ToT: Abe Lincoln, 4-Way Stops and Violent Hugs

Topic:
For something fun, lets write about the olympics. If you could participate in any olympic event, what would it be, and why? Is there anything that really irks you about the Olympics? Do you watch them, if so why, and if not, then why not? What is your least favorite olympic event and why? If you saw the opening ceremonies what did you think?

Okay.  So...

Umm...geez. 

As it turns out, I don't really have any strong feelings about the Olympics.  I do, however, have my own comments and/or observations about some things that I saw/heard/read/etc.

This will be list form because that is how my brain is working right now.  It is mush.  Planning parties is so great and so irritating at the same time.  Seriously. 

• If I could be an Olympian, I'd probably do something that I could half ass.  Let's be honest here, people.  I can hold my own when it comes to most backyard sports.  Even though I CAN run, I'm slow.  I'm not at ALL graceful like the gymnasts or the divers.  I really hate sand in my undies, so I wouldn't even THINK of volleyball.  And I look like an idiot in a swim cap, so that's out too.  Is darts an Olympic sport?  If not, it should be.  I'll kill you in darts.  Except then the Olympic committee people would have to allow beer drinking because it is a proven fact that people get better at darts and pool when they are drinking.
• You know something that should be an Olympic sport?  THE FRACKIN' FOUR-WAY STOP BY MY HOUSE.  It is NOT rocket science, people.  Yes, there are railroad tracks involved.  Yes, it gets busy sometimes.  But THE GENERAL RULES OF FOUR-WAY STOPS STILL APPLY.  And if you can get through that stop sign without cursing with a copycat 4-year-old in the backseat, getting run off the road, getting cut in line or getting hit by a train, you DESERVE a medal. 
• Chris and I were in the bar at Scotty's the night of the opening ceremonies.  The ENTIRE bar collectively agreed that it was weird.  And around 75% of us agreed that the dudes in the stovepipe hats were really supposed to be 50 Abraham Lincolns.  That being said, we all loved the James Bond scene and it brought us all closer together as a...bar?  Anyhoo, weird.  And that's my final answer.
• I think Ryan Lochte is a douche.  There, I said it.  Yes, he may be hot.  Yes, he may be good at swimming.  Yes, he is worth lots of money.  But he seems to be slightly full of himself (moreso than other humble Olympic athletes) and the fact that he even thought FOR ONE SINGLE SECOND that it was acceptable to receive a medal with a grill in his mouth, American flag or not, proves just a little bit that I am right.  Did you know he has a pair of shoes that were custom made and on the bottom of one, it says Ryan and the bottom of the other says Lochte?  You know why?  So when the bottom of his shoes get wet and then he walks on dry pavement, the ground SAYS HIS DAMN NAME.  Sounds like a good way for stalkers to find you if you ask me.
• People should shut the bleepity bleep up regarding Gabby's hair.  The end.  This is why I don't go near Twitter.  There are a bunch of lunatics and jerks over there.
• The synchronized diving was AMAZING!!!  I totally lost my mind over that.  I did, however, seem to become a legitimate judge after watching about 4 dives.  I yelled at the television.  I told the judges they were wrong.  THAT WAS RIGGED, I screamed.  It's crazy how passionate I was about who was winning.  Seriously.
• At one point in time I saw a clip of the USA women's volleyball duo (go ahead and call me unAmerican for not remembering their names...I have a life, jokers) hugging after they won.  I had just glanced at the screen and I thought women's wrestling was on.  THAT'S HOW VIOLENTLY THEY WERE HUGGING.  I wasn't sure if they won or if they lost and were in a major catfight right there in the sand.

So there y'all go.  Those are my thoughts regarding the 2012 Summer Olympics.  Interesting, huh?

Now use the links to the right and visit our other ToT-ers!!!

ToT: Brain Dump

Topic:Laundry list: list 50 thoughts/observations/tidbits. That is all.

Let's do it to it, shall we?

1. I had a dream last night.  Chris and I broke into a woman's condo when she wasn't home for the sole purpose of gathering and taking out her trash.  When we were almost done, I saw her car pulling in the parking lot, so we hurried and got out of there.  As we were driving the trash to the dumpster, a man approached the car and informed me that he used his phone to make a video of us breaking in.  I asked him if I could see it.  He handed me his phone and I immediately threw it out the window in front of the car and told Chris to run over it.  He did.  And we put the trash in the dumpster and got away scot free.
2. I love planning parties.  I want to do it for a living.
3. I hate planning parties and I never want to have one again.
4. I'm still sort of weirded out about all of Jayna's preschool friends coming to my house for a party.  That's...a LOT of kids.  I sort of hope some bail on us.
5. I wonder if that safety guy from that one place is ever going to contact me back.
6. There is a strange smell in my office.  It's a mix of body odor and cinnamon.  It's not me.  It's not Susi.  So what the HELL is it?!?
7. I cleaned the work bathroom today.  If I could clean my own bathrooms on work's time, I'd do it WAY more often.
8. I have a loose hubcap on my car.  I drove through a parking garage today and it sounded like my car was quite literally going to fall apart into a million little pieces.
9. We don't have any food at our house.  I went to look for what to cook for dinner last night and there was only 5 chicken breasts and 2 pieces of cod in the freezer.  I guess we'll have fish for dinner tonight.  Or we could have the 2 remaining chicken breasts I guess.
10. I should go grocery shopping.
11. I despise grocery shopping on weekdays.
12. My car needs washed, but it is supposed to rain for the next 3 days.  But the real question is...WILL IT ACTUALLY RAIN?
13. My garden sucks.  Please see #12 regarding rain.
14. I don't ever remember a drought this long.
15. I was at the BMV for an hour and 20 minutes this morning.  The BMV is some good people watching.  Seriously.
16. I could reeeeeeeally use some breadsticks from Hot Box.
17. The southside Scotty's is open.  I will be going there very soon.  Like this weekend.
18. Friday is Date Night.
19. I think we'll go to Scotty's for Date Night.
20. Is it illegal or something to birthday shop for your 4-year-old on Date Night?  It probably is in Chris' mind.
21. I sure wish I had more time to learn harmonica.  Maybe I'll take lessons and then I'll be FORCED to play and learn.
22. I think I will rent a RedBox movie for Jayna tonight.  You know, since it's dark and gray and a million degrees outside.
23. I need envelopes for Jayna's birthday invites. 
24. I could use some new clothes.  Is it illegal to go shopping for MYSELF on Date Night?  Hmmm...
25. I miss Morgan.  I sure hope he's having a wonderful time playing with the Maxximoose.
26. I'm sick of politics already and it is still around 4 months until the election.
27. Why can't I finish things?  I am very good at starting things and I have approximately 87 things started.  But none finished.  I'm a horrible person.
28. Jayna named her GloWorm Charles Barkley this morning. 
29. Oh...and she kept calling her GloWorm a SnowGlobe.
30. I am highly confused as to why my child is obsessed with Charles Barkley.  It's a good thing she already chose a Brave birthday party theme.  Otherwise, I may have had to wing it and make Charles Barkley decorations.
31. I would like to go shoot guns again.  I'll have to get with Charlotte when she gets back from Europe.
32. I am slacking at Words with Friends.  I feel it may have run it's course.
33. I finished watching the entire first season of Raising Hope on Netflix.  I'm sad because season 2 isn't there yet.
34. Fifty thoughts is a LOT.
35. I bought a keychain today that is a mustache.  It has a button.  If you push the button, it says, "Well hello there."
36. I really need to know what that B.O./cinnamon smell is.  It's killing me, smalls.
37. I need to change my water filter.  I've had a new one since Saturday.  The light has been red for weeks.  And I still just won't change it.  Laziness at it's best.
38. Chris came back from his out-of-town meetings with Jimmy John's.  And none for me.  Jackass.
39. Please go to Sarah's blog and read about the time she actually had to list her laundry.  That made me laugh out loud after I thought about it. :)
40. Jayna thinks the song is Call Me Baby.  It makes me laugh when she goes around singing it.
41. I pre-ordered the Toadies new CD.  I am a dork.
42. I still have no desire to go see the movie Magic Mike.  Call me odd.  I'm good with it.
43.  My iPhone autocorrected the word "dorkiness" to "dork knees" today.  When I asked Laura what it meant by dork knees, she pointed out that maybe I'm cool, but just my knees are dorky.  Sort of like a bum leg.  And Diet Coke came out of my nose.
44. Jayna has her first dentist appointment on Thursday.  That should be no less that interesting.
45. I think we're having tortillas with ketchup on them for dinner.  I don't want to go to the grocery!!!
46. I think I need wine for Wine Wednesday tomorrow.  To the grocery I go!!
47. My priorities are stellar.
48. I think we need toothpaste.
49. My mom and brother are currently arguing the validity of a hamster as a pet.  They are actually in agreement that it's kind of a lame pet.
50. And last, but not least, I really have to pee.

Now go over to the sidebar and read the other ToT ladies' catch up posts or their laundry lists.  C'mon!!  It'll be fun!!

For Shame!

I know, right?!? 

Two stinkin' months of no posts.  Sorry, y'all...I needed a break.

My plan is to be back on a (atLEAST) once weekly blogging schedule by the beginning of March.  It seems that I have no concept of time management lately and I'm not sure what is going to need to be done to remedy that.  The train VERY APPARENTLY derailed, but I'm not schooled in putting trains back on tracks or whatever, so I'm still doing research on how to do that.

I wanted to do a quick check in to let all of you regulars know that I am indeed alive and well and that I'll make sure you don't miss out on all of the junk that was my holiday season and the things that have come after that.  My life needs rearranging and you all will be a huge part of that also.

Some things that need work:

• I am quitting with crochet until further notice.  I just can't juggle crochet hooks right now.
• I haven't done any form of scrapbooking since sometime in 2010.  That is stupid crazy.  I LOVE that hobby and I am super freakin' sad that I've neglected it for that long.  To deal with this, I've started a system called Project Life.  If you have any interest in preserving memories, but aren't really a scrapbooker, I HIGHLY recommend this system.  All you have to do is buy the parts to the kit, take pictures and get them printed out and stick them in the page protectors.  The page protectors are sectioned off and are designed for 4x6 photos...one a day.  BUT YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO TAKE ONE A DAY.  It is also designed to be done weekly.  You also can buy little cards where you can write small snippets of your week on and then add them to your pages.  I also have added a tag from clothing, a card, an invitation, etc.  Super easy and efficient.  When you are a parent with a job and have lots of other obligations, efficiency is the name of the game.
• I am doing P365+1.  I take (atleast) one photo a day, ordinary or special, with my iPhone and I put it into my Photo 365 app.  This helps me with Project Life.  I certainly need help with my memory and this is the perfect app for that. 
• I installed the Blogger app on my iPhone.  I'll just admit it now:  I DO MORE THINGS ASSOCIATED WITH PICTURES/INTERNET/SOCIAL NETWORKING WITH MY IPHONE THAN I DO WITH A CAMERA AND A COMPUTER COMBINED.  I haven't taken one single picture with my actual camera all year.  I haven't needed to.  My iPhone is right there.  Handy.  Easy.  No fuss.  And I can upload or save my photos to 10 different places via my iPhone.  No uploading photos to a computer, etc.  I LOVE IT.
• If my iPhone dies, I probably will too.  Just a note to myself. :)
• The fact that I do so many things from my phone has inhibited ONE aspect of my life:  Blogging.  I miss blogging, but it's so dang many steps to turn on my home computer, go to my blogger account, type a post, find all my photos and figure out how to get them to the computer I'm working on and then publish and then link to Facebook.  Now that I've figured things out, I can do all this from my phone.  This will result in more but shorter blog posts.  Y'all can live with that, right?
• My good friend MZQ and I are planning to start (very soon, I hope) a weekly topic and linkup situation where we blog about a topic and...get this...LINK up to one another.  If I'm reaching any other bloggers out there, please let me know if you'd like to be a part of this.  We don't have any topics yet, but I'm assuming they'll be across the board topics that range from funny to serious to opinion to stories.  I hope she's thinking the same here. :)

So that's how I'm rollin' this year.  I used to use my blog to preserve my memories.  I am now doing that more privately, but I still want to include you all in that process.  Stay tuned for some ACTUAL blogging. 

Loves to you all. :)

Five For Friday: Random Holiday Things

Hi everybody!!! 

I'm...a lazy procrastinator.

Everytime I say "Hi everybody!", I feel like I just HAVE to follow up with "I'm Dr. Nick."

Hey...I live my life for song lyrics and movie/television quotes.  I don't judge you, so watch it.

Anyhoo, today I went with "lazy procrastinator."  For obvious reasons.  I can't seem to get it together and take pictures and blog and upload to Facebook and such.  Just.  Can't.  Do it.

The one good thing that has come from my absence from the blog world and from photo-taking is that I am dead center of LIVING my life.  I'm here in the present.  I'm doing things with Jayna and with Chris and with my family and loving every minute of it.  It's so great to not feel obligated to stop and get a picture.  It's...liberating.  I think I said that in my last post, but it was so long ago that I can't really remember.

What I DO remember between my last blog post and this one is:

• I still have a love/hate relationship with Christmas music.  There are a few songs that I will always love, but far more that I will ALWAYS cringe upon hearing.  One of those is "I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus" by The Jackson Five.  I am a firm believer that that is one of the songs on the soundtrack in hell.
• We are going strong with our Elf on the Shelf, Finnegan, and Jayna is having a great time with it.  I'll write an entire post about it soon.  She is sort of skeptical about how he moves around and does things.  She said this morning, "Mommy, Finnegan is a toy...how does he move around?"  She's onto me!!!  Deny, deny, deny!!!
• I have stood up to my handmade/small business/homemade Christmas list very well.  Of course, some people you just can't give all handmade things to.  Like a 9-year-old boy.  He needs books and sports things and funny t-shirts.  And like a 3-year-old girl.  She needs princess things and Adele CDs and dresses (that don't cost me an arm and a leg).  I am making many things (baking, crocheting, crafting, etc.) and I've purchased many things from Etsy that are handmade and VERY AWESOME.  I'll have to share said gifts after the holidays.  I've also tried to be very thoughtful in my gifts instead of just buying things to be buying them.  The thing about making things?  I actually have to DO it and stop procrastinating.  It's only 16 days/2 weekends until Christmas.  YES...I DID just do that.
• We've begun tumbling and jazz dancing.  Jayna loves both and she is doing better in these than she did in the previous ballet and tap classes.  I think she's finally just caught on to what a dance routine and rhythm really are.  And tumbling?  She'll do flips and walk on a balance beam anyday!
• Next Friday we're going to The Children's Museum for our annual (okay, it's only the second year, but whatever) Yule Slide/Winter Wonderland visit.  Our friends Laura, Lee, Layla and the new addition, Levi are going with us also.  The girls will have fun again and the adults will like the slide better than the kids...again. :)

I will be posting some photos soon (you know, the few I take with my phone).

Are YOU done with your Christmas list?

Five for Friday: Holiday Thoughts

Man.  Where the hell have I been?!?  What the hell have I been doing?!?  Well, life.  I've been doing life.  And I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I struggle between making sure things are down right PERFECT so they look good in the photos and actually being PRESENT in my life.  I've found that when I'm pushing for things to look a certain way so that I can remember them, I miss things that should absolutely NOT be missed.  And seriously?  The photos are hardly EVER representative of what actually happens.  I'd rather remember things for what they are then for what I WANTED them to be.  I want to be present.  To not miss out on things.  I want to remember because I was there...not because of some photo that was staged.

That, my friends, is one of the main reasons for my absence from blogging.  I try to keep up with the blog.  I try to keep people reading.  But I also need to be there in my life doing things like playing Barbies with my kid...because she NEEDS someone to brush their hair properly, people.  If I'm blogging or trying to stage photos, HOW WILL THOSE BARBIES LOOK FANCY?!?  Yeah, you tell me.

The truth is that Jayna and I have been having so much fun.  We've been playing and crafting and making flarp and cooking together.  Dudes...I am REALLY going to miss 3 years old.  I mean really miss it.  I find myself so concerned with keeping the house cleaned and making the kid eat at the dining room table instead of in the living room and doing the laundry and blogging and taking pictures and...and...and making the kid wear clothes in the house and be nice to her imaginary friend and NOT yell at that dog that I often forget to just...............STOP.  (Collaborate and listen.  I know most of you were thinking that anyway.)  STOP and play.  And listen.  And teach.  And smile.  For the love of all things...just SMILE!!!

Jayna brings me so many smiles that I can't even count 'em.  She makes me laugh.  She makes me cry tears of bittersweetness because she won't be like this forever.  She makes me remember what it's like to be a kid.  And I won't be distracted at this time.

Of course I'm still going to take photos.  That's never going to end.  Should it matter that most of them are iPhone photos?  No...it shouldn't. 

I'll still blog.  I have too many random things to say to not write stuff down. 

I'm just 100% COMPLETELY FINISHED with feeling guilty about how I do or do not do these things.  The end.

Well, the end of that anyway.

The holidays have brought the above epiphany.  I will be DOING this holiday season instead of RECORDING.  I'm sure things will be recorded, but not in the capacity of past years. 

I now present to you:  Five for Friday:  Holiday Thoughts:

1. I am sick and tired of putting my heart and soul into making gifts and/or putting tons of thought into buying gifts for people and them not being AT ALL appreciative.  I'm not saying that I expect people to cry, send me a Thank You card, faint...I'm just saying this:  THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE WHEN I GIVE YOU A GIFT SAYS MORE THAN YOUR WORDS EVER WILL.  That being said, I refuse to let just a FEW people that I give gifts to ruin my holidays by making me think I just have to hand them cash.  Not. Going to. Happen.  I have a 3-year-old to teach.  I want her to learn that gift-giving doesn't have to be about money.  Gifts can cost a million dollars or nothing at all...it's thoughfulness that is important.  If you DO happen to get a monetary gift, you should think of this as an insult.  And it will only be five bucks.
2. I will not stress over whether or not people have a good time at my house.  This one is going to sound a little harsh.  If I invite you over for a holiday and you actually come, then there is NO complaining about the food, the activities or the lack of things like watching TV.  If you don't like my mashed potatoes because they're made of red potatoes and are chunky, then DON'T EAT THEM.  I happen to LOVE them that way.
3. I am trying my best to be thoughtful with gifts this year.  Not just thoughtful to the person receiving the gifts, but thoughtful about where I buy them.  I am making many of this year's gifts.  Jayna will be helping me.  She LOVES to help me do things.  It makes my heart sing. :)  I am also buying many handmade things from Etsy and from local businesses.  I will not buy ONE SINGLE GIFT at Walmart this year.  Let it be heard.
4. I will be introducing our Elf on the Shelf, Jimmy, right after Thanksgiving.  I am so excited to put thought into what I want this elf to do.  I have some very good ideas that I think Jayna will LOVE.
5. I plan on DOING more things this year with family.  We did so many awesome things around the holidays when I was a kid.  We went to the Circle of Lights show downtown.  We went to plays.  We went shopping together and made cookies together and made ornaments.  We strung popcorn and played in the snow.  I have so many good memories of the holidays and I'm eager to start our own traditions as a family that includes a little girl.

What is YOUR holiday mission statement this year?  I'd love to hear from all of you.

Five for Friday: I don't even know.

I really don't have time to blog anymore. 

I feel bad because this is my main source of recording memories since I've taken a hiatus from scrapbooking.  You know, because I didn't have time to do that either.

We won't mention the fact that there is so much random shit stacked up in my scrapbook area that I can't even access most things.  Oh...and the paid bills that need to be filed and the old bills I pulled out to shred to make more room for the paid bills that need to be filed.  This could go on and on and on...but I won't bore you with the details.

Anyhooters, I feel like I should atleast update y'all on all the crazy junk that goes on at my house.  As if you care about that. :)

• Jayna has been sick.  She has a sinus infection.  I was home with her most of the day on Monday.  Since Halloween only comes once a year, we let her go trick-or-treating to about 10 houses.  She'd had enough after that and she had a really bad night.  I ended up staying home with her on Tuesday also.  When Chris came home on Tuesday, he went STRAIGHT outside to clean up leaves.  I, on the other hand, remained in the house with the kid.  Jayna wanted to go outside and since it was 70 degrees outside...I LET HER.  SICK AND ALL.  We were going crazy.  Seriously.  On Wednesday, I went back to work.  I was ecstatic.  While I enjoy the fact that I have a job that is flexible enough so I can stay home with a sick kid, after a few days with Whiney McWhinester, I'm ready to cry.  When I picked Jayna up from school, she threw a fit before we were even out of the parking lot.  When we got home, I set her up in the living room with her toys and a show and then I promptly lifted the glass in the screen door and went outside to rake leaves.  I had to be away.  Just...away.  When Chris came home, he made fun of me for using a regular rake instead of our leaf blower/mulcher/vac.  He said, "Just go in.  I'll finish this."  I looked him right in the eye and said, "I'M NOT GOING IN THERE."  He apparently understood what was going on and quickly showed me how to use the leaf vac. I stayed out there until 6:30pm.  And I vacuumed a pile of leaves into the shape of boobs.  Don't worry...they had on a bra.
• Jayna got a Fisher Price kid's camera for Christmas last year.  It was...well, let's just say that it doesn't work the way Jayna wants it to.  It doesn't have a flash and the lighting in our house sucks, so most things she takes a picture of (read:  the black and very quick dog Ollie) just look like a blur.  Also?  The button you push to take the pictures fell off and we have to keep putting it back on.  Also?  I have to change the batteries in it after every 15 pictures or so.  Well, last week, she was trying to take a picture of a bug on the screen door.  It was dark outside.  She kept taking the picture and then looking at the screen of the camera to see if she got a good picture.  They all just looked like black pictures.  She got so mad that she couldn't even form a sentence.  She threw the camera down on the floor and this is what I got from her:  "Mommy, that dang camera!!  It...I can't...all my pictures don't work.  I can't see the bug...I...THAT DANG CAMERA!!!  It is....the button broke....and the batteries...why are the batteries out?  You changed 'em 1 day ago...THAT DANG CAMERA, MOMMY!!!"  It was really sad and really funny at the same time.  I simply said, "Yes, I know, Jayna.  That camera hasn't worked right since you got it."  She looked up at me very satisfied and said, "Yeah, mommy!!!  You're right!!  I'm gonna tell that to Santa."  I'm glad I can be there for her to help her express herself. :)
• Jayna thinks that the singular of ear wax is ear whack.  This is the most hilarious thing I've ever heard.  Seriously.  She tells me, "Mommy, I think I have a whack in my ear."  And I die laughing every. Single. Time.  That is all.
• Jayna's new speech patterns include "I would like..."  or "Would you like..."  It makes me proud because I've been trying to teach her that for sometime.  Instead of, "Mommy, I want a snack!!!"  I make her ask me again like this:  "Mommy, I would like a snack, please."  Now, I don't expect her to do this all the time or anything, but I think it's important that she know how to speak in a proper way.  And she's learning.  Now she says everything that way.  "Mommy, I would like pizza for dinner."  "Mommy, would you like to color with me?"  "Daddy, would you like to dance with me?"  It's pretty cute. :)
• Jayna has been making the decisions of which toys she wants to "give to the babies" when she gets some new things for Christmas.  I have been explaining to her that she is getting bigger and likes different things than she did when she was little.  And since she doesn't play with some of her toys anymore, that maybe she could give some of them to other kids who would actually play with them.  Well, she interpreted that to mean that all the toys she gets rid of are going directly to little babies.  She regularly brings me things and says, "Mommy, I don't play with this anymore.  Can we give it to the babies?"  It's pretty funny.  I'm glad she's learning the idea of charity, but I'm not sure how to explain to her that all of her things aren't going to a rogue group of babies.  I think I'll leave that one alone for now.  There will be time to explain all that when she's older.

That's all I have.  You?

Five for Friday: LOL

You probably think that LOL stands for "laugh out loud."

Well, you're wrong.  Way wrong.

According to my almost-9-year-old nephew, it means "little old lady."  And that's what I'm writing about.  Little old ladies.

My favorite LOL...Sophia Petrillo.

I like little old ladies.  Except when they're driving.  Or walking in front of me at a rate of 1 mile per 5 years.  Or counting out pennies to pay for 37 bucks worth of Depends and BenGay.  Other than that, I just love them.

I'm beginning to find that I am more like a LOL than I care to admit.  Except for RIGHTNOW...seeing as how I'm admitting it to the WHOLE INTERNET and stuff.  I'm finding that I am quickly losing touch with my age group and relating more and more to the 70-year-old crowd.  Yikes.

And here it is - Five for Friday: How I Channel My Inner (or Outer) LOL:

1. I have a pill box.  There are no actual medications in there though.  Only vitamins...and only one of those is prescribed.  I have been put on a very strict vitamin regimen by my doctor because of a lack of vitamin D...which can be a big problem if I don't get it under control.  I have to take 5 pills a day at varying times.  And you have to be some sort of superhero to remember all that.  So...pillbox it is.
2. I crochet like nobody's business.  And to add fuel to the fire, guess what I've most recently learned how to crochet?  Granny squares.  Seriously.  I love to crochet as it A.  is easy. B.  makes things that are useful like hats and scarves and mustaches on sticks. C.  is cheap. D.  keeps me from snacking and/or biting my nails.  I've had many requests for crocheted things, so it can't be that bad, right? 
3. I hate teenagers.  They are my NEMESIS.  If I'd have acted like teenagers do today when I was a teenager, I wouldn't be alive today.  My mother would've killed me and buried me in the flower bed.  End of story.  Rude.  Sense of entitlement.  Bad manners.  Bad grammar.  Wear the dumbest clothes.  Can't drive.  I could go on and on and on.  And on.  And.  On.
4. I have stopped moving out of the way for people in public places.  I used to be so aware that my cart or myself were in the way and I'd promptly move.  Do you think most other people promptly move when THEY are in MY way?  Nope.  Never.  So I don't care anymore.  Those people can wait just like I have to.  Jerks.
5. I could go to bed at 7pm almost everyday.  But Chris says no.  He says I'm way too young for that business.  I'm lucky to stay awake on the couch until 9pm...unless I'm crocheting.

So...disregarding chronology, how old are you?  Are you way younger, way older or about the same?  I'm curious.

Updates...and more updates.

I have approximately 75 things to blog about and no time to do it. 

Yes, technically I could be blogging about one of those things RIGHTNOW, but all of my things are long winded and I only have 3.4 minutes.

So here's a lazy list of things to blog about so I don't forget:

• My Get Your Shit Together Plan.  That will be a 3 hour long post.  Seriously.  I have a lot of shit and none of it is together.
• Recap of the crazy summer we had.
• My mom.
• Jayna:  her eyes, her tonsils, her allergies, her 3rd birthday and the party, upload pics of said party and her new big girl bed, her new crazy quirks, her new fit throwing strategies, her ability to sound like a teenager and my ability not to smack her square in the mouth.
• FALL!!!!  (That one's for you, Michelle R.)
• Running (or lack thereof). And that sort of goes with the Get Your Shit Together post.

Man...once I start blogging, y'all will be reading for hours.  Or not. 

I'll get on it soon.  Promise.

Want Kool Aid??

Sorry...no sugar.

Raise your hand if you've seen the movie Friday.

A few of you?  Good.

I've seen that movie no less than 683 times.  No joke.  I know approximately 89% of the entire script.  I love it.  And if I had more time and didn't have an impressionable toddler, I'd probably still try to fit it in once (maybe twice) a week.  Oh yeah...and if I did that, I'd also have to want to be single.  Because Chris would ABSOLUTELY not stand for that.

Anyhoozy, there is a part where Criag's friend Smokey wants to make some Kool Aid.  When he learns that Craig's household is out of sugar, he spews this rant (to the best of my recollection):

"Y'all ain't never got two things that match!  Kool Aid, no sugar.  Peanut butter, no jelly.  Ham, no burger.  Daaammmnn!!!!!"

Well, faithful blog readers...that's my brain right now.  It hasn't one single conversation/story/thought that goes with any other one.  Except for the above story, of course...seeing how it has NOTHING to do with anything.

So, in light of having ham and no burger, I offer you this random list of all things random:

• Jayna asked for jelly toast for dessert a few nights ago.  I tried to gently persuade her:  "How about we have jelly toast for breakfast in the morning and have pudding or something for dessert?"  Her response?  "How about you just listen to me and I'll have jelly toast for dessert AND for breakfast in the morning?"  I suppose I should "just listen."
• I am running the Mini Marathon in 2 days.  Less than 48 hours.  My stomach just turned over as I typed that.  I've learned that I am not at liberty to wear headphones to listen to music...that music will be playing along the course.  I'm not sure how I'll handle not wearing headphones.  I'm sure I'll be fine, but it may take a few miles to get used to it.
• I'm surprised that I didn't get more questions/comments regarding my last blog post.  The Jayna blog posts are usually the most popular ones.
• I know it's normal for a child to have an imaginary friend, but is it normal for a child to have an imaginary GROUP of friends?  Almost like an army?  Jayna has a group of imaginary friends around 9 large.  And they color so pretty, she says.  I....am speechless.
• Last night at the dinner table, Jayna continually played in her food.  I finally raised my voice and said, "Jayna!!!  Stop playing in your food!!!"  She pointed her fork at me and said, "Mommy, you don't talk to me that way."  I just looked at her.  She followed with, "We don't say those words, mommy."  I didn't even know how to respond to that. 
• I need to learn how to get my Instagram photos off of my phone without syncing my phone to a computer.  And in related news, if you're an iPhone user and don't use FREE Instagram, you're missing out.  Get it immediately in the App Store.
• I hope my plants didn't get frostbitten last night.  I forgot to bring them in.  And in related news, WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE EFFING WEATHER???  Seriously.  A Facebook friend posted yesterday, "Have we finally effed up the world so much that the weather will NEVER be normal again?"  I'm starting to believe that is true.
• What will I do with myself after the Mini???  Oh, right.  Make tons of awesome cupcakes.  And refinish old furniture.  And paint.  And plant things. :)

And I'll leave you with this:

One of my new favorite websites is Some Ecards.  By now, y'all know my sense of humor.  If you like the sarcastic, most-of-the-time-rude-and-always-inappropriateness of it, then you, too, will love this website.  You should all expect to be getting some of these from me in the near future.

Who WOULDN'T want to live that long??

In college, Cinco de Mayo was our favorite holiday.  Drinking for seemingly no reason.  Oh, wait....

Who'd a thunk it?!?  I'm outdoorsy after all!!!

Here's wishing you all a happy Thursday. :)  

Mishmash Monday: Updates Out the Wahzoo

I don't know if that's how you spell "wahzoo."  I'm sure it isn't and that someone will correct me.  I'm sure of it.

I'm also not sure if "mishmash" is one word or two words.  I'm sure the same person who knows about "wahzoo" knows.  So they'll be able to kill two birds with on stone.

TEN DAYS.  That's how long it's been since I've blogged.  A long ass time. 

And to be honest, it's been because I just haven't felt like doing it.  Yes...I've been busy.  Yes...I've been preoccupied.  And yes...I've been busy.  Wait...did I....nevermind.  I don't really know what's going on. 

I have lots of things to say from the past 10 days.  Most of them probably deserve their own posts.  But not all of them will get that.  I'll do a Jayna post tonight or tomorrow because my kid is the most awesome kid I know and she always deserves her own posts (hell, at this point, she could probably narrate them for me to type.  She's a smart and sassy kid.).  But all the rest of this shiz is going in a bulleted list.  That's just my style.

• Interesting...I pushed the "bullet list" button up at the top of my blog post page and I suddenly forgot what I wanted to put in my bulleted list.  It's as if the pressing of the "bullet" button erased my memory.  Like in Men In Black.  I always thought it would be really helpful to have a neuralizer.  When I say something stupid, I could just pull out the thing and "flashy thingy" someone.  I'd be using that thing atleast 3 times a day.
• I planted some things about...well...10 days ago.  A tomato plant, a raspberry bush, some orchid gladiola bulbs and some other flower seeds I had lying around.  I only plant things in pots, so I don't have to wait as long as if I were going to plant them in the ground.  I grow tomatoes every year.  I asked Jayna what she wanted to grow this year and she said, "I grow berries mommy.  Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries."  I urged her to pick just one.  She settled on raspberries and I bought one of those "in the box"-looks like just a dead stick-probably won't grow raspberry bushes.  Hey...it was 5 bucks with 20% off.  It was worth a shot.  I was pretty certain when I planted it (in a giant pot for now) that it was completely dead and wouldn't grow.  After 10 days it looks MORE dead.  I wasn't even sure that was possible.  I don't have a particularly green thumb, but I can grow things and keep them alive for long periods of time.  This plant has had water and sun and lives on my back patio safe from the "wild."  All the other plants are atleast doing SOMETHING.  The raspberry...notsomuch.  So this weekend I bit the bullet and bought a live-from-the-nursery-already-green-and-growing raspberry bush.  Jayna asks me atleast once a week if the bush has raspberries yet that she can eat.  If I don't grow something that produces ATLEAST one raspberry that the kid can eat by the end of summer, I'm in major trouble.  Here's hoping the new raspberry bush grows quickly.
• Chris' band, Call Me Elmer, (like them on Facebook, please!!!!!) has their first paying gig on my birthday.  It's at the Columbus Moose Lodge.  I am excited for them!  They are very quickly and surely learning and perfecting 4 hours worth of songs to play.  Wish them luck if you see them on Facebook!
• I've changed my running routine and it's going smoothly.  Before a couple of weeks ago, I'd start running and just keep running until I almost passed out.  I'd stop to walk and I'd feel defeated...mostly because I felt like I wouldn't be able to start running again and run for any amount of time.  I'd run for about 15 minutes and then stop and walk.  I'd start running again after around 5 minutes of walking.  But I'd only be able to run for around 8 minutes before I'd have to stop and walk again.  I now run 10 minutes and walk 5 minutes.  Even if I'm not tired, I keep up that pattern.  I don't get so tired so quickly and my breathing stays constant.  If I keep up the pace and routine that I'm doing now, I'm set to finish the mini in around 3 hours...probably around 3 hours 15 minutes.  And if it takes me longer...who cares!?!  That probably sounds like a very long time to some of you, but keep in mind that 3 weeks ago I was contemplating not running it.  I was scared to death that I wouldn't finish.  The tweaking that I've done with the running is working wonders for my confidence and is very encouraging.  I even want to run more after the mini!!!
• Easter was fun this year.  Jayna is getting older and is finally catching on to the traditions of the holidays.  She had a great time finding Easter eggs at Nana M's house.  She got a lightning bug house from Nana B and she won't stop asking if we can go outside and catch some. :)
• If it doesn't stop raining soon, I'm going postal.  Thath is all.
• I am excited to begin helping lots of friends with their kids' birthday cakes/cupcakes.  I really love making and decorating cupcakes and it is awesome that I have friends who trust me and will let me help them make their kids' birthdays just a little more special...without breaking the bank!!  I do all my work for free.  That's what friends are for. :)

What have y'all been up to??

Five for Friday: Life

I've been absent, blog friends. 

I'd like to apologize as I know that you've all been sitting on the edges of your seats waiting to hear what's going on in my life.

Yeah.

Here's the breakdown:

1. The new Foo Fighters album, Wasting Light, was released last Tuesday.  I had had a rough day that day because Jayna was sick (see #2) and I'd been home with a whiny, albeit good, child ALL DAY.  My good Foo friend K80 knew that I hadn't had a chance to go buy the album, so she bought it for me and delivered it to me.  I'm forever indebted to her.  She even got me the enhanced limited edition that includes a piece of the original recording tape for Wasting Light.  Her gesture of friendship and genuine care hasn't gone unnoticed.  It is a fabulous album beginning to end, front to back, head to toe.  It has a semi-permanent place in my car CD player and I listen to it over and over and over again.  There are no songs that I skip, but my favorites are Arlandria and These Days.  If you are a Foo fan or are on the fence about whether or not to buy the CD, do it now.  I'll wait. 
2. Jayna has been sick with a cold since Monday.  Chris was concerned that it was something worse, so he took her to the doctor on Wednesday.  Nope...just a cold.  The doctor prescribed Benadryl for her to dry up some of the mucus and, in turn, to help with the cough.  I was super excited about this because it meant that Jayna would sleep instead of cough all night.  Little did I know that Benadryl makes some children (namely, MY CHILD) hyperactive maniacs.  She did finally go to sleep, but the crazy conversations she had with herself alone in her room were priceless.  At one point she'd been quiet for about 8 minutes.  I was relieved that she'd finally fallen asleep.  Out of the blue, I hear her scream, "APPLE FARTS!!!"  And then she laughed hysterically.  She did that for 30 minutes.  Then she was out cold.
3. I am running a 5K tomorrow.  Supposedly in the rain.  With thousands of people.  Should be great!!  I'm not nervous or anxious at all.  (Read:  I'm  anxious as hell.)  I don't even want to go.  I want to sleep in and relax.  After the Mini, I don't plan to run anymore races until next year's Mini.  They make me too...crazy.
4. Chris learned how to play a bluesy version of Walking on Sunshine.  This makes me happy.
5. I want to move.  We need a bigger house.  And if the opportunity presents itself, I'll be jumping on it.  Who knew a child's stuff could take up so much room?!?

Five for Friday: Floaty

My head is floaty today. There are things just suspended in there. Here are some:

  

1. The painting I'm beginning this weekend. I don't really paint anything except abstract stuff and I do it mostly because I'm cheap. If I were to buy a painting to go on the wall behind my couch, it would cost me ATLEAST 500 bucks. And who knows if I'd even be able to find something I liked. If I do it myself, I can make it the color scheme and size I want. There is one there now that I painted that I've entitled A Popular Mistake. I don't really care for the painting, but I've gotten lots of compliments on it. It obviously got it's name months after I hung it.
2. Karma. Have you noticed that there are some people who seem immune to Karma? When I meet a person like that, I often think, "Man, when it comes around for her, it's gonna be brutal." I am a firm believer that people ultimately get what they deserve and that treating others poorly for an entire lifetime can't be good for the soul. My beef with Karma is that it is an uncontrollable force and others may be taken down in it's path. How fair is it that for someone who is getting what she deserves it takes away from someone else? I suppose life just isn't fair.
3. Lunch. I'm hungry. I want mashed potatoes.
4. Intention. It can only take you so far. Yet, sometimes it doesn't really even matter.
5. My lack of sleep. Apparently I'll sleep when I'm dead. This is probably the reason for the floaty head. :)

 

Wednesday Whits...and Woes

Sorry for the lack of blogging.  I know y'all were sad to not read my blog for a whole week. :)

Last week I went to Bloomington for the conference thing on Thursday and Friday and the the weekend was packed full of junk too.  Good, but packed.


WHITS

We've  been talking with Jayna a lot about the change of seasons.  She's super stoked that Spring is here because that means she can play outside.  Yesterday she said to me, "Is it Summer yet mommy?"  I told her no, it was still Spring.  She said, "Can we make it Summer so I can go swimming?"  :)

As we were playing outside a few days ago, Jayna heard the neighbor kid, who is around 6, call his cousin a dummy.  She looked at me and said, "He said dummy.  That's a bad word."  She then ran over to the fence and yelled, "HEY YOU!!!  You don't say 'dummy.'  It's a bad word and you get a time out!!!"

I told her yesterday to "watch out for dog dirt" as she was walking through a particular spot in our yard.  She said, "It's not dirt mom.  THAT'S dirt." (pointed to the ground).  She then walked over to some dog poop, got down close to it (her finger was about an inch away from touching it) and said, "THAT'S poop.  And it stinks.  And if I get it on my shoe I throw it away.  Ewwwwww!!!!!"

Last night she asked me if we could trade panties.  And then we had that SAME CONVERSATION about wearing only YOUR OWN panties.  This can't be good, can it??


WOES

I'm full of woes today.  Not sure why...just in a funk.  I can't sleep.  Ever.  It's annoying.  This happens from time to time, but this time it's lasting entirely too long.  As in 3 weeks.

I am *almost* afraid to run.  It's quite strange.  After I was told that me putting too much pressure on myself was causing me to have the anxiety problem, I am afraid to put ANY pressure on myself.  I'm looking for middle ground and I just haven't found it yet.  I ran on Saturday with KT and went 4.5 miles in just under an hour.  I thank her for being supportive and motivational.  She was the perfect mix of a friend who cares and a coach who wants me to do my best.  MY best.  Not her best.  MINE.  That is soooo helpful.  She also gave me some tips on how to make things easier on myself...including some lifestyle changes.  I've done it before and I can do it again. 

I'm just not sure how to do it on my own.  I don't have enough confidence in myself that I could walk out my front door and run for 4.5 miles with no one there pushing me along.  I WANT to.  I'm just not sure I CAN.  Besides becoming a parent, I'm not sure I've EVER been so unsure of myself as I am with this.  Practice makes perfect, though, so I have to start trying. 

My diet has gone to hell.  Not diet in the sense of trying to lose weight, but just everyday diet in general.  This winter was hell for me and I'm just now trying to get back on track.  I was positive that I could stay at the weight I was at in October, make it through the winter, and pick up again in March to lose the last 10 or 15 pounds.  Ha!  Not likely.  I've gained back a few...6 or 7....pounds and I now have just that much more to lose. 

Something is off.  Or someTHINGS are off.  Have been for awhile.  Don't really know what...but it would be nice to figure it out.  I'm not sure I've EVER struggled this much with life in general.  Somethings gotta give soon.

Random Wednesday Lists: Train of Thought

Here are some random lists that are going through my head:

Things Jayna is now afraid of:

*  The dark
*  Shadows
*  Patrick Star from Spongebob
*  Any sort of mask/glasses/mustache combo
*  The bathroom
*  Her bedroom when no one else is in there even if the light is on
*  The living room
*  The hobby room
*  Every room in our house except the kitchen when the light is on
*  Being anywhere alone (and Ollie doesn't count as a being)
*  The TV when it's turned off (I think there's a bigger problem there...)
*  The TV when a recorded show ends and the screen turns blue
*  Loud noises
*  The wind (okay, not really...but may as well be)


Races I'm running:

*  Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure - 5K In Honor of Saffron Yarbrough
*  March of Dimes March for Babies - 5K Inspired to run and raise money by Kayla Aimee and baby Scarlette
*  One America 500 Festival Mini Marathon - 13.1 miles...I'm aiming for half at this point
*  More to come after I assess the situation after the Mini.


A few of the dreams I've had while taking Medrol (a steroid for my crazy rash):

Just a quick note about this before the list...the doctor NEVER mentioned anything about crazy dreams, but upon further research, I've discovered that it's fairly common to have very vivid nightmares/dreams while taking steroids like Prednisone or Medrol.  Maybe she didn't want me to have psychosomatic side effects, but it was really scary the first night.  These dreams are REAL and I wake up EVERYTIME disoriented and doing whatever motion I was doing in my dream.

*  Swinging with Jayna (I woke up rocking as if I were swinging on a swing) and she fell out of the swing and got stabbed with a stick.  I gasped when I woke up and checked on her.  I was unsure of how we got from the backyard to our beds in such a short amount of time.  I remember thinking, "She still needs a bath!!!"
*  A college class about teeth in which I had to shuffle through a row of people in a lecture hall to the very last seat at the other end of the row when I could've just started at the other end.  I then failed the class because all my teeth fell out in class.  I woke up SITTING UP on the side of the bed and shuffling my feet on the floor while checking my mouth for teeth.
*  Chris giving birth to a bouncing baby girl.  I...won't go into detail.  It was quite the strange dream and again...I woke up and had to check our house for another baby before I realized that I was awake and that...wait for it....CHRIS CAN'T HAVE BABIES.
*  Morgan has been in almost every dream.  Once he was sailing a boat.  Once he was fighting a bear (we'll get to that one) and once he went to Old Indiana with me (that one's next).
*  I went to Old Indiana with the Quags family, my friend Holly, Morgan and my mom.  We were on our way there and got lost.  We found this house that morphed into trees and plants and got so caught up in how cool it was that we forgot to go to Old Indiana and then it closed. (It is, in fact, closed, by the way.)  Morgan just constantly barked at the morphing house. 
*  I went on vacation with Chris, Jayna, Michelle R., Ellie and some other people.  Jayna and Ellie were running back and forth in front of a HUGE window.  An old lady yelled at them for running in the hall so they ran THROUGH the window instead just to piss her off.  They were completely unharmed, but they knocked over a fish tank in the process and I woke up picking up fish off of our bed.
*  And last night...I had some people over to my house to have a backyard party (it was actually my mom's backyard).  There was a bear in my backyard.  We blocked the deck with a baby gate so the bear wouldn't get us.  He came around to the other deck entrance and Morgan attacked the bear.  The bear was then really pissed off so I yelled at it and told it to go away and it went and hid behind our shed.  I woke up sweating and REALLY scared because while I was asleep having a dream about a bear that I **should have** been afraid of, I wasn't afraid of it in the dream.  My half-awake self was telling my subconscious dream self to be afraid of the bear.  I was afraid for my OWN life in my OWN dream.  I'm probably doing a shitty job of explaining that, but it was really crazy.


What I need at the grocery store/Target:

*  Eggs
*  Jayna's milk
*  Cranberry juice
*  Potato chips
*  Hot dog buns
*  Six pack of beer
*  Body wash
*  Listerine
*  Oatmeal

Do YOU have a list to make??

Five For Friday: Things That Make Me LOL

No, not "little old lady."  Although I do crochet, drink tea and...nevermind.  I digress.

Laugh out loud.  Not like how everyone haphazardly puts it on Facebook and Twitter.  These are things that quite literally make me laugh out loud.  On occasion at work.  Lots of times while I'm waiting at various places and reading blogs on my phone (thank you DYAC for embarrassing me in the doctor's office waiting room yesterday).  It's almost always embarrassing because I almost always read these things whilst NOT at home in privacy. 

I've had a rough week.  All around rough.  So have many of my friends and family who read this blog.  I urge you to go check out these links.  They are hilarious and you'll love them.  And then we'll get back to business after a relaxing weekend.

Without further adieu, I present to you in no particular order:  Five for Friday:  Things that make me do any/all of the following: laugh out loud, pee a little, choke on my soda, cry.  (How's THAT for a title?!?)

1. Damn You Auto Correct.  There is nothing funnier to me than MadLibs.  Not when you *try* to make them funny, but when they're just funny on accident.  Auto correct creates Madlibs for you...and they're usually hilarious.  When I first heard of the site I was skeptical thinking that they'd all be sexually loaded and false.  Now that I've fallen victim to auto correct, I know that some of these are true...and as it turns out, the NON-sexual ones are usually the funniest.  One of my favorites:  Brown Chicken Brown Cowwwww.  Nothing like some farm porn music.
2. The Oatmeal.  I first started reading The Oatmeal when a Facebook friend posted to his wall a chart of annoying Facebook people.  You know me...I was hooked after that.  I have a list 3 miles long.  One of my favorites:  10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling.  I see most of these atleast once a day.
3. Hyperbole and a Half.  An awesome writer AND funny??  Sign me up!!  I just started reading this blog after a Facebook friend posted it to her wall and I can't stop.  I've been going through archives and all of her posts are laugh out loud hilarious.  Hell, even her drawings make me cry.  One of my favorites:  Dog.  I can totally relate to that post, you know...because Ollie is a little "challenged."
4. Fail Blog.  While most of the Fail Blog brings me to tears, there are some things on there that are ridiculous.  That one needs a little more sorting in my mind.  One of my favorites:  WIN:  Rock, Paper, Scissors.  My sentiment exactly.
5. Steam Me Up, Kid.  WARNING:  You will need a sick sense of humor.  If you're a friend of mine, then you'll most likely love it.  One of my favorites:  A Meme is a Wish Your Heart Makes, which happens to also be the newest post.  Love love love the gun pointing scenarios and the captions to go along with them.

What's my point with all of this??  Well, you know you don't REALLY want to work.  Or clean.  Or go to the gym.  Or whatever it is that you're avoiding by sitting in front of your computer/phone/device with an internet connection.  You could just as easily click those links, laugh out loud, get out your finger guns and then go buy beer and put it in the fridge so it's cold for later.  Seriously...gym or beer later??  You make that call.

Whit Wednesday: Neither Here Nor There

Just a bunch of randoms:

• Last week, Jayna tricked me into letting her stay home from school...but then it ended up NOT being a trick.  At any rate, I ended up bringing her to work with me on Thursday.  Once we got here, she was...fine.  Tricky little girl.  She was playing with my mom at one point and just all of the sudden blurted out, "I'm gonna go have a beer."  What?!?  Weird.
• When Chris had his band gig in Martinsville, I told Jayna that we were going to see daddy play guitar with the band.  She told EVERYONE, including her preschool teachers, that, "I go see daddy play guitar at Target."  I still have no idea why she thought he was playing at Target.  Maybe we go there too much.  Nah...that can't be it.
• Okay...an audible one:  say out loud the word "pupil."  And now say it again and subtract the "-il" sound at the end.  That is how Jayna says the word poop.  And it's hilarious everytime.  "Mommy, I have to p-you-p really bad."  Oy.  And laughter ensues.
• I asked her yesterday, "Baby, are you okay?"  She replied, "Yeah, hun.  I'm okay."  :)
• Over the weekend Jayna was coughing alot. We were instructed to give her saline and/or albuterol breathing treatments if her cough kept up.  I gave her a saline treatment Monday morning with the nebulizer and I forgot to unplug it.  She came running to me, "Mommy!  Mommy!  My machine...you forgot to plug it out!!"
• When we went to get her antibiotic, she told the pharmacist, "I need feel betters cuz I'm sick in my throat."  I found that insanely hilarious.
• She recently started referring to Oliver as "my buddy Oliver."  As in, "Mommy, where's my buddy Oliver??  Is he on your bed?  I tell him to get down."

That kid cracks me up and melts my heart every darn day. :)

Progress Report: Week 8

Last week (2/21-2/27) was...busy.  I think I've determined what the immediate problems are regarding ME and TRAINING FOR A MINI-MARATHON.  It's a vicious circle.  No, really.  It's a circle.  Let's have a numbered list, shall we?

1. I've made what I call tremendous progress in 2 months.  That gave me a false sense of security.
2. Having a false sense of security then led me to commit a little less to the training.
3. Committing less to the training has forced me to remember that even though I can run 4 miles, a mini-marathon is 13 miles.  And I have 2 months to get into gear and show this bitch (the mini) who is boss (ME).
4. I will hit the training hard and then gain a false sense of security again.
5. Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.

See?!?  It's truly a circle.  Aaaaand....on to the lack of progress for last week.

Monday and Wednesday were pretty identical.  I ran 3 miles each day at 4.7 mph...a 12:45 mile.  Not bad.  Except that's where it ended for me. 

I went Wednesday to Monday with no running.  And that...that nearly killed me yesterday.

I'll get there.  I have to keep reminding myself that my first mini will NOT be the best.  But it's a start.

Five For Friday: When the Weather is Fine

I am completely 100% over winter....as is everyone else in the midwest.  And on the east coast.  Okay, so pretty much everyone.  Anyhooters....

I don't want to talk about winter anymore.  You know, how much I hate it or how much I want it to be over or how I'd like to grab Mother Nature by the throat and slam her against a wall.  I want to talk about....spring.  And summer.  And hell, even autumn at this point. 

Here it is:  Five for Friday:  Things I'm going to do when nature is done crapping on me.

1. Run outside.  I'm pretty tired of the scenery at the gym.  That Misfits t-shirt sure does need a good washing.  I'm itching to get outside and get some fresh air during the run.
2. Go to Erik and Janette's wedding in Tennessee.  It will be nice to get away for a couple of days, see some friends that we don't get to see enough and enjoy the scenery of the Smokey Mountains.  I'm excited for them!
3. Play paintball.  There's nothing like shooting your friends.  Seriously. :)
4. Take my dog places.  He's sick of the house and the backyard...especially since he doesn't have a buddy anymore.  He'll by beside himself when we're able to go to the park regularly again.
5. Host a party at my house just for adults when there is NOT a burn ban.  You know, that would only happen to me.  And people will show up dammit!!

And a bonus:  Swing with Jaynie.  It's her favorite thing. :)

What are YOU going to do when the dog days are over?

A Random Wednesday List

No alliteration.  No real subject.  Just a...well, a random list written on a Wednesday.

1. When you're asked if you want one thing or another thing and you really want both, it is common 2-year-old practice to combine the 2 words instead of just say the word "both."  Examples:  "Jayna, do you want sausage or bacon?"  Reply:  "Snacon."  And "Jayna do you want a hot dog or chicken nuggets?"  Reply:  "A chicken dog."  And "Jayna do you want your party hat (colorful hat with pom poms) or your white hat?"  Reply:  "My wharty hat."  See??  I don't see a thing wrong with that.
2. Lifetime, the television station, has been running a documentary about Tupac.  You know, the rapper?  Since when did Lifetime's target audience include people who care about Tupac?  Just an observation.
3. I made my own household all-purpose cleaner yesterday.  It worked outstandingly on bathroom counters and sinks and in the kitchen.  And it's CHEAP.
4. The year 2011 is almost 17% over.  What have YOU done??
5. I am apparently a non music runner.  I ran on Monday with no music and I did much better when I could hear my feet and my breathing.  Ran a full 3 without feeling the imminence of death. :)
6. I am still editing and posting pictures from Christmas.  What the hell is wrong with me???
7. Jayna's preschool is getting a new teacher.  Ms. Meghan (Jayna's favorite) is moving to California until October.  The "Meet the Teacher Open House" is on Saturday from 12pm to 2pm...right at naptime.  I'm sure a tired and overstimulated 2-year-old Jayna will make a wonderful impression on this new person. :)

Five for Friday: And in unrelated news....

None of these things relate to one another...I think.

1. On Tuesday, I woke up feeling as if I'd been run over by a Mack truck.  I was sure I had a sinus infection, so went to my local walk-in clinic.  Nurse practitioner says it's the flu.  I call her a liar (under my breath) and leave.  I'm pretty sure I had a bad cold and then some allergy issues on top of that.  I sneezed no less than 50 times yesterday (no exaggeration there) and was itchy all day.  I'm feeling better today on all accounts, but that could be because it's Friday.
2. I can run 2.5 nonstop, continuous miles without passing out!!!  Yahoo!!  And now I need to work on pacing.  Breaking free from the treadmill will prove to be difficult I'm afraid.
3. Jayna has gone exactly 5 days with no diaper/pullup except naptime/bedtime.  No accidents!!!!!  I'm not sure what I'll do when we don't have to worry about diapers or pullups anymore.  Yes I do...I'll celebrate.
4. The weather has been beautiful.  Even though everything is mushy and muddy because all the snow and ice melted at once, Jayna and I have played outside 2 times.  She is more than happy to be able to swing again.  She asked me on Wednesday if she could go swimming. :)
5. I am close to ditching the crochet for awhile (I mean, who wears a scarf in the summer anyway??) to pursue other projects.  Painting.  Scrapbooking.  Furniture refinishing.  I.  Can't. WAIT.

What are y'all up to???