Overload

First of all, I promise I do not suffer from schizophrenia. Truly. I am just having a lot of fun trying to figure out this blog stuff. And, although I still don't know what I'm doing, it has been a blast playing with different colors and designs. And also very time-consuming, which is the bad part. But anyway, this one is here to stay for...well, for awhile anyway.

This past week has been crazy, with babysitting and girls night out and a visit to the pumpkin patch and our garage door breaking and my doctor telling me he was going to send me to a natural fertility/nurtrition specialist. Yeah. My brain is on a bit of overload right now, so I'm reverting to something that is fun and easy and doesn't require much thinking....

A little bit about me, in pictures, no words. I'm cheating and changing it up a bit from the original.

My age...

Favorite food

Favorite thing to drink

Dream vacation spot

Favorite flowers...hard to narrow it down...

Shoes I covetFavorite colors

What I'm craving right now

Must-have for my hair

My favorite kind of day

If I could purchase anything right now

And what makes me happiest of all

I was going to include something to do with Christmas but I was finding boatloads of fun pictures, so I'm going to save that one for December and do another one of these with nothing but my Christmas faves.

Y'all have a great Monday!

I blame it on Mommy Brain

When I flipped over my calendar to October last week, I scanned it like I always do to make note of any appointments I had coming up.

One on Tuesday and one on Thursday this week. The first was a checkup with my periodontist, in the hopes that she would look at my gums and pronounce me good to go. The second, with my chiropractor, and I feel the need to stop right here and proclaim how much my back loves this man.

My periodontist's office is always very good about calling the day before to remind me of my appointment, but Monday came and went, and there was no call. I double checked my calendar to make sure that I didn't have the wrong date, but no - it plainly said Tuesday.

So on Tuesday morning as I was getting ready, it occurred to me that it might be prudent to give them a call. Of course, I had no doubt. My appointment was most definitely that morning. For sure. They had just forgotten to make the courtesy reminder call, which irked me a tiny bit, but nothing that a call to them wouldn't clear up.

"Hi, I have an appointment today and I just want to verify the time," I said when the receptionist answered the phone. I gave her my name and there was a pause as she looked me up.

"Um, yes. We have you down on Tuesday, October 21."

Weird way to put it, I thought. October 21 IS today. I was looking right at my calendar as we spoke, and so of course I could see that it was the 21st. Today. One and the same.

"Right," I said, "October 21st. That's...." Today. My voice trailed off as my brain scrambled to catch up to the fact that that I was way, way off. "That's in....two weeks??"

I hung up and stood looking at my calendar, completely bemused. How was it possible that I had looked at my calendar no less than 10 times and every single time I had thought that my appointment was today? Even though it was clearly written on the right day?

My brain, people. I am starting to get concerned. And as if this were not enough, let me present to you Exhibit B:

When I was in school, my favorite subject was English. I love words, I love the rules that go along with them, I love stringing together a sentence, a thought, a story. I was always fairly decent at it, at least back then.

But back then...that was a long time ago.

I found a Grammar Girl quiz a while back (they have since changed it, but if you want to see the new version, check it out here) and since another way that I love to waste time is to take quizzes, I was excited. I was pretty confident that I would do well, because after all, this was my best subject.

So I took it. About halfway through, a question popped up, something along the lines of:

Verbs that end in -ed are regular verbs, irregular verbs, or triangular verbs?

My mind utterly and completely blanked out. It sounded familiar. In fact, they all 3 sounded familiar. Regular. Irregular. Triangular. Yes. All good choices.

But I could not remember for the life of me what they meant, and which was the right answer.

You know what is coming, right? I chose triangular verb, oh yes I did, and then held my breath as I clicked to see the answer revealed.

Wrong! It was more than happy to inform me. The correct answer is regular verb. And then to add to my humiliation, it added in no uncertain terms, There is NO SUCH THING as a triangular verb.

Well, then.

Sure, sure, I know you knew that. Your 5 year old probably knows that. Everybody knows that there is no such thing as a triangular verb.

To make myself feel a little better, I have started doing what I did when I was in school; every time I hear a word that I do not know the meaning of, I add it to a list and then look it up and try to commit to memory its meaning. We'll see if this helps sharpen my brain a little.

Any words that you want to help me out with and add to my list? I need all the help I can get.

Naps are good. And...a Winner!

Sunday was a perfect day, starting with the light drizzle that came down all night Saturday night, turning the air cool and making it feel like it is now truly autumn, and ending with a steaming bowl of cream cheese chicken soup this evening. In between there was a lot of football watching, which is our favorite Sunday afternoon activity, some napping on the couch, some leisurely reading of the Sunday paper, and just some good family time.

Savannah and I were not the only ones that got a nap. This guy did too:



For those of you who cannot tell who that is, that would be Batman. And lest you think that we go out of our way to buy these kinds of toys for our daughter, I will put your mind at ease and tell you that it was a freebie out of the Cheerios box. For some reason he was selected today as the grand prize winner of a nap in my bed. She placed him with pillows on either side of him so he couldn't roll out, just like I do with her, and then covered him up with a sheet. Then she turned on the fan (remember when I wrote about our fan issues not too long ago?), closed the door, and then informed us that we needed to be quiet because Batman was napping.

We tried to keep it down.

So this perfect day is coming to a close, and it is time now to select a winner of the Starbucks gift card....

...and the winner is....

Kaley, Commenter #12. Congrats, Kaley! Email me with your address and I'll get it in the mail to you.

Happy Monday!

I'm no Ma Ingalls

So after all my whining and insecurities about "I See What You're Saying", it ended up being a blast. Of course there is always something to pick apart on your own video, and after visiting so many people, I kept thinking, Man, I wish I had thought of that. But seriously, I have loved meeting so many new ladies, and that's what it's really all about.

If you watched my little video to the very end, you noticed that I am doing a (very small) giveaway. If you want to get in on it, there is still time; I'll leave it open until Sunday night. It's open to anyone - not just those that did the "I See" carnival. And I am still working on replying to everyone that has been sweet enough to leave me a comment.

So this past Monday, I was in the middle of doing several loads of laundry. Not a favorite chore, and so I try to get it out of the way early in the week. I had just a load or two left when I went to throw the wet clothes into the dryer. That's when I noticed, they weren't just wet; they were sopping, wringing, dripping-on-the-floor wet.

The spin cycle had up and left the building.

And so like any capable and independent wife would do, I went running to find my hubby.

While he took a look at it, I, suddenly fancying myself to have been transported back to the olden days, decided to wring out the wet clothes by hand before tossing them into the dryer. I was feeling very Ma Ingalls-ish until I got to my 3rd t-shirt and my hands gave out. It is not easy to wring out sopping wet clothes. I just can't imagine living back in the day and having to do everything by hand...clothes and heavy blankets and overalls. Everything.

Can I just say thank God for my level-headed, technically-minded hubby? If it were up to me, I would have been on the phone with the repairman who would no doubt have charged me hundreds of dollars to come out and fix the darn thing. But Ricardo took it apart, did some research on the internet (or rather, had me do the research because I'm all savvy like that), and determined what the problem was. We found the part on Ebay, ordered it, and it was here the next day. Hubs put it all back together, and it's currently humming away as I type this, as good as new.

And it cost fifty dollars. That's it.

Of course, when I first noticed it was broken, my heart leaped (leapt?) as I thought that these might soon be the newest residents in our house:

Aren't they just beautiful? And yes. I love red. As you well know if you watched my video and saw my dining room.

But Frugal Self always beats up on Dreamy Self, putting it right back in its place in no uncertain terms. And when it comes to spending fifty bucks as opposed to a couple of thousand, I guess that's the way it should be.

Happy Birthday, Mama Belle!

Oooh, it's a virtual birthday party!

One of my very good bloggy friends (who I wish lived down the street - I totally stole that from you, MB) is Mama Belle.

And today is her birthday!

So in honor and celebration of the day she made this world a little brighter just by coming into it, a couple of us are dedicating our posts to her.

Whether you know her or not, I think you will enjoy watching this video. Sister girl can sing.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

There are a few others that are participating in this birthday extravaganza:

Wendi at Everyday Miracles
Jodie at The Sky is only Dark Between the Stars
Jessica at Pianomomsicle
Sarah at Life in the Parsonage
Rachel at Musings of a Future Pastor's Wife
Amy at Permission to Peruse
Julie at Blessed with Five

Click on over and listen to the birthday girl belt out some more songs.

And...go visit her and leave her a comment...that will totally make her day.

So sweet Mama Belle, Happy Birthday! You know I love you, and we are absolutely gonna have to meet someday! Wish we could all be there to take you out for a night on the town, but I guess this will have to do for now. Hope you enjoyed this little surprise, you can thank your hubby for being the brains behind it all. ;)