Bad hair?

HA HA those pics below make me realize Reed has Lloyd Christmas hair.

If Im outside, Im OK

We are here... Being a 912-er.

Just as a funny preface. I find it tragically comical that my blogs seem to evolve/revolve around Reed's current movies of choice. Most people take the animated movies of Disney, Pixar, Fox, and Dreamworks at face value. I, on the otherhand, have to find eternal truths and meaning within in. (Probably to justify that fact that I have lost count of how many times I have watched them. ) Along the same lines, Reed is currently fascinated with Thomas the Tank Engine. I dont know who introduced him to the series, but he loves it. And I cannot for the life of me find anything of value..... But that's neither here nor there.

Last Friday was Glenn Beck's special program introducing his We Surrond Them program. It was about time as he has been teasing us with values and principles and pictures and not really getting down to the nitty gritty of what he was concocting. In hindsight it was not much of a surprise, but I did have a couple A-HA moments.

Just as a quick sum up, when you put together (and live by) the 9 principles and 12 values Glenn Beck first introduced, we become the people we were on 9/12/01. (Clever huh) We love our country, we jump in to help any way we can and we believe and live what our forfathers established for us. Glenn's message was a call to action, to each individual and as local communities to come together to let Washington know that we stand by the principles and values of a 912-er and that the foundation that was laid by the founding fathers (that included these principles) are what make America great. America looses its greatness every time the government and even its people stray from the ideaology of the founding fathers. Obama seems to say the term "Ideaology" with distain. But it is this "ideaology" that brought about life, liberty and the persuit of happiness that we should treasure much more that we do today.

Glenn suggested it was time to really understand what our constitution means. I, like most, had a mediocre education in this country's history, taught by an unqualified football coach. This does not cut it. I have decided to take my historical education into my own hands buying a couple books as suggested by Glenn. The 5000 year leap and The Making of America, both by Cleon Skousen. I figured this was a good start and so far the reading proves to be very informative and not too laborous.

With a background of what we want to get back to, we can then move forward in our local communities to come together to make some noise. (This is where Reed's movies come in.) After watching Glenn, all I could think about was Horton Hears A Who. The Who's are chanting and yelling "We are here, we are here, we are here" in a desperate attempt to save their lives, their world from distruction. As they realize the people that determine their fate still cant hear them, the Mayor desperately cries out, "We need every voice!!!" This is what Glenn has done. It is time we stand up and say what we want, deserve and ultimately require of our politicians both locally and federally. Just a side note, our local officials have much more effect that we give them credit for and if we are not participating locally it will be to our detriment.

So, here is my one last "YOP" (the term YOP I borrow with much thanks the the Good Doc...Dr Suess.) I am here and I am hoping that my little shout out will encourage others to take a stand and help us restore America to what it should be... Ideal as that may seem to some.

Dont know where to start..... Here's a couple ways to go:

http://www.the912project.com/

http://www.atlasshrugged.com/

http://www.glennbeck.com/

"WE NEED EVERY VOICE!"

We Surround Them

Just a quick shout out for Glenn Beck. Tomorrow is the We Surround Them broadcast. 2pm AZ time. (Thats pacific time right now...) on Fox News Channel. If you are not familiar with Glenn or what he has been putting together, here's a quick snapshot. He basically wants to rally people together who believe in the principles and values below. He recognizes that he and many Americans dont like the path the country has taken in the last few years. He is using his pull, his show, his "fame" to bring us all together so we dont feel so hopeless and so we can find solutions.
I hope you watch, I will be.
The Nine Principles
1. America is good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

12 Values
Honesty
Reverence
Hope
Thrift
Humility
Charity
Sincerity
Moderation
Hard Work
Courage
Personal Responsibility
Gratitude

Stamp for stimulus projects.

Pat me on the back

Hey, I just thought I would let everyone know that this is day 2 for Reed without a bottle!!!! Im so proud of myself for not giving in. That first night was pure hell and I am blaming my very intense headache today on the past 2 nights without the damn thing. Reed is starting to accept it, although very angry at first. (He threw his sippy cup across the room any time I tried to give it to him to let me know just what he thought...) YEAH for me!!! I didn't cave.

Obama

FROU FROU

Check this out. This makes me want to have girls.
http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/02/blushing-buttercream-pettiskirt.htmls

FUN FOR YOU

I saw this on a couple friends blogs, so I thought, why not. I don't know if all 5 people that read this blog will want something homemade from me, but here goes anyway. The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. (But I won't make something horrible on purpose.)
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year. That gives me a good nine months to get it done.
4. You have no clue what or when its going to be. Its all on my time. But I'll do my best to seek inspiration in what will be perfect for you, individually.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange (but don't expect my gift to be too strange because I am not good at coming up with strange things :). The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repeat this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!
* Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!

GIFTED

One of my "jobs" at work is to check and sort the mail. The other day, we recieved a new magazine and like usual I set it aside to look at it when I had a calm moment. After sorting through the trash mail, invoices, and medical record requests, I decided to take a sec and read the new Raising Arizona Kids magazine. It had peaked my curiosity because one of the tags on the cover was: "How to tell a child, "You aren't gifted."
My first reaction was, "WHAT??? Are you F-ING kidding me?" Not surprisingly, my opinion did NOT change after reading the article.
Now, let me preface this by saying. I was not a "gifted" child. I was told I was not a "gifted" child in the second or third grade after testing just a few points shy of getting into the ELP class. (extensory learning program, aka the smart kids group) So my perspective may be a bit skewed as I am bitter. I grew up in Mesa, the "gifted" child MECCA. Surrounded by the overacheving, fast track, wonder children of the area. I was well rounded, participating in music lessons and regular kid/teenage activities, but I was pretty average. Even my 4.023 GPA at graduation did not qualify me for anything more than a scholarship to the the local community college. I was ranked 52 out of over 700 in my graduating class. So I wasn't by any means stupid, just not "gifted". But I digress.
The article proceeded to explain how to highlight your childs strengths to help them cope with the news that they weren't good enough for the special "gifted" programs that schools sometimes offer. While, I could see what the article was trying to do, I wanted to scream. See, in all my "average" schooling I found a love and a natural talent for psychology. (The natural talent was not my observation, but a professor of mine's.) All I could think of is, why are we labeling kids. Kids don't need to know they are "gifted". It is my opinion that a big part of the problem with todays men my age and just younger is that they were told they are "gifted" and learned that the rules don't apply to them and that they don't have to work for anything, it should just be handed to them because they are special. I also believe that there are a ton of moms out there that need to be reminded that "gifted" and "obnoxious" are not the same thing.
Now, Im all about boosting up a kids self esteem with specific and truthful observations about their own personal strengths, but why are we trying to put them into little catagories. Smart kids, dumb kids, problem children, etc. It does no one any good in the long run. One of the most telling lessons of this for me was when I was helping with a reading program in Montana. Every week we worked with kids that needed one on one help. One of the kids was especially difficult to work with. After talking to him a while, he told me he was stupid and he didn't like leaving class to come read with me cause then everyone knew he was stupid. After relaying this to the teacher, she quickly called one of the smartest kids in the class to come read with me. We read for a while, and then I sent him back to class. He read with me for the next few weeks. That way, it was no longer the "dumb kids" that came to read with us. It was smart kids too. The "difficult" child had a lot better attitude and started to consider himself special for getting to leave class to read with us.
One of the psyc classes I took looked at alternative learning methods. Many of these are commonly used in ELP programs like the one I wasn't smart enough for. The funny thing is, many of the "dumb kids" would have really benefitted from the nontraditional ways of learning and maybe, just maybe they would have been able to earn a "smart kid" label instead of the "dumb kid" one they were stuck with.
Just food for thought....

Reeds world continued

Reed is always looking for something to discover. No gate can hold him in. Its kinda frighening from a mom's point of view.

Reed loves the piano. I think we may have a musician despite his chunkly little fingers.

Read: "Mom, Im tired of running errands."

Read: "Is this the last stop? This seatbelt is making me crazy."

This is Reeds new trick. He likes to climb up and play in the dishes that are drying up top. Just think of all that dangerous possibilites that this has....

Reed and the rainy day. Nevermind it was really cold. He wanted to play in the water.

Reeds world

The neighbors across the street have a construction company and have great digger trucks. Reed loves when they are loading and unloading the diggers onto the semi to go to a job.

Reed has discovered Papa's flower beds. He loves picking the flowers and digging in the dirt.

I wish I would have listened to the Dr.

When the doctor told us the bottle has to be taken away at 12 months, I blew him off. What did the old man know anyway. Its just not possible. Reed uses table food for throwing, not eating. He needs the bottle or he will starve.

Six months later, the doctor just assumes Reed is off the bottle. I didn't correct him. I feel way guilty, both for lying to the good Doc, but because Reed should have been weaned a long time ago.

Supposedly, If you dont take the bottle away at 12 months they get attached. It becomes a security object. Well, if that not the silliest, nonsensical thing I have ever heard.

Then I saw this.... I think its time to take the bottle away. I think next weekend... Maybe.

Bitter, Party of 1

So, if anyone actually reads this think, one may have noticed that I have been MIA as of late. I know its only been about a week and a half, but thats a long time for me. And its not that I dont have anything to say. I ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. Its just that Ive been spending the last week or so being a bit jealous. And as much as I have tried to avoid this particular blog entry, its coming out. Which I suppose is healthy. Maybe. Ill ask my counselor next session. She loves that I write. I just was told to not be self deprecating. Im working on it. Sorta.
See, all week I have had to read everyones posts about their Valentine's, their sweethearts, what their perfect husbands do for them and what they love most about their men. And I have vascillated from being envious, to being frusterated, to being downright nauseated. To all of you with these fabulous husbands that treat you like you are a princess, yeah for you. But Im sorry, if I have to read one more blog about how romantic he is and how you met and fell in love, I may just have to do something drastic. (not really, its just a figure of speech.)
Im happy to report that I did not have a Valentines dinner reminscent of that scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. (If you have not seen it, its hilarious.) Reed and I went to Wendys. Drive thru, of course. And while I loved getting little boy cuddles, its just not sufficent to fill the Valentine VOID that is my reality. I was laughing about, and then a bit miffed, that I have never actually been in a relationship on Valentines day. How sad. In all my 30 years. No Valentine. Timings a bitch, huh. Oh well.
I was reading a friends blog and she was talking about just needing a good kiss. (She was recently widowed and while she makes me feel bad about my own complaining, I was glad to know I am not alone.) But I just wanted to throw this out there for all of you smug marrieds. Dont take your kisses for granted. Have a good kiss now and again. Im not talking about a peck on the cheek and I am not talking about the one you get/give when you know your gonna get something out of it... if ya know what I mean. Somewhere in between. Like when you just realized he was the one. A good, woo-hoo, toe curling, fireworks kiss. If you aren't having those now and again. You better start working on getting em. Cause I have an excuse. Whats yours? After hearing all about your wonderful hubbies surly he deserves one now and again.
Now enough ranting. "Bitter. Party of One"

Just keep swimming...

So Reeds new favorite movie is Finding Nemo. And I could now quote the whole movie for y'all. But it has got me thinking. I hope this comes together and makes sense. If not bear with me, I swear I have a point.

Lately, I have seen the effects of the economy and the stress of life in general in everyone around me. Friends and coworkers facing bankruptcy, pay cuts, layoffs, etc. I too have faced some of these. I went over my 401K with my dad yesterday and begged him to advise me on what I needed to be doing. Its a tough call when the amount of money I put in last quarter was less than the amount I lost. He had no answers. No one does, and anyone who says they do are most likely trying to play on your desperation to scam you out of more money. It has been interesting to watch people as they react to the strain. People have become more and more cautious and some have become downright control freaks.

Through this, I have watched a coworker, who started off with the "control everything" attitude change to just giving it over. Letting it go. She is a Catholic woman who watched her whole controlled little world fall apart. A husbands poor business practices and lack of fidelity, unwise investments and just the economic climate in general left them with hundreds of thousands in debt, 2 houses worth far less than the mortgages drawn for them, and a family barely hanging together with 2 kids and 1 on the way. When it got to where she could take no more, in an act of pure desparation, she fell to her knees and finally looked to the only One with the answers. She then and there relinquished her tight grip on the course of her life and pled for the Lord to just help her to know what she should be doing and to help her through the storm that encircled her. She gave it to the Lord. She knew she couldn't do it anymore and she just gave it to Him. Her whole perspective on life has changed since that day. You can see the joy back in her life, she is healthy and resetting her priorities. She was offered a job with a 30,000 pay increase. She let go and things started falling into place.

Now, back to Nemo. As I said earlier, I have watched the movie about a million times. At least 4 times a week for the past couple months. And anytime Dori comes on Reed gets so excited and just laughs. But after about the first millionth time, I finally figured out what it was saying. See Nemos dad, spent his whole existance trying to control everything to keep his son safe, and it didn't work. And as he went out searching for Nemo after he is taken, his controlling ways and the things he thinks will get him to Nemo only work against him and keep him from his son. He spends a lot of the movie ignoring and trying to get rid of the one fish (Dori) that is actually helping him get to his son....mostly because he feels HE knows better. One of hardest parts for me to watch is when they are in the whale and Dori tells Marlin "Its time to let go." I swear everytime I hear that, I know it a message from someone trying to push me in the right direction. Of course his response is, "How do you know something bad wont happen?" Dori's response is simply, "I dont." And she lets go. Of course they are then shot back out into the ocean and are able to continue on their journey and eventually find Nemo. Its funny how all of Marlin's controlling made him unable to see the answers and the help that was swimming right next to him.

I guess for me the most striking parallel to our lives is the death grip we have on "control." But there are so many variables in life, the control is only an illusion. So my current goal is to be Dori. To start relinquishing my "psuedo-control" and my ideas on how things should be and stop worrying about all the "thats not fair" things in life and just take it to the Lord. My coworker did everything by the book, her investments, her marriage, etc. But there were things beyond her control. And while her first reaction was to become bitter and frustrated and lash out, she was quickly humbled and realized that she was wasting vital energy and time. She took it to the Lord and was blessed and guided because of it. See, the Lord can't guide you if you refuse to let go. He cant help if you don't have the faith enough in Him that you will recieve the guidance you need.

So, as we face the portent that is our current life and as we look to the future knowing that this is only the beginning of the storm, I hope that we all (myself included) remember to be a Dori and just keep swimming. That we let go of our death grip and just let the Lord steer for a while.

Football

I know its been a whole week since the game, but I wanted to take a quick sec and give some love to the Arizona Cardinals.

Now before you all get mean with me cause you know how critical I have been, I want to explain. I have been one of their biggest critics. They could do no right. They were crappy. And they wanted my tax money for a stupid stadium so they could play crappy there. And I didn't like it. Not when we cant even pay teachers a reasonable salary and we continue to cut educational funding. But I digress.

When AZ was considering building the Cardinals a new stadium, they noted that they could never be great when playing in the ASU stadium. To be fair, that stadium is very old and not very equipt for a pro football team, maybe not even ASU. But very few felt like we had a "Pro" team in the Cardinals, therefore they didn't need a pro stadium. They persisted in requests for a new stadium and promised us a superbowl if they got it. The skeptical locals, me included, just laughed and kissed our tax dollars goodbye. (Although, its not like we had never seen wasted tax money before and now with Obama, it seems to be quite common.... AGAIN I AM SIDETRACKED...)

I wanted to just say how enjoyable it has been to be wrong and to say thanks. Thanks to the Cardinals for keeping up their end of the deal. They not only took us to the Superbowl, they gave us a fabulously exciting game. And I may be a bit biased, but I still stand by the theory that the Cardinals won and that both feet did not touch the ground inbounds in that last play. We saw the stills and the replays over and over and I am not convinced.. and I am not the only one.

So props to you Cardinals. Im looking forward to next season. --A new fan--

MOVIE TAG

SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 94 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste this as a post. Then, put x's next to the films you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun.
( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
Total: 6
(x) The Princess Bride
(x ) Anchorman
(x ) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
( x) Saw ---turned it off part way through
( ) Saw II
(x) White Noise ---scared the everlovin outta me
( ) White Oleander
(x) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
(x) The Princess Diaries
(x) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 16
(x) Scream
(x ) Scream 2
(x ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(x ) American Pie
(x ) American Pie 2
(x ) American Wedding
(x ) American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 23
(x)Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
(x) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 31
(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
( x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( x) Butterfly Effect
(x) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
(x) Robots
Total so far: 39
(x ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
(x ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(x) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
(x ) Joe Dirt
(x ) KING KONG
Total so far: 47
(x) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
(x ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
(x) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
( x) Final Destination 2
(x ) Final Destination 3
(x ) Halloween
(x ) The Ring
(x ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
( ) Flubber
Total so far: 58
(x ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
(x ) Ghost Ship
() From Hell
(x ) Hellboy
(x ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 64
(x ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x ) Ten Things I Hate About You
(x) Just Married
(x ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
(x ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
( ) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 71
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(x ) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean's Eleven
( ) Ocean's Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
(x ) The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
(x ) Curious George (like 3times a week. One of Reeds favorites)
Total so far: 79
(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( )A Bronx Tale
() Darkness Falls
( x) Christine (is this that Stephen king Car movie?)
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Boss's Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
() Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 83
( ) Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
() Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
() Big Trouble in Little China
( ) The Terminator
( ) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 88
(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
( x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
() Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday (original -- no lindsey lohan garbage....)
(x) Reign of Fire
( x) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
(x)The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far:102
() Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
(x ) Old School
(x) The Notebook
(x ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf's Tribe
(x) A Walk to Remember
(x ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old Virgin (OHHH KELLY CLARKSON!!!)
Total so far: 109
(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
( ) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 114
(x ) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(x) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( x) Kung Fu Hustle (turned it off-- boring)
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
(x ) Kill Bill vol 1 (turned it off -- dumb)
() Kill Bill vol 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
() Kingdom of Heaven
( x) the Hills Have Eyes (walked out of the theater, got money back)
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( x) Army of Darkness (classic!!!)
() Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
() Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
() Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
() Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
() Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
() Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
() Ewoks The Battle For Endor
( x) The Matrix
( x) The Matrix Reloaded
( x) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police (DURKA DURKA GEE-HAAD)
(x) Red Dragon
(x ) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal


Total 134. I guess I have no life. But I love movies and I included the ones I started to watch but never finished for one reason or another.

Where did the time go?

I was uploading pictures from my camera onto the computer and started looking back on the old pics. Everyone said time would fly by and to enjoy the "tiny time" as much as possible. 18 months later Im wishing I had a few of those moments back. (Just not the colicky ones.)

Charmer...

Complaints

So I am torn between wanting to defend my last post. I know I have lots to be thankful for and no life is not that bad and I know we all have our little bouts with "hard life" So I just want to say thanks for the help. But -- I just needed to vent.

On the flip side I super glad to know someone out there is actually reading this insanity!

THAT'S QUIRKY

So I got this TAG a long time ago, I just never did follow through. I will do so now. Basically ya get to list "quirky" traits or tendencies about yourself. Maybe I put it off cause there were just way too many to list. But I have narrowed down to just a couple.

1. I eat my M&M's in groups. I will explain. If I were to grab a handful of M&M's I have to see which color I have the least of, I then eat the colors I have more of until I have the equal amounts of each color. Then I eat them in groups so I always have the same number of each color. This would also apply to Skittles (although I dont eat Skittles nearly as often)

2. I hate seeing random tape hanging up places. I used to work in a cubicle and management would hang up papers for reference. They would last a while until they finally fell off, leaving a strip of tape on the wall, holding nothing up. It drove me nutty nuts. On slow days at work I would sit and pick the tape off the wall and fold it up into a little ball o tape for the day. The more the tape, the more successful the day. I sat at different cubicles just so I would have tape to clean up. Today, I was in my bosses office for a conference call and I noticed some tape on a cabinet in there. It took everything I had not to sit and pick it off during the call. I would have if I was the only person in there but there were three of us and they already think Im crazy.

3. I always have to break down numbers in funny ways. Im always trying to find ways that they relate to each other. I hope I can start to explain this to make this kinda make sense. An easy example: My suite number at work is 101 as in 1+0=1. Seems dumb, but it gets worse with phone numbers. Take mine for example. 518-5067. I pick it apart and so I see it as if I start with 5 and add 1 eventually you get to 8. But if you were to add 5 to 0 you would still have 5 then 6 and 7. I do this all the time. I think it comes from too many math classes with those fill in the next number in a sequence problems. It drove me nuts when I watched Lost because I kept trying to find some reasoning behind the number sequence in the reoccuring magic numbers. But any group of numbers or sequence of numbers...lock combinations, phone numbers, etc. get overanalysed just trying to see some pattern or way the relate. EEKE.

4. Vacuuming. This one is especially OCD of me. I love having carpet that leaves vacuum lines. (Which I currently dont have) When I vacuum, I vacuum so it leaves perfect little triangles (kinda like the carpet cleaners leave) and each line of triangles matches up with the next line and are the same size. I also vacuum myself out of the room so that there are no footprints and no odd vacuum lines interrupting my little lines of triangles. I have messed up my triangles and started over just to get them just so. Funny considering I am not a neat freak.

These are just some of my quirks. So now, whoever would like to make me feel a little less freakish can post their quirks on their own blog or as a comment. Or if you have any insight as to what these quirks are correlated with or what they tell you about me, that would be fun too. I love playing psychologist, dont you???

Bad attitude

These past couple weeks have been a pain. The other front office lady has been out sick and so I have spent my days running around like a crazy lady hoping I can get everything done. Leave it to the central billing office to choose these past 2 weeks to roll out 3 different "projects" to work on during our downtime (but have done by the end of the week...) I couldn't even get the regular stuff done.... So I have come home from work every night, exhausted.
Add to that a yearly physical that turned into a blood test cause my body is out of control right now. Add to that the insurance not covering the meds to help said crazy out of control body be normal (or as normal as possible.) I have been told if I don't get my health under control I will have major problems. (Cause the ones now aren't major yet. I guess.)
Add to that Reed being sick for a week. (Read: Grouchy baby and snot on my shoulder, at all times. I have stopped wearing black because of it.) Add to that Reed's check up where we got referred to an ENT specialist because he has sleep apnea and needs his adenoids removed.
Add to that I have to give up or at least minimize my Diet Pepsi cause of above health problems. Cant imagine how I could make it through the day w/o my pepsi.
Add to that the nurse also told me I needed to take "me time". HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
I could keep adding but my head hurts too much--another perk of my health problems.

So I have decided I have a bad attitude.

But I walked into work today and I wasn't alone.
And while waiting for the Dr. today, Reed made me laugh out loud when he told me no and shook his head at me. (This will probably be the only time I think its funny but his verbal skills are still limited and I love when he uses his big boy words)
And the sandwich lady at Sprouts greeted me by name today.
And I get done with work in 2 minutes
And I have dinner and a movie waiting for me at home (dinner, thanks to mom, and a movie courtesy of Reed and PIXAR)
So I have to remember that I have things to have a good attitue about.

Lil Monkey

I see an emergency room in your future.....

Today I was talking to mom when I realized Reed had disappeared from sight. This is where I found him. Luckily I had my phone on me. What did we do before picture phones? How else would I have captured such obvious parental negligence for all the world to see? This is a 6 ft block wall and he was dead set on getting to the top of it. I believe this is a big indicator of just how fun my "boy raising" experience will be. Pray we survive.

Bad boys...

So last night I was up all night trying to get caught up with Season 4 of Lost so Ill be ready for Season 5. Im so excited!!! Anyway, as I was watching I got all swoony over Sawyer (again). He is my favorite! And it got me to thinking about my way too big problem with falling for the bad boys. So Im just curious about what everyone else's opinions on this. Who are your favorite bad boys and why? (Characters, not in real life)

As a help in getting you started, the little thinking I did brought me to the conclusion that there are different types or catagories for them. (IE: the Lothario, the Brooder, the Dangerous, the Crass. ) Im sure there are more types. So if you have another catagory to add or favorites in the catagories, leave a comment or email me (blueyedmle@msn.com) and eventually I wanna compile it into a theory of sorts.

As another little help to get you started, these are examples I have come up with so far:

The Lothario: "McSteamy" (Eric Dane) - Gray's Anatomy or
Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) - Bridget Jones

The Brooder: Bob Howard (Vincent DOnofrio) - The Whole Wide World or
Mr. Rochester (Orson Welles) - Jane Eyre

The Dangerous: Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) - Smallville or
James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) - Lost

The Crass: Stiffler (Sean William Scott) - American Pie or
Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) - Wedding Crashers

Thanks for your help in advance.... Im excited to see what others have to say.

Mean Mom...

One of Reed's already developed "man traits" is his ability to watch his movies undistracted by stuff going on around him. Its really funny as my dad can do this too. One of my favorite things to do is poke him, say his name over and over again, or just say "hey, hey, hey..." until he looks over at me. IT TAKES FOREVER, but this is his usually response.


You can see his little boy self wanting to scream out, "leave me alone, mom. Mater's on."

My Fortune Cookie

Feeling a bit indulgent today, I decided to go to Panda for lunch. MMM. Love the Orange Chicken and the Beijing Beef. Anyways. I thought I would share my very insightful fortune with y'all.

"The world will soon be ready to recieve your talents."

I know, I laughed too.
My first response was. Oh, oh my book. (As other things seem to be guiding me in that direction too.) But the more I thought about it I decided to list just some of the possible "talents" this particular fortune might be referring to:

*** My stinging and insightfully bitter sarcasm. Touche!

*** My shocking flexibility allowing me to insert my foot in my mouth despite my portliness.

*** My amazing ability to change the lyrics to songs to fit the current circumstances of my life.
I make Wierd Al look like a novice. Specially the time my version of an Enya song came out, "Who can say why your lover, humps another, only time...." A classic.

*** My trite, but never tiring verses written with magnet poetry.

*** My ability to replay stupid things I said over and over again in my head and come up with
better, wittier things I should have said instead.

*** My ability to produce the absolutely incorrect emotional response to life situations. (ie: laughing when I should be somber, crying when laughing, and snorting when trying not to appear animal like....)

*** My ability to recall movie lines from films I saw years ago, yet my inability to recall where I set down my keys moments earlier.

And my personal favorite:
*** My ability to spill food at the exact spot on my chest every time I wear a brand new white shirt.

So. Watch out world, get ready, cause my talents are coming soon to an awkward situation near you.

First and Foremost....

So we were looking at the blog the other day at work and a coworker/friend was giving me a hard time about my profile. He asked why moms always say, Im a mom "first and foremost". I told him he was obviously not a parent and didn't understand just how time or life consuming it is. But he gave me crap none the less. He said it was trite and I needed to fix it. So for you Kris... I have revised my profile.
After writing this and changing my profile I have come to the conclusion that I just need to learn how to tell people to just "jump off" and not be so accomodating to people's crappy opinions.
From now on when people ask I will say that I am a smart ass --First and Foremost! :)

On a completely different train of thought, after looking back at the stupid Photo tag post, I have decided I have a gigantic nose and have shyed away from the camera since. It is now added to my list of way too big body parts which include my arms, my ass and my thighs. Notice boobs did not make the list (sad face) LOL. On a happier note, my ankles did not make the list. Although they topped it during my last 2 months pregnant with Reed, they have since returned to a respectable, dainty circumference.

A few last looks at 08

Our imported snowman...

Our imported snowman..... the next day :(

"Look what I can do Mom.... "

Merry Christmas!!

Chillin with my pals

" HEY PAPA!!! IM READY!!! LETS GO FISHIN!"

" Thanks Daddy, Im cruisin now "

Dont ya hate it when.....

So after I uploaded this, I realized it looked kinda gross. But anyways... As I am a fatty I have candy in my drawer at work. And it being Monday, I was glad for the stash. But I was a little sad when I pulled up the Reese's and the bottom stuck. I just hate when that happens. It messes up the perfect chocolate to peanut butter ratio that is the Reese's peanut butter cup.
I know, I know...Spoken like a true fat girl....