Blogging and My Life

Let's face it: I've been largely absent from the blogging world for quite some time.  (I know - you're all in rehab and going through therapy because you miss me so much; I'm sorry!) 

I'd love to be able to tell you that it's because I'm just too cool for school or that I'm working on something really, really big.  I'd love to be able to keep up with this and balance everything perfectly...

BUT the truth of the matter is this: Folks, I'm getting my ass kicked. 

Dudes, it's a struggle.  It's a beautiful, exciting, rewarding struggle, but there is no way I'd be doing anyone any good if I pretended it wasn't a battle.  When we found out we were expecting a fourth kiddo last year, I shrugged and said, "Meh... what's another babe? I'm already out-numbered!"  But now, a year after that announcement, I'm facing the reality that it isn't just the 4 kids... It's life.  It is simply life as an adult with mind-boggling mounds of responsibility that sometimes makes me feel like I'm trying to run in quicksand. 

Ya know?  It's the living-within-a-Nazi-budget thing because we're carrying two mortgages right now... it's the four-kids-who-deserve-my-best thing... the having-a-small-business-to-run-and-grow thing... the being-a-good-wife-and-household-manager thing... All of those.  And more.  Let me back up and explain a little bit - not because I want sympathy or am trying to bitch, but because maybe it'll comfort some of you to know that no, not everyone's life is smooth-as-silk all the time:

We just got full-use of our basement back.  After 20 weeks of dealing with the mold/water intrusion, we finally got it back.  We lost easily a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff to mold, not to mention the lost time, wasted opportunities, etc.  But that's better - finally!  However, we found out in August that the gentlemen who were renting our other house (which we were unable to sell in 2008 - thank you, economy) were leaving.  So we had to instantly pare down our budget and, while we've always lived well within our means, it has meant attempting to feed our family on $100 a week.  That has translated to added hours of pouring through grocery-store circulars, writing menus, compiling lists and coupons and trying to weigh cost-savings against healthy eating choices.  It literally sucks up hours of my week... However, that also means that I buy whole chickens instead of boneless-skinless breasts and nearly double my prep work for one dinner.  Lunches include apple slices that I have to peel, slice and soak in lime-juice instead of purchasing ready-made bags of them.  And that's fine!  I'm doing what I have to for us!  But that certainly doesn't leave any time for blogging... especially when that budget excludes disposable diapers and you consider the amount of laundry that goes into have 3 kids in cloth diapers full-time... And, let's be serious: we all know how I feel about laundry.

Jack, Jordan and Addie are in preschool this year so twice a week I am committed to getting them there and home.  And I have MOPS, a moms group at my church and also Jack's baseball practices and games to travel to and from, but beyond that, I have to have snacks prepared and packed, cups ready, diaper changes to consider, etc.  It's just a lot.  I'm keeping my photography business at a comfortable level, but as we head into the fall, it will pick up quite a bit (which is good! I love my craft!) and it will constitute even less free time.  Additionally, I have a few things on the horizon that are community-service related that include using my business to generate some income for some charity work.  Again, all of this is stuff that I dearly love and am happy and excited to do, but it takes time.

Oh, and we're raising four young kids.  Jack and Jordan are super active.  Addie has a speech-delay we are getting a treatment plan worked out for, and Peyton is exclusively breastfed with the appetite of a college football running back.   It is, at times, overwhelming.

Clearly this is just our normal.  It is not anything lamentable or regrettable, nor would I, for one hot second, assert that I have a difficult or bad life... Quite the opposite, in fact; I am happy and content and proud of where we are and I couldn't be more comfortable doing what we're doing with one another.

But it is because I love my life and am so happy with the decisions we've made and the paths we've walked that I find it impossible to put off any of my responsibilities in order to spend more time blogging.  Don't get me wrong - although I am content and blissful, I do spend some time every day struggling with frustration, stress, fear, uncertainty, doubt and anger.  (It would be entirely and freakishly unnatural if I did.)  And that fact is what this blog post is really about for me, and hopefully for you as well: it is for me to tell you that it's okay to feel the full spectrum of emotions - good as well as bad.  I just set about each day with the hope that if this is my last day on Earth, I may look back on it with no regrets.  That I might stand before the Lord proud of myself as a wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend and child of the God... that I might only need to pray for thanksgiving and ask only for the strength to live the next day as the one before it, should I be given the gift of tomorrow.  More often than not, there is at least one role in which I do not perform the way I'd have wanted to.  More often than not, I find myself praying also for forgiveness for my shortcomings in at least one area of my life and begging for just one more chance to do better. 

Either way, the result is always me waking up resolved to glorify God and serve my family, friends and brothers and sisters to the best of my mortal ability.  Rarely does that include blogging, but as it does mean I need some time to myself - to vent, to connect, to reach out, I'm not giving up on blogging because I do love it so much.  It's just that I'm asking your forgiveness for not having a post up every couple of days so that I can focus on being the person I know I am and making myself better each day.  I guess it also means I'm asking for your support and maybe a prayer or two to help me in that journey.

Thanks for reading and for sticking with us through everything!  I promise I'll be my witty, funny self next time!

Where I've Been (alternate title: Ugh)

Wow, that's quite a gap - like, a month... and a half.  Fail.

I'm super duper annoyed with myself for being a slacker.  It's totally fair for you all to be annoyed with me too.  I can't really explain why I haven't been blogging much without sounding like Whiney Whinerson, so I'll try to keep it brief since I don't love crying into my blog like it's a hankie:

Some dudes royally screwed the pooch with our house (Remember? The gorgeous, monster house I love so dearly and posted about before?  That house.  Yup.) and we ended up with a basement (which is where the kids' rooms are) full of mold.  And, as it turns out, basement walls full of water.  And a bunch of douchey contractors that refused to acknowledge the scope of the problem until I took it upon myself to start ripping baseboards off the walls.  It's awesome.  No, like truly AWESOME.  That nonsense isn't fit for human habitation so I have all 4 kids sleeping in my bedroom.  Yup - all 4.  (On the plus side, hooray for a master bedroom big enough for 1 queen bed, 1 crib, 1 Pack 'n Play and 1 twin-sized bed!)  And remember my struggles with Chronic Laundry Buildup?  Imagine what CLB symptoms look like when I no longer have THREE closets in which to hang 4 children's worth of clothing and when I cannot fold the 894 onesies Peyton has into dressers or the 9,476 socks Jack possesses or the 88 pairs of pants I have for the twins are homeless due to dressers being in mold-infested places.  So I've brought the dresser drawers upstairs and they ALSO number among the orphaned furniture items now cluttering up my bedroom.  And I have essentially no time to do anything because I spend about 75% of my life on the phone trying to get someone to do something beyond painting Killz on some baseboards and expecting me to be happy with that. 

Dudes, it sucks.  Look:

 Nursing chair, Pack 'n Play next to my side of the bed (the night stand is full of baby PJ'S)...

 There's Jack's bed - the mattress covered in junk on the floor in the corner next to Justin's side in front of a door.

 There's the crib... and no, I don't think it's a good idea for 60 lbs of terrible two's to still be occupying a crib, but I have no idea what else to do with them.

 

 

There's the stacks of drawers... the brown ones are Jack's, the long white ones are Peyton's and the short stack of many drawers belongs to the twins.  It's super annoying. 

And this is what I found when I pulled the baseboards off the wall in Peyton's room.  Grody, no? 

So I've been a super delightful person lately and haven't really wanted to burden anyone with my anger and frustration - my poor kiddos get enough of it as it is.  (I think we're all just getting tired of me being on the phone and us being reduced to 900 square feet of living space and constantly sushing because someone is always sleeping nearby - usually Peyton or Justin if he's on night shift) and no one having their own space to go to get away from the others...

Blech.  Be glad you're not me.  Actually, be glad you're not the contractors working with me because I reduced 3 grown men to near tears yesterday. 

Or be glad you're not a baseboard in my basement because that would mean I had abused you with a crow bar. 

Black and White Wednesday

Alright y'all I'm back.  It's a new year.  I'm going to be better about blogging.  Really.  I slacked big time at the end of last year.  And the first part of this year.  I'm sorry!  I owe you a ton of posts.  One of the big ones is about our lawsuit.  It'll be fun - like reading a Law & Order script... or... realistically, a Judge Judy script.  (Is Judge Judy scripted? I feel  like it has to be.)   We're also poised to close on the house at the end of the month, so that's super exciting and I need to put pictures of the progress up.  Um, for that matter, I need to go SEE the house - it's been since Christmas!

I have some amusing stories for you and some other junk that will make you smile, but for now, I'll leave you with a photo from our recent trip to Orlando... the iconic Disney castle in the Magic Kingdom.  I'll tell you all about the trip soon - promise!

(Sorta makes me feel all Princess-y... and I am NOT a Princess-y person.  At all.)

Link up and have a great day!

Gasp!

Dudes, seriously, I can't even keep my head above water right now.  My life is being super high-maintenance and that means blogging is the first ball I drop (because a blog doesn't have fees for being overdue on posting or end up in the E.R. if I'm not watching it constantly or burn because I leave it in too long).  I'll do what I can, but every waking moment is currently occupied with... junk.  Just junk.

Our trip to Virginia was a ton of fun - and successful, since we nominally won our court case.  However, it was in District Court so the Defendant has a chance to appeal the ruling in Circuit Court which will mean another trip back to VA for us and also means I can't talk about the case yet.  BUT we got to spend time with some of the greatest people in the world while we were there, and it's an enjoyable drive, so we had a good time and are looking forward to going back!

I'm decorating for Christmas early (because I'm so excited for it this year!) and spending lots of time playing with the kids - it feels wonderful to get back to the basics of being a Mommy.

The house is hurrying along - we have walls and will have a roof up and a sealed home by Friday!  We're planning to pack up the house we're in around mid-January and close and move by the first week of February!  Our builder is a total rockstar and seems super duper proud of this house - he's as excited as we are!

My dad is going to come out for a visit in early December and I'm working on planning fun holiday stuff for that trip, then there's my favorite holiday EVER, then we're headed to Disney World in early January with the other grandparents before we head back to pack up and move.

Somewhere in there I need to shop for the kiddos' gifts and pick up charity stuff and make monumental decisions like paint, hardwood flooring, granite, fixtures, lighting, where outlets go (um, everywhere!) and carpeting.  I've got cookies to bake and decorate, big meals to fix, and Christmas cards to think about maybe doing.  I'd like to breathe a couple of times, but I'll have to see if that works out.

And it might not sound like much, I realize, but the kids are being really demanding lately and the babe in my belly seems to enjoy causing a fair amount of pain on a pretty regular basis (and at 23 weeks, that's not encouraging, by the way.  Sigh.) so everything takes me about 3 times as long as it should.


Oh! And I turned 28.  3 days ago.  It was a wonderful birthday because NO ONE had a single tantrum AND I got Dunkin' Donuts because my husband is a total angel.  I consider it a success - and a monumental age because it's probably the last birthday I'm going to acknowledge.  I will be 28 every year from here on out (even if I can only realistically pull it off for another few) so feel free to file my age away for memory - it's not changing anytime soon.

So, on that note, I'm going to finish feeding my girls lunch, bathe them, dress them, pick Jack up from school, put the girls down for nap, and keep working on my Christmas decorations (currently 4/5 trees complete!)...

I'll do my best to come up with something witty, amusing and fun soon!

Friday's Here!

I tried to stay away.  I told myself I'd come up with something original and inspiring for you, but the questions were just irresistible... you'll see!  Enjoy!

1. If you could speak with a different accent, what would it be?

I'm not sure I care... I just wish I had SOMETHING.  I'm from Colorado and that means I'm essentially a blank slate.  I pick up accents everywhere I live and end up sounding like... well, mud.  I've got a New York/Charleston/Virginia/Tennessee thing going on and it's not pretty.  I'd like just SOMETHING.  I'd settle for Tennessee, because, ya know, I live here and it'd make me fit in a little better.  I force some "yall"s out when I'm talking to people but it sounds pretty fake when it's on the heels of me talking about some "schmuck", ya know?

2. Can you fall asleep anywhere?

This wasn't a skill I possessed all my life.  Sleep deprivation in college helped a LOT - I found I could fall asleep sitting in a chair next to the professor in a 4-person seminar.  THAT is skill.  Following that, being pregnant with Jack and working at a high-pressure law-firm, I found that the only way to get through a day was to spend my lunch break sleeping in the trunk of my Prius in the parking garage.  I don't get enough sleep - ever - so I have adapted to get it when and where I can.  It's useful.

3. Do you use public restrooms?

Psh, of course.  I aint skrrrrrd.  I even sit.  I mean, I'll wipe off some pee if it's splattered on the seat, but I figure if my butt cheeks get germy, that's too bad.  They go right back in my pants and I put the pants in my washer.  Or they put new germs on my toilet seat, but I clean those constantly.  I even pee in porta-potties.  I hate being full of pee and any grodiness is totally worth it to me to get rid of it. Seriously.  I'm also not afraid or ashamed of squatting behind some bushes.  I was born, apparently, with some very easy-going buttcheeks.

4. Stuck in an elevator with a celebrity for 24 hours?

I'm wickedly claustrophobic so I'm going to go with that guy that can escape from anything... You know.  Him.  I'd do just about anything to him to ensure that he'd let me out once he escaped.  I'm guessing, though, that's against the spirit of the question, so I'll go with Tina Fey because she is my freaking idol.  So funny.  So cute.  So awesome.  But to  make me feel better, can we make it a very large elevator?

5. Where did you and your significant other go on your first date?

Aw, ready for some cuteness?  I have a story for ya.  Once upon a time, there was a Melis and there was a Justin.  They were freshman at the same school, in the same Engineering class. Justin was in Navy ROTC and Melis was in Air Force ROTC.  She had noticed how handsome Justin was, and, even though she had multiple boyfriends at the time, she couldn't help the fact that Justin took her breath away.  Truly.  She had been hoping for weeks just to talk to him.  They had a ball coming up - the annual Tri-Military ROTC Ball - and Melis had turned down three date offers for the night (knowing that it was mandatory to have a date) hoping and praying that Justin, the guy she'd not spoken to in her life, would ask her.  In desperation, Melis called Justin one day, stammering on the phone like an idiot because in her (uncharacteristically un-suave) panic she forgot his name momentarily.  She asked him something lame about homework.  He replied something smart-assed.  It was mortifying but it ended with Justin asking Melis to the ball and Melis doing a crazed happy dance.

On the evening of the Ball, Melis dressed to the nines with a stomach full of butterflies on speed.  Justin was in his uniform and beyond handsome.  The evening was perfect... And the best part?  No kissing.  No hand-holding.  Just good, old-fashioned chivalry.  Total romance.  Melis and Justin were growing something incredible and weren't sure what or how but they did not want to rush into anything and instead spent months enjoying those drugged butterflies flitting around in their bellies, delighting in each new step and each new sensation and gave their roots plenty of time to grow deep and entwined.

One of these days, if you ask me nicely, I'll continue the story.  It's ADORABLE.

Sigh.  Loved that question! Thanks, Mama M.!  Head over her way to participate your own self! (See?  Working on the "Southern" thing here.)

Five Question Friday

Sick babies and a migraine yesterday derailed my Back2Blogging crap because I ended up going Back2Bed thanks to some Benedryl (for the kids).  So, instead of continuing on to the last day, which requires too much thought and insight, I'm opting for Mama M.'s Five Question Friday instead.  I just wanted a lighter, easier morning of blogging.

So, here we go:

1. What is the 1st nightmare you remember?

Easy.  Peasy. It still haunts me.  I was probably about 5 and I had a fever from some kind of illness and I remember dreaming that the basement level of our house had become Hell - complete with fire and eerie laughter and pitchfork carrying... Cabbage Patch Dolls?  Yes.  My Cabbage Patch Dolls had become demonic rulers of Hell and I was, for some reason, incapable of stopping myself from descending the stairs straight into their firey clutches.  I think I woke up shortly before they actually grabbed me, or my mom woke me up because I was screaming, but I vividly recall the way the fever made me feel hot and how it made the dream seem more real - I also remember feeling my body throb and it seeming like the devilish music the Dolls were swaying to was actually something I could hear.   Ugh - it was terrible.  I HATE fever dreams and I will NEVER own or allow another Cabbage Patch Doll into my house.

2. Favorite sport to play or watch?

Okay, I don't really *play* sports.  I'll flop around like a moron on some court or another or on a field or something, but it's really just a bad imitation of coordination so I avoid that like the plague.  However, I am a die-hard football fan.  College, pro, doesn't matter.  I love football season, I love football food, I love football culture, I love, love, love it.  I love the random dings and chimes associated with network football coverage, and the cadence of the game soothes me, I love the way the announcers' voices sound and the entire experience can always put me at ease.  Unless it's a Notre Dame game, in which case I don't relax until it's over.

3. Once piece of trendy fashion I could pull off?

Well, I don't mind leggings and I wear those only because I wear them with shirts long enough to hide the badonkadonk  and I rather like stuffing leggings into clunky fuzzy boots because the bigness of the boots makes my legs look skinnier by comparison.  And I don't like jeggings (ew, childhood bad memories of the 80's) so I don't give a hoot about them.  I think I wish I could do skinny jeans, but that's just because I wish my badonk weren't so squishy and melty-looking and if I had a sweet little tush, I wouldn't care what I'd be putting it into, pants-wise, because I'd be so happy to have a hot hiney.  I do wish I could pull off hats, though.  I feel like they can totally make an outfit and they look good on me, but I am always afraid I'll look like I'm trying too hard. Does that make sense?  Like, look, I built this whole outfit around a hat.  How lame am I for trying so hard to look cool?  Because I'd totally have to build an outfit around a hat and I'd be desperately trying to look cool.  I think I'm NOT a fashionista at all.

4.  Did you make good grades in school?

Oh boy, I was a total over achiever.  My high school GPA was like a 4.78 or something absurd like that because I am a complete and total geek.  In college, uh, that slipped a little because I over extended myself with trying to do chemical engineering and biochemistry as a double major plus Air Force ROTC and enjoy college life.  So I eeked it out of freshman year with the first D in my life (some sort of crazy calculus course) that was a huge relief to get because I passed the class... and got a C in physics and decided that was all for the birds and switched to Political Science and History (blech, in retrospect, blech) and promptly resumed my over-achieving (and desperate attempts to resurrect my GPA from the damage dealt during my frosh year...).  Yeah, I was kinda obnoxious.

5. What magazines do you subscribe to?

Well, none.  None by choice, but I somehow get American Baby sent to me ALL the time for free.  It's like the magazine gods know that I'm perpetually pregnant so they just keep my house constantly stocked with baby mags.  It's a little irksome because I'm not really sure, at this point, how many "Your Total Newborn Care How-To Guide"s I really need... or how many "Breast or Bottle, Which Is Right For You" articles I can read in the bathroom anymore.  I generally just give them to the girls who love to look at other babies and call it a day.

Head over to Mama M.'s blog to play along, or leave your answers as a comment! I'd love to know what you're up to!

Through Your Eyes (Back2Blogging Day 3)

It's the 3rd day of the Back2Blogging challenge with the SITS Girls and I've found a post with a title I particularly like to share with you.  It's not that the title is clever, or that it's catchy or has an awesome search engine ranking... it's that it's addressed directly to my son.  This blog is as much about being MY outlet as it is about journaling my path through motherhood, and one day, I'd love for my kiddos to be able to read about it.  This post is for Jack and for me, probably more than it was for my readers, and I'm proud of myself for creating this post the way I did.  Does any of that make sense?  Gah, probably not!

My dearest Jack, I had no idea, when you found my old digital camera, that you would figure out how to use it.  Nor had I any idea that when you brought it to me and asked me to "lookit pitchers" on the "commuter" that I would find on its memory stick a treasure of the rarest kind: insight into how you look at the world.  I found, among the pixels, another clue into who you are - into what is most important to you and into what you see through your eyes.

 

When you were very little, before you could crawl and roll, I read in a magazine that parents should crawl around their house and "look at things from the child's perspective" in order to help baby-proof the home.  I did that, and I picked up nick-knacks and I plugged outlets and wound up cords... but there is no way I really "saw" what you see.  I didn't realize how wonderfully interesting that plastic "pukkin" in its basket of leaves can be to a toddler just discovering the fact that seasons change and holidays are special occasions replete with their own adornments that set them apart from every other day.  The pukkin that I take for granted as a routine decoration that just goes along with the drop in temperature is so much more to you - it's strange and different and out-of-place and therefore worthy of capturing with your pitcher taker.  It's fodder for deep discussions about the color orange and the fact that leaves do grow on trees which are very tall and sometimes hide the birds making all that noise.  So that these things now sit on the floor in your living room is astonishing and interesting, and I never grasped that until now.

 

Your toys are important to you in the same way that my cell phone is important to me.  The way my wallet and keys and credit cards are... Those things are essential to me getting through the day and they are the tools I use to conduct myself in this world.  Your toys are your tools for interacting with your world.  They are how you express yourself and how you learn, and they are as integral to your day and to your life as my phone and internet are to mine.  So it is perfectly natural that you would capture your "dackter" in the camera's memory - though I cast it aside as an annoying nuisance to trip over and put away each night, it is so much more than that to you.

 

... Your airplanes are classified into two kinds: "Airplanes," and "Brrrrrm-brrrrrm"'s, which Daddy is forever trying to convince you are actually called "propeller aircraft" but I keep telling him is an obnoxiously specific name and using the sound it makes is not only more efficient but more practical.  We have long discussions about airplanes; we talk about the sounds they make, the "boom booms" they carry and cause things to go "bouf", their speed, where they go, whether or not we can see them "high up in sky" or if "there too mannay clouds"... Maybe one day you'll be an aerospace engineer like your Dad, or maybe you'll make your desire to "fly up in space to look at stars" come to fruition...

 

I had no idea, Little Man, that when we bought our house in Georgia near the railroad tracks we were buying into a life-long love of all things train.  I don't know if it was that twice-daily visit from the St. Mary's Railroad engine that imparted your love of locomotives, cars, tracks, bridges, tunnels and cargo, or if you were born hard-wired to be fascinated by the rails, but I do know that, even though we don't have a train that rocks past our house every day, our lives are full of "hoot-hoot"-ing and "chug-chug"-ing just as often anyway and I would not want it any other way.  Your train-o-philia is so much a part of your personality, I am not in the least surprised to see frame after frame of photographs of your collection - the tracks, the table, the engines and cars... Jack, I love your enthusiasm and focus so much.

 

This photo is so bittersweet to me.  I don't think I have any other pictures of me nursing any of you kids.  Jack, you captured, in such a respectful and innocent way, one of the most intimate moments I get as a Mommy.  It makes me sad, to an extent, that this is what you see from me so often - me, on the sofa, baby on lap... but it makes me so happy that you're there with me, sharing the experience.  Even though you're over two and a half years old, Jack, and even though those chunky pink legs belong to your little sister Addie, they just as easily could have belonged to you; it wasn't that long ago that I was holding you on that Boppy, on my lap, on that sofa.  I never would have seen myself this way if you hadn't given me this photograph. Thanks, Buddy... it means so much.

 

My first inclination when I saw this last one was to holler at you to stop flashing yourself because it will  hurt your eyes, but it's too late, and I should just hush and enjoy looking at how blond your hair is and how blue your eyes are and how long your lashes are.  So here I am, marveling at how bright you are in so many ways, Kiddo...  and at how awesome it is that you've given me the chance to step behind those bright blue eyes and look out from your windows and see your world...  It's fascinating and heart-warming and funny all at once. 

 

So thank you, Buddy, for sharing with your Mama.  I love you beyond comprehension.

A Post I Wish More People Read...

Continuing on with the SITS Girls and Back2Blogging week, I'm re-posting a very old post that I wish more people had read.

I don't wish more people had read it because it was insightful or beautifully-written or touching... It's just funny.  But more than that, it's one of those mom-ments (get it?) when we realize that moms aren't perfect.  We make mistakes.  And our harshest critics are ourselves.  But at the end of the day, we're still doing the best we can and everything we do is out of love and devotion to our families... so long as we don't take ourselves too seriously, even our doofiest mistakes can help us grow - both in what we've learned and in our sense of humor that makes all the stress of motherhood a little easier to handle.

I was utterly furious when I wrote this post - furious and dejected and frustrated... but the entire situation ended up being hilarious and it's my best example of how I keep from being overwhelmed by those annoying "life" bumps that come along... just by laughing at the absurdity of the adventures of being a mommy.  (Be warned: there are a couple of "f-bombs" embedded in this particular post!)

Titled "About A Moron" from May of 2008:

So today I did what I consider to be basically the stupedest (yes, I am going to use it as if it were a legitimate word) thing I have probably ever done in my life.

Let me preface this whole story with one fact that you must always, ALWAYS keep in mind while reading it: I am a BRICK. Educated, yes, intelligent, fairly, but underneath it all, a big, giant, unthinking BRICK.

I had to drop something off on base at the off-crew office today at a certain time. I showed up with Jack two hours before the deadline and was very proud of myself for being on time. As I was depositing my stuff, someone came up to me and told me that I had missed the window of opportunity and that I would have to collect my things and take them with me. I was so upset! I nearly cried right there because I was also dropping things off for Amber and I promised her I'd have it there on time. I asked what he was talking about because no one had told me the time had changed and he replied, "Yeah, well, it was 30 minutes ago... sorry... they tried to get the word out so I guess you missed the message." Well, I know very well that I would have known about any time changes since I'm one of the people that PUTS the word out about such things. So, dejectedly, I left with my stuff, hoping that things might work out next time and feeling like a huge turd because I was letting people down.

So I got back to the car and started strapping Jack into his car seat. I had my bag slung over my shoulder and my car keys in one hand and he was struggling to pull them out of my hand and pushing random buttons and beeps were going crazy and it was annoying so I chucked the keys in the driver's seat and put my bag on the ground to use both hands to wrestle him into his seat. Finally situated, I gave him some smarties and some nuggets and shut the door. I picked up my bag to toss it on the passenger's seat and head to the playgr.... FUCK the door was locked. LOCKED. All of the doors were locked. The keys were on the driver's seat. I was looking at them. Jack was in his car seat. I was looking at him.

I lost it. I wailed, "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" and just put my forehead on the window and started saying, "no no no no no" and sobbing.

This was not my car. This was Matt's car. I was driving Matt's fucking car and my child was sitting inside and my keys were in there with him. And there were lots and lots of dudes looking at me like I belonged in an institution (I do.) or something.

Someone came up to me and asked what was going on and I explained the situation and he said he'd call dispatch and base security would come help me out.

I was very grateful.

But then it turns out that base security entailed several trucks, fire truck, ambulance and patrol cars. With lights and sirens.

As if my humiliation wasn't at it's pinnacle, now I'm a spectacle in addition to a shit-show.

I do, at this point, need to reassure everyone that it was only 68 degrees outside instead of the 95 degrees it has been for the last week. So at least God thought I deserved SOME kind of break. I would have broken a window within 30 seconds if it were any hotter outside.

Jack was just chilling in there the whole time, smiling at the 50 or so people that stopped to say any number of things along the lines of, "wow, that sucks!" or "gosh what a nice car - I hope they don't have to break a door off!" or "wow, this is going to take awhile" or "what will her husband say?" etc.

Meanwhile, someone has just informed me that the deadline I thought I had missed hadn't been missed after all and they were wrong and I can go ahead and drop my stuff off. So apparently Fate had a shitty way of keeping me there so I could get everything turned in before I got home and had to turn around. Oh, because I forgot to add that I have no cell phone because it is on the coffee table so I couldn't call anyone to ask what the hell was going on until I got back here.

Anyway, back to the car that has my keys and my baby inside...

So after a bunch of guys assess the situation as being beyond hope, one of the security guys shows up and has a slim-jim to pop the locks (which are electronic so the old methods don't work) and I had to explain to him how important it was that they try really really hard to get this fixed without hurting the car at all because it's um, well, not my f-ing car. (And boy, oh boy, the looks I got when I explained that I was tooling around in my husband's best friend's car while they're out to sea...) I got chewed out for giving more of a shit about the car than my kid, which stung, but I know where my priorities were and I knew I'd buy Matt a new car before I let Jack sit in there for more than another 20 minutes, but I had to at least try to make sure they were as careful as possible.

They did, after a couple minutes, get it open and I doled out some massive hugs to the guys and scooped Jack out of his carseat and just held him for like 10 minutes while people thinned out and shook their heads at my idiocy. He was totally fine. He actually ate more food than he has in a week while he was sitting there, so I was pretty happy about that. The car is fine. I, however, not so much. I am a brick. No question about it. I'm embarrassed, I'm ashamed, I was scared, and now I'm writing about it because I'm a glutton for punishment.

Thank God it wasn't too hot out. Thank God Jack is too young to remember my negligent parenting. Thank God that He watches out for drunks and fools because I am the latter and would LOVE to be the former to forget about all of this nonsense.

At least I met the deadline. So really, the only person I let down today was me.

ROCK on.

Back2Blogging #1 - My First Blog Post

It's not really that I've been away... really... it's just that I've been distracted and tired and barfy... but, ya know... I could use some inspiration here and there.  So, I'm joining the STIS Girls in their blog challenge - Back2Blogging. 

Today, we're re-posting our first post... with possible changes, re-writes, etc... as well as what we like about it.

Here it is: "As If You Don't Waste Enough Time Online Already"

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I suppose I'm doing myself no favors by creating yet another avenue of keeping up with our lives. I'm injecting another method for wasting what little free time I have and thereby making it hard to complain without people rolling their eyes when I say, "gosh, I'm just so busy/tired." What's more, is that I'm sure it's no secret, but I'm a pretty big doufus 90% of the time and a blog is basically guaranteeing that I'll be exposing myself to ridicule and criticism every time I pull a stunt like letting Jack take a grand dump on my cell phone after his bath.

Oh well.

I know most of you are avid readers of the baby page, or at least avid lookers-at-pictures-but-not-leavers-of-comments, but this blog will probably have a little more of the adult (*gasp* but not "adult" as in, wouldn't want to let a priest read it) and a little less of the "oh look how cute my baby is." But, let's be serious, my baby is damn cute, and I'll probably talk about him at least 50% of the time because my life consists of little else.

Distilled down, I just said this page is going to be really boring. That being the case, read at your own risk. Enjoy if you can. And welcome.

Best,
Melissa

****

I began my blog when my husband was deployed and I was lonely - reaching out to a few friends and family who read and followed my life with little Jack when it was just the 3 of us.  I don't think I'd change anything about the post, and I'm pretty glad that I've not waived from my original intent.  I did a brief foray into the world of AdSense, but realized that I'm not about trying to keep up with the likes of MckMama, so I took them down and intend to just plain keep it real (note: there is nothing wrong with ads and using a blog as a source of income; I'm just not there right now) as an outlet for my passions and creativity, my venue for venting and gushing, and as a way of connecting to friends all over the world.  And for me, that's just fine.  What do you think? 

5Q Friday...

Alright... I'm feeling pretty uninspired.  I'm working on some super-dooper awesome posts for next week, but I'm being an annoying perfectionist, so they'll have to wait... Buuuuuut, I need something to distract me from browsing through Gymboree's awesome sale online and drooling over all the freaking adorable fall clothing for littles.  So, enter Mama M.'s Five Question Friday.  I LOVE Mama M.'s blog.  I don't know why I don't end up commenting more on it.... but she's so genuine and so funny - I feel like I'd want her as an aunt.  Or a L&D nurse.  Definitely for an L&D nurse.  (And sometimes reading her stories of being an L&D nurse makes me want to have more kids.  That's how you KNOW there's something wrong with me.)

Anyway, head to her blog to play along OR leave a comment and let me know what your answers would be - fun!

1) Do you feel guilty spending money on yourself?

Um, YES!  It kinda gives me cold sweats to buy myself stuff.  Or eat anything that's NOT on the dollar menu.  I mean, the last time I paid someone to cut my hair was in Georgia.  Jack was 18 months old, and the twins had yet to be conceived.  THAT is intense.  (No, my hair is not super long... I got sick of it about 3 months ago and used some Fiskars to lop off about 6 inches of it on my back deck.)  My wardrobe gets refreshed when my sweet and super fashionable little sis brings me hand-me-downs as she cleans out her closet.  Sigh.  It's not like we're in dire financial straits or anything, but I'd so much rather see my kids in new clothes that fit or reading a new book or put money in a piggy bank for my Dyson or something.

2) How well do you know your neighbors?

We've only lived here for about 4 months, but we LOVE having a sense of community around us, so we're certainly trying to get to know more people.  We lived in college dorms, followed by an apartment with our best friends surrounding us, then to a military base where everyone was friendly, to a fantastic neighborhood in Georgia where we'd have regular "driveway gatherings"... to Virginia where that started to go away and now we're here and we're putting forth a HUGE effort to learn people's names and a little about them.  The people across the street are swingers, though, so I don't really try too hard with them.

3) What age are you looking forward to being?

I like Mama M.'s answer... but I don't really look forward to being any particular age because I'm much more focused on enjoying each minute of every day.  It's not easy... but I've got no guarantee that I'll get to be any other age than what I am TODAY, so I try to relish that instead of looking ahead too far in case I get too busy dreaming about some future time that I stop appreciating now.  Does that make sense?  However, if someone could tell me I'm going to win the lottery at a certain age, I'll pick that.

4) Do you get excited when the mail comes?  Why?

Yeah, I do... a little bit... not every day, but pretty often.  I think it's a combination of a) me having an excuse to leave the kids in the house and walk to the mailbox alone for a second of fresh air and freedom (that's so sad and pitiful, I should delete it so you don't all know how pathetic I am) and b) the possibility of there being something cool in it... like Disc 3, season 7 of Entourage.  I was thinking about the whole "mail" thing and marveling that my kids will probably not really "get" what it's like to be excited about the mail... and if they do, my grandchildren certainly won't.  So weird.  They totally won't understand "film" or "corded telephones" either.  (Sorry, I digress!)

5) What is your earliest childhood memory?

Hm, I'm not sure of timelines, so I don't know what would be my earliest... I have tons and TONS of very vivid memories from being very young - before my sister was born, certainly.  I'm 4 years older than her, so I can recall things from earlier than that, at least.  I remember once staying with my dad's parents, Grammy and Grandpa, and eating dinner from a kiddie-plate shaped like a train (pork chops, potatoes and veggies) while Grammy baked bread (delicious bread full of holes and very buttery tasting) and then heading to a local store called "Duckwall" to buy thread so Grammy could finish sewing a dress for me.  I remember going back to their house afterward (in their giant blue Cadillac station wagon) to take a bath (in which I got to play with a plastic shape-sorter ball) and I can even recall the smell of the soap which was slightly floral and light pink-colored.

Okay, that's enough nonsnese for one morning - the girls are jail-bird style rattling their crib bars and squaking "Mama"! so I'd better go scoop them up and get a-snugglin'.

You Know You're a Mom...

I should be cleaning.  I really should be.  But we all know how that goes for me.  I knew this was how it was going to happen... I'd procrastinate and delay and make excuses until I'm facing a crunch that'll be fueled by 3 cans of Coke at 11 pm and I'll whip the house into shape after everyone goes to bed.  It's like being in college again, but with Lysol and poop smears instead of FDR and the New Deal and my highlighters and note cards.

But my kids are being absurdly cute.  And they're sitting in their highchairs and we're singing songs while I blog.  And I don't really want to be anywhere else.  The simplicity of talking about where our noses are and playing peekaboo behind the laptop screen between sentences is so peaceful.

Before they woke up this morning I was looking at some of our pictures from the weekend and they made me miss my kiddos.  So I woke them up instead of squeezing in a few toilet cleanings.

I think I'm truly a nut case... I go between being so frustrated that I can't accomplish housework because they're mini tornadoes and being so enamored with them that I don't want to waste a single second with them by scrubbing soap scum.

Though, I guess I'm a little entitled to having a bit of a split personality since I'm fairly certain all kids are at least mildly schizophrenic, right?  One second (like, two paragraphs ago) they were being cute and babbling at me about noses and asking about their other facial features and now they're throwing french toast sticks at me and thumping their be-Tinkerbell'ed chests like wee monkeys because they're apparently quite finished with breakfast.

Geez, girls.

Crazy is just part of my life now.  I've kinda accepted it, totally embraced it, and freely admit to it.  It makes it a little easier to laugh when I find the twins pretending to be little Monet's by "painting" the couch cushions with their bottles of milk or systematically crushing animal crackers and dropping them down the air ducts while I'm busy cleaning up the "soup" Jack made by mixing cream of tartar with salt and green sprinkles in a bowl full of water and then spilled when he tasted it and violently recoiled with disgust.

I mean, what kind of lunatic gleefully flounces out the door at 9 pm to go to the grocery store, sans offspring, and feels like she's been granted the vacation of the century as she peacefully picks produce and compares prices in silence, meandering down aisles that even contain toys and candy with reckless abandon because, unencumbered, she knows she does not have to barter, bargain, bribe or plead in order to escape without either a fight or an acquiescence.

A mom... that's what kind.

Hit up my girl Arizona Mamma's blog for more camaraderie!

Pssst...

I'm still here!  I just have family in town and we're making the absolute most of every single minute we've got together... and finding ourselves utterly exhausted each afternoon from too much sun and too much fun... I'm still reading yours (but not always being able to comment... it doesn't work well on my mobile browser) and I hope you'll come back soon because I have fun stuff to share!  Please don't be mad at me - I just had to prioritize a little bit this week! 

Thanks for understanding and I hope you're all enjoying the last drops of summer too!

Sweet Nonni

My husband's Grandma - well, our Grandma - passed away early yesterday morning.

My family is heading to New York to celebrate her life and join our loved ones in remembering how kind and sweet she was.  We're gathering to rejoice in our shared love for her and in the knowledge that she loved us as all with her whole heart.  It will be a beautiful occasion with laughter and tears and the imperfect, selfishly human sadness that comes from missing someone even though we know we shouldn't grieve for the joyful occasion of going to God...

But I will not be blogging or visiting others' blogs while I'm away. 

I will, of course, miss you all - who make me giggle and smile - but I'll be back soon.

It's just that I'm busy with the trip... and busy reflecting.  And praying.  And thanking God that I was given the gift of having Nonni in my life.  And trying to explain to little Jack what it means when someone dies.

It's hard.

But with all things that are difficult or painful, I embrace the sting and the ache because it proves that my love is there... The contrast of sadness keeps my happiness in focus.  I am lucky that I feel the pain.

So we will go and celebrate.  And I will be back soon.  Thanks for understanding!

Color Splash Sunday - Encore!

I had so much fun with Amy's CSS last weekend, that I figured I'd try it again.  You should too!  If you aren't sure how to do it, let me know and I can try to talk you through how I do it.  There are also great tutorials if you search how to colorize or color splash photos.

Her theme this week is "Toys of Yesterday"... and she said it just had to be something that I've held on to from my childhood.... Well, that was pretty tricky for me.  I'm uh, the total opposite of a pack-rat.  I throw stuff away that I probably shouldn't.  I'm anti-clutter.  I'm anti-knick-nack.  I pride myself on the amount of bare horizontal surfaces in my home.  I designate areas for my hubby's clutter and impress upon him that items found outside his "crap zone" are going in the garbage.

That being said, I hang on to NOTHING... especially having moved as many times as we have; I just don't have room in my life for useless, lead-painted stuff I had as a child.  And, let's face it, nothing I had was so valuable to me that I'd haul it around with me - just my memories, my relationships.  The things I treasure most are the things I can't bring with me - like my family. 

But I did spot one thing - ONE thing in my life now that came from my old life: my old baby blanket.  I realized it's on Jack's bed now, wrapped around the headboard so he doesn't bonk his noggin in the middle of the night.  Before, it hung over the rail we used to keep him from falling out, and even before then, it hung on the side of his crib to block out distractions.  My Great-Aunt Lois made it.  It's a chunk of my childhood that only found its way into our lives because it serves a function now.  And I wouldn't have even paid it a bit of attention without Amy making me look hard. 

That's my little 11-month old Jack poking his sleepy little head out of his crib a few states and a couple years ago... I love that kid and I'm glad he's got a little piece of my history so close to him.

I mean, I thought about doing something like Legos (I mean, what kid DIDN'T have Legos?!) or Chutes and Ladders, but neither of those things were actually MINE and they didn't have any particular significance to me and who I am.  And I got the impression that the big point of this week was to see a little bit of yesterday.

So join in - it's really lots of fun and it's enjoyable to have a theme that makes ya think a little. 

You Know You're A Mom When-sDAZE

I don't think it's much of a secret that one of my fave bloggers (and people!) of all time is Arizona Mamma.  I can always count on her to make me giggle or cry or nod my head like, "Yeah - YEAH!" And her fun meme for Wednesdays is no different.

She says, "'You Know You’re a Mom When-sDAZE' is a great way for us, as parents, to make light of our trials and tribulations. Our day to day run-ins with the crazy little people in our lives we call children."

Have you read my blog?  I think that's a pretty pervasive theme throughout the whole thing... but taking a special day to focus on just those absurd moments where it hits you that yeah, it doesn't matter how hawt stuff you used to be, right this moment you've got poo under your fingernails and goo on your chin and the most important task you've got is how to open that juice box before you have a three-year-old tantrum to quell.

For instance, most people would be aghast to see a small child playing in a toilet.  I, however, snapped a few pictures of Jordan thinking, "Aw, look how cute her dress is!" and continued stuffing inserts into my cloth diapers, taking advantage of her being occupied and not attempting to climb my leg or otherwise make diaper stuffing impossible.

Diaper stuffing?  Did I see myself doing that when I graduated from the University of Notre Dame?  No, I did not.

But that's okay, because poop washes off and goo is removable and Purell makes hand sanitizer.  Without all of that, I wouldn't have cute little hineys like this

to chase after, or adorable little imps like this

to keep me busy, or heart-melting scenes like this

to make me happy beyond belief.

So, even if installing a baby gate takes me 5 days or if a turd rolls out of a diaper and across the floor, necessitating that I snatch it up before a kiddo can so I have to just pluck it up bare-handed and get last night's dinner embedded under my nails, or if the toilet becomes a crutch to buy me 2 minutes of peace, I know I'm a mom.... and that makes me smile.

Join in if you've ever "been there"!

Hi, From Tennessee!

I know it has been forever and I'm so sorry - I miss you all!  I haven't been able to read or comment on my favorite blogs, participate in my favorite memes or post anything at all for the last little bit because of our move to Tennessee.

BUT, though I've still got some stuff to finish up before I can really get back into the game, I wanted to assure you that I'm still here, baby!

I've got lots of fun pictures, some reflections on our Naval career and on my amazing friendships, and some funny stories for you from our 600 mile move that I'll post over the next week or so. 

For now, though, I'm off to enjoy having my hubby's parents around for a few more days and enjoy not having many responsibilities beyond making the most of family time.  It is really really awesome... I mean, sure, I've got a house full of boxes haphazardly stacked in barely controlled chaos as well as a mile-long list of stuff to buy at Lowe's, mysteriously non-functional laundry roomS, and a highly suspect yard full of hay(?) to figure out, but what else is a Monday good for if not dealing with that junk?  I think I'll just take my quiet, peaceful, giggle-filled Sunday instead.

See ya soon!

For Your (Kate's) Information...

Dear Readers (Kate),

I regret to inform you that I might take a week off of posting as I need to travel to a different state to find a house for us to occupy when we un-occupy the collossial p.o.s. dump in which we currently reside.

I will strive to write some junk ahead of time to post while I'm gone, but packing for 5 people with 4 sick people in the family AND cleaning the house (because I cannot leave a dirty house behind) takes a HUGE chunk of time, so I can't guarantee anything.

I promise (Kate) that I will be back in action very soon and I will miss you all more than you will miss me, I'm sure!

Tell you what... while I'm gone, you all get to cook up some questions for me to answer in a post when I return.  Go ahead - ask anything!  It can be about food, twins, me, Navy-wifehood - anything!  Just be warned: a non-PG question will receive a non-PG answer (I'm very honest, folks) and if you don't want to hear the answer to something, don't ask it! 

So, comment away and ask your questions and I'll work on that while I'm gone - mmmm kay? (Kate?)

Fun!

Mom 'n Me Monday

Julie over at The Peanut Gallery is trying to insist this isn't a meme, but I'm pretty sure it actually is.  Even if it's not, it's a really cool thing for us to try.  By "us" I mean: anyone with kids, a camera and a blog. 

We take lots of pictures (too many, in my case) but are in very, very few.  And maybe that's fine.  I'm happy in my comfort zone behind the lens... but will I regret not busting out of that mold more often later down the road when my kids are grown and all I've got are memories and photographs, and if the first fails, just photographs?  Yeah, I probably will.  Of course now I look at pictures of me with the kids and critique the bags under my eyes and wonder why my mascara is clumped or think I look pudgy or have a weird smile.  I want to crop myself out and focus on the cute babies.

But one of these days, I know that those photographs - no matter how tired or frumpy I look - will mean the world to me. 

So I'm going to challenge myself to be on the other side of the camera more often.  At least once a week, even.  For Mommy and Me Mondays. 

Admittedly, this week is a bit of a cheat.  It's a picture of Jack and me on his third birthday, just before bed.  I think it's in another post, but I didn't have a chance to get my act together with the camera this week or have my hubby help me out.  So I grabbed something meaningful, even if it isn't new. It isn't the best photo - it's impromptu at the end of a looooooooong day in the middle of a hectic vacation in a hotel with less than gorgeous lighting and a less than gorgeous couch in the background, but you know what? I was right where I wanted to be in that moment and those smiles are as real as they get.

I'm also going to really try to take more pictures of the kids with their Daddy, but that's more a function of number of hours in a day since his work schedule is so demanding and when he gets home, no one is really in the, "Oooh, take my picture!" mood (except Jack who is always in that mood) and Hubs doesn't love having pictures of him in uniform splashed across the internet.  So I'll work on it.  He's easier on the eyes than me anyway.

Traveling With The Zoo

Okay, okay, okay, Kate!  I know you've been itching for me to get back into the blogging world...  Believe me, I wanted to post!  I even went so far as to purchase a laptop so that I could travel AND blog, but Mother Nature had other ideas. 

Okay, allow me to back up. 

We took our Zoo to New York to visit family last week.  You know, just in time to participate in ANOTHER record-breaking snowfall. 

Goody.

I mean, it was a total blast to have Jack play in snow that was nearly as deep as he is tall. 

But internet was uh, MIA to say the least. 

And when we did find a hotspot, we were pretty busy visiting with family and celebrating Big Man's birthday.  We had a really good time with everyone, even though it was bittersweet in some regards.  Daddy ended up being the hero of the trip when he pulled together an awesome surprise for Jack: a ride on the Metro North train.  Now, for your average New Yorker, a 40-minute round-trip on a commuter train is mundane if not even annoying.  For a passionate 3-year-old, though, it was magical.  And I love my husband even more for giving our son that gift.

So... it has been a bit.  Don't worry.  I've got my feet up and my Snickers and a DVR'ed episode of Grey's so I'll be working on some posts to regale you (Kate) with tales of my antics.

A Bit of Sunshine and Some Bloggy Awards

I've recently discovered a new friend in Sonora at Twinfinity!... I started reading her blog and got totally sucked into it.  I didn't think I needed a whole lot of "specialized" support in the twin-realm... that is, I thought I was doing just fine with the support structure I had in place and didn't recognize that there are things that are specific to a twin mom and life with twins that it takes another twin mom to get.  Not that my other mom or even non-mom friends can't help me or wouldn't understand... it's just that sometimes there are feelings and issues that don't take a ton of explaining to convey when you're talking to another twin mommy.  Sonora gets it.  I get it for her... Our "Mother of Multiples"ness doesn't define us... but we can't ignore that it makes up a big part of who we are as mothers.  And it's really, really, really great to have that camaradarie when I need it.  Or even when I don't know I need it.

She passed a couple of awards on to me...

The Sunshine Award

 

and the Beautiful Blogger Award.

 It means a ton to me to get these from someone I've come to think of as a friend.  So thank you, Sonora!

Well, as with all blogging awards, these come with rules and stipulations and blah bitty blah blah blah.  I'm just going to do one of those "tidbits of info on Melis" posts and then, in turn, pass these bad boys on to some of my favorite blogs - old and new (to me).  Got your coffee and your mouse handy?  You're going to want to check these out:

Mu's Nus

I'm Not Sure What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

Memories By Christine

Defining Moments

Ain't She Crazy

Addicted to Peanuts

Little Bit of Love

Artistically Amy

Hangin' With the Hagans

Kate's Life

The (Un)Experienced Mom

The Long Road to China

My Room 

Cop Mama

These are the blogs that make my cup of coffee a little sweeter every day... They give me something to laugh about and something to think about, and they've got an awful lot to share.


NOW, I'll to a list of 14 random tidbits of stuff you might find interesting - one for each of the blogs I nominated...

1) I love greasy, fried, salty bar food.
2) I hail from Colorado but have never once gone skiing or snowboarding.
3) I love to write poems.  I've even published a couple.  But I'm even more bashful about those than I am about photos of myself.
4) I despise all things oral hygiene. (I mean, I do it, but I don't like it.)
5) I hoard glass jars.  I don't know why, but I'm sure that I will find something to do with them.  It's the only thing I obsessively collect... and it annoys even me.
6) I will never understand how my husband puts up with my snarky, sarcastic, never-ever-serious demeanor.
7) My new-found love for CSI: fillintheblank on Spike during the day is killing my productivity like having twins couldn't DREAM of.
8) I will never (Sorry, Kate!) shop in a Wal-Mart store again as long as I live. 
9) My favorite author is Dean Koontz.
10) I am a social liberal and fiscal conservative.  Wow, figure that one out...
11) The idea of raw eggs in anything really grosses me out so I prefer Caesar dressing from a jar or bottle.
12) If the school day gets extended by a single minute per the Government, I will home-school my children.
13) I have so my admiration for trendy, fashionable ladies like my sister, but I just can't seem to pull it off...
14) I haven't purchased new undies for myself in years.  YEARS. 

That's what I've got for ya!  If you want to check out the other awards I've received, you can find them under the "Awards" page at the top... Now, get clickin'!