the unimportant to focus on what matters Right Now. She realized today that not only is it a full moon this week, but her monthly visitor would be arriving sometime on Sunday. (She knows this thanks to the miracle of modern science).

In other words, Mother Nature is really, really messing her up.

She's been worrying about her girls, too. She remembers those awkward tween/pre-teen/teen years all to well. At times she sees the girls handling challenges with grace and maturity that belies their ages. And then sometimes they're a weeping mess that can't be fixed, only endured. She remembers what it was like and digs deep in her muddled soul so she can listen or talk or provide a solution- whatever is necessary. And then there was yesterday when there was nothing she could say, and the consequences (if any) would fall directly - and painfully - on her precious girl's head.

And then there's reality smacking her straight upside the head, with another sick girl. It didn't seem serious at first, but it's getting worse. The doctor wants to wait until tomorrow to how things stand then. The last time she waited her baby girl ended up with pneumonia. But she decides to trust the doctor, because the alternative (a middle of the night trip to the scary, takes-eight-hours-to-be-seen-and-who-knows-what-germs-are-now-taking-over-her-body emergency room) is worse than waiting.

And while she's busy dealing with the day-to-day stuff, living life, enduring to the end, what she REALLY wants to be doing is thinking deep thoughts about long term decisions and implications and ramifications. For her. For her partner. For her girls. For their family. For their friends. She wants to write out her concerns and frustrations and her goals and dreams. But she's afraid people won't be kind or understanding or worse; like they will judge her feelings and willfully misunderstand her choices. Because it's happened before, and it wasn't pretty. It never is.

Her body will heal. So will her mind and soul. Mother Nature will be kind again soon. She'll worry in the meantime but then, when the time is right, when the universe shows itself, she'll act. She knows life is messy and lovely. She's got the dichotomy down and she understands that juxtaposing some things will make people mighty uncomfortable. So she waits a bit longer, biding her time. Pondering. Praying. Revising. Reviewing. Waiting.

Lulu says "Happy Thursday"

Y'all. Y'ALL. LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!!

What I Did Not Do On Valentine's Day

1. I was sick with the flu AND tonsillitis last week. As in Monday afternoon through Sunday Night. I went back to school yesterday because 1) I was feeling better (finally!) and 2) we had our class Valentine's Party. Party days are always crazy (in a good way) but I can't in good conscience make a sub deal with that.

So. While in the abstract I knew yesterday was Valentine's Day, in the concrete world I had pretty much forgotten about it, what with being sick and all. Which means Isabella went skipping off to school with no valentines for her class. (Madeline, being in middle school, is now responsible for giving out valentines to whomever she chooses. I wash my hands of it.) This was Isabella's last year of the whole-class-valentine-thing and I blew it. I should feel guilty-ish, but I kinda-sorta don't.

2. Speaking of realizing it was Valentine's Day but not realizing that it's TODAY (or yesterday, as it were) James made plans to get a haircut after work. I forgot about these plans. With Beauty and the Beast stuff plus me being sick, I hadn't cooked a real meal in almost three weeks. Last night I was feeling well enough to throw together some Spaghetti and Meatballs and Caesar Salad for dinner. (I figured the sauce was red so that said "Happy Valentine's Day" enough).

I was getting kinda late (for us) and James still wasn't home. For a sit down dinner! That I cooked! On Valentine's Day!. So the girls and I ate without him. When he got home and I saw his lack of hair I remembered his plans. Oh well. A romantic dinner is such a cliche anyway.

3. Before I got sick, I bought the girls their Valentine's presents. We got them a rose charm to go on the Pandora bracelets they got for Christmas. (A rose because 1) roses are the International Flower of Lurve and 2) it's the Beauty and the Beast trademark symbol, and we wanted to get them something to remind them of this production.)

However, I get sick before I could order James *his* Valentine's present, namely, new long johns (The cold weather apparel.Not the delicious cream filled, chocolate filled pastry. Although he would have appreciated that as well.) But since he didn't get me anything either, we'll just say No Harm, No Foul.

And frankly, if Valentine's Day disappeared from the calendar I probably wouldn't miss it. You know those people who are all "Christmas is so commercial! Jesus is the reason for the season! Down with malls and Black Friday!!! Blah, blah, blah fishcakes!!"? That's how I feel about Valentine's Day. You're supposed to go all out on this one day out of the year to share your significant other how much you love them by spending money or doing something "special"? Please.

There's a well-known LDS blogger who I kinda-sorta keep up with who kept referring to the day as the "Lover's Holiday". *cue me rolling my eyes SO FAR BACK INTO MY HEAD THAT I'M AFRAID THEY MIGHT NOT COME BACK*. Sorry, well-known LDS blogger. This just smacks of trying way way WAY too hard, not to mention it's just obnoxious.

I'd keep on ranting, but it's time for me to go pick up some dinner for James and the girls. (They are rehearsing, he's building amazing sets.) Hopefully they'll know I love them, even if it's not February 14th.

When Doves Cry

***MAJOR EDIT AT THE END!! MUST BE READ!!!!!***

Y'all know my mom, right??



Nice lady. Loving wife, mother, and Nana. Doting daughter. Asset to the community. Maker of fine breads. Possessor of hobbit-like feet.

I want to tell you a story about her.

Back in the day, 'round about 1995 or so, I came home from a date. As was her habit, she was waiting up for me, watching TV. (I think this habit ended with Helen, but that's beside the point.) As was my habit, I sat down for a few minutes to talk to her, catch up on the evening's home events, etc. It took a second, but I eventually realized what Mom was watching on TV.



That's right, my friends, this woman was watching Purple Rain. I was speechless! Who knew she was such a fan of (what he was known at the time) The Artist Formally Known As Prince??!?!?

To this day, she swears she was just flipping through the channels and it just happened to be on and she got sucked into the movie. I've never been convinced by her story. I think she liked it.

So now I consider it my duty to call her everytime I see that Purple Rain is on, so she can watch her favorite movie. Just like I did last Friday. I bet she even DVRed it!

THIS IS FOR YOU, MOM!!!



Mom just reminded me a part of the story I forgot!!!! She says that she *thought* she was watching The Color Purple and got very confused when Whoopi and Oprah never showed up in the movie.

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I really think that just makes the story better. ;)

Confession is good for the soul

Blah, blah, blah, tell me if you've heard this before- my library basket is overflowing and so is my nightstand. So many books, so little time!! Anyway, I rearranged some bookshelves the other day with the idea of clearing out a shelf to put all the books I've bought but haven't read yet. As I started loading the shelf, I quickly realized it was going to take more than one bookshelf to hold all of the BIBBHRY.

Let's put it this way- I stopped counting at 30 books.

*is ashamed*
*not really*

So that's my confession for the day. I buy too many books. (Although, in my defense, these books have been bought over the course of several years. On second thought, I don't think that's a very good defense.)

Now it's your turn: CONFESS YOUR DEEPEST DARKEST SECRET!!! It'll be fun!!!!