Saturday, November 1, 2008

I've been tagged AGAIN!


AGAIN!

I think that Kay at Kay Bratt Uncensored just didn't get enough esoteric tidbits about me with my last tagging and tagged me again! Or maybe its payback for actually suggesting the only reason I didn't go as her for Halloween was because I wasn't blond. In any case, its a good thing I'm such an interesting person! Yeah, I didn't fall for that myself. I'll try to not make this a snoozer.

So my 7 "interesting" facts straight off the top of my head:

1) I can't smell oh wait, I used that one already The above statement brought something to mind. I am the queen of rationalization. If you want to do something but there's some reason not to do it I will help you rationalize why you SHOULD. (Maybe I should sell this service) Want that cute pair of shoes that cost too much? You really SHOULD get them because they are really one of a kind and they'll go so well with the black dress. If you wait for them to go on sale they might not be here and then you'll be so sorry you didn't get them.

Some people get great super powers like flying or x-ray vision. I got rationalization.

2) I like to sing and dance all over my house, oh they know that already OK, something along those lines. I used to want to be an actress and a singer. Slight problem with that, I really can't sing that well. American Idol was in KC this summer and I told my kids that I snuck away and tried out. Julia's bestie from Nashville was visiting and those crazy girls thought I actually did. (I'm not that crazy!) But I had them going. I told them "Well, you know, I'm really not supposed to talk about it since its all a big secret but lets just say be sure to watch in January." They were all excited thinking I was going to Hollywood (?!?!?!? these girls have heard me sing!!!) Then I told them "Now, I'm not saying I made it but... Simon was quite impressed." I think that one was the kicker that sold me out. Simon's never impressed.

3) I love to write my blog, wait, I've told them that time and time again I have always loved to write. I started to write a book when I was in 4th grade. It was based on a dream I had. (Hey, it worked for Stephenie Meyer. She had a dream, woke up and wrote it down. Its chapter 16 of Twilight) I made it to about page 80 and stopped. Not to bad for a 4th grader.

In high school I had an English teacher who saw "great potential" in me. Imagine my surprise when I turned in a creative writing paper and I got a C. I went to her after class and asked her why I got a C when so-and-so's paper got a B and wasn't better than mine. She looked me straight in the eyes and told me that I was better than that paper I had turned in and she was grading me according to my potential not to the class standard. I had never been told anything like that before and it stuck with me forever. She was my biggest supporter and I thought the world of her.

A couple of years after I graduated I found out from my mother that my English teacher had been very sick and found out that she had cancer. It was very advanced and aggressive. She died soon after her diagnosis leaving a husband and small children. I decided that if I ever wrote a book it would be dedicated to her-- Mrs. Connie Davis. So all you teachers out there who wonder if you make a difference, please know that you do. I will always regret not thanking her for believing in me.

Wow, that's a tough one to follow but the list must go on.

4) I have a lot of kids and love being a mother, most of the time. TOO OBVIOUS! I knew that I wanted to be a mother when I was 17. Just deep down I felt a need to be a mother. I had 2 boys with my first husband and getting Ross was a miracle in itself because my first husband wouldn't have had any kids if he could have gotten away with it. I can remember thinking to myself that I wished that I could have just one more child-- hopefully a girl that I could dress up in cute little dresses and bows. I can tell you that I would have never believed 15 years ago that I would get FOUR more children. So Kay, hysterectomy or no hysterectomy you can still have more kids if you really want to.

I am so totally blessed, even when I'm a crabby cake on Halloween.

5) I love Starbucks, no kidding???? So I'm a Starbucks addy now, although I haven't had a Starbucks since Wednesday, but I used to HATE coffee. I remember trying it in my early 20's thinking if you had to add so much sugar and milk what was the point.

Sometimes we have to eat our words. And they don't taste too bad when you have them with a Grande nonfat, no whip Mocha.

6) I'm a nice person I have a knack for getting along well with others. I'm pretty tolerant, so I guess that helps.

Back when I was histologist and went back to work after Julia was born, I interviewed for a job at the VA hospital in Little Rock. During the interview the supervisor confessed that he had had a very hard time keeping people in my position because the other people in the department were "characters" and sometimes hard to get along with. I knew I would only be at the job for about 5 months so I told him that I had never had a problem getting along with coworkers.

Oh my! When he said they were characters, I really had NO idea what I was getting into. It was a very interesting experience, from one guy literally watching the clock when I left for a break or lunch, to 2 coworkers yelling and screaming at each other in the hallway and finally the guy who told me he knew someone who could "take care of" a relative I was complaining about. Oh my is right! But I worked hard, helped them out and when I left my supervisor told me he had never seen anyone get along with the characters in Character City and how sorry he was to see me go. I heard he quit not long after I did.

7) I like to bake I make the best silk pie in the world. Ask anyone who's tried it. Its the easiest thing to make but its always requested. Stop by sometime and I'll prove it to you. Give me a few hours notice first.

So now I'm supposed to tag 7 more people:

The Shaw Family
Not Your Average Soccer Mom
The Johnson Family Tales
Mommy Chronicles who redid my blog
Pokonutz
The Princess and the Ladybug
Because Lorie's all new to blogging and she needs to get her feet wet!

I think 6 is enough 'cause I'm not going for 7!


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Edited Sunday morning @ 8:00: I have had several people ask me how to do a strike through, which is when a word or words have a line through them. I tried to answer this in the comment section and it got all freaked out with the Html format and wouldn't let me so I'm posting it here. Besides, lots of people don't read comments and might see it here.

The Strike Through:

Let's say I want to strike through some words in this sentence: My children woke me up at the crack of dawn at 8:45.

I want to strike through " the crack of dawn"

Go to the Edit Html tab and put your curser in front of the words " the crack" and type < str!ke>and after the word "dawn" type < /str!ke> when you click on the Compose tab it will look like this: (Important note: change the ! in the strike above to an "i" and take out the spaces. I also just found out that you can type this on the Compose tab and when you publish it will put it in the Html format.)

My children woke me up at the crack of dawn at 8:45. And its true, they did, pre Daylight Savings time, which all that mattered to me.

5 comments:

Queenie Jeannie said...

You are very special, and very funny!!

YOU ROCK!!

I'm so amazed by people like you who have such terrific blogs and do cool things like links, hyper links, can write words that are crossed out....all kinds of cool stuff and I'm clueless!!

So where's the sign up sheet for Remedial Blogging???

Jeannie

Denise Grover Swank said...

Your Royal Highness Queenie Jeannie, I am awed to be visited by royalty!

I was not born with all of my blogging skills and I, too, was coveting the blogging skills that I saw others had. So I took myself to one of my favorite places, Barnes and Noble, and gifted myself with Blogging for Dummies, no joke. It told me how to do most of that stuff. Others I have stumbled upon myself. Sometimes if I'm playing with something new I'm sure to announce it at the beginning of the post ex: {Today Denise is learning how to embed a video} etc.

I just tried to tell you how to strike out words and it won't let me so I'll edit the post at the bottom with instructions.

AndreaLeigh said...

I'm visiting from SITS. Hope you are having a happy Sunday! I can't wait to read more of your blog.

Kristin said...

Woke you up at 8:45 PRE-daylight savings time?? Oh my gosh. Don't even let me go there. I had a child in my bed at 5:3Oam today (pre-daylight savings). She asked me at bedtime why it took so long for us to "wake up" today. Uh, because it was the crack of dawn----at least at OUR house!

But on the postive side, she slept through Mass today so that was helpful. :-)

Brandy said...

Thanks for the tag! I will post my answers later this week...

...if you promise to send me one of those infamous silk pies!

j/k