Balancing Act

I've been nominated by Burp Cloth Babe for an award. Thanks! Fly over and check out her answers too if you get a chance. Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others!

1. Where is your cell phone? Table

2. Where is your significant other? Work

3. Your hair color? Graying

4. Your mother? Perfect

5. Your father? Genius

6. Your favorite thing? Life

7. Your dream last night? Forgettable

8. Your dream/goal? Survival ["I'm tired of following my dreams. I'm just gonna ask where they're going and meet up later." ~ Mitch Hedberg]

9. The room you're in? Playroom [Not much playing going on here anymore, since this room has become more of a storage room.]

10. Your hobby? Laundry [Four kids--it's all I do.]

11. Your fear? Spiders [Thanks to the old movie, "The Fly," I saw on TV when I was 10 years old. . . "Help me, help me."]

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home [It's where the heart is. But not in the laundry room. ]

13. Where were you last night? Home [So, I'm boring.]

14. What you're not? Organized

15. One of your wish-list items? Closets [See answer to #9. It's like they say: "One can never be too thin, or have too many closets."]

16. Where you grew up? Anytown, USA [A wonderful, idyllic blend of Our Gang, Leave it to Beaver, Peanuts, and Little House on the Prairie.]

17. The last thing you did? Painted

18. What are you wearing? Sweats

19. Your TV? Off [I'm tired of politics. My suggestion, and perhaps there is a growing consensus for this: hold elections "Survival"-style, where each week one contestant-candidate is voted off the island until the season finale. Or make them all eat bugs and swim in muck like "Fear Factor." I think it might work.]

20. Your pet? Friendly [And, no, he's not. You can read about his antics here, here, here, and here.]

21. Your computer? Failing. [It's making weird groaning and creaking noises lately, and sometimes behaves badly.]

22. Your mood? Rebellious [I guess you can see that I haven't limited all my answers to one word. So sue me. :)

23. Missing someone? Nope [I'm pretty sure everyone's accounted for.]

24. Your car? Minivan [The day I became officially middle-aged.]

25. Something you're not wearing? Glasses [Not because I don't need them. But I already suffer the humiliation of driving a minivan.]

26. Favorite store? Thrift [But as a germ-a-phobe, I have to wash my hands immediately afterward, and sterilize the things I buy.]

27. Your summer? Short

28. Love someone? Children

29. Your favorite color? All

30. When is the last time you laughed? Today [My daughter sends the funniest text messages.]

31. Last time you cried? Unsure. [My other daughter says, "I'm not crying, I'm just vomiting from my eyes."]

And while we're at it, I was also nominated by Alias Liz Jones for an award. You may also know her as Liz Jones. She has such a wonderful sense of humor if you haven't had a chance to visit her. I also was nominated by Julie to write 6 random things about myself. See the above list. She's got a great blog too, btw. And I was nominated about a million years ago by Sam at Gollywobbles for an award that I'm just now getting around to mentioning. Thanks! If you like all things prim, go on over and check out her lovely creations. And a million and half years ago, I was tagged by Ginger to list 6 random things about myself. Again, I think the above list should fill the bill. And a billion years ago, Jann nominated me for an award. She has such a wonderful blog, filled with old movie clips and beautiful pics too.

Now I have to pick 7 or 14 or 21 or a million others to play. That's just too many, so I'll just nominate a few because that's the way I roll. Suzanne, Michelle, and Jann. Have fun!

Reality Check

We are barely back into the school routine, and my youngest is already looking forward to summer. She and school have a very tenuous relationship, and it's been this way since the very beginning. It had me thinking and remembering, so as part of my regularly random series "Blasts From the Past," here's how it all began about nine years ago.

As the baby of the family, Number Four has always tagged along after her older siblings, trying to keep up, afraid that she might miss something. She's always been ready to be on to the "next thing." She couldn't wait to be born, couldn't wait to walk, and absolutely couldn't wait to go to that magical, mysterious place which her siblings called, "School." At school were wonderful, delightful things called single file, and teachers, and lunchrooms, and line leaders, and recess, and quiet chairs, and principals. Life would be good if only she could be a part of this special club called "School."

So, when Little One turned 4, I enrolled her in a half-day preschool, and she was so excited she could barely contain herself. Finally her day had arrived. Finally she was a big girl. Finally she was part of the club. Off she went without hesitation on that first day, to join the ranks of all the other lucky ducks who were part of this elite club. In anticipation of all the wonders that awaited, she skipped innocently and excitedly into the classroom wearing her new little skirt and carrying her new little bookbag. The world was her oyster, she had the tiger by the tail, she was on easy street.

And she lived happily ever after.

Until the second day. When I asked her how she liked going to school, her face scrunched in exasperation as she replied incredulously, "Well. . . I like my teacher okay. . . but we ALWAYS have to do what SHE wants to do. " It's been downhill ever since.

Love This!

It's 16 seconds.

Oh Technology (Revisited)

[We've been dealing with internet woes again, and hopefully it is resolved. Hopefully. The following was posted about a year ago. Sorry for the rerun, but it fits and besides, I was a "virtual" unknown anyway. ~cn]

So, technology has finally come through. After years of achingly long wait times with dial-up, we finally were given access to DSL. I think our little family felt like our predecessors when electricity came. Wow--we are finally in the 21st century. Until nature decided to have the upper hand.

It's been over a month since our DSL, unbeknownst to us, was struck by lightning. Apparently, it didn't quite completely fry the cable, but just singed it enough to make us all slightly crazy. There was no rhyme nor reason to our internet connection. I'd be working on something online, just about ready to send my attachments along their merry little virtual way, when, as if some devious little gremlin flipped a switch, the connection would go down. After weeks of threatening, cajoling, and coaxing I'd had enough. Deadlines were fast approaching, so the phone tech was summoned, and I awaited anxiously for the ominous diagnosis. As it turned out, it was not a fatal wound, but open-cable surgery was required. Five hours and a trenched yard and driveway later, the ailing internet line was pronounced healed. I quickly sent out my images (and barely met my deadlines), and then leisurely caught up on some emails and blog surfing. Life was good again--until the next day. As I was checking emails, suddenly, it was as if the roto-rooter job had never occurred. I tried to convince myself that it would jumpstart soon enough. Finally after another week of dealing with the on-again, off-again misery, Dr. Phone Tech was summoned a second time. After several hours they found the real problem, which had been in the line up the street! And, as of today, it appears finally cured. I hope they took that little gremlin too.

BOO!

Spooky Time Jingles updates tomorrow.

Remembering

What Is This World Coming To?

[Here is another installment of the weird news in our local paper. I think that the headline below says it all. Never mind the loss of the wallet; what kind of society do we live in where even peoples' pants are no longer safe. ~cn]

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Thief snatches wallet, pant leg from victim

A man reportedly lost his wallet and the back of his pant leg on his way back from getting the mail Thursday evening, when a robber charged him and made a grab for his pocket, Athens-Clarke police said. The man said he had just reached the porch of his Clover Street home shortly after 5:45 p.m., when the robber, wearing a bandanna over his face and camouflage pants, ran toward him, police said. The robber knocked him down and tore off the back of his pants while grabbing for his wallet, police said. Officers checked around the man's house for the suspect, and found that someone had knocked down a section of fence in the backyard, according to police.

See the original article here.

Notice Anything Different?

Thanks to Aqua Poppy Designs, I have a new background. Her directions are very simple and it was really easy to do. And for me, easy is good. My brain likes easy. And the best part, it was free! Free and easy--it doesn't get much better, unless,of course, it's made of chocolate.

Spooky Time Jingles

Check out one of my new banners which Annette at Huckleberry Arts did for my page at Spooky Time Jingles. Annette is one talented gal, super-easy to work with, and she's even having a giveaway on her blog.

P.S. My pages for STJ will be up September 13. :)

Here's Looking at You

I hope you all enjoyed a great Labor Day. Ours was very relaxing, which is nice compared to the hectic schedule my crew keeps most of the time. The kids were here for a wonderful, long weekend and we stayed home most of the time, just hanging out and laughing, and laughing, and laughing. I just love those little guys, even if they're all taller than me now. Incidentally, many moons ago, I so wanted to deliver a kid on Labor Day just for the fun of being able to say I had labor on Labor Day; but not even one of the 4 would cooperate, the hard-heads.



At least I have some control over the "delivery" of my newest labors of love. These are two of the things I've been busy with over the past few weeks. You can see more over at Glitter and Grunge. Also I have a few new things listed at The Primitive Gathering for the month of September. And stay tuned for some exciting news coming soon, and a giveaway. Will keep you posted.

P.S. Thoughts and prayers for the people affected by Gustav, Hannah, et al.