I took her to court

I will always love Facebook. It has a special place in my heart. It was my first true Internet romance. But. I've been cheating on it with my blog. It just gives me more vain attention than Facebook ever could.

Comments.

Although...

Facebook gives me esteem (no matter how false it may be) when that little # of friends reaches 100 & keeps going.(be quiet you. You who have 200, 300 or more, friends. I can hear you mocking my pathetic # compared to yours, but you don't know how lucky I am that real people are actually willing to publicly acknowledge that they know me.) I had no idea I even knew 100 people. But still, I can't pour out my soul on Facebook or rant & rave & scare people off like I have the power to do on M.E.M.O.S.

It's a double edged sword. The blog takes away little pieces of my self-worth whenever I look at those little itty bitty # of comments & think they could be so much bigger. I wish I could get comment implants. Then I would feel really good about myself.

Falsies are a good idea.

Cheating never is. It's morally wrong.

What Facebook has done for me is brought me back to my roots.
From my parents struggle as slaves to their epoch, heroic journey of heartache, struggle & eventually freedom. It's a story of love, hope.........sorry. Wrong story. Portland. My roots were in Portland. But I've lost them. They've been dug up & are withering away in the arid, desert climate of S.E. Idaho. Not that I'm complaining.

What I'm trying to say is, I've found friends from high school, college, church (even former Y.W. leaders) & it's shameful to say, cousins who I haven't spoken to or seen in years. I even started a group on Facebook. I'm cool like that. It has been so great to find these long lost souls.

My weird dreams are way less frequent too. In recent history I was having these recurring dreams where I would be wandering in the halls of my high school looking for my locker (that could have also been related to the amount of skipping I did & at times really couldn't remember where my locker was). Or walking around the halls of the church building that I grew up in.......well, I didn't grow up there because that would be weird. But it's the same building I went to for 18 years. In my last dream, which took place there, I was putting on my makeup in the bathroom across from the chapel & was wondering who all these crazy people were in MY bathroom. It was getting crowded & they were really getting on my nerves. Get out of my bathroom you weirdos!

I think I needed closure & a bigger bathroom. I just kind of left the old neighborhood one day & never came back. I know, that's a little dramatic (that's totally not like me). What happened was, I went off to college & came home for breaks. After a while I got married & simply lost touch with so many people -most everyone from the good ole' days.

Until now.

The modern miracle we know as Facebook has brought my roots back to life. They're getting watered again. It doesn't rain much in Idaho. But it's pouring buckets of old friends on Facebook.

So, I made a short story long to tell you that I recently got to see an old friend of mine. You know her as the littlest hillbilly over at, something or other about Poison. I know her by her real name, but I'll never tell you. HA!

We were in the same ward as youth, her Dad was my bishop, & then she went off to Ricks College. A year later I followed her & we were roomies. I saw her a time or two after she moved on & then I followed suit. Eventually we lost touch. But Facebook, darling Facebook, brought us back together again. Little did we know that she has relatives, whom she visits yearly, in my neck of the woods. I've lived here for 8 years & never even ran into her once at Walmart.

I thought my town was smaller than that.

She was here, visiting, last week & we were able to get together. It's been like 11 years since we've seen each other, I think I was preggers (tamn, I know) with Lundles. I got to meet her hubby & girlies & hear about her family.......but mostly talk about me. It was so exciting.

Then I took her to court...........to go trick or treating, because that's the 'it' place to go. What? Don't you? (losers) Oh yeah, it was Halloween day, at least I got a picture of myself & my friend. You didn't want to see any pics of my kids anyway because they were so freakin cute that they would've burned your eyeballs with their cuteness & then you would be blind. It's better this way.

I've been in touch with several more old friends through Facebook & this blog. They haven't been crazy enough to actually agree to see me in person, something about a legal protection order? But eventually we will all get together. I promise.

No, wait! Don't be scared.

The BIG day

Oh my heck! I feel like today is my birthday, wedding, Christmas & like I'm going into labor all shoved together in one crazy package. Like a big, hot, stuffed, delicious burrito, which will eventually leave you with heartburn. I'm really happy & excited yet totally nervous & nauseous at the same time.

It's THE day. Election day. Tuesday, November 4th, 2008.

Also, I have mutual tonight. I always feel a little sick on Tuesdays.


The 1st thing that's making me really happy & excited though, is your commenting skills. I'm so proud of all of you. I would like to thank all of my fabulous readers who worked so hard to get me into the double digits on my last post. Some bloggers have a gift for getting comments. The comments simply come to them like magic (I don't think it has anything to do with their wit or writing skills). Not me. I have to work, as in begging, pleading, coercing, guilt-tripping, really hard for each comment I get.

You exceeded my goal of 10 & got me to 23. It doesn't matter if 8 of those comments were from the same person & 2 of them were from me. The # is there & that's all I needed to feel good about myself. I feel like 23 bucks right now. And all of my wildest dreams have come true. Except for the one where my backside is smaller & not so squishy.

I just hope you guys didn't set yourselves up for failure. I'm going to be expecting at least double digits from now on. No pressure. But, good luck.

The other exciting thing is ...... drum roll please.......I got to vote today. Alone!

Where MY vote counts!

This is the 1st time in 10 years that that has happened. I have always had kids hanging off me, &/or messing/stealing with/from my purse (they learned at a young age that I can't multi-task, like hold a purse & vote at the same time) or bothering other voters by running around in circles screaming 'Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!' They totally get that from their dad. Show off.

In the last presidential election, I showed up with a car seat hanging from each arm, overflowing with 10 month old babies & all of the accessories that go along with them, plus a double stuffed diaper bag. Today I was alone. I could set my purse down - worry free. It was quiet, except for when I started yelling, 'look at me. look at me, look at me.' (I wasn't as loud as my kids though. I only had lower case 'l's & periods.) Unlike those around me, I voted in peace.

I love preschool.

I also love these cute ladies. The pollsters. How cool.

They are all neighbors of mine & they run the voting booths. I totally want to join their group. I asked a couple of years ago if I could, but I'm still waiting to hear back. Hmmmm.

When I mentioned it to them, again & told them that I was free for the next 2 hours & wanted to hang out, they looked at me like this.....

Okay. Maybe Not. I'll just go home & blog.

Well, I've done my part. It's out of my hands now. As far as I'm concerned the polls are closed.

I'm going to take a picture to prove that I voted, but 1st I need to make sure no one is looking & that weird guy is gone.....

Here it is, my proof of voting today. Hands off! It's mine. I worked hard for this sticker & I am going to wear it with pride all day long.

Can you guess what I'm going to do tonight?

After Mutual.

I'll give you a hint:

Chillax. Relax. Chill out. Hang out.

Except not at the pharmacy in Walmart. At home. On the sofa. In front of the T.V.

Watching. Waiting. Anticipating. Crying. Eating. Crying..........

HAPPY VOTING!!!

Spooky Picture Day

Monday nights FHE activity. They enjoyed those pumpkin guts a little too much.....it was spooky.

Last year (I went as my true self).

If I were dressing up this year, I would look like this:

Ed Grimley rocks!

*Our spooky Halloween tree in front of our house. When the leaves fall off it looks like frightening possessed fingers reaching down to grab you. At least that's what I tell the kids.

Speaking of houses, don't bother knocking this year. We won't answer. Get off my property!

EEEEEK! The spookiest of all. Weird. My hair keeps growing shorter.

Update! I totally left this one out (but just remembered it). This black cat, which I've never seen before, has been lurking around our yard since yesterday. Do you believe in omens? That is spooky!

BOO!

Miss me?

PHEW! Last week is over. I survived, which I seriously had doubts would happen. So now I'm back. Did you miss me? I missed you. Each time I was doing something I didn't want to do, like hosting a big, out of control birthday party with 10, 10 & 11 year old squealing girls, my mind would go to it's happy place & I would think about blogging & you blogging. 'I wonder what my blogging friends are blogging about right now', crossed my mind more than once. So here's a recap of what kept me from my computer last week:
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1. Monday @ midnight (technically it's really Tuesday morn but who cares, I was tired) making these napkin rings:

We'll come back to this on Saturday.

2.Tuesday morning. Getting children ready.

Hey Hoodee & Sidysue, where are you going today?

It's your 1st day of Preschool! Hallelujah!!!


3. Tuesday night (after mutual). Staying up late again...

making these for Lundles school class on Wed.:

Sweet Sushi anyone?

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4. Wednesday. Making this:

And this: (the b-day dinner, chicken pillows & chips)

So the b-day girl will do this:

Happy Birthday Lundles.......again.

*

5. Thursday. Neighbor calls & invites us over.....making children happy. Run children, Run!

because they get to do this:

Thank you Janice!

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6. Friday: Clean, clean, clean. Hanging these up:

Setting this:

So the dining room will look like this:

For the friend party, which ended up like this:

Trust me, they were not as sweet & quiet as they look in this picture. WHERE'S A VALIUM?!

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7: Saturday. Remember the napkin rings? They were for this:

The Pink Tea in Pocatello. It's a fundraiser to raise money for women to get mammograms. It's a breast cancer awareness thing. My friend Jaeme asked me to help her set a table for it. Here's her beautiful centerpiece & our table:

So that was my week & I reserve all the bragging rights to which I am entitled (even though I really hate that word, because that mindset is what's wrong with society today......sorry, tangent). I normally don't do really neat, creative & lovely things like these so I'm showing the world.

Tag, you're IT!

Okay, so yesterday I was telling my husband about how my days are going so much better since I've set the goal not to get on the computer during the daytime. They really have been better, I've been more productive, more patient with my kidlets, I have even provided dinner ev-er-y-day this week - not necessarily good ones, but something edible has been on the table.....before bedtime. (Except Sunday, which doesn't count because that's MY day of rest and so if people are bold enough to get hungry they can make it themselves - I don't care if you're 4 years old, it's time to learn some self-reliance.) He was so happy to hear my goal and I was totally pumped.

So anyways, about a 1/2 hour ago, I got off the phone with my girlfriend Becky, & I was telling her about this whole new, wonderful world of blogging and I got way nostalgic, totally missed my blog and then I wondered what was going on with each of you. So I decided that 4 days was a really good accomplishment and I'll try again next week. It's 3:00 right now and my two oldest chillens got home from school about 10 mins ago and I'm right here, right where I'm supposed to be, it feels like home - posting. (I have no idea where anyone else is, since the four of them saw me on the computer the house got eerily quiet.)

(*It's 7:00 now. I was only on for about 20 mins earlier when being the "responsible mother" got the better of me as my 2nd grader came in begging me to help him with his homework.......whatever. Some kids have no boundaries. And then I decided I probably should keep my daughter's Dr. appt. & since I was up I thought I might as well make dinner. But, I'm back)

What I'm getting at is that I was tagged, so really that makes breaking my goal the right thing to do. I've seen this happen a couple of times on a few of my friends blogs, before I ever had one, and I wondered what it was all about. I thought about what the rules of this game are: Who can you tag - anyone? What happens if you never respond to the tag, are you put on some kind of a blogging blacklist? And worse, what if you never get tagged? Are you like the kid who never gets picked for the team at recess? It really started to worry me. I wondered what I would do or say if I ever got tagged, but what would I do or say if I never got tagged? And then it happened, I was tagged last week and I'm finally responding, I believe I am still within my statute of limitations to reply.

My cute neice-in-law, tagged me about 6 quirks I have. I had to think long and hard about that one because I've never really thought of myself as a quirky person. 5 minutes later I came up with my list and then realized I had to narrow it down. Here's what I came up with:

1. Making goals that last 4 days & calling that an accomplishment.

2. I hate almost all condiments. Ketchup, mustard, mayo, salad dressing (except Italian), relish, anything along those lines - Blech! And no, it's not because I'm trying to be healthy or lose weight or anything admirable like that (I make up the calories I would have had in Symphony bars. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about). I'm just dang picky, I get it from my dad. Basically all I like, as far as that goes, is butter - not real butter, but the stuff that tastes really good - Country Crock, Salsa - yum, & Italian dressing.

3. I am terrible at recording on the camcorder. Manuel recently bought a new camera with a "special" button on it for "special" people like me who are 'recording challenged'. It's called an anti-shake button or something like that, and he "lovingly" continues to remind me to turn it on next time I record.

4. I am grossed out and weirdly drawn to freaky swarms of bugs. About this time each year we get these hornets nests on our shed and I know I should spray them as soon as I see them (I eventually get it done) because we have small children &it's not safe & blah..blah...blah...but I can't stop looking at them or taking pictures like these:

A couple of years ago we had this ginormous ant hill under our big pine trees, that I eventually had exterminated, which I'm still trying to get over, but the ants were so big and there were so many that you could hear them walking around on their hill when you were standing a couple of feet away. It was my kids science lesson all summer. Ewwww, huh?! I liked it.

5. I time everything on my stop watch. I love my watch. And I mean everything. Like, sacrament talks, testimonies, how long it takes me to write a post, how long it takes to gas up the car, exactly how long it takes me to drive from my house to my parents house in Utah, even how long it takes to go #1 on the potty. Have you ever timed that? 45 seconds really is a long time.

6. But I think my quirkiest thing is that I am obsessed with picking my husband's dry head. I am so lucky to have married a man with a super dry flaky scalp. I love it. It is my favorite pastime in the evenings after the kids are in bed. I could sit and pick his scalp all night if he would let me. This is pretty much what he thinks of it:

Okay, now I tag you: Sarah, Erin, Vanae, Mandy, Katie E., Katie U., Keri & Heather & really anyone who wants to respond to this tag because this is the all-inclusive team!