QotD: Warning:

If you came with a warning label, what would it say?
Submitted by chris.

beware of bitch, most likely 

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QotD: Stupid Human Trick

What is your stupid human trick?
Submitted by Scarlett.

BunnyNose.. its something akin to wiggling the ears except its my nose and I can wiggle it up and down like a bunny.

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QotD: Childhood Frights

What were you afraid of as a child that seems silly to you now?
Submitted by navelgazer.

I was afraid  if you sat on the toilet when you flushed it that it would suck you down.

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Mr. Coffee, You're Fired!

Only I drink coffee at my house. My husband doesn't drink coffee, and well, if I told you the 6year old and the 3 year old drank coffee you'd worry about my family wouldn't you? Because I'm the sole coffee drinker in this family, and always have been, a friend gave me a Melitta 4-cup coffee maker before I got married. (it was the one you got free with an enrollment in the Gelvalia coffee club) I love that little coffee pot...

Last night I dropped the carafe. It fell on a video box, and then rolled onto the floor and broke. I almost cried. So.. in desperation today I dug out the old Mr Coffee 10 cup pot... *yuck* the coffee just does not taste the same.. i am officially a coffee snob I guess... and at that I'm a Melitta coffee maker snob.

so.. I'm looking on eBay for a new one.. but while I have recounted my sad tale to my Mom and a few other people my Mom and a friend have both thought that they might have an unused 4-cup Melitta from Gevalia in their garage or basement. I figure Murphy's law of eBay will prevail.. if they both have one I will also win the one I'm bidding on, but if they don't either one have one anymore, chances are I will lose the auction in a last minute bidding frenzy. And that will make me very sad.

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QotD: Tasty Thanksgiving Treat

What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Submitted by Brennan.

the stuffing, without a doubt.. we only have it at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We don't make it any other time.. and besides its not the same if it isn't cooked in the bird...

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Vox Hunt: Autumn Where I Live

Show us what autumn looks like where you live.
Submitted by Miss Parker.

November06 021 copy

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I'm reading an interesting book

Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness --- and Liberalism --- to the Women of Ame

Myrna Blyth

I'm not quite halfway through it yet, but there are some very valid points in it.. the overall point so far being: If we are the most privileged generations of women in American history, given the most opportunities ever, why are we so unhappy with ourselves. The answer is simple, if womens magazines sell us unhappiness with ourselves then their advertisers can sell us happiness in a jarbottlespashoedresshandbagordietsystem.

I have been thinking about myself.. what I am happy with what I am unhappy with about me...  One of the quoted surveys was how many women would give a year of their life to be their ideal weight.... and I thought what if the "deal maker" collects that year just as your child is getting married, or having your first grandchild? I know I'm not my "ideal weight" and guess what... unless I get a personal trainer who makes me literally work my rear off for 8 hours a day....I'm not going to be.  The ideal weight for my height is 100-120 lbs.. never going to happen. I worked on a horse farm doing manual labor for 8-12 hours a day in college.. (loved it by the way) and at my smallest i was 124-130lb and I was a thin as I get. I'm not going there ever again.. am I  crazed by this thought .. nope.. do I need to lose weight.. yes.. a significant amount. But a healthy amount... if I lose 50 lbs.. I wont be near my "ideal".. but I will be much healthier... and that is what I'm aiming for.

How did I manage not to get caught in the trap? I don't rightly know. The trap caught my sister and my sister in law.  We all played with Barbie Dolls.... Well.. when my sister wasn't making me be Ken.. :P And we all grew up in white middle class suburbia. (Peoria mind you not Chicago) What made the difference?  I don't know for certain, but I suspect part of the difference has to do with  my Dad.... My sister didn't seem to have an interest in anything my Dad did on the weekend home from work, growing up. And my sister and my Dad where at odds  all through her teen years... (she would disappear from school functions only to turn up hours late in the company of some boy) There by making my Dad crazy. My sister in law has issues with her father .. abuse , emotional and physical.  Both need a man for validation, and need to be skinny. 

Sometimes I think I just got lucky, but I know there is more to it than that.

Boy... that train of thought jumped the tracks...

The book.. yes.. in case you are still reading and you actually care. The book also talks about how stress is so hyped. How we are all under such stress like never before and every little thing causes stress in such major and dramatic ways. Like Every generation of American women didn't have stress. Like we should believe the Pioneers who shot wild animals from the doorstep so they wouldn't eat their livestock weren't a little harried and frazzled at the end of the day. Or all the Rosie the riveter's who worried their husbands and brothers wouldn't make it home and left their kids alone to take up jobs in the factories, weren't a little on edge some days? Yeah.. I just had a Moms group meeting where they gave us a stress test... out of 30 I scored  4 or 5.. I'm not stressed... I get some eustress going on in my life.. the good stress that propels you to achieve, but real stress. No, really, none right now. But I don't insist on keeping up with the Joneses, frankly the I have enough to do to take care of my kids, I could not care less what the Joneses are doing.   And the history of studying the effects of stress...  enlightening, very enlightening..  it deserves a whole post to its self.

At any rate,  I'm off to read more about the crap those magazines are trying to feed me. I'll let you know what I think.

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QotD: Pizza Preference

How do you eat your pizza:  folded, flat or with a fork and knife?
Submitted by danimass.

Flat... from point to crust...  dipping the crust into the garlic sauce that comes with the pizza.

I'm hungry now...

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QotD: OS Preference

Windows, Mac, Linux - What's your preference and why?
Submitted by ramblingsbymark.

windows.. it is what i have thats why....

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Now that I can blog...

I cant think of anything to say.... go figure...

I have come to the conclusion that Milk Duds are addictive and evil... and I should not buy them...

I've also come to the conclusion (again) that mice are filthy little vermin and when they are not ripping open food packaging are ransacking other places in my house to find the things I will be most angry to find chewed up like mini sweater Christmas ornament. darn it all....

I know none of this is very exciting to read.. sorry. its a boring kinda day....

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Halloween...

Yes I know its old news now....  I'll just have to edit the date I guess. We had a nice Halloween, Both kids had class parties at school. One Monday and one Tuesday. And Hubby was home to go Trick or Treat on Halloween Night. I was quite relieved I really did not want to go by myself with the kids just because doing all those kinds of things alone make me feel so "single-parent" - esqe and I don't like the feeling. Plus, I feel like Hubby is missing important things if he misses those things like trick or treating.

 

Our adventure began a few weeks before Halloween, when my oldest told me he wanted to be a Blue Peterbilt for Halloween, and the younger one just looked at me funny every time I asked him what he wanted to be. I began a search for cardboard to construct a Blue Peterbilt, the local appliance store gets their appliances in styrofoam and shrink wrap.. and the local gift store had none, I'd have gone dumpster diving for some except it had been raining for a week straight... so I did the next thing that popped into my head.. I called Dad He had boxes from just moving.  The night he and my Mom brought me the boxes.. the kids spent hours playing in them....

 

October06 181

, and I started to wonder if they might want to be shipping cartons for Halloween....  That night Jamie finally decided he'd like to be Tow Mater.. from Cars. So.. Mommy the cardboard construction engineer.. went to work...

 

and on the Friday before Halloween I had the basic shapes done. On Saturday I was a little out of sorts all day...

 

boxcars2.jpg

We had to go to a bake sale and to buy duct tape and spray paint for the costumes. One of my favorite parts of this adventure was buying shiny duct tape... By Saturday night I was violently ill. And so I spend most of Saturday night trying not to throw up all over myself. Consequently I spent Sunday in the horizontal position on the couch vaguely watching my children through one slightly open eye, sipping water and ice... (And lucky me while ice was the only thing I could eat at all.. I broke a filling, on a lousy weak half melted piece of ice no less)

Monday morning as I dropped the little one aff at school, another parent mentioned coming back up for the Halloween party.. that I had forgotten was on Monday, not Tuesday (since there wasnt preschool for Jamie on Tuesday... And so... I raced home and slapped the wheels on Mater, and made the eyes for mater and attatched his hook. I rushed out the door with him only for his wheels to fall off and fly under the car..  flustered but not beat I found the wheels ran back inside and plugged the hot glue gun back in. glued the wheels on and headed out again once more.  to take Mater to a waiting and concerned preschooler, who was thrilled to see Mater...

 

boxmater.jpg

I had to spruce Mater back up a bit at home, fix the hook it came off and reglue a wheel, and add his mirrors, but as the preschoolers paraded around the Junior High all the kids recognized Mater, and Jamie was a little star struck by being such a celebrity. LOL...  After School I began the task of putting together the  Blue Peterbilt.. I stayed up all night and At 5 am I decided I needed an hours nap, before our normal wakeup time or 6 am.. so I went to bed...When I woke Ian I told him to go check the kitchen, because his Truck was done, and he paid me the greatest compliment there is. From the other room I heard a delighted and awed 6- year old voice giggle and oh w-o-w this is the coolest truck int he whole world. Some days being a Mom is a great thing...

The object of 6 year old awe?

 

boxsemi.jpg

We took the semi to school where it was greated with much of the same kind of enthusiasm and appreciation from kids and adults alike. Dad's said "hey thats cool" and Mom's said " Thats cool, I wouldn't know where to start on that kinda thing" and kids just "ah"-ed and "cool"-ed..

And once again, I managed to Impress my husband. I've said it before, He is not regularly impressed by my creative antics. I can ear apart the car door to fix the power the window that has jumped its track, and he is not impressed.. but making a semi out of cardboard, spray paint and duct tape. That impresses him.

 

This is how I impress my husband.... lol

 

boxcars3.jpg

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QotD: My Dream Career

What's your dream career? 
Submitted by Something.

I dont have one... really, there isn't anything I want to do more than mother my children,  and I dont veiw Motherhood as a career, because that is such a narrow word for something so important. and so really no dream career.. I hear one of you saying what if you didnt have kids? then I'd be spending my time waiting for them.. I'd find a job I enjoy or go back to school....

 

ok... the closest thing to a dream carreer for me? proffessional student.. let me go to class and grade the teachers.. I'd love to do that....  but chances are no one will offer me that job... and if it interfered with being Mom... I wouldnt take it...

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Hello neighbors!!

Finally.. I have a cursor.. I had to download Firefox, and still I don't get a cursor every time..

I cant seem to  reply to the noisy neighbor post  but I was just going snicker and laugh at the "angry at you because you wont teach the girlfriend how to cook" comment.

and I have had things to say everyday in November so far so as to vox everyday but I will have to go back to those entries. Hopefully I will still have a cursor.  And I have missed a few QotD's too.

I guess first thinks first I'll have to go back and recount Halloween... I'll get on that post in a minute or two...

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