5 Things

Lucky for you, I got tagged by Erika, and can tell you some really random things about someone I'm assuming you wish you knew more about, or you wouldn't be here (because this blog isn't about three cute little girls or anything.) And now- to appease, somewhat, your burning curiosity:

5 things I was doing ten years ago:
1998? Ugh- any year but 98. Oh, well- here goes.
Getting my belly button pierced
Dating someone who didn't know they were gay
Waiting to hear back from the Rent casting directors after making callbacks
Spending too much money on furniture for my apartment (which is what we still use- TV and all)
Leasing said apartment with a guy I worked with and hating it

Freaky, huh? And, yes, kind of embarrassing. If my life were a fork, I would say I was still on the handle at that point, and the next year turned out to be decision time. I'm still not sure exactly how it happened- but I'm really surprised and relieved by where I've ended up.

5 things on my to-do list today:
rest my disfunctional back
keep Anya alive
keep Bree alive
keep Mia alive
go to bed

5 snacks I like:
dried mango
sourdough toast
apples with peanut butter
cheese sticks
Yoplait Whips


5 things I would do if I was a millionaire:
pay a bumload of tithing
set up a photography studio
buy a house
go back to Sicily and visit some wonderful people
take everyone to Disneyworld


5 places I have lived:
Sandy
Orem
SaltLake
Sicily
Too close to the airport


5 jobs I have had:
Olan Mills (manager.) (at 18? No wonder they tanked!)

Big B's (shake maker, icecream cone dipper, crappy cashier)
ShopKo (clothing department)
Goliath's (burger joint in SouthTowne mall)
1-800-CONTACTS (thanks to their insurance, and a cool Aflac plan, we got paid to deliver Mia.)

And that, folks, is all you're getting today.

Okay!!

Five people to subject to all kinds of retrospection and humiliation... hmmm.

Kiley (you've been way too spoiled by all this cruise stuff- back to work.)
Melissa
Natalie
BlogStalker
Breezi

Ooh, I can't wait!

Five Songs

I don't have an MP3 player, but I wanted to do what Kelle's Belles asked and take a turn sharing my favorite songs. I figured my blog playlist was as close as I could get.

"I'm a Believer" by Smash Mouth- Zach, my sisters and I sang a couple Shrek songs at our wedding. We sounded awful, but Shrek still brings back good memories of our fun day.

"Wonderful" by Pablo Conte- surprisingly, this song isn't one of my favorites because of my mission. When I was editing wedding videos for JayLynn Studio, one of the couples wanted this on their "soundtrack," and I thought it worked so beautifully, I put it on our wedding gag reel. I wasn't too happy when Mastercard used it a few years later for kitchen utensils to dance to.

"Orange Colored Sky" NOT by Nat King Cole- My gracious half brother put together an incredible last-minute band for our wedding, and the gal that sang did an incredible job on this number. If there was any way to put the recording of it on here, I would. It was another one that made it onto our wedding video, and has become one of my favorites, despite the fact that it's an oldie.

"Ever Ever After" by Carrie Underwood- Not too hip on her fashion choices, but love her voice. This song, in particular. When I first saw Enchanted I was almost as excited as I was when Little Mermaid enthralled me as a sixth grader. I do not spend money on movies, but as soon as this came out I scheduled a Costco run just to buy it. My dream for a long time was to be a Disney voice or artist. Then I realized that not everything they produced was ahh... wholesome... and kind of got turned off to the entertainment industry in general.

"Keep Holding On" by Avril- hit me hard the first time I heard it, and I could apply it to so many things in my life, it seems like a song I would have commissioned.

So- what are your five latest favorite songs? And why? Leave 'em as a comment, or write a post of your own. I'm curious...

Crazy 8's

The 8 Things Tag...

8 TV shows I love to watch:
1. The Office
2. Lost
3. ummmmm
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Olive Garden
2. Cap City Diner
3. Tucano's
4. Bob Evans
5. Stratosphere
6. Casa Bonita
7. Garden
8. Sizzler

8 Things that happened today
1. Woke up with the twins at 6:45
2. Watched Fried Green Tomatoes and ate breakfast
3. Gave the twins breakfast
4. Facebooked for a few minutes
5. Straightened the living room
6. Preschool
7. Lunch
8. Stuck a roast in the slowcooker

8 things that I look forward to:
1. New Office episodes
2. Preschool
3. The twins being able to talk
4. Living in the same place longer than two years
5. Being able to load the dishwasher and do chores without "help."
6. Actual "help."
7. Answers to my questions about the "other side."
8. Payday (haha! I copied this one from Ashley- took on a whole new meaning when it became my number 8...) More precisely.. "getting out of debt in ten years or so..."

8 Things on my wish list:
1. Venerday. (an extra day in the week- comes after Friday)
2. One or two inches off my inseam so I could buy girl pants at a store
3. I guess I could just wish for clothes that fit...
4. A baby/grown-up translation dictionary
5. Time machine
6. A back that works
7. A BLT would be nice
8. Instant piano skillz

8 People I tag:
1. Breezi
2. Ally
3. Rhondalue
4. Maury (you haven't posted in forever- c'mon)
5. Zach
6. Kelly
7. Melissa
8. Amelia

Another tag!

This tag from McClelland Mania is called the Brillante Weblog-Premio 2008 Award. I don't know why.

The rules: Answer the following questions with one word answers and pass it on to seven others.

Here are the questions:
1. Where is your cell phone? deactivated
2. Where is your significant other? upstairs
3. Your hair color? fake
4. Your mother? female
5. Your father? old
6. Your favorite thing? love
7. Your dream last night? revealing
8. Your dream/goal? settlement
9. The room you're in? all-purpose
10. Your hobby? blogging
11. Your fear? immobility
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? vacation
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? tactful
15. One of your wish-list items? manners
16. Where you grew up? didn't
17. The last thing you did? console
18. What are you wearing? worn-out
19. Your TV? off
20. Your pet? someday
21. Your computer? used
22. Your mood? assorted
23. Missing someone? someones
24. Your car? extravagent
25. Something you're not wearing? jewelry
26. Favorite store? book
27. Your summer? fleeting
28. Love someone? Zach
29. Your favorite color? clear
30. When is the last time you laughed? constantly
31. Last time you cried? forgot

Melissa, Michelle, Ally, Blogstalker, Amelia, Britney, Zach

Canines

Have you ever had the dream that your teeth were falling out? I feel them crunch, and spit them into my hand, one by one, then two or three at a time, until my hand is full of broken teeth bits.

When we were first married, Zach said he could hear my teeth squeak as I ground my jaws together while I slept. I had no idea.

I stopped for a while, I think.

But a few weeks ago, I was looking at my teeth and noticed the points of my top canine teeth were gone. Gone! They are flat now! They were there less than a year ago- I'm positive.

And then came the pain.

I called the dentist and they got me in quick. This morning I went for my new-patient appointment. The dentist said "You have beautiful teeth. No cavities." I was shocked. I thought I must have a hole the size of... well... a cavity at least.

What was causing the pain?

Me. My clenched jaw. Inflamed the nerve in that tooth.

He said 99.9 percent of the time, the cause of this in adults is stress. He said, "So try to look at what is stressful in your life and limit it." I made it look like I was getting up to leave, and said, "Alrighty- be seein' ya!" They got the joke. Later, the assistant was flossing me and asked if I had kids. When he found out their ages he called the dentist back and said "Hey- I know what her stress has been over!" and told him. It was kind of cute.

But really. It's not like having kids is going to get any easier, is it? I guess things like moving eight times in six years, changing states, and certain unmentionables have definitely added to the levels of AAaaaaaaAaahhhhhh! in my life. Maybe things will get better. I just hate to look at life that way. I want to be able to say things are okay the way thay are. I can handle this. But to tell the absolute truth, I am at a point where I have to rely on a hope of a better future to keep my sanity. There's no way I could live my whole life like this.

A part of me thinks there is something inherently wrong with that reasoning. But another part of me knows there's a reason we age, and we grow, and things change. Because we're not wired to stay in the exact same situation forever.

Here's where my thoughts went.

'Night! *squeak squeak squeak squeak*

Picture Tag

Got tagged by Hollie.

Go to "My pictures." Choose the 4th folder, 4th picture. Tell us about it.



I save everything I shoot. I got to the B'- Barker. A family from three moves ago. This was the fourth shot. No- I'm not proud of my fill lighting. She wrote me to see if we'd be visiting Utah anytime soon. They need a new family shot with their new baby. :( Sorry. I'm seriously thinking I should advertise here in Ohio, though.

Hey, y'all. I'm a photographer. Gitch'er pictures heeeeere! Sigh. My heart's just not as into it anymore. Nowadays, everyone has a business called "Photography by insert name here." Maybe I'm not as much a joiner as I thought. It even bugs me that I'm hearing the name Mia all over the place now. I thought it was relatively unique when we named her three years ago. Maybe I'll dye my hair green.

Okay. Whose 4th folder pictures do we want to see. Wa, Nog, Maury, Steph, Breezi. That should start a nice chain. Tag!

What decade are you?

You Belong in 1999

With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

1st prize goes to whoever can tell me what "ghetto fabulous" is...

Oh, and no- you don't get a prize, ya little... Isn't reading my fabulous bog reward enough??? ;D

Giddy

My package from Susan, my swap partner, came yesterday!! All day long I listened for a knock on the door, and thought maybe it would be put in the "big mailbox," at the end of the street. The knock must have come while I was putting the babies down for their naps. Zach went to check the mail around 10 last night, and when he came back empty-handed I finally thought to check the front porch (yeah- we're really smart around here.) My box!! Hidden over behind the bushes!

I opened the box and found everything individually wrapped!! Classy. I'm thinking next time I'll do that instead of pink bubble wrap... which was... not so classy... ;D

She sent me a letter explaining each of her choices, which I won't use all of cause I didn't get permission to put it on here..

"One of my favorite things to do is cook... "

There were some recipe cards, three of which she had written some of her favorite recipes. Handy- because I'm getting to the end of the index cards from my wedding. She included a jar of apple butter, which was actually one of her favorite recipes. I have to admit, I wasn't as initially excited about this as I should have been. About a year ago, I bought some apple butter with a vague memory in my head of liking it. That particular brand didn't live up to my expectations, (really bland) and I had decided we were done with apple butter. When I opened this jar, I was so hopeful and curious I just popped the top and stuck my finger in- ha! It was just like I had hoped the first jar would be, kind of tart and very.... appley. I knew I like apple butter! But I probably wouldn't have tried it 'til much later if she hadn't sent it- so now my kids will get a chance to love it, too!

"I have also included two of my favorite cooking magazines. I love Rachael Ray because it has a section on budget meals and weekly menu ideas. But, Cuisine at Home is my absolute favorite. It doesn’t have ads and has pictures of each dish and its process. The helpful tips are always good as well."

Perfect timing. Yesterday I cooked this Egyptian rice and lentils dish- trying to branch out a bit. I'm definitely on a try-something-new in the kitchen kick. And she is right- this magazine is incredible!! I hadn't even thought of looking to a magazine- awesome.



Next- Oxi Clean stain remover.

"(It)is the best and I love being able to pretreat stains on the run or get things out of my clothes when I get “slimed” by the kids."

Ha! Amen. More perfect timing. I just lost mine.

And another thing we amazingly had in common... dark chocolate in truffle form, baby.

"I don’t think I have to say anything more than that."

Me neither.


Something I'm surprised I didn't think of- she sent a CD of her favorite songs. It seems we've both got a musical background, and appreciate the effect certain music has on us. What a great idea! I still haven't convinced the kids to let me play it instead of the kid CD we've always got on- so maybe tonight I can enjoy some grown-up songs for a change.


The book "The Wednesday Letters," which neither of us has read. Which is my favorite part about most books- that I haven't read it before. I'll have it devoured by Sunday- how much you wanna bet.


I saved the best for last. I had seen on her blog that she was a rep for a jewelry company, and immediately wished I hadn't seen it, because I got my hopes up, and no matter how hard i tried to not think about it, I still found myself hoping there would be a little box in there. I'm awful. Awful. She picked the perfect earrings (which are the only jewelry I really ever bother with!)

"I am a representative for Silpada Designs and love it. Their jewelry is the highest quality sterling silver and other precious stones. The earrings I sent you are sterling silver, turquoise, peridot, amethyst, red coral and lapis. Silpada jewelry is definitely one of my favorite things!!!"

I've got to tell you- this was so much fun. Not even just the fact that we got to open cool stuff- but the fact that there are so many perfect strangers out there willing to reach out and share a peice of themselves. It's a good feeling from start to finish. I'm glad they did such a great job pairing me with Susan!

The Inexpensive Road to Self-Discovery

Today was the "Favorite Things" send off. Susan if you see this- don't read it! ;)

I've been looking around my house, racking my memories, taking extra long at the grocery store, and reading old journal entries, trying to figure out what the heck are my favorite things. The catch- they have to be things I can put in a box and mail to someone.

August 28th: Hoping to have original, creative, maybe even exotic and impressive favorites that I can wow my swap partner with. By September 22nd: I had realized I can't afford jewelry or vacation tickets, and settled for quirky and well-intended.

The results of a kind of disappointing scavenger hunt- a list of my favorite things (that I can put in a box) in the order I thought of them:

1, 2, 3 and 4) Chocolate. Very boxable. Very favorite. I couldn't decide which was my absolute favorite, though.

5) A little book of Mad Libs- for the nerd in us all. No- really, because I remember them helping me remember sentence structure, and one of my favorite things right now is home-educational tools, especially those disguised as games. An odd materialization of this particular joy in my life- maybe. We tried one at home, and laughed at least as much as we groaned. I highly recommend doing at least a few with your spouse. Nothing like a little word disassociation to shed some light on that weirdo. "I love our computer lab at school. It's so fuzzy! Every morning after navel class, our teacher George Clooney takes us to the lab so we can work on cool projects like finding out what flying squirrels eat for breakfast."

6) A book of Sudoku puzzles. Before I even heard of these I was most enthusiastic about the video game my brother let me try, "Brain Age." It felt great to stretch my deteriorating brain muscles, turned almost completely off since college, (to which Zach will quickly attest after my most recent brain fart. "Why don't you guys borrow our space heater?" offered as a solution to the chilly mornings without power. Yeah.) Anyway. One of my favorite things is not being stupid, so Sudoku went into the box.

7) A Secret Platinum- Vanilla Chai. Yes. Anti-perspirant. After much deliberation I realized I love it when someone (in my family) says I have a scent. One of my favorite things is being all nice and clean (you don't savor it as much until regular showering is prevented and replaced by regular feedings, do you) and my honey saying I smell so good. He likes his sweetheart smelling like food. I also love it when ordinary, humdrum things we have to deal with every day come in sparkly packages- (see "deteriorated brain.")

8) "Better than Bouillon." The best kept secret of Molly Mormon. Thanks to one of the most incredible ladies in the world, who came to help when the babies were born, I know the secret to the perfect pot roast. After seeing my amazement when she described how to cook a pot roast, she took pity on my ignorant self, went to the store, bought me my own jar, and some oven bags. We had just bought a new jar, but when I went to get one for my swap partner, they were on sale! I didn't know they had chicken, too?! We are well-stocked on bouillon. One of my favorite things is finally getting that durn recipe right. This stuff is like the magic you stick in, so the dinner makes itself. Please nobody tell me the magic is fat and salt.

9) Last, but not least, Burt's Bees Lip Balm. This covered a few of my latest favorites. I just read "The Secret Life of Bees," and have inducted it into my bookcase of fame. I also love the whole Bee-line. (hee hee.) I'm not proud of it, but the lip balm is not my favorite Burt product. It was just the cheapest. So I abandoned "quality" and went for "quantity." Now you know.

My point? No point, really. I'm just hoping to hear what everyone would put in their favorite things box.

Evolution of a Complimentee

Zach and I came out of Giant Eagle just as two tan little teenage girls walked in. They missed the whistle of the boys driving by the entrance, and it landed on me and my hubby. I appeared to ignore it so the boys wouldn't feel stupid, but for a split second- my heart remembered the feeling it had the last time I was whistled at by strange boys in cars, and I blushed a little.

Happily, during that time I truly did appreciate my "teen prettyness," and never took it for granted. It was a gratitude born from some relatively unique circumstances. I grew up with two parents who didn't do the compliment thing- not to each other, not directly to their kids' faces, or anyone else. I remember a few random remarks of admiration about the way our sister ran so beautifully, or how pretty my friends were. Once my dad said he noticed how patiently I waited for my mom or someone to get off the phone, and for the rest of that month I walked around thinking "I'm patient. I am a patient person." But over-all, it was just not something that they were into.

In elementary school, I got glasses and became the lowest of the lowly nerds. I even had a group of kids chanting the "Freddie Krueger" song at me with my name in his place. It was bad. So, aside from a handful of some very memorable positive comments, compliments were pretty much a foreign language spoken in a country called "Adulthood."

After a few curious encounters with this language in middle school, (I still remember the Jackson twins saying I did a good job singing in 11th grade choir one day. I pretty much thought -and still think- they were the nicest people in the world) highschool rolled around. People actually talked with me, and I was thrilled. Boys flirted, and I was thrilleder. I dreaded the end of highschool when all of the nice people I had met would go lead lives without me. But it wasn't so bad. Graduation brought in a new era of employment and dating; and it thrust me unsuspectingly into the world of compliments.

My eduaction in Complementese started with my first dates. Of course, you're going to be complimented by your date... it's just polite. But I wasn't used to it. At all. Had absolutely no idea how to react. Usually, I just plain disagreed with whatever I didn't believe. Which was pretty much anything subjective. I appreciated and understood compliments about my artwork, or things I had worked on- but if it was about the color of my eyes, or my smile or something- they might as well have said "I think you are like a pair of utility scissors."

Finally, someone I'd been dating awhile said, exasperated, "Just say 'Thank you!' Don't you realize how frustrating it is when you don't just take a compliment? I want to give it to you. So take it!" That sunk deep. And not because I now believed all compliments. I simply now realized, embarrassed, how annoying it was for someone to go to the trouble to take a second to make me feel a bit happier, and me turning it into a minute. So after that I really tried to shorten my reply to "Thanks."

But I still found myself unable to restrain the inclination to explain compliments away. If someone said they liked my hair, I'd say "Thanks! It doesn't actually grow this color, though." My cute outfit wasn't picked out by me, being thin was only a side-effect of being tall, being tall was okay- at least I could reach things for people, if you thought my eyes were blue, you should see my sister's.

Unfortunately the explain-away inclination was still in full effect when I received what I fondly recall as my favorite compliment.

Picture it: Sicily.. 1923. Okay- no that's Golden Girls.

Picture it: Salt Lake City 1997. I'm working at JayLynn Studio, and today I curled my hair and wore my favorite dress from Haroon's. You know the kind they had that was made with layers of light- fluttery material? With wildflowers on them? You'll see a video of it in a future post I've been working on. Anyway. There was a customer waiting alone at the front counter, and getting impatient. I came out of the back room as soon as I could and saw a guy in his mid-thirties and a suit with a frown on his face. He didn't hear me coming, and turned in my direction to come find someone. I startled him. His jaw dropped as he looked me up and down and stammered accusingly, "Y-Y- You're beautiful!" then proceeded to almost literally stick his foot in his mouth and try to get back to business- as if he couldn't believe he had just said that out loud. Ha! And what did I do? I said "Thanks! It's probably just this new dress."

Plphhh!

Thanks to the kindness of many people who did do "the compliment thing," over the years I have had practice reacting more and more normally to an originally almost painful situation. Although it started rather awkwardly, I even learned how to give compliments. And then found myself thinking effortlessly of more and more compliments to give. Maybe the evolution is complete. Maybe I've a little way to go, yet. We'll have to try it out:

You've made it to the end of this completely self-absorbed post! What a great blog-reader you are!

How did that compliment come across? Awkward?

TMI

Post these rules on your blog. Answer these 15 questions about yourself on your blog. Tag five people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Here it is:

JOYS:
1. Getting Anya to walk, by hanging fruit snacks from the ceiling where there's no furniture to cheat with.
2. Combining whatever I find in the fridge, mashing it, and watching the babies gleefully eat it.
3. Making them laugh so hard the food falls out of their mouths.

FEARS:
1. One day I will make them laugh so hard they will choke on one of my concoctions.
2. Child protection services will see my fruit snack torture device, messy living room, and irreverent blog and come cart my kids away.
3. You will see my fruit snack torture device, messy living room, and irreverent blog and call child protection services who will then come cart my kids away.

GOALS:
1. Clean my living room before I post it online again.
2. Kill the *&%$#@! fly that was attracted to my living room and keeps buzzing in the blinds next to the computer.
3. Learn how to spin a basketball on one finger.

OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS:
1. If I see a peeling sunburn, and it's on someone even remotely related to me, I have to take a stab at it. And I have to keep trying until I get a satisfactorily large piece.
2. My kids can have crumbs attached to their faces for an hour and I won't blink an eye, but if I see a booger in their nose, I can't stop wiping, picking and smooshing until it's out.
3. I collect gay friends. I can't help it. Before I was married, and twice after, if there was a guy (friend only- except for one) I really got along with, he always decided to go rainbow. They don't give a hoot that I think it's a despicable decision. Maybe that's why it took me three months to start dating Zach.

RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT ME:
1. I've conditioned three babies to think that when "That's How You Know" from Enchanted starts playing, they are going to be danced around the room. The second they hear those steel drums, they start crawling toward me with a look of anticipation on their faces. All of them.
2. I am conditioned to turn off "That's How You Know" from Enchanted as soon as those steel drums start playing.
3. My favorite color is clear. And you can't convince me it isn't. The first flatware I bought was clear. My cups, glasses, dining room table- clear. The diamond in my ring is clear. If you still don't believe me, come over to my house, I'll offer you some water, and you can tell me what color you would like it.

Tag: Not Maury because she'll just laugh at me and won't do it, Rachelle, Steph, Ally, Wa, Ashley
My daughter the crab-walker who swallows fruit snacks whole.

Remember that one time...

Zach's cousin NatRat is playing, and I thought if everyone does it we'll all get to know each other better, just from everyone else's comments. So, I hope you try it too!

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory of you and I. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.
:-)

I'm not an ugly stepsister! Yessss.

So I saw Beck and McClelland do this, and thought it would be fun, since my whole life all I've wanted is to be a Disney Princess. At first I couldn't believe the questions, and played around to see if I could figure out which questions belonged to which princess. But then I answered as honestly as possible and came up with this:

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Sigh. Isn't it wonderful? I am Pocahontas. I had no idea I was so free-spirited and wise. And for those of you who have been touched and changed by my strong and passionate spirit, (which apparently is all of you!)... you are most solomnly welcome.

Somehow the quiz creator knew enough to leave out the part about having an incredible body and wearing next to nothing. The off-the-shoulder buffalo skin doesn't really gel with G-s and twin-tummy leftovers.

When Zach read this, I told him to do it, too. And because he is surrounded every day by four females, he caved and did it. Lo- and behold. He discovered he is Mulan! "Strong and spirited. You're no one's girly girl; actually you are very determined person with a strong sense of self. Never let go of that! (even when you are surrounded by actual girly-girls.) The only thing that equals your sense of self is your family, but the traditions of society can always be bent to protect something or someone you love."

I really want to see the results of everyone I know. So if you read this... tag, you're "it". ("It" meaning: a Disney Princess. Whether you like it or not. We're all princesses in our own special way!)