I honestly have no idea how that happened. (more…)

Once upon a time, I did not know how to dress myself.  I mean, technically, I could do it.  I could do buttons, I could do zippers, you know.  But I never felt like I looked “put together” or “cute” or “stylish” or what have you. 

Then my husband got me a Christmas present.  (more…)

I was on a plane yesterday, and started chatting with the college student next to me. And so:

Her: “And what do you do?”

Me: “I stay home with my kids.”

Her: “I’m never having kids. EVER.”

Me: Blink, blink. (more…)

Hi it’s me again.  I know what you’re thinking… “whatserwho?”.  My posting has definitely been sporadic over the years and I’m not sure whether or not to apologize for that or say you’re welcome.

Anyway, the latest in the bowl of oatmeal that is my life is this pregnancy.   You can read more about it here and here.  To sum up, yes I am still pregnant.  According to the calculations and measurements, I am now about 16 weeks along.  Which means it has been about 13 weeks since I last felt normal.  I still haven’t “told” but the closest of my friends and relations.  And I’m still not even completely convinced it is happening even though I am expanding and fruiting out.  (more…)

I titled this post thus because really, what I’m posting about is random crap, but somehow, I feel that if I make it a long and sorta clever title, it will be more meaningful than just random crap. Plus, my son has taken to reading my blog over my shoulder, and I’m not all that keen on him running around saying things like, “My mom writes blogs about random crap!”. After all, there was the incident where he answered the door and said to my primary presidency, “My room is REALLY MESSY so don’t go up there, kay?”

Yeah, thanks a lot, kid. Careful the things you say, children will listen….

(35 millions fake dollars to the person who can name that tune) (more…)

Last night (or, rather, this morning) my daughter woke up screaming for me with a terrified and pathetic wail. I rushed into her room, and picked her up. She continued to sob, and wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. I shushed her, told her “Mommy’s here, you’re okay” and carried her back to my bed with me. I tucked her under my arm, and felt her relax as she pressed her little body into mine. I stroked her hair until she finally fell asleep.

If only parenting was always this easy. (more…)

We have a new neighbor. A new neighbor who isn’t paying rent, who is living with the woman who owns the home. A new neighbor who is waiting to have her children, who are in foster care, reinstated to her custody, a transition that will take at least up to 5-6 weeks. A new neighbor who has led a life with trials I can’t even begin to imagine.

Read more at Segullah.

On or OFF, people! Stay on or GET OFF, and MAKE A DECISION ALREADY because y’all are all over the place (literally), and it’s driving me batty. (more…)

Since going back to work in September, I’ve used my precious days off during the week for the requisite “errand running” – Target, grocery store –  insert your pending to do list here.

But today – I have NOTHING.  No doctor’s appointments for my kids, no car needs an oil change, no scouring the city for auction items, no vacation to plan for – nothing!  Ok, I have a few loads of laundry and drawers to swap out for the season change, but I don’t have to be anywhere and I don’t even need to clean my house!  I could even stay in my pj’s all day if I wanted to!

In honor of my NOTHINGNESS, I’m going to treat myself to an extra long walk, taking a different route to shake things up a bit; come home, put on a CD extra loud (I’m thinking Aretha Franklin or possibly Shostakovich); finish laundry and clothes swap, then hunker down with a book.  I have many staring at me from my shelf (Still Alice by Lisa Genova, Crow Lake by Mary Lawson, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford) – but I need one under 300 pages so I can hopefully make a dent, if not finish it, today.

Wish me a productive day of NOTHING!

What do you enjoy doing on your NOTHING days?

1. Everyone (well, OK, SOME people that may or may not be my facebook friends) are up in arms about KFC’s new “sandwich.” They think it’s awful -no bread!  KFC might as well have an ambulance to take you to the cardiac unit!  I think it’s funny that if the exact same ingredients were surrounded by approximately 40 grams of carbohydrates that are made up of refined flour with no nutritional value whatsoever, THEN they’d have no problem with it.  I’m totally getting a grilled one, BTW, it would require no insulin whatsoever. You know, next time I’m at KFC.  Which, considering I haven’t been there in at least 3 years, might be a while.  It has the possibility of being gluten free too, Tracy, you in?  (more…)

I know I haven’t blogged in forever, but I will offer up the standard excuse of being really busy.  Also, I didn’t feel like it.  (more…)

A while ago, I wrote a post about Sister Beck that made a lot of people mad. Really mad. Like, shockingly mad, to the point where I actually got some hate mail. Yessiree, nothing says, “I’m a disciple of Christ” like a steaming pile of vitriolic rhetoric telling somebody she is wicked and headed straight to hell.

(Thanks for that, by the way.)

But I know when I’m wrong (I AM married to a lawyer, after all), and I’m all about repentance. So it is today that I say, Sister Julie Beck? I’m officially a fan. (more…)

While the bluebirds have been sighted now and then in my yard, and are still as beautiful as ever, they didn’t take up residence in the box on my back deck.  A pair of chickadees did. (more…)

That’s the song I kept hearing as Desmond walked around in his suit and over the top sexy shades. And if you don’t know the song, “Secret–AAAAgent Man, Secret–AAGent Man,” then you are seriously lacking some bad theater in your life. (more…)

I spent a glorious three day weekend with 5 girlfriends at the Memphis Time Out for Women. 

We have been preparing this for months – so, in addition to the planned conference activities, we decided to take an extra day to go to the temple.  Our husbands were well prepped for the extra day of child duty. (more…)

**Lost post is forthcoming, after I watch it. I haven’t had a chance to because I’ve been running around like a spider monkey on speed. Hopefully I’ll get to it tonight.

The pinewood derby was last night, and in a word, it was a disaster. My son’s car was very slow. And when I say very slow, I mean he lost every single race by, um, a lot.

He didn’t take it well, to say the least. He held it together until his last race, and when it became apparent that he was going to lose that one too, he started to melt. I pulled him aside and tried to cheer him up, but he broke down in tears and demanded that he wanted to leave, because, “I just can’t stand to watch any more races where I lose by a FOOT!”

The kid wasn’t wrong. It was embarrassing and heartbreaking to watch.

Why do we do these things again? (more…)

I’m going to be as oblique as I possibly can, but I want y’all to know the distribution center has done some major overhaulin’ (more…)

“I signed them this morning. I thought you should know.” His familiar voice cracked as I jammed the handset further into my shoulder and the kids raced around my legs and over the mess of un-packing that has taken over Little House. Hot tears sprang to my eyes, and I couldn’t choke out an answer. I swallowed hard, when I opened my mouth to say something, instead of something calm a sob escaped. It’s done. It’s over. Ten years of marriage and 19 years of him being my best friend, and today, it’s over. (more…)

Okay, while I love love LOVE that Desmond is rockin’ the show, I gotta admit, when he was sitting at the bar with Charlie, I kept asking DH, “Wait, what did they say?” Having two men from the British Isles conversing was a little bit much without my subtitles. Now for sure I have to rent the DVD set, just so I can read exactly what those two had to say to each other.

But still, gotta say, one of my favorite episodes in a long time. Charlie, Desmond, Daniel, Eloise, AND Penny? Seriously, what’s not to love? And even if I didn’t understand what Desmond was saying all the time, I could still listen to the man read the phone book all day long and be perfectly content. (more…)

If you can, put Niagara Falls on your list. Just make sure you bring your passports.

Oh, and go in mid April, or early May.  Otherwise, you miss that awesome boat ride, Maid of the Mist, because it’s closed until then.  Still, even if you’re like us, and missed all the cool stuff by just a week, it’s still worth it.  And while the Canadian side sort of feels like Las Vegas, you can’t get a better view of Horseshoe Falls (pictured above), or get close enough to wonder what you would do if YOU had a barrel.

And now I can check off one more place to see before I die.  Next year, the pyramids!

What are your top places to see?