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.

Happy **I Need a Drink** Halloween

Let's just start this off by saying that our Halloween evening didn't start out full of sunshine and happiness. This was Day Two of the fall school conference, meaning second day in a row of no school. I love my children dearly but for some reason lately they seem to feel my existence is purely to entertain, clothe, feed, pick up after and cater to their whims. So when it was time to start getting my children dressed and ready for our neighborhood chili dinner prior to trick-or-treating, I was already tired, drained and a bit miffed. I told them it wasn't nice to ME to make me a mean crabby mom. Yeah, I know, we make our own happiness, yada, yada, yada.

But we all got dressed, Julia's hair straightened, corn bread made and put into bowls, gathered TWO cameras and headed on over at 5:00. It was a beautiful day here; warm and sunny so my mood couldn't help but get better.

Here is Emma dressed as a fairy. She is not a head band kind of girl and we have caught her in the act of starting to remove the offending accessory.

Ryan was knight. He wasn't sure he liked this costume until he realized that he got to carry around Julia's pirate sword. My goal had been to have Ryan and Emma's costumes match some how. I never came up with anything brilliant (I save my brilliance for my blog-- LOL!!!) but a knight and fairy go well together... I think.

Jenna was so busy running around with her friend Kendall that I realized after I uploaded my pictures that I never got a full shot of her costume. UGH! But here's a picture of her running off. She's in the light pink leotard and tights and cream colored skirt. She was an ice skater.

Julia was supposed to be a pirate. She even had TWO costumes to chose from. But a pirate is not a girly girl costume so she spent the day coming up with a new costume. I told her I wouldn't spend one dime more, that she had to find things around the house. She ended up going as a prom queen. You'll see a better shot of her in a minute. I just love this photo of her with Emma.

The girls also decided that I needed to dress up as well. I'm sure that you don't find it hard to believe that I do dress up for Halloween. I just didn't have a plan for this year so the girls raided my closet and decided that I needed to go as a super model. They found a fancy dress they wanted me to wear along with a pair of 3 inch heels. For some reason I didn't feel confident in pulling the super model look off. The good news was that the dress actually fit!!!

So I played it totally ultra boring and safe this year. First I told them I was a best selling author. Later I told them I was Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight series. I had to go with Stephenie rather than Kay Bratt, my other favorite author, because Kay is blond and I am obviously not. I thought the sun glasses really helped pull it all together.

I find our block parties or even hanging outside to sometimes be somewhat stressful. Emma still doesn't walk well so she's crawling around scuffing her shoes and wearing holes in her pants. Tonight was no exception. I spent pre-dinner chasing her around, keeping her from putting various objects on the ground into her mouth and watching as she climbed all over a children's table. Then it was time to eat.

Let me ask you, have you ever tried to get food for 3 small children while holding a baby on your hip who grabs everything in reach. Throw in a 5 year old girl who thinks that she can eat only a handful of chips for dinner and 2 year old who only wanted a hot dog. But it only got better.

Jenna sat at this table.

Jenna sat on the other side of the driveway with Kendall.

Julia sat in a chair in the drive way.

And Ryan sat at another table closer to Emma. I got to run from child to child, the 3 younger children anyway, checking on them and making sure they weren't climbing on the table (Emma), eating other people's food off their plate (Emma and Ryan) and that they were actually eating their food (Jenna.) You would think that with all that running around that I wouldn't get a chance to eat but never fear. I ate plenty. I have to tell you that at one point as I was running around I thought to myself "Why am I stressing myself out like this?" but the happy looks on those children's faces made it pretty clear why I did it. They were happy and making happy memories. I was burning an extra 50 calories and inching myself closer to high blood pressure.

Then it was time for Trick-or-Treating.

I took the Big Boy camera back home and got the stroller so I didn't have to carry Emma around. I also needed to retrieve the trick-or-treat buckets and we were off.

We ended up going around with Kendall, much to Jenna's delight. We started out with most of the kids on the cul-de-sac but Ryan was pretty slow and soon the bigger kids took off without us.

Ryan really had no clue what all of this was about but it only took him one house to figure out that it was a good thing. Smart boy.

We walked around a couple of streets. Ryan was impossibly slow, Emma was getting restless in the stroller and at one point I turned to Kendall's dad and told him I had the title of this post already figured out. Happy ** I Need a Drink** Halloween It was no surprise that by the time we got close to our street Kendall's dad offered to let Jenna continue on with them so we could go home. Julia ran on home to turn on the porch light and pass out candy while I took the babies to a couple of other houses on our street. At the last house my neighbor opened the door and and asked me if I wanted to come in and have a drink. She told me that I looked like I needed one. Was it that obvious?

I guess Halloween wishes do come true.



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Edited Saturday morning at 9:30: I did want to add that the children were oblivious to my stress. They just had a good time. I was unhappy the I wasn't having a good time.