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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

For Superman

100 Reasons Why I Love You





1. you love me first


2. you love me back


3. you love our kids


4. your confidence


5. you fly solo with the kids


6. you count dirty diapers with me


7. you look at my bruises


8. you still have “that look in your eyes” after almost 9 years


9. you lost 50# for me


10. you gave up Kool-Aid for me


11. you hide snacks in your truck


12. you are ornery with me


13. you work hard to make me laugh (and smile)…


14. …then you tell me you love it


15. you are biased about me


16. when you get your nose in a book


17. you know me more and more


18. you are loyal


19. you are a leader


20. you are motivated to help others


21. you want to please me


22. you want me to be happy


23. you love our place


24. you give the best backrubs (you are my hero)


25. how your eyes are different colors depending on whether you are far or near


26. that you write a schedule for the kids when you’re home


27. that you let the kids help


28. your mole


29. that you changed jobs to be with your family more


30. that you want me to accomplish my dreams


31. that you support me


32. that you tell me jokes even when I don’t laugh


33. that through you I have awesome in-laws


34. that you want me to tell you how great your projects turn out


35. your projects always turn out great


36. how you make up cool stories for the kids


37. how you always make the kids the heroes in your stories


38. you have a song for each kid


39. you sing that song almost every night to them


40. you let them use you as a jungle gym…


41. …that you’re pretty patient about being used as a jungle gym


42. you are on the kids level most the time


43. how you want me to be Joan Clever and meet you at the door


44. your passion for gardening even though you might not admit it


45. that you think its “cooler than she even knows” that you have a beehive


46. how you humor my craigslist addiction


47. that you check my blog almost daily


48. how you can’t stand to “not know”


49. that you are ticklish like a kid


50. you encourage a gospel centered home by…


51. initiating FHE every week


52. initiating scripture studies


53. initiating prayers


54. that you get the kids involved with reading scriptures, even BBB who can’t read yet


55. for loving my cooking (most the time)


56. when you brag about my cooking to other people


57. you haven’t given up on Q.


58. for eating what I cook even if its not your favorite


59. for folding the kid’s laundry


60. taking a serious interest in what to my buy me for gifts…


61. …and getting it right


62. for asking the kids what I like


63. for listening to the kids


64. for taking a whole weekend to take the girls to that dance


65. braving shoe shopping with the kids (even though you’re mom helped)


66. bringing home ice cream and Head Country from Braum's


67. laughing about my “People” magazines


68. introducing me to the sitcom


69. giving Sunny lots and lots of hair


70. you think you’re the “smartest person…”


71. that you know how to have fun


72. that you enjoy music


73. that you want our kids to have “more”


74. how you are proud of your place


75. that you have exceeded my expectations


76. that you sacrificed your time and your sleep


77. that you brought us to where we are


78. you let me get “girlfriend time”


79. you are nice to my girlfriends


80. sometimes you go out of your way…


81. …and out of your comfort zone


82. you are good with numbers


83. you have passion for engineering stuff (whatever that might be)


84. you believe in your research and continuing it


85. that you are a “man’s man”


86. for introducing me to OU


87. you listen to talk radio…


88. and read the news so…


89. I can get sound political advice from you


90. you miss me even after one night


91. for being “the man” in our daughter’s lives


92. for wanting to try new things


93. stick with what you like (dr. pepper among others)


94. that you are fairly easy to please


95. your love for chocolate (especially brownies)


96. that you keep the toilet seats down


97. how you encourage BBB to like what you like (ex. OU)


98. you take the girls shopping every year for a new dress


99. that you have donut day


100. THAT YOU CHOSE ME! That you still try over and over.


Thank You Babe! You are my Superman.


P.S. even if you have super soft tender feet...i love that about you!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

What's In My Make-up Bag






Let's take a lookie-see:


Looks pretty average to me. It should be clear that i use sheercover. for now. i saw it on one of those infomercials and thought "what the hey...". yep. a good ole' straightforward look into my make-up bag. See that black round case in the middle there?




This is what happens when my baby uses it...




Aw thanks honey but i think i'm good today...she sure looks like a little clown doesn't she? my sweet lil' sugar 'n spice an' ever thang nice little clown.


i recall another girly gal gettin' ahold of my bag:



Caught 'er red handed. 'Course i musta' left it where she could get it. the bed didn't suffer too much if you were wonderin'. she sure is cute...The End.


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

This, This, and That

i'm supposed to be writing about the 30 day blog challenge which i am very far behind on now. or am i? i don't recall any rules such as: "you have to blog every single day right in a row to do this challenge" but maybe that's the point?

now that i am here, i have lost the list. i remember that #10 (i think i'm on #10?) is my favorite place to eat or is it my fave restaurant? ah crap! well...

for years my fave restaurant has been Red Lobster. Now, i have say, it was much better back then. the food has become more and more commercialized. however, it is still our old standby and the kids love it. shrimp is one of my all time favorite foods. as far as having a FAVORITE favorite...something to absolutely die for, mouth watering gotta have it right now and every day...i don't think i really do right now. maybe i've just become THAT good at cookin'.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Books

i love books. i have been reading alot lately, if you've noticed the column to the left over there showing what's beside my bed. this week i read four books.

you could wonder how the heck i read four books with all my stay-at-home responsibilities but its really because these books weren't the best. superman would probably say he could tell i was reading cuz there was alot of clean laundry laying around needing folded but i think that's pretty much the norm for me.

i am dying to say some stuff about what i read and that is why i am skipping my #10. i'll do it soon though i promise. i really need to get my feelings about these books off my chest.

the first book i read was "A Nest of Sparrows" by Deborah Raney. this was probably the best book i read in terms of the story and plot. it was a book that my library considers an "inspirational" read...their definition of christian or clean reads. it was just that. a christian novel about a guy whose fiancee dies and he trys to adopt her three kids, who he has helped raised for three years. he fights the abusive biological father for custody when the father decides he wants his kids back for the insurance money he will inherit with them. it was uplifting and entertaining; an easy read that i thought was plausible. the characters' grief was real and it had a happy ending. not one i'd put on my exceptional list but i would recommend it if you just need something nice to read to take your mind of whatever.

the next book i delved into is "Haunting Olivia" by Janelle Taylor. this book was retarded. it read like one of those Lifetime movies or ABC Family Dramas. the title for me is completely misleading. though the idea of this story is interesting enough, there is no depth to the characters. for the most part, the characters are shallow and vindictive. the "heroic" ones are plain cheesy. this book ended up being about "mean girl" drama and small town judgementalism. i hated it. plus, about 90 pages in, the author decides to insert a disgusting and completely inappropiate example of a love scene (don't worry i skipped over it) but i had to skip over three more of them, which ruins this book for teens. if it weren't for the R-rated love scenes, this would make an entertaining YA read though not quality. just entertaining. but like i said, the love scenes were gross. i am judging by a word or two i saw, ok? take my word for it. do not waste your time reading this.

the third book i tackled was Richard F. Wright's new book "The Cross Gardener". i found some things in this book completely unrealistic. the way the women suddenly go into labor and give birth in an hour on the roadside seems completely absurd. even if an accident caused a placental abruption which could trigger quick and rapid labor, i still do not think these characters would have had time to give birth on the side of the road before getting loaded into ambulances.

this author has no clue how to demonstrate true pain (as with the prego ladies...they would have been in excruciating pain if this really was placenta abruptio) or true grief. he basically portrays the grieving husband as a zombie who never crys, never is angry, does not express his guilt, and though the author touches on the guilt and pain the kid is feeling, he could have gone into so much more detail and shown more how the dad and kid cope together with their grief by having more dialogue. though the kid goes mute, there isn't much if any attempt on the father's part to understand her grief. maybe that was the author's point...to show how some people get so selfishly absorbed in their own grief that they don't see anyone else's. except this character's grief was too "numb" for me. i guess i like more drama.

another tidbit but i have to be careful here. a huge part of this book was about the mysterious "cross gardener", this young man who tends all the crosses around those parts. he makes sure the weeds are pulled and the paint is touched up. he and the main character develop a relationship that is meant to help the main guy heal but in the end it reveals who the cross gardener is and it totally ruined the book for me. it was so far fetched...it made me wonder if the main character was crazy or...why did he create this character?....was it a figment of the dad's imagination?...did his grief drive him to make up the cross gardener? it was weird and confusing and i did not appreciate it.

and something i have to say about Richard F. Wright's acknowledgements to his children. he says, "Also to my children: Oakli, Jadi, Kason, and Koleson for keeping Mom sane while I travel."
Huh? keeping mom sane? seriously, buddy, i guarantee your wife was not at home sane with four children while you were on the road for weeks at a time doing book signings. if she was, then kudos to her for being a perfect, little wonderwoman housewife. i have a feeling this guy doesn't have a clue, not even a close iota to what kind of sacrifices his wife has made for him and their children. this just riles me up, cancha tell? i thought that was presumptuous of him to say but i will also acknowledge this comment is presumtuous and judgemental...i just thought how ignorant of him. ok i'll stop now. like i said, i had some things to get off my chest.

if you are intrigued, then give it whirl but don't say i didn't warn that you might be disappointed.

still one more book to go here. it is "The Red Garden" by Alice Hoffman. this book is pretty well reviewed on Amazon.com. it is exactly what people have said about it, reads like a compilation of short stories. each story tells of a character or two or three and their experiences with this town, Blackwell. Why it is called "The Red Garden"...i'm not sure. there is a garden with red soil that can only grow "red" plants and plants that produce red stuff (tomatoes, radishes, watermelons, ect.). the garden isn't in every story though. the jacket cover says the town centers around this garden but i found that the town centered more around its history of bears and apple trees not to mention the founding families. most the characters experience tradgedy or loss and as a result some people have rated this book as being depressing.

while i enjoyed each story, it did make the ending awkward for me because there was no real plot, climax, or anti-climax to this book. there is some love-making in this book but i didn't find it disgusting, gross, and inappropiate like in "Haunting Olivia". if you don't like any sort of lovin' (if you are a very particulary prude reader) this is my warning. maybe a better way to put this is i didn't find the lovin' to be pornagraphic in nature. "Haunting Olivia" was definately pornagraphic.

what i enjoyed most about this book is alice hoffman's talent as a writer. this especially stood out after those other three books. her prose is wonderful to read and i liked the fantasy feel of the stories. the book was very imaginative and enjoyable to me. i would probably catalog this book as a fantasy or a folklorish type of book. i would recommend this for the quality of writing alone.

that feels better.
the end. happy reading.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Day 9 aka I'm Not Feelin' Very Creative Today

#9. a photo of the last item i bought.

i did not buy ONE particular item because the last stuff i bought was groceries. i tryed to remember what the very last thing on the conveyor was but i cannot remember. maybe its because it was 11pm or perhaps i simply gave all my braincells to my runts. they are seeming extra smart these days. i bet a store called "Brain Cell, Ect" could make bookoos bucks.

the moment everyone is waiting for: TADA! a photo of someone else's groceries. mine are already put away besides being half consumed by the bottomless bellies that roam our halls. please accept my apologies for not digging them out of the cupboard to get a nice pic. at the time, it did not cross my mind that i might need a picture of my groceries. perhaps this relates to my brain cells again. personally, i find it fascinating that someone else had the prescence of mind to take their "grocery" picture.


a humungous THANK YOU to the kind person who posted this on photobucket and let me borrow it. you have saved me time in your course of documenting every second of your day. oh thank you internet! for making pictures like this available to me; for providing a forum in which someone JUST LIKE ME, who BUYS WHAT I BUY, can take a random picture of some random event and then share it with me across the digital realm. how coincidental that what she/he bought, i bought... minus the bottled water and substitute raison bran with berry kix. see the yellow squash in that bag to the left? i bought yellow squash! *gasp* and that dr. pepper? i bought that too except ours was the decaffenated version. my wal-mart bags had blue ink but who cares? the crazy thing is the maple floor looks just like mine! this is my shopping spree in proxy!

9 down, 21 to go. happy blogging!


p.s. i get that the photo is very large; its the only way the squash was visible.




Sunday, March 6, 2011

A Soothing Sunday Post

#8. A Song to Match My Mood

Remember this song from "Cars" the disney movie? Lightning McQueen is riding in mack, fixin' to take his evening slumber while on the way to a big race. at least that's where i got this song. i'm sure its been around awhile before "Cars".




This is my song of the moment. it's a sunday afternoon, sunny and cozy warm in my bedroom. there's a brand new pile of books i picked up from the library yesterday sitting beside my high, soft mattress; they're calling out to me, beckoning me with their soon-to-be discovered stories. i've swarn the runts off for an hour so that i can get some quiet time.

here's to happy sunday snoozes.

P.S. i think the sound of that saxophone is great.
P.P.S. the slide show is pretty too.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Finally A Moment...

anyone missed me? huh? what's that i hear? a little? k' well here is the return of the 30-day blogging challenge that i have inexplicably taken a week off from doing. i think i may be agreeing with my friend on the content of these questions because this one is "Your Dream Wedding".


is this the dream wedding that already happened or the dream wedding i wish i had? i have pondering this for a week. i am not any closer to knowing the answer...besides, i really was busy.


these questions are so vague and non-specific. perhaps that should be the beauty of this challenge; i can make what i want of it.


#7. My Dream Wedding (and Reception) that Already Happened (and Superman's that didn't)


i think this picture is pretty self-explanatory. i met a man whom i found had many of the numerous qualities i was looking for, one of which included being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. but he also needed to be able to enter into a temple marriage ceremony with me. i set a goal when i was a kid that i would be married in the temple. marriage in the LDS temple differs from a civil ceremony in that the marriage is for "time and all eternity" rather than "until death do you part". i am proud to say that i accomplished my goal and childhood dream and my life has been blessed for it.



even though superman and i really wanted to be sealed (that's what temple marriage is referred to as "sealing" or a "sealing ceremony") in the st. george, utah temple because both of our parents were sealed in st. george, due to travel expenses for the family we decided to marry in oklahoma city.


when we became engaged, my parents told me write down everything you think you want and we will see what we can do. my list went something like this:



reception NOT in the gym at the church
a professional photographer
a reception venue with stairs
a ring exchange at the reception
reception on the night before our wedding day (unconventional i know but this way we wouldn't be traveling all day since our reception was in tulsa and i didn't want to come back to a reception after our honeymoon...just seemed weird and stressful to me...)
ceremony in st. george, utah


as you can see the reception was very important to me with the photographer coming in a close second. i shopped around long and hard for a photographer who still was using film because when i got married the digital age was just beginning and to get really professional-looking digital pictures was VERY expensive. i think most photographers going over to digital just hadn't figured out photoshop quite well enough and the pictures looked like something my dad could do. i wanted pictures that looked like i hired a photographer.


bored yet? *yawn*


i think i included getting a limo on my wish list too, but that didn't happen. we held the reception at this gorgeous historical home in an older, richer part of tulsa. the home is called the Harweldon House (check out the beauty of this place in the photo gallery). i first went to tour this place as a girlscout, fell in love with its charm and beauty, and then made it a dream for my wedding reception. there i am, down there, on the night of my reception at the Harweldon House. and like always, this photo has a story that could be a whole 'nother post...



if i changed anything, i wish i would have cut the cake last. we cut the cake right after our ring exchange and unity candle ceremony and so all the guests went and got their food while we did our first dance. then, most the guests just left. i wish i would have stood in a receiving line while people were getting their food so that i could have spent time visiting with our guests and thanking them for coming then we could have had our dance and cut the cake. by 8:30 or so everyone had left and our big wedding "party" puttered out. we had the venue booked until 11 or so. with the extra time, we sat and opened our gifts with our families, which was special.


superman's idea of a dream wedding (reception) was completely different than mine. he wanted to have a BBQ at his folks house. looking back, i think we could have done it really nice with a tent and it could have been a kind of casual country affair possibly better suited for the majority of our guests. i admit it now...i was a bridezilla...i should have been more considerate of my groom. he and his family were really good sports and i really appreciate their support.


the bottom line is we have a temple marriage which, to us, means the world.


my gosh this is boring. *yawn* stay tuned for #8...something about music.