Be A Good Mom

My ROCK STAR NAME (first pet & current car): Tessie Dog MPV
My GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): Cinnamon Samoa

My DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Giraffe
My SUPERHERO NAME (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink): The Turquoise Yogurt Milk

My STRIPPER NAME ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Romance Raisinets
My WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (mother’s & father’s middle names ): Joanne James
My TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Wyeth Waterloo
My SPY NAME (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Fall Daisy

My CARTOON NAME (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”): Banana Khaki

My HIPPY NAME (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Cinnamon MiniWheat Willow
My YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”): The Photoshop Rainy Day Tour

• That my grocery store, for some inane reason, does not put the flour right next to the sugar. And I forget that every time. So, I wonder around the aisle looking for the flour, which is on the bottom shelf of course, so I never see it, as I walk around the “Baking Needs” aisle for a good 10 minutes searching high and low. White corn meal? No. Powdered Egg Whites. No. Rainbow sprinkles. No. Rice Flour. No. (which is at eye level, I might add) Finally. All Purpose Flour.
• That I do not work in a TIP supported industry. Sometimes I would just like someone to toss me a few bucks to prove that I am doing my job well. Literally, $2 would do it.
• Linux, or rather, being Linuxed against my will.
• Parking lots that are not connected. Why can’t I pull into the Pier One parking lot and skibble over to park in front of TJMaxx? The stores are literally right next to each other. What would an extra 4 feet of asphalt cost you cheapskates? Why do you want to keep me from going to TJMaxx? Why do you make me park and walk through the bushes to get there?
• Pictures of my kids in which one is doing the perfect pose and knowing exactly what I wished the other ones were doing, but aren’t, thereby ruining the picture.
• Blister clamshell packaging. Merry Christmas to me, I cut myself twice opening their presents.
• Teenage boys in those super-tight pencil-leg black jeans and enormous partially-untied shoes. I try not to look, but its like a medical oddity. The lower half of your body looks like 2 chopsticks stuck in a pair of baked potatoes.
• “Sales” at Walmart. Regulary $5.86, marked down to $5.74!” That’s twelve cents. Don’t bother hanging up the stupid smiley face sign. You insult my intelligence. You think just because you put a “Sale” sign over it, I am going to buy it?
• That when BAGD sees something odd around the house, like an easter basket in the bathroom, he thinks to himself “Well, she’s a nut, so I guess she put it here on purpose” and leaves it carefully centered in the middle of the counter, beautifully displayed.

I write this blog to help myself.

I write it to remind me of why I do what I do. Especially on days that I am not so sure I want to do what I need to do.

I write it to force myself to think about my parenting, being proactive, rather than reactive to my children’s needs.

I write it to calm myself.

I write it because it helps me find the humor, the joy and the lesson in life’s challenges.

I write it to make myself laugh.

I had a great birthday.  Thanks to everyone who called, emailed or visited.  A special thanks to Aunt Shel who left me a phone message singing “Happy Birthday” in the most pitiful, cracked, bronchitis-suffering voice I have ever heard.  I hope you feel better soon.

Geetle and Pookie told me Happy Birthday first thing this morning.  Geetle did forget to give me the picture I know she is hiding under her bed, I will have to ask her for that tomorrow morning.  They each picked me out a nice present and cartoon cards.  Geetle gave me a box that she said looks like a treasure chest.  Pookie gave me a blue shirt, just like the ones he likes to wear.  BAGD tried to give me a present, but I inadvertently messed it up for him.  He had bought me some new clothes, a shirt and 2 pair of maternity pants.  But I have been feeling VERY uncomfortable lately and announced last week that I had given up pants for the duration of my pregnancy.   But although I am not wearing pants anymore, I am in the market for some new maternity dresses, so I will just exchange them.

We had dinner at the Olive Garden, not my usual place.  But I saw the commercial a few weeks ago and started thinking about the soup they have there.  So we went.  It was good, the soup was my favorite part.  My second favorite part (tie) was when:

• Pookie suddenly got up from the table to do his Ruff Ruffman impersonation
• Geetle started air juggling because the Muzac at the Olive Garden sounds like circus music to her.

We finished the night with a little ice cream and then home to bed.  I got several unexpected “Happy Birthdays” today.  Geetle apparently spread the word at school and I got a “Happy Birthday” from the lady who helps the kids get on the buses at school and from the mother of one of her classmates.  In addition to the cards from family and friends, I also got a card from our financial planner, our insurance agent and the Goodwill!

Some other people had a birthday today too.  Some very nice people.   I hope they enjoyed their birthdays too.   If that particular Birthday person happens to read my blog before Sunday, he and his wife ought to know that they are invited to my house Sunday at 5pm for a little lasagna and cake…a combined birthday for me and Papaw (and him, if he comes!).

I was tagged by Jonathan today, to tell you 7 strange things about myself. Since 66% of my regular blog readers are related to me by blood or marriage, these might not be news to everyone. But here I go:

1. I was once told to leave the premises of a charity garage sale by a cop who thought I had cut in line.

2. Although I love my husband, he crowds me in bed. Therefore, when we were first married, I insisted that we push a Double size bed up next to our Queen sized bed, so that when he crowded me in the middle of the night, I could roll on to the other bed. It was the UberBed. It saved our marriage.

3. I know how to make my own homemade laundry detergent and shower soap, but BAGD won’t let me do it

4. I got a speeding ticket in my parent’s driveway when I was 21.

5. I had a pet pigeon named Homer when I was young. He did not last long, and it was probably a bad idea for both of us.

6. Once, while very-much asleep, I took the light bulb out of our bedside lamp in the middle of the night and put it in the drawer for “safe-keeping.” I did not remember doing it until the next night when BAGD asked me what was wrong with the lamp, why did it not turn on all of the sudden?

7. While most people have 7 distinct strange things about themselves, I only have six. That in itself is strange.

I’m tagging:

Rocks In My Dryer

An Island Life

Babylune