Never Stop Growing

Two posts for you, see the teenager one below.


"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, good morning... Now go away, because I need to watch Fishy movie (Nemo) for the zillionth time." While the tv is off most of the day, Connor needs a little help to ease into his morning. Because, you just shouldn't feed coffee to a two-year-old. They don't need that kind of help, and you don't need that kind of stress.

I can't wait until somebody wakes up with a monster bead-head, so I can post it here on my blog for everyone's enjoyment. But, to avoid having to pay for future therapy, I will get their approval first. Especially if it's my teenager, who can be mortified by practically anything.

Okay, I may not blog very much over the next four or five days because I have got to get my eBay sale ready (see Sunday's post#1 "Donations Welcome"), and I am wasting too much time messing around on the computer. So, you guys should be able to catch up on my excessive wordiness, and shower me with comments. I'm not not needy or anything. I'm cool. It's all good. Breathe. But I just wanted to write down a thought I had as I was reading a few pages in Rose Daughter, a beauty and the beast tale with lots of gardening, before going to bed last night.

Sometimes we resent that our Heavenly Father expects so much out of us. While we know that the atonement of Christ covers our failings, we know that we're still expected to do what we can do, to be willing to change. And here's my thought, "Sunlight shines from the top down, not from the bottom up." Would we ever grow if we didn't reach for the sky? Heavenly Father does not want us to stay small on the ground. He knows we can be so much more, that there is this huge growth that we are capable of if we will reach towards Him. The sun can seem so far off and above us, but that's good, because if He let us be content to stay where we are, we would always be too small.

Why Everyone Needs a Teenager

I love the lists. Here's a great one, which will probably show up, in some form, in more blogs down the road:

Why Everyone Needs a Teenager
(or a Drama-Queen Teenage-Wannabee)

1. Because you need help "keepin' it real." (i.e. "Wow, your butt is big!" "Mom you cannot wear that in public." "When are you going to get a new car, because this one sucks." But, son, it's paid for!)
2. You might get mugged if you keep very much cash in your wallet. Teenagers can help you with that, trust me. See #8
3. Because you can't possibly keep that car dent-free forever. It's just not done. You gotta break it in sometime.
4. Laughter keeps you sane. It's a defense mechanism. And you will get plenty of practice, or your head will explode.
5. You need to lose that fake nostalgia for childhood. Share your teenager's issues with self-esteem and identity (everybody hates me, I'm so ugly, etc.) and you will be glad, once again, that you are an adult now. Oh... well some of that carries into adulthood, but it's not as bad, right?
6. Heaven knows, there's just not enough whining in the universe. See #10 'Nuff said.
7. You have too much time on your hands. Get a teenager, or any child for that matter, and you too can fill your datebook or pda with endless errands to the mall, grocery store, movie theater, dentist, athletic event, etc.
8. You can do your patriotic duty by contributing more to the national economy. i.e. constant trips to the grocery store for ravenous appetites, to the mall for clothes, treats after the game, etc. See #2
9. You have too much hair. This way, you can slowly lose it from long-term exposure to stress, or spontaneously pull it out in mini-marathon sessions of eye-bugging stress. Same goes for graying hair.
10. Everyone needs to keep their sharp sense of sarcasm finely honed and ready to go at a moment's notice. "Excuse me while I roll my eyes right out of my head." "Son, thanks for keeping it extra fresh in here (two words: gaseous emissions.)" "Bored, you say? Go beat your head against the wall until you pass out. It will make us both happy." I've actually said these, and there's a million more where those came from. I'm a good parent, really!

Okay, I really do love Gil and Dani, and we have fun most of the time. See #1, 4, & 10. There are wonderful things about them, and maybe I will help them post a rebuttal list here. soon;) And I guess when it's not so fun having a teenager (or teenage wannabee), I can save it for my blog. Muahahahahaha!!!

A Little Breakfast Humor

Artery-clogging Goodness - Well, I finally lost two more pounds, so I thought I'd celebrate yesterday morning with a little bacon. I only had three pieces, I swear! Aaaaahhh...

Line upon line, precept upon precept

Sunday post #2 - see the other one below

Don't anybody die of shock or anything, but I was on time for church today. Now, they started the announcements as I was going to sit down, but my foot had stepped over the threshhold before the first words were spoken from the pulpit, so it counts! It was an accomplishment today. Just celebrating the little things, you know.

Which sort of brings me around a more serious topic (stick with me here, you'll get it.) I've had a hard struggle over the past two years with my spirituality and general self-esteem. I've made some major mistakes, a lot of which were financial, but some were personal issues too, and while that may not seem really bad to some people, for me it's been hard to stop kicking myself on a daily, if not hourly, basis. I mean, I was probably clinically depressed for a long time. I had days where if I kept the kids safe and fed them, that was all I could accomplish. Forget a clean house, forget quality time with the kids, forget spiritual progress, forget any other useful activity at all, I mean I just sort of floated through the days, doing as little as possible, just sort of existing. I know my sister would tell me to get some decent meds, and heaven knows they would have made a difference, but I am nothing if not stubborn, stubborn, stubborn, and I just wanted to hide away, and lick my wounds in private. For some really sad reason, I needed my grief. Still do, I think. It's like I need it sometimes so I can remember who I am, what things I've learned, to keep me grounded, because I never, never, never want to be that kind of stupid again, period.

And something about me has changed, too. It's been changing since I got married and had kids, and realized that this really spectacular, wonderfully good life I thought being married and having kids was going to give me, never materialized, at least not in the way that my twenty-year-old self understood it. I woke up to the reality of work and sacrifice, where I could see that I'm not all that fantastic of a person right now. I'm so far off from my ideal, you just don't know. Now, I know I don't want to be all down on myself, but I'm just tired of dragging around this baggage of "I'm not perfect, I'm not worthy." And I think what the last two years have done to me, is kind of broken my inner self down to the basics, and made room to start over fresh, to do things one at a time, line upon line, precept upon precept, to help me be in a place that is teachable. I think I just want to quit worrying about being perfect at everything right now, and take what's good and add a little at a time. I hope that I get the space and time to get it together, that if I can just keep this forward-reaching attitude, I can slowly over the years to come, become this person that I see inside, that will be the tool that Heavenly Father wants me to be, to help build His kingdom and be of service to other people.

And I think that's what I want my overall attitude to be right now: how can I be of service to other people, to help lift them up? Because I just don't want to worry about how good I am right now. I don't want to block myself off from internalizing the principles of the gospel, and deliberately shut myself off from the Spirit, but I just can't do everything all at once. It's like prayer: I have a hard time working out my issues in prayer, praying that I can be good, when I know there's so much I'm not doing right, and just not ready for. But maybe I can say a few words of gratitude for the things I'm thankful for, and pray for the welfare of other people if I can't pray for myself. I hope I can get to the point where I can read my scriptures daily, because for a long time, I've just felt like, "I am so messed up, I just can't handle the my sense of unworthiness when I think about reading them." You can't help but compare yourself and your attitudes to the prophets there, and think that you've fallen so short. But I pray that enough time passes that the wheels in my head will at least roll in a forward motion, and some day there will be space in my heart to do the things I should do, and be glad. That's why I'm making a renewed effort to connect with other people, because I've been hiding out in my cave for a long time, and I think I can let go of stuff a lot easier if I just hit the reset button more often, which is what can happen when you interact with other people. Plus, it's good to step outside of myself and see what's going on with other people, and maybe with service, I can forget my own issues from time to time, which is a good thing.

P.S. I hope I wasn't too depressing here, and I really, really do love my family. They have changed me, and left that twenty-year-old in the dust, and that's a good thing. I definitely don't want to criticize any moms out there who work and have kids, heaven knows I've not been a 100% stay-at-home mom myself, but I made a conscious decision in college to pick a family over a career, and while it's revealed my stupidity and weaknesses in more ways than I care to count, it was the right thing and the best thing for me to do. I'll never regret it.

Donations Welcome!

I'm sitting here at the computer first thing in the morning, and I'm already having to beat people off with a stick. I have two children (think teenagers) and one husband who want the computer NOW! I'm thinking, "Go away, I'm having a therapy session. It is in your best interest to leave me alone!" Instead I tell them I'm doing blogging and checkbook balancing (this is so I can pay my tithing, so it's okay to do it on Sunday, right?), which is true, but it's the blogging that's really going to take a long time.

Everyone has financial goals. Let me just skip all the boring responsible stuff, and get right down to the fun stuff. I desperately want need a laptop computer and a new camera. Why, you ask? Okay, I have this fantasy where I'm sitting in my craftroom (don't hate me because I have a craftroom, just follow along here), and blogging away furiously on my new laptop computer, surrounded by fabulous pictures taken with my new digital SLR camera (my current digital camera is soooo slooowwww! Drives me nuts!!!) Oh, and can I throw in a high-tech scanner, so I can digitize all my old photo negatives? I figure all this will be around $two $grand, give or take a few hundred, so start sending in your donations care of... after all, what's a few grand between friends?

Seriously, though, what I am going to do about this fantasy is auction off most of the junk beloved craft supplies in my craftroom. I know it probably won't earn me that much dough, but at least that way, my craftroom will be ready to receive said laptop (okay, I know it's a fantasy) and clearing things out will help me get back into the handmade-cards hobby I have loved so much (and, by the way, benefits my extended family also, wink, wink.) I plan to list said eBay auction next Saturday, September 29th and run it for a week, so everybody nag me this week, so I will get it done. Okay? I'll post a link to it here when I've got it listed. And, if you really feel benevolent, you can email your scrapbooking friends, and give them the link when it's up and running. You're the best! Hugs and kisses! Love ya! (yes, this is all shameless flattery, but not entirely untrue ;)

So That's Why the Weeds Are So Big!

Connor & Blayson (daycare friend)
Boy, those water sprayers sure do get around! No wonder the weeds in the back yard are so huge. If a green thumb represents expert gardening skills, what color would your thumb be if you are good at growing monster weeds out in your backyard? Or, in other words, what is the color of laziness and apathy?

Just Say No . . . to Gaseous Emissions

Okay, I think I may already need an intervention. Help! I've been following around a trail of blogs off and on all day, and I see no end in sight. Here are some of the blogs I've found so far:
* Hobo Teacher An amusing/bitterly-sarcastic look at teaching high school students. Made me tear up in laughter! Been reading this one too much today.
* Hobo Teacher - The Farter post (Sue this post is for you!)
* Tartelette - a dessert foodie blog. The pictures are rich, and the food sounds great, but I don't know if I'm this sophisticated yet. Lora, I bet you would love this one, and we all expect great things from you at the next gathering! Although, because these are treats, Sue could give you a good run for your money! A few suggestions, Baked Doughnuts, Marbled Ricotta Cheesecake Brownies, or Vanilla Cream Cheese Cupcake Cones
* print & pattern - a great graphic design site. I didn't follow any of her links, but I would really, really like to soon ... sigh.

Now that I read this, it seems like a pathetically short blog list. But I spent hours here, and I still had more to read. Can I get paid to read blogs? Seriously, I know there are people out there who do exactly that. But, Connor has been spraying me off and on all day with his cute little water sprayer (he's the true water master, not Gil), and I'm afraid reading and writing blogs all day may not be a child-friendly occupation. But I can fantasize, can't I?

I Feel Like a Genius Today

The other day Dani popped the glass door out of our new, spiffy entertainment center. I looked at it, and could not figure out how it happened in the first place. It seemed impossible to get the door back in the notches of the wood frame. I set it aside, thinking I'd let my resident engineer look at it when he gets back in town Friday. Well, I finally figured it out today (had a little epiphany), and I felt somewhat proud of myself for fixing the cabinet. That reminds me of another incident a few days ago.

My Blond Moment - Gil and I were sitting in the car the other day at Wal-Mart, and I was staring at the dashboard in a kind of resigned stupor, thinking, "This cannot be happening!" Why, you ask? Because I couldn't get the car started. The electrical system seemed to be okay, but the engine just wouldn't turn over, at all. Is is the starter? Gil says, "Mom, call a tow truck." I'm thinking, "Should I call a friend? Should we just walk home? After all, the exercise would do me some good." But, as I sit there, I'm really dizzily horrified that we have another repair to deal with. Last month was about two grand in various repairs (fix car, fried computer, oven lighter switch), so I wasn't processing this new problem very well. After a lot of pestering from Gil to call a tow truck, I said, "Give me a minute. I'm in shock here." I pay my tithing, and I haven't blown up a post office recently, so why is this happening to me? I know I'm not perfect, but give me a break already, didn't I suffer enough last month? After another minute or two of unnecessary internal drama, that's when I notice that the auto-transmission is set on reverse, not park. That's why it wouldn't start. Am I a genius, or what? Gil says, "It's a good thing you didn't call anybody. This is really embarrassing." But hey, but now that I've written it all down for the world to read, I feel so much better! And my teenager's embarrassment with his mother can live on, and on, and on . . .

Mystical Wisdom

I said to Connor tonight, "Connor, get your feet out of the dough!" Good thing I baked the pizza before we ate it.

I showed him the autumn moon tonight, and he kept pointing at it, saying, "Moon, babies." What? So, he ran to his room, and I showed him the baby dolls in the stuffed animal box, and he took all of them, and went back outside to the moon, and said, "Moon, babies." Me-"Are you showing the babies to the moon? Are there babies in the moon?" Connor-"Moon, babies." What does it mean? Hhhmmm .... mystical wisdom from my two-year-old, or maybe a book I've read to him? I just put it here, so I could remember later the sometimes inscrutable things kids say.

Potty training not going so well today. He's still willing to sit on the potty, but then he always goes in his pants ten minutes after we've made an attempt in the bathroom. And forget the pooping. Maybe I should try some kind of cloth diaper/cloth underwear for a while? He's still on the young side of things. I don't know, I'll mull it over a few more days. All I know is, he's willing to sit on the potty and take off his own pants, so that seems worth keeping. So, we'll put diapers back on for now, and keep taking potty breaks.

Randomly Odd Bits - Identify "Mumbler!" Hint - I think Johnny Depp is a comic genius in this movie, and so does Connor!

Update: - Well, nobody's paying attention out there, so here's the answer: It's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! It's definitely a darker film than the first one, that's Tim Burton for you, but I think it's totally hilarious, gets funnier everytime I see it!

Skating Hippo Takes the Plunge

Okay, I was really going to go to bed early, then I thought, "I'm just going to get caught up on everyone else's blog, then I'm going to bed. Hah! This blogging thing is really addicting! After I've been doing this a while, I'm going to write a funny little Top Ten list about blogging. I think I've managed to comment on everyone's blog, even if you haven't posted in a while (what are you up to Liz, anyway?) Everybody check out that chick's blog that Sue mentioned in her blog dated Sept. 12 "Mischief Managed." Funny stuff! And she's got some kind of contest going for her friend's book about supper swapping. It's too bad I don't live near you guys, or we could all do some kind of freezer meal swap. Does anybody want to do some other kind of non-perishable crafty kind of swap, maybe at granddad's b-day party in November. Any ideas (I could bring handmade cards or something.....hhhhmmm.)

Well, I took the plunge today and started Connor on potty training. He's been giving me so many clues lately that he's ready, even though he's just barely two. Mostly it's this independent kick he's on, where he has to do everything himself. This has some payoffs, because I can get him to do things now that he wouldn't before just by saying, "Are you going to do it, or is Mommy going to do it?" This is especially handy when we get out of the car from running errands, and I want him to go in the house instead of running off down the street. I threaten to carry him in the house if he doesn't get in there by himself, and sure enough, he'll go. He started taking his diapers off all the time, and wanting to help me change his dirty diapers, so I thought, "Well, I better take advantage of this." I used up the last diaper in the house this morning, then started taking him to the bathroom and sitting him on the potty. When he was done, he got to flush by himself, and wash his hands by himself. Of course, he wore Pull-Ups training pants in between trips to the bathroom. I'm not totally crazy! But he did really good today. He made it to the bathroom about 60-70% of the time. Here he is in this picture, crashed on the floor, wearing only his training pants and his favorite shoes. Oh, and a half-mauled Dum-Dum sucker is on the floor beside him. That was part of the reward system I had going, too: Go pee and get a treat. We've got a ways to go on the pooping thing, but that's par for the course.

Also, Fall is back!!!! I wish I was there in Utah to see all the leaves turn color ..... sighhh. But now that the weather has turned colder here, the ice rink has opened up! Dani and I are so excited. As some of you may know, Dani and I started taking skating lessons last fall/winter, and I got proficient enough to go around the rink without clinging to the wall, and I could also coast on one foot and skate backwards by the end of the season. It doesn't sould like much, I know, but I was totally proud of myself. Anyway, yesterday was the first day that the rink was open, and Dani and I went for a spin. I was afraid I'd be almost back to square one, because I'd assumed my ankles would be weak after not having skated for five months. But I was pleasantly surprised! It was like I'd just left the rink the day before. I guess all my exercising has paid off, because my ankles were super strong on the ice last night. Yippee!!!! Regular exercising hasn't really resulted in big weight loss for me this summer, and I still look like a hippo, but now I'm a skating hippo!!

Randomly Odd Bits - more trivia. Guess this one (it's one of Connor's favorite funny lines for some reason, but he's too little to get the joke, right?): submarine blows up, sends a big bubble to the top, and one stork(?) sarcastically says to another, "Nice", then flies away in disgust. What's the movie?

Cheap Entertainment

The human male is easily entertained. Case in point: I just bought cheap little $1.00 water bottle sprayers from Wal-Mart to make bleach cleaners, and Gilean, who's the I'm-so-mature-and-everyone-else-is-a-moron age of 13, thought he'd discovered the coolest thing of the century. While spraying water in a hard stream off the deck, shooting long squirts into the sink and evaporative cooler, and running a quick sneak attack on his sister in her bed were all entertaining, the coolest thing was to spray it directly up his nose. His immediate response was a slow and groovy, "Duuuuuuude!" followed by a gleeful, "Dude! I can't believe this is only a buck, sweeeeet!" Now he's in bed, spraying it out the window, trying in vain to hit the next door neighbor's dogs. Has he never seen a water sprayer before? Will there have to be some kind of intervention down the road? Only time will tell. Right now, I'm trying not to roll my eyes right out of my head.

Now that we're done mocking the teenagers, here's my little cutie-pie with his new red Lightning McQueen slippers, rarin' to go first thing in the morning with his beloved strawberry syrup. We are all about the Cars movie and strawberry milk. We did make it to church yesterday. Fortunately, it was stake conference, so we sat in one of the overflows without making too much of a spectacle of ourselves. And besides, Zen wasn't there to make me put church shoes on him, so he had a grand time hopping around, oblivious to his slightly irreverent and inappropriate church attire. And here's Connor again, showing some of the fashionable places you can wear red slippers:
Gilean was so horrified with this pic, he refused to let me post it without fuzzing-out Connor's rear end in the pic. Party pooper! We may start the potty training thing pretty quick here. But that's a topic for another blog. Connor's favorite phrase is, "I do it!" Meaning, he has to do everything himself. It's very hard for me to let him do things himself, especially when it
means it will take five times as long to get something done, or worse, it will make a big mess. But, I know it's good for his growing independence, so I grit my teeth and let him do it.

Here's my Connor helper who's eating as much as he is cooking. Hmm......I think I know someone else who does that. Oh well, cook's privilege!





Randomly Odd Bits: Quiz answer - "Why couldn't I be attacked by crazed supermodels?" comes from the Disney show Kim Possible, where the goofy sidekick Ron is being attacked by ninja monkeys, and this is his lament. Really obscure, I know, so I'll have to come up with an easier quiz next time!

Can I go to bed now?

4 am and all I've managed to do is read some blogs and attach a picture to my own blog. I knew it would be like this. Sigh.... Do I have to go to church today with my 2-year-old and squabbling teen/pre-teens after only four hours of sleep? I better, or else they'll rat me out to their father, who is out of town today.

Randomly Odd Bits: put a caption on this photo of Gil at Lagoon




Okay, here are a few suggestions:
"I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"
"No, please, no more roller coasters!"

Holy Monkeys!

Okay, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I've been threatening (mostly inside my own mind, and occasionally to Sue) to write my own blog, and now I've done it. No frills (for now), although I can just see myself spending 20 hours perfecting the look of my blog, no 30, no 40, no ..... well, you get the idea. I've been writing silly little ideas for blog posts on a scrap piece of paper stuck inside the drawer of my computer desk, and after reading the family blogs, and associated blogs, for the zillionth time, I finally decided I better just give up and write mine. My worst offense will be my overwhelming wordiness and I will be grateful if anyone can suffer through it for very long.

My first topic: substitute swear words. Everybody has them, and you know your own favorites. Well, mine is "Holy Monkeys!" and you CAN'T have it! I've spent months rolling this phrase around in my head and out of my mouth, trying out various permutations: "freakin' monkeys!", "stupid monkeys!", just "monkeys!", and "Holy Monkeys!" has stuck the best. Monkeys are totally adorable as stuffed animals, but in reality their hygiene leaves something to be desired. Thus, it is a sneaky little swear word. While we all know it would be best not to swear at all, I feel I can use this phrase without restraint, and not be afraid of horribly embarrassing myself with something far worse in a moment of crisis. Also, my 2-year-old can repeat what I say, and I don't have to wear my "I'm a horrible mother" sign as a penance. Of course, my 13-year-old son thinks I'm totally a dork when I say this, but can you really please 13-year-olds anyway?

Randomly Odd Bits:
I dare you to identify this phrase: "Why couldn't I be attacked by crazed supermodels?" Hint: this comes out of the mouth of a teenage boy

Widget Archive

4/19/09 - 20 Sep (prob 08) - "Discover the Spirit" it says at the top. I'll say! I just about died laughing when I saw this license plate in the Wal-Mart parking lot on the way back to my car. I kept thinking, "Don't move, don't move!" as I loaded the bags in my car. Yes! It was still there! After taking the pic, I giggled all the way home.

3/6/08 - Wish I could provide the videos, but my two fav commericals this week are:
1. Some kind of toasty, crunchy, healthy breakfast cereal is brought to a man sleeping in bed, and has been carried to him on a tray by none other than his faithful dog. After eating said cereal and going out for the day, the man happily goes hiking down a beautiful forest trail. Just when you think his lovely dog is going to come bounding around the corner after him, the camera cuts to a close-up shot of the dog in bed, snoring away in a pristine cocoon of white linen. You dog lovers gotta love that one, because it even made me laugh, well after the commerical faded away. You go, Sly! Way to steal the covers!
2. Mt. Dew Yo-Yo commercial. My fav part is where the young hoodlum, after trying to hold up a local convenience store, gets into a yo-yo battle with the clerk. "We're tangled, we're tangled, we're tangled!" Classic material, people. Makes me laugh every time.

2-28-08 Yeah, I've decided I need to archive a lot of my widgets, but I don't want to lose them entirely, so I'm going to stick them here, at the very beginning of my blog, where they are out of the way, but still preserved:

Big Momma in the Snow - Hideous, I know, but I like it anyway! Little miss fat and sassy! But it's the "acceptable" fat!
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiN2ceTciY_Z0yrrlFUbjYi_xYMS8R0nAvLi7I2wnXpaKDSHUe4DS-a5MKHbLzwfQ5zBBFt-wyGHQjGcgFy44DSU8C4X1at21_G9uF_plxQipg1JVsqQQz5uvFogayx1xXrGyd36AQThwa/s228/becky-winterpregnant-1jan08.jpg

Adorable Me - A new outfit and a new "do" can do wonders for a girl! Bring on the headbands!
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4WqmqOENcZq2DDcC-wiaU9pTor3ByPxL4AD_RDAFbhMqse03IB2bSTXgE5pzgY1gIadeQKxYo_Tieef1dMvbT9t6pSUYsKRcBRI0FX3A92SMQRCCvD0x0CVlyBfPMUA-ooGvuN2U-_BxF/s1600/cutie-sassy-me-27oct07.jpg

Fave Motivational Quote
I stole this from Katy's blog:

"It's too big a world to be in competition with everyone. The only person who I have to be better than is myself." Colonol Potter-MASH

New Fave Workout Song
I'll Make a Man Out of You - Mulan Soundtrack

Favorite Animated Series
Avatar
Don't mock me, it's the kids' fault. But, seriously, this is a GREAT series. Very detailed, excellent characters, great role-modeling (friendship, loyalty, sacrifice, perseverance, etc.), excellent artwork, interesting fictional portrayal of Asian culture, and plenty of humor. It would be hard to start in the middle, with the long, complicated plot, but if you can check out the first "Book" from the library, I think you won't be disappointed.

Songs That Make Me Cry or Give Me Chills
Tiny Hands - Kenneth Cope
God's Will - Martina McBride
Deliver Us - Prince of Egypt Soundrack

Today's (or this week's) Link
Feel kind of clueless about all those "cool" abbreviations people use online? Here's a list to explain most of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chat_Lingo Just scroll down, and you'll get to the list. TTYL

The High Cost of Living
Do you know that my monthly Wal-Mart receipts total about as much as my mortgage payment? That's the price of living in a small town, with very little shopping options. I can drop $100 at Wal-Mart, and the next night, have no idea what to make for dinner. It's seriously pathetic, or maybe it's just really bad planning.

A New Winter Background
Still tweaking the backgrounds. Hopefully I can improve this one, so my title will have a snowflake background, too. But, at least I can live with this for a while. Again, be sure to check out http://www.matiekay.blogspot.com/ for some more great backgrounds. In the meantime, I'll keep learning! - 27nov07

Like What You See?
Well, I've been wanting to get to this for a long time, so here it is: designing my own blog backgrounds! After being inspired by the
Matie Kay Creations blog that Katy found and posted on her blog over a month ago, I've had the urge to design my own backgrounds. I squeezed in a few minutes here and there all day today designing the leaf backgrounds. I'll keep tweaking this blog design some, as I learn how to mess with the HTML code to get things how I like it. But, I want to hurry and get some kind of snowflake thing going for the Christmas/Winter holiday season, too, so stay tuned! I'm totally willing to share, and plan on putting lots of designs up on my alternative blog,
http://beckyscraftroom.blogspot.com/. I'll keep tweaking that one, too! - 11/20/07

Little Thanksgivings
Double-blessings today. Camera found, crisis averted. And, my scanner isn't dead, just the power adapter. Much cheaper to replace. I am a thankful woman today. Now, I've got to get back to work on clearing the extras out of my craft room...
11/13/07

Attention Magic Genies (and other Interested Parties)
Wanted: one super-awesome camera to replace the one I lost (returning my orginal would also be acceptable). Also, could we do something about the chaos in my craftroom? I give at least 100 hours a week (no lie) to daycare, menial but necessary housework like laundry and dirty bathrooms (blechh!), four meals a day, a little boy who thinks his mother is the ONLY person on the planet worth dealing with, Uncalled-For Girl Drama, a church calling as Cubmaster, and did I mention, I've tried to be less anti-social by blogging my little heart out with my sister-friends? Now, I realize that there are plenty of people who have life harder than I do, and some of them I know pretty well, but could I get an extra burst of energy at the end of the day, so I can enjoy my craftroom again? Thanks so much, I think it may help my sanity! And you know, it will benefit other people, too.
11/12/07

Supermodel in Disguise - Because I am a sexy woman!
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy6D3vqRoZKZmVsny7GGaR9Q2vvRVy0pwzUQDUOQzrHTz_VQ98e41pSqQmLwDgODLZ1tZ83TG3wH62BuvcplDFbfVn6vxcJn1ns-QdtUEYxQgncuaCPgBB6WLWGsBSw_wqqt_7Nq13KurO/s228/mepic-16sep07-blog.jpg