Total Cop Out

OK, I'm totally copping out on this post - since I haven't posted in awhile, and I couldn't think of anything cool anyway - I am going to cut and paste a questionnaire that I was just asked to fill out for Mom of the Week on my local mommy's group website. Enjoy...hehe

What is your REAL first name? Crystal

How old are you? 29 (dun dun dunnnnn - 30 next year eeeeek!)

What is your profession: Project Manager/Account Manager/Business Analyst

Are you married, single, or dating? Married

How did you and your DH/SO meet? Through my mom - she worked a at a vet clinic in Fountain Hills that was having a new location built. My husband's company was the general contractor on the job, he showed up, saw my picture and asked who I was. He gave my mom his number, I called him, we went out on a date, and the rest is history...hehe

How do you feel about being a mommy? Awesome, overwhelmed, happy, proud, scared -- a bunch of emotions

Kids names that you didn't get to use? None, I actually ran out of names after my second daughter, I had to get creative after that

How long have you been a Mom? Almost 12 YEARS, holy crap!

How many children call you Mommy? 4 currently - but another one on the way

Girl? Boy? or both?: 4 Girls, and we don't know what the new baby's sex is - but we can probably guess!

Did you know what you were having? Yes, with all my girls I found out the sex, this is the only time I'm not going to find out until the baby is born

How old were you when you became a Mom? 17.5

How long were you in labor? 9-ish hours I think with the first one

What's your favorite thing about being a Mom? Having help around the house - haha - j/k, but that is pretty cool. ;) Watching my girls' personalities develop, teaching them new things, helping them develop their faith, discovering their talents

What's your least favorite thing? Sibling rivalry - it blows - hard

Do you want more kids? Well, whether we wanted more or not, another one is coming, LOL

Do you plan on having more soon? After this one, we are definitely D-O-N-E

One thing you will not give up just because you're a mom? Ummm...that's a tough one, I think I've given most things up because I'm a mom, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing - because I've picked new things up :)

What are you looking for in a playgroup? Moms that I get along with who have kids that my kids get along with. Nothing suckier than having a mom who you like, but your kids hate each other.

What value do you hope to instill in your kid(s)? Self Confidence

How many times have you been pee'd on by your kids? Too many to count

Barfed on? Again, too many to count

Is your child named after anyone? Sereana has my middle name (Leigh) as part of her middle name (Ashleigh), Mya has my mom's first name (Lisa) as her middle name, Audra has Aaron's grandma's middle name (Mae) as her middle name.

How did you come up with their names? I always knew I was going to name my first child Sereana - I had a summer camp counselor in the 4th grade who was named Sereana, and I thought she was the coolest. Then, when I was about 14, I started writing a book, and my main character's name was Morgan Taylor (so that's where Morgan got her name), I came up with Mya's middle name first (see above), and then started thinking of names that went with the middle name, did the same thing with Audra - middle name first, then chose a first name that sounded good with it.

When your child gets in trouble, who is the bad guy? Both of us

What is the longest you have been away from your children? Couple days

Are your toes painted? Nope

One thing you did give up now that you're a mom: I gave up my pursuit of dancing as a career - but that was a lifetime ago, so I don't really think about it too much anymore

Best Mom perk: : We have perks?

When the kid is napping, you are: Napping too

Where is your child(ren) now? sleeping

Store you can’t live without? Target

What (or who) is your favorite:
Food? Cheese enchiladas and Fried Ice Cream (not mixed together)
Author? Don't have a fave
Book? Anne of Green Gables, but I'm re-reading Time Traveler's Wife now that I found out a movie is coming out, and it's really great too
Season? Spring
Day of the week? Saturday
Snack you sneak bites from your child: Puffs
Pizza topping? Ham and Pineapple
Number? 7
TV show of all time? Gilmore Girls, but now I'm addicted to NCIS

Last movie you saw in the theater? My Sister's Keeper - saw it today, it made me cry - but I purposefully didn't bother wearing eye makeup

Your favorite thing to do in your mommy time: Get a massage, go to a movie by myself, read, get my hair done

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why? I don't know, I haven't seen much of the world - but I kind of like the US - I would live in a San Diego beach city if I could afford to live there comfortably with a house right on the water.

If you could have any job in the world, what would it be and why? I would prefer to not have a job - I'm so over working – I would rather just be a philanthropist that gave lots of money to children’s causes (I changed this answer slightly from my answer on the mommy website – my other one said to own my own business)

Are you from Arizona? If not, where are you from and what brought you here? Nope, originally from California, and my grandparents moved me here when I was 8 - I've since left and moved back a couple times

What was your first PM event? Dinner at Cheesecake Factory a couple years ago - I was actually pregnant then too

Event’s you would like to see here on PM I think the events they have are good - I can't make it to all of them as it is, so if there were more, I'd be overwhelmed. hehe

If you had an afternoon of time to yourself, what would you do? Take a nap, maybe go to a museum, or walk around downtown Scottsdale or something

What's the difference between moms & dads? HAHAHAH! Don't get me started - way too many things

Tell us about your child(ren) and your journey to becoming a mom. My journey started when I was 16 almost 17, I was a senior in high school, and I got pregnant by who I thought was my high school sweetheart that I would be with forever. That was not to be so. Sereana was born 10/28/1997 - she's going to be in 7th grade in the fall. Morgan was next, born on 03/30/2002, she's going into 2nd grade. Mya was born 11/14/2004, she's starting private kindergarten this year. And Audra was born 02/09/2008 - she's just about 17 months. Baby #5 is due 02/08/2010 - but he or she could definitely share a bday with Audra - that would be funny. :)

Michael

So, below is the link to one of my favorite Michael Jackson music videos. I have always called it "Annie are you OK" - but it's really called "Smooth Criminal".

Also, my friend over at the Mama Mary Show, wrote this about Michael - it's such a vivid description of what it was like to have been affected by him in our generation. I will truly miss him. I know there are people who will think he was just this really weird guy, and won't miss him at all - but I don't think anyone will ever truly understand what it was like to be Michael Jackson, except him. Rest in Peace Michael.

Pregnancy Update

I totally forgot to give you the update on my pregnancy. All my tests came back OK, so we are back on track and I'm less stressed out. And now I can go back to fussing about the minor annoyances of pregnancy...such as...the zits. I mean, seriously? I don't think I've had this many pimples since I was 14 years old. And they're everywhere, not just my face! But my chest, my back, my neck - What the Heck??!! My weight gain has stabilized though, and I haven't really gained anymore in the past couple weeks. I have my regularly scheduled appointment tomorrow morning - the one I scheduled several weeks ago before I had the complication last week. I think this is the one where they are going to take about 10 vials of blood. Oh Joy.

As if you Needed More Books to Add to the Pile (but there's a giveway!)

I jumped on the bandwagon from San Diego Momma's website, and I'm linking you to a Summer Reading List - if you comment, or blog about the contest, or tweet about it, you get entered into a drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Card. YAY!

Sniff...Sniff

Do my armpits stink?

Two posts and no comments. :( Where is everybody?? ;)

When is a job, not a job?

So, I'm having one of those moments...you know, those moments where you wish you could find what you love to do and do it for gobs and gobs of money? But then I start thinking of some of the cool things I would like to do, and then I follow it about 5 to 10 years down the road, okay, like 6 months actually, and I think to myself 'Would I really still like to do it after it's my job? Because doesn't something being your "job", take all the fun out of it?

Say that your dream is to become a rockin' hair stylist (which was one of my thought patterns for cool things I'd like to do, even though I way suck at doing hair...but I could go to school right?)...so you go to Vidal Sassoon school for hair, and you become totally awesome and you go work at a cute little trendy salon. You get to wear way cute clothes, and have a hairstyle that you would never get away with at a 9-5 suit job. But then, after months and months of washing, and styling, and sweeping up hair particles, and fighting with your salon co-workers because they keep "borrowing" your styling wax...then, is it still fun, and your dream? Or do you start thinking about something else?

As you're working as a hair stylist you think...wow, I'd love to be a massage therapist...because it'd be really cool to work in a fancy schmancy spa with soothing music all day and helping people relieve their stress. Everything is going great, until the first day you get Mr. Super Hairy Back Guy on the table...what do you do then?? My girlfriend's daughter is a massage therapist and I ask her questions like this all the time...and she's totally cool with all the funky stuff she encounters, and she handles it quite diplomatically...but she's like 22, so will she be cool with it for the rest of her life, or while she's massaging Mr. SHBG is she daydreaming about...

Becoming a famous singer?? (this is also on my list, as was the above mentioned Massage Therapist) So, you get vocally trained and you play in a band and you get stage experience and you make an album and you try and get heard by a bunch of different recording labels. And you finally get signed! YAY! That's totally exciting, but then you're whole life is booked for you from the time you wake up, to the time you go to bed, with radio appearances, autograph signings, performances, charity events...yada yada yada...and then don't you get burnt out?

So, you become a writer instead. You have this great idea for a book, and you stay up all night for weeks getting it finished. And you track down an editor and a publisher and stuff...and then they tell you...well, you have to take 30 pages out...by end of business tomorrow. So, you're so close to being published, but then you have to do all this work...do you really want to sit there and figure out which lines don't absolutely need to go into the story...or would you rather be reading other people's blogs about how cool and awesome their artsy fartsy life is? Because that's what I'd wanna do.

Is there a way to get paid lots and lots of money for reading other people's blogs? :)

Two Posts in One Day!

OK, I took some pictures and wanted to share them today instead of tomorrow...so here we go.

The first is of my cats sleeping on my bed...while I'm working. They all know when my husband is not home, otherwise they would never be up on the bed. Isn't it totally cute though that they would all rather be snuggled up in the same space as me, instead of dispersed around the house on various lounging apparati?



The second is of SAM, holding her long tail of hair that was cut off yesterday. (Oh and it was a little over 10 inches, we measured) And Yes, we are donating to Locks of Love. :)

It's Friday!

So, I looked at today's Friday Fill-Ins and they just looked a little too taxing for my brain to come up with something clever today...so I'm skippin 'em this week.

I'll just give you a little update on stuff instead. "Mmmm...that sounds good, I'll have that." (can anyone tell me what movie this is from?? You won't win anything, I'll just think you're really cool)

Anyway, this week was actually kind of stressful. I ended up in the ER on Tuesday because I was bleeding from a place you're not supposed to bleed from when you're pregnant. Needless to say, it freaked me out, and made me cry...in front of my co-workers...awesome. But my girlfriend/co-worker took me to the ER that was the closest to where we work, while I called my hubby and my mommy. Yes, I'm 29 years old, and I still call my mommy.

I had to pee in a cup, give some blood, and then they did an ultrasound. They didn't put me in a position where I could look at the screen...I had kind of mixed feelings about that. I wanted to see, but at the same time wasn't sure if I wanted to see, in case something was wrong. But thankfully, there was nothing wrong during the ultrasound. The baby had a heartbeat and everything, and they told me I had a 'subchorionic hemorrhage', which they kept trying to tell me happens all the time and everything would probably be fine. So, they let me go home...and the bleeding stopped later that night.

The next morning (Wednesday), I woke up with cramping, like what I usually feel before my period. So, again I somewhat freaked out...because when I had the bleeding, I had no cramping...but now I had cramping and no bleeding. I called the doctor's office, and they had me come in...they did another ultrasound, baby is still okay. Whew. The doctor just told me to take it easy for a couple days.

I worked from home yesterday, and felt pretty good..just somewhat tired I think from stressing myself out. And today, I had to go in for another blood draw so they can compare my bhCG levels from Tuesday to today. If those numbers continue to go up, then I'm doing good...if they go down, not so good.

I don't think I would be so paranoid about all of this if I hadn't lost a baby once before, and had all these same symptoms. That experience was horrible...all of the medical staff I dealt with were completely emotionally detached from the situation. My doctor even had the nerve to tell me it wasn't the end of the world. I know it's not the freakin' end of the world you moron, but it's still sad, and I have a right to be sad dammit! They kept referring to my baby as a 'non-viable' pregnancy. I realize it's the medical term or whatever, but have some heart people. Phew...guess I'm still harboring some bitterness about that. Sorry for the rant.

Anyway, I'm feeling like things will be fine...I'll just feel better once I get my blood results back and those numbers have gone up. I'll let you know.

But on to other things, since that was kind of stressful and sad stuff.

My oldest daughter, SAM, and I, got our hair cut yesterday. She cut off about 7 inches of hair...I only cut off about 3, because I had made my drastic cut from long to short about 2 months ago. She looks really cute...really grown up...which again, makes me sad. OK, sorry, this post is just going to be sad...that's just the way it is apparently. She's going into 7th grade in the fall, and can I just tell you that it freaks the livin' crap out of me?? Also, my Cita is going into 2nd grade, and Monkey starts Kindergarten. Only one "baby" left, until this baby is born...and even little Baby Pants is growing up. At 16 months she's very verbal, and she can sign like a mo'fo' (is that appropriate for a mother to say? whatever.) She's seriously signing like 30+ words...it's awesome. I'll have to take a video one day and put it on my blog...that is once I figure out how to get video from my camera onto my computer. This has been a task that has been daunting me for, oh, a year or so now. I'll get it figured out some day...once all the kids have gone off to college.

Alright, this post is getting very verbose, so I'm going to end here and let all you lovely people enjoy your Friday. And please, click on some of the links of the Blogs I Read...they are probably of a happier tone than mine was today. :) Have a great weekend!

Big Trucks..Skull and Cross Bones...and Jesus Stickers..oh my!

OK...so this morning, I was driving to work, and I see this large Dodge Ram driving down the road. It was to my left, so at first I couldn't see it's bumper. What initially drew my attention, was this large skull & crossbones sticker on the back window that said this:




Then, as he sped up, and eventually got in my lane in front of me...I look down at his bumper, and see this:



Don't you always laugh when you see stuff like that? There is a reason why I don't put Christian stuff on my car anymore...I'm not perfect, but when you have a Christian symbol on the back of your car, everyone expects you to be. And then, when you're not, you give everyone who doesn't like Christians more reason not to like us. "Oh look at that lady in the Ford SUV that just cut me off...she's got a Jesus Fish on the back of her car. Some Christian SHE is." Isn't it funny that people who don't like Christians still have expectations of how we should act? They expect us to act differently than everyone else, with more kindness, integrity, stronger moral values...but what they don't understand is that we are human just like everyone else. However, we have an inner desire to change, to become the person God had in mind when we were born. Unfortunately, the process doesn't happen overnight...and we still might cut someone off, or lose our temper. I understand that not every person who claims to be a Christian has any desire to transform their lives...and if you don't, please don't put contradicting stickers on your car and make it worse for all of us.

Or if you insist on doing it, please add this sticker as a disclaimer (hehe):

Yippee Freakin' Skippy - It's Friday!!

It's Friday!

1. I grew up thinking the bumps on the road were there so that blind people could drive.

2. vintagethirty.blogspot.com was the last website I was at before coming here.

3. Why don't you take my children for awhile so I can have a break, hehe?

4. Wine helps me relax, but I can't have any for awhile, so massages will have to do.

5. Thanks for the muffins and fruit at work today, I didn't get to eat breakfast at home.

6. Please let me know immediately if I become very off-putting.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to picking up my Cita from Girl Scout Camp!!!!, tomorrow my plans include hanging out with a friend and dropping Cita off at the airport to spend the rest of the summer with her dad and Sunday, I want to go to church and get ready for another week of the grind!

PROMPTuesday on Wednesday

Okay, so yesterday's PROMPTuesday was this:

What major decision(s) have you made in your life? What road did you take that led to something unexpected, or wonderful or not-so-wonderful-but-it-all-worked-out-in-the-end?

As I thought about it, the very first thing that popped into my head was, wanting to learn how to type. I was about 5 years old, and we had one of the typewriters that went "cha-ching!" when you slid the register back to the left...seriously, we had one. I'm THAT old. Anyway, my grandma was always in the office, clickety-clacking away, and I wanted to do it too. Well, my grandma thought she would deter my curiousity by telling me, "Chris, you can't play on Grammy's typewriter. If you want to use it, you'll have to learn how to type correctly." Little did she know that I would say "Okay, when do I start learning?!" So, she had some typing books on the bookshelf, and set me up with a bookstand, and had me go through the exercises. I think I sat at her typewriter for hours at a time, day after day...F-R-F, J-Y-J, K-I-K, D-E-D, click click click...click click click...CHA-CHING!!!

This decision has benefited me in so many ways. The first time was when I was in about 4th grade, and we started having computer class at school. We would have to type short stories, and it would take most kids the entire hour to finish theirs, and I would be done in about 10 minutes. I think I was probably typing about 45 to 50 WPM back then, with pretty decent accuracy.

Then, my grandma got me a video game for our Kaypro computer, called Word Wizard or something like that. It was a floppy disk (yes, floppy disk) with a bunch of typing games. One of my favorite ones was where you had to guard your planet. Asteroids with words in them would come hurdling toward your planet, and you had to type the word and press to zap them and break them to pieces before they destroyed your planet. As you blew up the words, they would start coming faster and faster toward your planet. Boy, was that a suspenseful game, but it sure helped me type faster!

Anywho, after I was in the higher grades, typing came in handy when it was required to type school reports. Sometimes I would even type my friends' reports for them. I also typed up a short story that a girl I went to school with wrote about her family. It was really sad actually, her name was Tanice Stefanich. I have no idea where she is now.

And now for the grand finale...after I graduated high school, I was pregnant with my first daughter. I moved to Las Vegas to live with my grandparents, and I didn't have a job. My grandma drove me down to the Appleone Temporary Employment Agency. They had me fill out an application, take a typing test, and go through an interview with one of their placement agents. By this time, I was in the 85-90 WPM range with accuracy. I was called the next morning for a data entry job for a healthcare company called Sierra Health Services. I was initially supposed to help out with a temporary data entry project, but the gals in the department took me in like mother hens, because here I was this single, pregnant teenager, working as a temp with a baby to support soon. So, they started giving me other tasks to see if I could handle them, and I did. They wanted to hire me on full-time after I had my daughter, but they didn't have any openings, so they got me in to a subsidiary of their company as a front desk person for an Optometrist's office. And 6 months later, I was transferred back to the Health Informatics department. This is where my current career began...all because I could type. I was with that company for 5 years, where I learned all about a software program called IDX that was used to managed Healthcare practices. That knowledge took me to California, where I used the same program. I gained new knowledge there, and when I wanted to move back to Arizona I had a job ready for me to start when I got here. That job led to an opening at Phoenix Children's Hospital as a Financial Analyst. And finally, that job led to a position at a start-up consulting firm, where I am having the time of my life learning tons of new things, growing professionally by leaps and bounds, and only God knows where I will end up going from here!

OK...this post was hugely tooting my own horn...sorry about that. ;) But, seriously, for all you momma's out there, teach your kids to type. In an economy where jobs are hard to find, that skill is always needed, and if your kid can type faster, with more accuracy than the other applicants, they're in!

The Joys of Pregnancy

Ok...I'm only 6 weeks pregnant so far, and here's all the "fun" stuff that's going on:

1. I've gained 10 pounds - What in the freakin' hell?? Really?? 10 pounds?? I think the scale is lying, but regardless, my butt is going back to the gym ASAP. I worked out during my last pregnancy and I think that's the only thing that saved me from becoming the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man - and apparently I better do it with this one too - cuz, let's do the math shall we? 10 pounds in 6 weeks = 1.6 lbs per week. Pregnancy is 40 weeks, so 1.6 x 40 = 64 pounds!! And you know you always gain more at the end, so we'll just round it to 70. Yeah...that's not gonna work for me.
2. My sleeping patterns are jacked up - Not to mention the fact that I have a 16 month old with an erratic sleep schedule, now my body's internal sleep clock has gone on the fritz. I want to sleep during the day, and I toss and turn all night. I took a nap right after dinner, woke up at 9pm, helped my 7 yr old get packed for her Girl Scout camp trip tomorrow, did about an hours worth of work from 11p-12a, and now here I sit, blogging, when I should be sleeping.
3. I have Gas...lots of it - I know this one may be too much information, but seriously, is there anything I can eat now that won't give me gas? At first I thought it was funny because now my hubby isn't the only one making music with his rear-end, and let's face it, farts are funny, as much as you may not want to admit it. But now, it's just sort of annoying and uncomfortable. Especially because I don't want to toot at the wrong place at the wrong time.
4. Acne - It's like high school all over again. And guess what? Having acne on top of getting fat and gassy is just not right.
5. My boobs are huge - This is usually my first tell-tale sign that I'm pregnant. And, I just bought new bras to fit my way smaller pre-pregnancy boobs just a couple months ago - and in fact just bought a fancy Victoria's Secret one specifically designed to make my boobs look bigger. Guess I won't be needing that one for awhile.

OK...that's all for now, I am going to go eat some cherries (which will probably give me gas), and try and go to sleep (and as soon as I do, I'm sure my 16 month old will wake up).

TGIF!

And it is time for Friday Fill-Ins!

1. Only 3 more hours until I can go home.

2. My favorite thing for dinner lately has been sausage and potatoes, mmmm.

3. Cat is to meow! meow! meow! as Dog is to bark! bark! bark!

4. A nice long walk is what I need right now after the huge amount of lunch I just consumed.

5. Everyone always likes some good news.

6. When all is said and done, I hope I have lived a life that made a difference in the lives of others.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Friday Night dinner and taking the kids to the Childrens Museum (Free First Fridays, yay!), tomorrow my plans include not sure yet and Sunday, I want to go to church and get some laundry done!

This is RIGHT on the Money

If you've ever been a consultant (vendor) working with a client, you will find this hilarious. ;)

PROMPTuesday #58 - Fun Friend

So, I'm doing my PROMPTuesday on Wednesday because I was too busy handing out awards yesterday.

Here's the direcciones (sorry I'm stuck on Spanish since yesterday)

We’ve got all kinds of friends, haven’t we? The serious ones, the anal ones, the silly ones, the lost ones, the distant ones, the ironclad ones.

Today, let’s write about the fun ones. Do you have a friend who makes you laugh and is a guaranteed good time? Write about this friend. Tell us a funny memory, something he or she said, or some goofball thing you did together.

OK...I could already tell that this was going to be a post that was going to make me laugh, make me cry, or make me laugh so hard I started crying.

My BFF, Gina Marie, and I have known each other since 4th grade, but became BFFs right at the end of 6th grade. The circumstance was that my BFF and Gina's BFF at the time, broke up with us, and became each other's BFFs...leaving Gina and I BFF-less. So, what were we to do? Become BFFs of course! And we did.

It was a bit awkward because she was from the popular, Guess-jeans wearing, crowd. And I was from the dorky, fluorescent-colored sock wearing, crowd.

This post will take FOREVER if I mention every hilarious thing we did, and they will most likely not be hilarious to you. Oh yeah, one serious thing first, as to what solidified our friendship. I have to try and make it brief because it can become it's own story...basically the first time I ever invited her to spend the night, she ended up witnessing some serious domestic violence between my mom and her boyfriend. And she never told a soul...not one...about how messed up my family was. She didn't even want to tell her mom, but my grandparents told her mom anyway. That's some serious loyalty right there...and we weren't even that far into our friendship yet. OK...seriousness now over, let the hilarity commence!

DISCLAIMER: Some of these events may not be in the order that they occurred. ;)

We made home movies...and named them spoof-names instead...so, we essentially started the concept of movies like "Scary Movie". We made "Butt Tracy" instead of "Dick Tracy" (dirty I know, but we were goofy kids). Her brother made movies too, one was called "The People Under the Dining Room Table", instead of the "The People Under the Stairs". We also tied fishing wire around the heads of her massive collection of Troll dolls, and moved them around like puppets. She had one huge troll with pink hair, and we pretended that it farted and blew away all the other trolls as we were swinging them around by the fishing wire (gosh we were so juvenile).

We played drinking games...well before we were old enough to drink. Her parents had a liquor cabinet that they never locked...um...duh!! So, we filled Dixie Cups with shots of different varieties and took them to her room while her parents were gone. And we tried to make up our own drinking games, but they sucked, so we just downed all the shots as fast as we could. Then we got extremely silly...and then...her mom came home. She could tell that we were hammered, and the whole time she was reprimanding us, we were laughing uncontrollably. The icing on the cake was that Gina and I had to perform in the play "Oliver" the next day for the matinee show. Gina's mom is the president of the community theatre, and we were always in plays. By that morning, her mom was over the anger, and instead thought it was hilarious to have other cast members come over to us and speak REALLY LOUD! I'm sure our performance sucked that day.

I think I'm going to bullet-point now, otherwise we may be here all night --

• Running out the back door and jumping into the pool...with all of our clothes on.
• Having to scoop poop out of her toilet with a Dixie Cup, because it was always broken, and she didn't tell me in time.
• Pretending to be Ren & Stimpy or Beavis & Butthead for that matter
• Making up our own songs - our favorite was when we were talking about growing old together and playing the "I'm too sexy for my shirt" song...and instead of it saying "I'm a model, you know what I mean", it would say "We're grandmas...you know what we mean...and we shake our wrinkled booties on the hospital floor". We also had granny names for each other...Granny Goolahee and Granny Gritzel...I don't know why our Granny Names wouldn't be our own last names...that's kinda funny too now that I think about it.
• Sneaking out and staying out all night, both telling our parents different stories, and getting totally busted.
• "Moshing" to Metallica's song "One"
• Pretending to be mannequins in department store windows at the mall.
• Making people roll down their car windows and asking them if they had any Grey Poupon.
• Pretending to pick our nose, and then offering our boogers to the cars next to us (in the back of her mom's station wagon, unbeknownst to her)
• Dressing up like punk rockers for Halloween, and court jesters, and genies (on different years of course...since her mom was the community theatre president, she had the costume shop in her basement...this was also where we found costumes for our home-made movies)
• Riding our bikes through the golf course and getting caught in the sprinklers
• Making water balloons in the park bathroom, and totally denying it was us that made the water mess in there as we were standing there with our hair dripping.
• Getting locked out of our hotel room in Vegas when we were there with my grandparents, and they didn't know we had snuck out...and having to make up a story to the desk clerk to give us another key.
• Cliff diving at the lake, and getting huge wedgies and having our tops come up
• Pretending to be mermaids in the pool, singing underwater, and screaming "Rooooooobbbbbiiiiiin" at the top of our lungs Maid Marion style from the Robin Hood movie with Kevin Kostner
• "Would you like crunchy noodoo or normal noodoo?" (you won't get that one, but it's funny to me)

OK, I seriously could go on and on...but you get the idea. Gina has been my partner in crime since we were kids...and even though she lives in Germany now, we can still pick up where we left off when she comes home to visit. I love her. Dammit, now I'm gonna cry. See what you did, Deb?

Oh, and here's a recent pic of us and our BFF Jami.

(L to R - Jami, Gina, Me)

The Award(s) go to....ME!!

Okay, so, I'm kind of lame...really lame, actually. My buddy over at Don't Touch the Cactus gave me an award, um...back in April. And I was swimming in work soup, so I told myself when I got the chance, I would thank her on my blog, and then follow suit by awarding other fellow bloggers in bloggy-land. But, it is now, June 2nd...and that time did not come.

Today, I was blessed with another award from A Lil' Dash of Diva. So, this prompted me to get off my ass (figuratively, because I don't normally blog standing up), and thank my friends for my awards and pass them along. So, many of you are going to get double-awarded, YAY!

My first award is:



The description of this award is:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

My second award is:



The description of this award is:

None...other than the person receiving the award is extraordinary and awesome!


And now...great people of Blogdom, prepare to be awarded!

Lil' Dash of Diva: You get the hearty one, cuz you gave me the Awesome one. ;) But, hey, I can make the rules right? So, you get the Awesome one too!

The Hills: You get double-awarded today! The stories of your boys, and your life at school crack me up!

Green Girl: Double-award for you! Becoming a black belt in karate, living with Team Testosterone, and planting a gorgeous garden that is the envy of all...enough said. ;)

Doves Today: Award x 2! Thank you for sharing stories in such a beautiful way, and many times with even more beautiful pictures to go with them!

San Diego Momma: Dos Awardos Para Ti. You're from San Diego, you speak Spanish right? ;) Thank you for PrompTuesdays, even though many of them intimidate the crap out of me. And thank you thank you thank you!!! for the VLOG or V-LOG or however the hell you pronounce it.

The Things We Carried: Two awards for you. Your entries are so touching, I cry pretty much every time I read one...sometimes in a happy way, sometimes in a bittersweet way. Thank you for sharing your life for others to read.

Vintage Thirty: Double Awards. I just recently started reading your blog, but your Open Letter to Very Important People, Part Deux, had me laughing so hard I was crying...so I am now hooked on your brand of wittiness.

Viva CookeVegas: Table for two awards please. I'm glad I found your blog through Danielle...I love reading the adventures that you have with your boys, and washing your car, and getting half-and-half sunburnt (and loving that you called it the "half and half approach")!

Don't Touch the Cactus: And then...there were 2, awards that is. Thanks for awarding me, and please excuse my delay in response, and please accept my double awards in return for my delay. I love the bluntness in your posts about life, kids, and assloads of stuff (crayons, shoes, you name it, you have assloads of it). ;) Oh, and lunch...need to schedule it...pronto.

Andi's Family Life: Two Awards for you! You are awesome Andi! I don't always comment on your blogs, but you are truly a superhero!


Phew!! I'm all awarded out, how about you?

And if you've made it this far in my award bloggy - I'm pregnant, with baby #5, totally not kidding.