Help! I've Been Bitten!

Yes... I've been bitten. And it's not pretty.

Bitten by the vampires of Twilight. It's quite pathetic actually.

We bought the movie last week at the request of Rob; he wanted to see it again before New Moon came out. He has read all the books. Jake has read Twilight and New Moon.

So... I watched it, prettymuch out of parental obligation... but partially to see what the heck the big deal was.

I can't say it was AWESOME!! or anything, but it did hook me in enough that I wanted to read the book.

Coincidentally, Jake won a New Moon triviacontest the next day at school...
The prize: Twilight, in paperback.

That was Wednesday at 3 pm. It's now Monday at 11:45 am, and I have puchased AND READ the all 4 volumes of the Twilight Saga. That's two thousand, four hundred, and forty-four pages in less than 6 days, with 2 work shifts, Thanksgivings, and a little sleep in there.

Ahhhh... my own personal brand of heroin.

(Needless to say, nothing else much got done all weekend... much to My Love's consternation.)

Rob saw New Moon over the weekend; I promised Jake I'd take him soon, at least sometime over Christmas break.

Now it's time for some catch-up housework... while Twilight is on in the background of course!

PA. THE. TIC.

Thanks For Today - The Power of the Pooch

Maybe my Thanks For Today should be something quite profound on the day before the actual Thanksgiving holiday, but today I am thankful for my dog. I considered myself more of a "Cat Person" until about 7 years ago, when I had a couple cats that really liked to urinate on my furniture. Having to get rid of my living room couches was a pretty quick "Cat-Person CURE."

My husband let me pick out a beagle puppy for a wedding gift. And even though my puppy Zeke has been a real pain in the hiney many times, he has still converted me into a definite "Dog Person." Zeke kind of annoys my sister, so it was especially funny when she sent me this video. It's kind of cute and cheesy, but also.... profound... and illustrates why I am such a sap for my dog.



Some people would argue that cats are like this too, but cats are very prone to PMS-y kinds of random crabbiness. Dogs just love.

Pay it Forward...as promised

Here's the deal... this is a blogging Pay it Forward. One of my former posts (maybe in March?)tells you how much I love the movie, but this idea actually came from my dear friend H.... who got it from someone else... and so on.

The first 3 people to put comments on this post will receive a handmade gift from me within the next 6 months. The recipients then each post a similar "Pay It Forward" post and likewise give handmade gifts to 3 people, within a designated timeframe of their choosing.

Woo Hoo! Let the gift-o-rama begin!

(H, I can't wait to get my socks!)

Thanks for Today - Lifetime Friends

My thanks for today is for my good friend H. She inspires me in so many ways in the (mostly) graceful ways she lives her life. She loves deeply. She knows how to laugh. Given her childhood experiences, these two things alone are nothing short of miraculous. I wish she gave herself a little more credit.

She is a thoughtful giver; when she gives you a gift, you know it was picked with very specific thought for you and your needs/wants/loves... not just to fill an obligation. She always remembers my birthday, even though I always seem to forget hers. She sends me Mother's Day cards.

She is my "2 am" person... you know...

the person you can ALWAYS call, even at 2 am.

She appreciates the finer points of warm brownies and ice cream.

We can talk every day or once a month and it's still like coming home.

So my love, as I visit you today with excessively chocolate cake in tow (Happy Birthday, a little late as usual), I hope you know how much I love you and how awe-struck I am by you.

Thanks for Today - Laughter (a.k.a. All Rocks Go To Heaven)

I love to laugh. Our women's retreat last month actually had a Certified Laughter Leader. I had no idea what this was until I went, but her job is to get people to loosen up and laugh. You basically do all these quite stupid things and force yourself to laugh, until pretty soon you are laughing so hard at ... well you really have no idea why you are laughing, but you can't stop.

For instance, turn to your neighbor, shake their hand, and greet them in Hawaiian.

"A- LOH- Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Or the "Roller Coaster Laugh."

Totally ridiculous. And you feel totally stupid, until you realize that everyone else is acting as mental as you and then you just relax and laugh... and laugh... and laugh...

{ I'm so glad I had the forethought to pee before it started. }

Laughter has healing power, for body and soul. I am so thankful for this gift, for a God who loves me enough to want me to have joy and laughter.

So here's your laugh for the day....
(A friend sent this to me. Thanks, T!)

Do Dogs go to Heaven?

Absolutely unreal that this actually happened!

These two churches face each other across a busy street.

My Guilty Confession

Maybe I really still am 14...

I admit it; I'm a Taylor Swift Fan. For those of you who missed her on SNL, here's a replay of her musical monologue.... very funny.



PS... I also really LOVE, LOVE this new tune from Miley Cyrus... I don't care if she doesn't really listen to Jay-Z (neither do I!), but I always have to jam a little when I hear it. Added bonus: totally embarrasses my kids when I do this in the car! Go ahead & boogie! Ya know ya wanna!

Thanks For Today- Gratitude in Hardship

Blogging is an interesting beast to me.

I primarily started doing this on the prompting of my dear friend H.

But there are perks.

I didn't grow up close to my extended family, but thanks to dedicated grandparents on my mom's side we always felt part of the family. Well, time passes. I was one of the older grandkids, and as I got married and had kids, traveling cross country became nigh unto an impossible financial challenge and my younger cousins have gone and grown up without my permission. I remember them being preschoolers and now most of them are married and many have preschoolers of their own. Most of my girl-cousins blog, as well as most of my boy-cousins' wives. So now I am getting to know my extended, extended family... and it is very cool.

My cousin Justin has a lovely wife (I think we've met once...?) who posted the following tidbit. Now I know some of my readers are not LDS (my whole family is) but I thought this was an excellent message regardless of denomonational preference.

Thanks for Today.

Today I am thankful that I can have peace and joy through Christ, even and especially when it seems like the hard times in my life will not let me up for air.

{And thanks Echo for sharing this in the first place}

Thanks for Today - A Great Big Cyber-Hug for All You Fellow Blogger-Moms

I don't know if anyone else reads random blogs of people they don't know, but I do. I start at someone I know, then look at their sidebar, see a post title that looks interesting, and before I know it I am reading about the crazy life of a complete stranger. One such blog gave me the idea to practice some November gratitude, blogger-style. So every day (that I have time/ remember) I'm going to blog some gratitude.

Today I am thankful for all my fellow mom-bloggers. It's amazing to me when I read about those I know and love, and the complete strangers, how similar many of our struggles are and yet how unique and gifted each of these special women are.

I was reading a Christian fiction series recently called "The Sister Circle." It was about women: how we are made to be compassionate nurturers, how God loves each of us, has a plan for each of us, and how intertwined our paths really are.

So Thank You, women of the blogging world. Thank you for sharing your joys and sorrows, triumphs and tragedies, and little windows into your worlds. You have surely enriched mine.

Small Addiction

{I wish I knew why my camera won't upload pictures so I could show the photographic evidence for the post. ARGH!}

Anyway, Monday morning, I was feeling very out of the loop after a long weekend with no compuuter, so I put some water on to boil for Cream of Wheat -still a favorite comfort food- and sat down to quickly check my email and the blogs I read. Some time later, I smelled a distinctive "hot" smell.... you know, like when your curling iron has been on too long or something has dripped in your oven and is now smoking madly. I suddenly remembered my breakfast plan and quickly checked the stove. I had boiled the pan dry! All I had left was a nice area of hard water scum and a very hot pan. I had to take a picture of course... so sad the camera is rebelling. Do they have therapy for blogging addiction?

Sleep & Leaves

With my new work hours, I have an entirely different relationship with sleep. A.K.A. I can't ever seem to get enough, even on my days off. I worked Monday night, but I don't go in again until Saturday night. So yesterday (Tuesday morning... otherwise known as when-I-get-off-work-from-Monday) I took Rob & Jake to school and then went and got some badly needed groceries. I got home and put away the must-be-cold things and then I went to sleep and slept 10:30 am - 3 pm. The kids got home and I went about the usual evening stuff. Bedtime came and I was out like a light somewhere around 10:30 pm. Got up with my hubby at 4:30 am and made him some coffee (the {almost} ultimate act of love), then stayed awake and read. By 11, I am falling asleep.... UGH!

So when I took the dog out, I decided to stay out and rake some leaves....

We have a huge maple tree in out front yard that I absolutely love. The only thing that would make it better would be if the leaves turned a brilliant red, or even orange, in the fall instead of a nondescript yellow. Bu anyway... my front yard was relatively covered in leaves. The back yard is too, but to a lesser extent and will havt to be another day.

I was raking them out to the street when I started thinking about fall when I was a kid. We lived out in the country on about an acre of land that bordered a patch of pine woods on one side. In the front yeard, we had 3 big trees; I think they were oak, but my kid-mind didn't store details like that. I used to LOVE fall. We had leaves everywhere. I remember spending whole days out playing in the leaves, making piles and jumping in-swinging into-burying each other under them. I would also go down to the old lady down the street's yard and play in her leaves so my brothers and sister wouldn't mess up my creations. You see, I would use the leaves to design a house (walls, furniture, the works) and then play in them.

I have no idea what the ultimate destination of my childhood leaf piles was... here in town, we just get them out into the street and they come down the street with a bobcat and a big vacu-sucker machine.

But... I was feeling notstalgic....So, while my neighbors all have their leaves neatly in the street or just mysteriously vanished, I raked mine into a BIG pile in the middle of the yard. An afterschool surprise for my boys.

~~I hope they enjoy it 'cuz my arms and shoulders are killing me!~~