My baby sister absolutely adores the website F*** My Life.  I find it quite amusing in a totally adolescent way.  It definitely shows the irony of life on a daily basis.  Some of my favorites FML moments I've read on the site include:

Today, I woke my husband up at 2am, screaming that there was a badger in our bedroom. We both screamed for a bit until he finally says, "What are we screaming about!?" I took a second look at the badger, and realized it was my four year old daughter with her blanket. FML

Today, my boyfriend and I decided to do something different and go to the park. There, we saw a mama duck lead her baby ducks to the pond only to be attacked and killed by two male ducks. FML

Today, I once again told my son he needed a job because I simply could not keep him in my house anymore. He yelled, "No, I can do whatever I want!" Then went back to playing video games. He's 38. FML

Today, while waiting on tables at work, I was carrying a glass of red wine when I lost balance and spilt it everywhere. After cleaning the floor and myself up and after refilling a new glass, I did exactly the same thing again. FML

Today, I awoke to make-up all over my face and nail polish on my hands and feet because my daughter wanted "daddy to look pretty." I have a job interview in an hour and none of it is coming off. FML

And my personal favorite recently...

Today, my "friend" told me I was weird and irritating. Yet she has an unhealthy obsession with Harry Potter, hates people in general, and has a facebook account for her cat. Yeah, I'm the weird one. FML

Photo Friday: Week 17 - Trees

It's time for the next Photo Friday Project.  This week's theme is "Trees".  Now, that obviously seems like an easy enough topic and I must admit it was challenging to feel overly creative.

Trees represent so many different things to me.  Think: Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, the childhood escape of a Tree House, the beauty of Redwood Trees, or the awesome book The Education of Little Tree (which really was life changing to me).

So although the below pictures may not represent the above topics, they were the best I could do for now...

Please hop on over to Trina's blog (click her button below) to see the other Photo Friday submissions.  It's so fun to see everyones ideas of each weeks theme.

Spring Feet Lament by Frantic Mommy

From one Minnesota Mommy blogger to another!

I absolutely adored Frantic Mommy's post lamenting the way we, as Northerner's living in the freezing icy tundra, neglect our feet during the winter months and then have a wee bit of shock as we discover how offensive our feet have become -- and how much work it takes to get them back up to snuff for sandals.  Please enjoy her HUMOROUS and all too true (!) depiction of my love-hate relationship with feet...


Spring Is Here. Time For My Spring Feet Lament

OK..well, I think it's Spring. As I type this, it's April 24th and I woke up to SNOW on the effing ground!

SNOW!

From my office, I can see the lake..and I also hear the seagulls bee-atchin and some pissed-off-sounding ducks.

Even they are saying WTF?

But the "effing snow" won't last long and I can get back to my recent issue at hand....my FEET.

Some people treat Spring as a time to clean and renew. I, like clockwork, bitch about my FEET.


Dear Feet,
Why, oh why, hast thou betrayed me? You were like a part of me..oh wait..you ARE a part of me and something is strangely amiss. I know I should not have ignored you those long winter months when you were jammed into socks, more socks, and big stinky snow boots. But you were well hidden and protected so as long as you kept me upright, I pretty much took you for granted.

Now, as warmer temps have finally started to show themselves, my thoughts have turned to Capri's, tank-tops, and sandals. And I've also noticed something very, very disturbing....

...you look like hell. AGAIN.

Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate your ability to navigate my fat tail from place to place, and you enable me to occasionally look stylish in shoes. BUT something drastic must have happened about 6 years ago. Somewhere around the seventh month of my last pregnancy. I have vague memories of your normal appearance, but now..well..you look like something that should be on the end of Bilbo Baggin's legs. Shrek has better looking tootsies than you, honey.

So I desperately try to repair the damaged done. But the skin on my heels look like a lizard's butt. And Gawd help me, what's up with the hairy toes?

That's one place I never thought I'd have to shave.

So I struggle, buff, scrub, lotion, and cajole my sad feets. I vow to "pretty you up" with new lovely shades of polish and swear I will not neglect you next Winter Boot Season.

But truth-be-told, if ugly was a chronic condition, you'd need an intervention. I will valiantly try to make you look better, but the reality is Dear Feet-O-Mine, putting nail polish on you is a little like putting lipstick on a pig.

It is, what it IS.

Love,
The Large Body Attached to You.

Side NOTE: Looks like another Tennis-Shoe-&-Loafer Summer for moi. *sigh*

A good foot is a terrible thing to waste.


* * * * *

I strongly encourage you  to step over to Frantic Mommy's blog and show some love.  She is so hysterical -- although I guess I am partial to fellow Minnesota Mommy Bloggers.

Tweet-less

I often wonder how "out of the loop" I am because I don't tweet.  I have no idea what Twitter is about.  It's a foreign concept to me and it seems a bit pointless.  Please don't offense to this.  I am assuming if I truly understood Twitter than I would be gung-ho and go all bananas and tweet away...

It seems as if most awesome bloggers tweet and it's a great way to stay up to date and provide timely info to followers. However, I doubt that anything I have to say would be that crazily important that anyone in their right mind would want to know about it RIGHT NOW!

Perhaps my disconnect comes from the fact that I don't follow trendy anything.  I could care less which celebrity was most recently seen cheating or what flavor ice cream Julia Roberts child is devouring or what color Dennis Rodman's dress currently is.

It's not that I don't think any of those topics are news worthy, but more often than not I feel so overwhelmed by the need to be on top of everything that I have to drop the ball somewhere and I guess the losers are pop culture and trends and celebrity gossip.

Or I could tell you the truth and admit that I'm so in love with talk public radio that I can't be bothered with the local evening news (don't care who shot who), pop radio (those lyrics are scary!), or how many wives Michael Jackson had (were they ever really consummated?).

You can't go wrong with "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me", the oddly informative new quiz, that makes me belly laugh each week!  Or think "Splendid Table" with Lynne Rossetto Kasper who is a goddess for all the phenomenal things she creates in the kitchen -- things so far over my head, I often don't even know of all of the ingredients.  Or "Speaking of Faith" (now called "Being") with Krista Tippett And then there are the mid-day talk shows with topics varying from the state budget (boring and frustrating, but a necessary evil?), education disparities between children, the civil wars in Syria and Tsnusia and Libya, how to plan your garden, Peggy Orenstein's great new novel "Cinderella Ate My Daughter"!  The list goes on!

So now you know my dirty secret about being obsessed with talk public radio instead of tweeting about the darling (and not-so-darling) experiences with my wee ones...

Does that make me the oddest mommy on the block?  What are your thoughts on Twitter? Please explain to me how it even works or is useful?

Happy Easter

Our family had a truly blessed and lovely Easter yesterday.  I am so very lucky to have such psychotic and loving sisters.  They are my best friends.  And then there is my mom!  She totally rocks!  I was so very excited to have this Easter with her.  Since her recent scare with the impromptu heart surgery in early March, I count my blessing triple-fold with her.  And let's not forget Husband and those DARLING wee children of mine!!!

SIGH!

I must repeat it again: I AM BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE!



Photo Friday

I've been meaning to begin participating in Trina's weekly Photo Friday link-up, but have somehow managed to not quite find the courage to share photos in a blog hop.  Yet, I am so encouraged by Trina's awesome photos and her fab friends photos that I am compelled to participate.

Here is the original post where Trina explains the genesis of her Photo Friday Project.

I am joining the project in Week 16 and this week's theme is "Growth".

I choose the three photos below to represent my growth over the past year as I embrace learning how to cook new yummy dishes and taste even more delish, new foods than I could ever hope to master creating.

(Why, yes! Those are absolutely natural PURPLE potatoes -- and they taste phenomenal!)

Please hop on over to Trina's blog (click her button below) to see the other Photo Friday submissions.  It's so fun to see everyones ideas of each weeks theme.

Trivial Thursday

The fabulous-ness of answering a few (usually five) random questions each week is making a come-back. Feel free to grab the 5 questions and link back to me.




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Do you think mustaches are sexy? That is challenging.  I'm not a huge fan of mustaches, but Husband has a goatee that I really like on him.  Then, there is the 5 o'clock shadow on some sexy movie stars, such as Ben Affleck (SIGH!!!) or George Clooney or Clive Owen...

What's the last concert you've been to? I'm thinking... It was probably Madeleine Peyroux.  Love her!  I hope to go to Jonny Lang in September. For the record, if Jonny Lang asks me to marry him, I may need to leave my husband.

What was your favorite 80's sitcom? I couldn't think of any 80's sitcoms off the top of my head, so I had to Google a list of them.  I fondly remember watching some, but I'll have to say that Happy Days, Punky Brewster, Different Strokes, and Who's the Boss? were some of my very favorites.

 Were you named after anyone? My mom's middle name is Ann, so I was named after her.  The middle name "Louise" was a bonus.  She liked the name and I hated it as a child.  However, I didn't hate it enough to forget to pass it on to my eldest daughter as her middle name too.

When you buy new clothes, do you wash before wearing? Almost never! I know this will appall many of you, but it's my reality.

Creativity Flows with Mixbook

I tend to be a bit slow when it comes to picking up on new trends -- whether they be fashion, electronics, music, etc. So, although this may not be exciting to you, it is SUPER-DE-DUPER exciting for me!

I have discovered...

MIXBOOK!

It is an awesome photo book service with an impressive website, full of customization options and special features. Mixbook boasts one of the most customizable online photo book services and you can create online albums completely FREE!

Can you say "AWESOME"?!  Come on! Say it with me "Awwwweeesssoooome!"

As a traditional scrapbooker, I have been reluctant to try any type of digital scrapping. I love have the photographs in front of me. I adore working with the different textured papers, ribbons, buttons, embellishments.  However, I think I will also enjoy learning to work with Mixbook's free online services too.  I see it as another creative outlet.  I'm dying to share some of my creations...  Be warned, I am brand new at this, so I hope my creations improve vastly as I learn how to use Mixbook (and other online options) more efficiently.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Apologies to You, Dearest Blog

Dearest Blog:

I am full of excuses, but none of them are worth their weight.  I have neglected you and pushed you to the side.  My main excuse is that I have been so darn-blasted tired and busy, but alas, this is not okay behavior.  One does not treat their prized friend (as only you can be considered, my dearest Blog) in such a manner.

But do not fret!  I have thought of you often.  You are always on my mind.  Little moments that occur and I think, "Oh! I should share with with Blog." And then my distracted mind is taken in another direction...

My friends call it my "Squirrel" moments.  (Have you seen the children's movie "Up" where the dog is in mid-conversation, but distracted by a random squirrel?)

Will you forgive me?  Pretty please?  I promise to try to behave and be a better friend and write more...





P.S. For your viewing enjoyment, please see the "squirrel" movie clip from Up.

Green and Furry

Last night while watching the people movie version of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" I had a very enlightening conversation with the wee ones.  It goes something like this:

Little Man asks: "Mom, is the Grinch real?"

Me: "No, it's not real, but some people can act like the Grinch. I know a woman who doesn't like Christmas at all."

Little Man and Little Princess gasp loudly.

Little Man: "She's a real Grinch?" (he pauses furrowing his darling brow) "Is she furry like him?"

Me: "Well, um, no!"

Little Man inquires seriously: "Is she green?"

Me (shaking my head): "No, she's not green."

Little Princess pipes up, ever the voice of reason: "Then she definitely isn't a Grinch.  Maybe she's just a hater?"

INSERT MY EYES POPPING OUT OF MY HEAD...

"A 'hater'?" I squeak. "Where did you learn that word?"

Princess smiles widely, "Word Girl!"

Now, I may be a bit out of touch with pop culture, but I am quite sure that PBS Kids did NOT teach my wee ones what a "hater" is.  Hmmmm.... I may need to ban all electronic media.

I ended up just bursting out loud laughing as I said, "Okay! Everyone just finish watching the movie..."

April Fools Day

Little Man's preschool has a tradition of an April Fool's Day Parade!  They traipse all of the children, ages 1-5,  around the neighborhood. The wee ones get to wear funny hats that they either make or find at home. They also get to carry a noise maker or instrument and are encouraged to make as much noise as possible!  Then to make things really super-de-duper entertaining, each child got to carry a balloon!

Seriously, I ask you -- is there anything better than balloons?!?!?!  

It was so darling! 

All of these little people with funny hats, jingle bells and balloons beaming proud of themselves!