Bon anniversaire mon aime


I figure since the picture is 5 years old and we look a bit different now (though not much) it would be okay to post a picture.

Recognize that place Nan? :D

Tonight we are going out to dinner (possibly at McDonalds if we decide to do a play too).
Then we leave for my home town to go to a wedding in Nashville over the weekend tomorrow. So the "Learning Jar" my be empty for the next several days and I may get a bit behind on your blogs.

However I will leave you with the WHLT for the day:

When I was growing up we had a bush in our yard that my mom referred to as the "Snowball" bush. That's what I always knew it as. When I was 11 we moved from that house to a new one without a snowball bush. But I remember distinctly shaking the due of the snowball bushes big blossoms. I also remember really looking into hydrengeas for my wedding way back when, but ultimately decided they would be too expensive. It was not until listening to the radio this morning and hearing the little gardener guy talk about hydrengeas and their alternate names, that I put the two things together. What we had in our yard growing up was a white hydrengea and I never even knew it. My mother did. But I never asked the name of it because I thought it was really called a "snowball" bush. Hey.. I have a "bridal veil" plant in my planter right now. It was a valid assumption.

WWHLT

Sometimes experiments in the kitchen just make big messes and not a very good dinner.

8 things

I thought this was a rather fun idea from a blog that some blogs I read, read. (Does that make sense?)

8 Random things About Zann

1. I absolutely detest tuna and will not eat it in any form or fashion, and will probably move as far away from you as possible if you are eating it.

2.I read about 13 comic strips online every morning before work and even on weekends.

3. If I had been better at math and science, I think i would have been a forensic anthropologist. I am fascinated by the stuff. But I don't have the stomach for the smells of biology, nor the skills in mathematics, so I went into advertising and art instead.

4. I drove two footed for the first 4 years that I drove.

5. I don't like chick flicks particularly. On occasion perhaps, but I would choose a comedy, epic, kid's movie or adventure over a romantic or sappy movie any day.

6. I secretly worry that our yard is a slow forming sink-hole. Enough so that I actually called our homeowners insurance to make sure we are covered in case it does turn out to be one and does something to the house one day.

7. I believe hypochondria and worry come with having a big imagination. I am slowly, ever so slowly (and with the help of my ever cool-as-a-cuke DH) learning to let go and let God and not worry about the what-ifs, or maybes and just live for the moment.

8. I probably have the dirtiest glasses of anyone you know. I never notice how filthy they are until I take them off to clean them. Then I wonder how in the world I was seeing through them at all. I also wonder how in the world I get them so dirty. It's not like I'm touching them very often or anything.

Three!

Three things I've learned this week.

1. There are members of my family who are more neurotic than me. For instance one such relative brought her own towels and sheets to stay overnight at a hotel, but did not, however bring a change of clothes for the next day.

2. The new Sam's Club is opening tomorrow.

3. They actually make and sell for an unbelievably large sum of money fuzzy elf-like tennis shoes. How do I know this? Because DH sent me the link telling me he thought he should get a pair. Thank goodness he was joking. Who wants to wear fuzzy shoes?

What I learned yesterday:
JC Penney in our town probably has some of the filthiest and most claustrophobic dressing rooms I've ever been in. And you can smoosh your finger in a grocery store buggy without really trying or doing anything weird.

What we have leaned today:
They only make 26 Ferrari s per day, and they go up in value rather than depreciate like most cars. Of course they are expensive out the wazoo. I owe this knowledge to CBS Sunday morning. It was a very interesting "design" oriented show this morning that we got to watch part of before heading to church.

I knew I liked these for some reason

Got this from Lauren and thought I would share the results:

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

WWHLT

As you age you lose your hair. Not just from on top of your head perhaps but also from your legs, armpits and eyebrows. Or at least this is so, according to my older friend Nelly.

For Farmwife:

Long ago I met this girl. She went to my church and was one of the cool kids at Teen theater group I started hanging out with. But I've told you all that story so I'm not going to do that again. But there was this one night when we had a coffee house (or was it a talent show?) with that same group. In among the angsty poetry, amateur songs and readings of much better, well-written poetry... this girl I met got up along with another girl I had met and did the most amazing thing. It made me laugh. It made me feel nostalgic. In my opinion it was brilliant and I had a new respect for both girls. What they did was perform a deadpan version of the muppet's Ma-na-ma-nah song. From that moment on I knew there was true talent among us.

A couple of days ago I was browsing through Walmart on my lunch break. I ran across a gift that I so wanted to send to the Farmwife for her birthday. But alas I did not have the money to spend. So I'm going to recreate it virtually for you. Sometime virtual is better anyway.

It was a little fuzzy blue monster.
Here is my quick sketchy artist rendering of him:


And if you press his left paw he plays (you'll have to copy and paste since I can't figure out how to get the HTML to work in blogger) this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj6cbM-h8xga

but if you press his right paw he plays this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSjcjHsSCmM

I instantly thought of you FW. And perhaps if you happen to run across this critter in walmart. You will think of me as well.
Happy Birthday!

Along the same lines, DH is a gamer. And while back he found this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEWgs6YQR9A
It is the first time I've ever heard "L33t" speak spoken outloud. It's pretty funny.

*P.S. I realize you may be on dial up and not be able to view the videos... if this is the case.. the first one plays Happy Birthday and the second the Ma nah ma nah song

and now for the WWHLT part of this post After talking with a co-worker today who has a green thumb, I learned of my own brown-thumb mistake. Apparently if you want to have a more than a handful of stawberries... you know like enough for two people to eat throughout the summer.. you have to plant more than one plant. One plant is probably only going to yield a handful of stawberries. Oh well, you live and you learn, guess I'll still be buying strawberries this year afterall.

WWLY

What We Learned Yesterday:
I do not function well on 3 hours of sleep. Guess it is just good training for when we have "real" kids. Sasha cried for 3 hours because of her e-collar on Tuesday night. We had to just let her cry it out because we couldn't afford for her to possibly rip out her staples while we slept. It left me with very little sleep to go on for a full day of work, then home to work on last minute freelance stuff right afterward. Thankfully last night she only whimpered a little but was fine there after.

WWHLT: Apparently, I'm hyperventilating almost all the time.

We had a "health" program at work today. We have one once a month. This month it was on stress management. They had us do an exercise where we were to breath normally for a minute and count how many times we inhaled and exhaled (1= inhale & exhale). Then we were to take that number and multiply it by two. I'm not sure why. But the number should have been fairly low. Mine and a couple of my coworkers were quite a bit elevated. The speaker said that meant we were not taking deep enough breaths and that could be one source of our stress. She asked if we yawn or sigh fairly often *gasp* I do! She said that essentially since we are breathing so quickly we are basically hyperventilating all the time and depriving ourselves of oxygen. The yawning and sighing is our body trying to get more. So I've been trying to remember to breathe deeper all day.

Not easy to do when you discover a deep gash in your only fur-child's side in the middle of your post-mother's day get-together with your in-laws and have to cut things short to take your dog to the emergency clinic for stitches (she's fine, some stitches, and elizabethan collar, and some antibiotics later- she's her perky ol' self). And then still have to get home in time finish 5 freelance projects so they'll be waiting for the client in the morning.

No problem... I think my adreneline can carry me through at the moment.

Old McDonald Had a Cookie

WWHLT: Did you know that McDonalds sells fresh baked cookies? I had no idea until my boss brought some in today. And they come in such neat packaging - I think it said it was a cookie tote. That just makes me giggle. The cookies were very good too. I particularly liked the oatmeal raisin ones. They come in packages of bakers dozens. I can't imagine how bad they are for you coming from McDonalds but they were oh so good.

WWHLT:
Although my husband and I share a lot of the same interests, even in some music, there are quite a few songs in his collection that drive me absolutely up a wall.

He's been sorting music today in the office. We share the office. Nuff said.

Happy mother's day to all the moms out there.

What we have learned today:
Today I learned how to grill. For the first time in my life we own a real live, up to your waist gas grill. We had an itty bitty sit-on-the-ground grill when we first got married. They kind most people take on camping trips. We cooked lots of hotdogs on that thing until it rusted out. Then a friend gave us a hand-me-down sit-on-the-ground charcoal grill last year. She let me borrow it for the TAG reunion last year. It did really well for that. Then DH and I brought it home and I tried to give it back to the friend but she said to keep it. We tried to cook on it a few other times. But realized we knew nothing about the secrets of charcoal. So yesterday was the big day that we were going to be grown ups and get a grill we actually knew how to use, and one big enough to cook for more than two people on. Now I'm ready to have people over. Because I have officially learned to cook hamburgers on something other than a George Foreman. I even learned to add the cheese at just the right time. It was a proud day.
However, I do wish I would learn the secret to getting hamburger patties to stay together. And the secret to cleaning a grill.

Any great wisdom to share?

What We Have Learned Today:
Ants love dog food.

*********
oh how I hate ants. I use to love those little buggers when I was little. I'd go outside and feed them sugar just to watch them come scurring out of their hole and carry it on their heads. Now that it is my home they are invading and now that I'm the one in charge of the kitchen. They are not quite so amusing.

We've had a professional come spray outside, we've used Terro, we've sprayed with bleach, we've sprayed over-the-counter stuff outside. We've hidden all the food and made sure there is no standing water. But still they come. And the dang things just won't die or leave!

*******************

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't figured out how to post replies to comments so that the original poster actually knows I replied to them. So for ease of use I may start doing replies to the last post's comments at the end of each current(and now, hopefully, more frequent) blog entry.

Sarah: I've been wanting to paint a rectangle on our wall with that stuff to use as a message board. You'll have to let me know how well it works.

Look Out!- This Blog is A Jar

So after yesterday's series of questions I got to thinking about this blog and one of those questions. It seems to me I don't post here much. (We've gone over this before, but bear with me). Part of it, is just that I can't think of much to say in a public setting. And I don't want to try to figure out blogger well enough to make it "friends only" or whatever they call it here - I already have a place I keep like that (don't worry I won't make this another shameless plug to try to get my buddies here to read over there). So I was thinking this blog needs a purpose. Something that would motivate me to write more. I'm not saying this will work necessarily but it's worth a shot and it will still go along with my title.

Plus the idea is kind of an homage to my mother too. And since it is very close to mother's day that seems appropriate.
I think my mother is a brilliant woman. Not sure she knows that, and I certainly didn't think that when I was a pre-teen/teenager but the older I get, the more I believe this is true. She is fun and funny, creative and caring and estudious as well. I no longer cringe at being compared to her. Instead I find it kind of flattering. When I was in college, much to family visitors' amusement, my mother kept a jar. She called it a "Learning Jar." She did this initially for her grandkids (my neices) because somewhere along the way she had shared her great wisdom that "you learn something new every day" and that people forget a lot of what they learn during the year. The kids (I'm not exactly sure this is an accurate story, but it's how I remember it) asked her how she knew.. and she and they started the learning jar as an experiment.

How the learning jar worked is that everytime you would learn a new fact, lesson or whatever during the day, you'd jot it down and put it in the jar. Later you could go back and look at how much you had learned over the year. I'd get a kick out of reading the little jotted notes every time I came home and so would the rest of the family and people who came to visit. One of the funnier lessons I found in the jar that stand out in my mind was: "Never take a two year old to a Japanese restaurant where the cook in front of you with an open flame. This = sheer terror"

So in honor of my mother on the week before Mother's Day, and inspired by yesterday's question "What have you learned today." I believe I am going to initiate the same experiement my mom did, here. I think I can make it back here most days to jot down something I have learned for the day. It may not always make sense. It may not always go along with something else I may mention here. But it will keep me motivated. And you are always welcome to ask me to expound on anything I may mention and I will probably oblige... And you are most welcome to add whatever you have learned that day too. I may also write other bits and pieces here and there that aren't about something I've learned. But I think I feel better knowing my blog has a purpose now. And it will be fun to see what I learn over the year.

Someone cue the Querty music from Veggie Tales "And what we have learned applies to our lives today.... "


What I've Learned Today 5-10-07
1.The side of your ring fingernail is a very bad place to get an injury because you knock your finger way more than you realize during the day.

2. Pickles get really smelling if thrown directly in the garbage. Ewwwww.

But wait! There's more!

1 - If you could replay a moment in history EXACTLY AS IT HAPPENED, what moment would that be?
Hmm, that's tough - because for me to be there and it to be exactly as it happened, I would have had to have been present at the event in the first place which narrows it down to events from my life. So in that case I think it would be the moment I realized that I really did love my DH (before he was my DH ) and felt freed of the confusion I had been going through. It was such a light, freeing wonderful moment - but I think there are other equally wonderful moments I'd relive... that's just the first one that has come to mind.

2 - What aspect of your daily routine do you look forward to the most?
Lunch - not that I look forward to the food, but I do enjoy the time out of the office with my coworker either running errands or eating out. It's a nice break from the stress of the day. I also enjoy going home... but lunch always seems fun, whether at home or at work so I'm going with it as my answer.

3 - If you could avoid one household chore for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Ironing. I hate to iron. And have pretty much given it up. The other would be cleaning the bathroom.

4 - What did you learn today?
Did you know that if you are extremely left or right handed that it is an indication that the little bridge between the left and right hemispheres of your brain is short, but that if you are ambidexterous it is an indication that the bridge between your left and right hemisphere is longer. This also indicates a more intropsective person according to recent studies. I read that while trying to find information on something else this morning. I thought it was very interesting.

More Q & A

Let's face it. I just don't have a whole lot to write about right now. Nor is there a lot of time recently, since the weather turned warm. Or at least I have trouble thinking of things to write about. So I'm taking on the questions that Emily left for me now. If anyone else would like to pose any questions to me, anything you've been curious about or just have wanted to ask anyone at somepoint but never had a chance to ask. Please feel free. I'll answer. It may be a couple of days before I do, but I will answer.

Here's my Emily questions. Please visit her blog in my side bar. She's really cool.

1. Do you believe in soul mates, destiny and fate?'

Um.. not really. Sort of. I believe that things happen for a reason, but that our decisions have concequences.

2. If you had to choose a literary character to describe/represent yourself, who would you choose? Why?
I've thought about this for this for several days now. And the only one I could come up with doesn't really respresent me now. I haven't really found a character who would right now. But one that represents my younger self, would definately be Junie B. Jones. I love those books because I relate to that child. She has big ideas and a lot of times her big ideas get her into big messes... and that was and come to think of it, still is, the story of my life.

3. What is one thing you wish someone had told you when you were growing up?
You really can't be anything that you dream or want to be if you work hard enough for it when you grow up. There are somethings that you may want to be/do that you just aren't cut out for. That first line, is just something people tell you to encourage you to work hard. But you can still strive to be the best you can be. And that, no doubt, is a pretty great thing.

4. My favorite day is Sunday. What is your typical Sunday like? Is it your favorite day too?
Sundays are not exactly my favorite day because I usually start dreading going back to work the next day by the end of it. Saturdays are my favorites. But I do enjoy Sunday too. Our typical one starts with me getting up and going to church to either tell stories to the 2, 3 & 4 year olds or run the lights/slide for the grownup services, then I'm joined by my DH for the service we attend and then we go to eat or do whatever errands need to be run in town. Then it is home to work on our own projects, play, finish cleaning or out to visit with someone.

5. Name someone from your past you wish you could talk to again or see again. What would you say?
Hmm. Dead or living?
Living- I'd like to see a former bridesmaid who completely ditched me as a friend after I got married. I'd like to tell her I'm sorry, face to face, for whatever I did to hurt her/turn her against me. I've written it in letters, but have never had the opportunity to tell her to her face. I honestly don't know what I did that made her just abandon me like that.

Dead- I'd like to talk to my Granddaddy L again. Or my Uncle Grant, or my Granny D or my friends' Granny S - I'm not sure which I'd choose, because I just enjoyed them all while they were living and just miss getting to say hello to them. But I know one day I'll be able to chat it up with some of them again. And that's a comfort.

Meme Tag : Seven

Lauren has tagged me to complete this meme.
Here are the rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things,
as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them
that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

1. I did not get to see the ocean until I was 26 years old. We went to the Gulf of Mexico when I was 3 but I don't remember anything about it so I only count DH & my trip to Charleston as the one time I've seen the ocean.

2. I can't do math for the life of me. I'm notorious for reversing numbers or making stupid mistakes. Calculators are my best friend. When people ask me "how did you decide to go into art as a profession" I tell them that I would have been a forensic anthropologist but there was too much math involved. Yet I'm the one who keeps the books in the family and manages our finances.

3. I am terrified of ferris wheels

4. I'm fairly shy until I get to know you, then I can be quite loud and obnoxious.

5. I absolutely hate tuna fish, it is probably my least favorite food ever.

6. DH and I actually crossed paths 10 years before we met and I even definately saw him and did not realize it until a year after we were married. My parents brought me a bunch of stuff they had been storing from my childhood and in the box was a self-recorded video tape of newscasts featuring the reenactment of the battle of Franklin. In conversations we knew we had both been there even though we lived several hundred miles away from each other at the time. But until we popped that video in we did not realize that I had actually seen him. There he was with his dad, marching in the fife and drum core. The newscast even interviewed his dad. It's our one really cool story of "destiny" ;)

7. I'm a born entrpreneur - though not a successful one yet. Ever since I was a little bitty girl I've been starting my own businesses trying to sell my wares. Such products have included: pot holders, statues made of wood scraps, bathroom sink concocted perfume, greeting cards.... and many more. Someday perhaps I will actually hit upon something. My design professors told me I should definately go into product design... but they didn't tell me how to do that. So I'm still working on it ;).

I tag anyone who actually reads my blog because I don't want anyone to feel left out and I love reading random facts about people.

I did a similar TAG over at the other place a couple of days ago. So feel free to read more.