'10 Things...'

i was tagged by this lovely lady, so i'm going to give it a go. she did a 'sex' one, so i told her i might throw something in...
"10 things you don't know about me"

1. i am a constant dieter...because my weight has always been an issue for me (even when it didn't need to be), i have dieted since i was a sophomore in HS. however, i never took diet pills and the only 'diet plan' i have ever tried is 'weight-watchers'. it works, when you follow it. {eat less and exercise}
   
2. i am not even 5 feet tall...so, short would describe me. but i make up for lacking height with my huge boobs...right? ;)
   
3. i didn't date in HS. i did go to Senior Prom with one of my best friend's brothers. he was my first kiss. {can you believe that! i was "sweet sixteen and never been kissed".} i was crazy in love with her other brother, Jeremy, but he wasn't available. *sigh*
4. i tell stories in 'real time'. i always have, i can remember when i was in jr. high my mom used to call them Annie's Fables. {i used to go by Annie as a nick-name, some of my closest friends and some family still refer to me this way. it totally throws my in-laws off. 'Annie, who's Annie?"} anyway, if you want to know what 'he said' i can probably tell you, verbatim...its a skill,really.
   
5. i always wanted to name my daughter 'Harley' (after a girl on a soap i watch), but then i married a man whose father's name is Harley so that was out. everyone would think she was named for him, when she wasn't...then she ended up sharing his middle name anyway.
6. i was a virgin until i went to college, where i met my husband. he plays like he was my first, singing 'la la la' whenever i even begin to suggest that he wasn't...its kinda cute. My first, however, was a guy who went by his last name, Lytle (that's a strong y sound), but one time at a party by the lake he stripped naked and took a running leap into the water; after that everyone rightly called him 'little'. i learned a lot from him about how relationships are not supposed to be. {Hi, Mom!}
7. i am an over-achiever. this is a label i never put on my self before, but after reading here, i'm pretty certain. i once had a friend tell me that she wished she was more like me "because you're good at everything!" i tried to tell her, i'm not good at everything, i just don't do the things i'm not good at...she responded with, "yeah, but you do everything." there isn't a whole lot i don't do...except extreme sports. ;)
8. i am a middle child...in other terms middleborn. i have an older brother and a younger sister. they both live out-of-state, and i don't talk to them more than two or three times a year, if that. it didn't used to be this way.
9. i am a huge fan of chic singers...kelly clarkson, p!nk, madonna, anna nalick, jewel, carrie underwood, qwen stefani, sheryl crow, jann arden, joan osborne, luscious jackson, fiona apple, dido, natalie imbruglia, meredith brooks, sophie b. hawkins, cyndi lauper, sarah mclachlan, avril lavigne, katharine mcphee, catie curtis, shawn colvin, paula cole, suzanne vega, michelle branch, veruca salt, alanis morissette, etc. some of them i mostly listened to in college, but i still put their CD in every now and then. i think i listen to a pretty good variety.
10. i could probably shock you with a few things that i don't mind sharing with the world but wouldn't tell my parents. {again, Hi Mom!} but, instead i'm copping out on the last one here by simply admitting that i've never been tagged before this, and didn't realize how hard it is to come up with 10 things that i haven't already shared or you couldn't guess by reading my previous posts.
    

and now i need to take a moment to consider whether i want to tag someone or just offer to all my readers (cause i know there are just SO many of you) if you want to be tagged, consider yourself tagged. leave a comment and link to your list, i'll check it out.

enjoy your day today.
its snowing here, again. at least this time its snow and not ice.
they're predicting snow all day today and for the next couple of days.
if we get some good accumulation i'll try to get some good pics to share.

~later.

perfectly cute.

saw this here.
would like to know where to get it...
i'll have to find out when i have more time.
just wanted to share real quick.

fav-foto...

not sure if i shared this before {back when i was messing with photoshop a bit}
i had a 'girls weekend away' at my friends cabin, and one of the things everyone did was take a self-pic. then i was messing with some of them and came up with these...
pretty cool, huh?
actually, it makes me want to get away for a bit and take some more pics!

i'll try to post more pics later.

immunity...

in the form of cherry pomegranate, no less.

today, i will be keeping the girl home from school, as she has contracted yet another cold. and today is the day where her nose and eyes are dripping...the worst part of a cold, besides the aches and coughing, of course.
anyway, we were just about out of tissue, and none of the meds we had here at the house were even phasing her symptoms, so we headed to wal-mart. while shopping for a few other things we needed for the week i came upon this...
now, usually i buy the store brand because they have so many more flavors (and i don't usually go for cherry) and now there are all kinds of options for adding vitamins, electrolytes and such to your water...even caffeine! but when i saw that this was cherry-pom flavored, i just knew it would be yummy. and it is. the girl is even drinking some with her lunch! woohoo! vitamins A, C, & E!
you should try it!

from the other room...

{i hear banging and scuffling}
"A, just sit still and watch your movie." i say.
"I am!" she says.
"It doesn't sound like it. It sounds like you're bouncing off the walls." i say.
"I'm just not! I don't even have any suction cups!" she says.
with an exasperated look on her face she explains.
"...suction cups for suctioning the wall."

botanicals in the house...

on my wall actually!

remember when i was hunting for a botanical and found this one...
well,
i bought it.
and it became them.
and i matted and framed them.
and i hung them in my entry,
across from my formal dining room
a little bit re-arranged.
then i took their picture...
so, now i need to get a nice table/sideboard
to go underneath with a lamp and
some other odds and ends...

dinner and a movie...

funny how the ice keeping us in has really gotten me back in the habit of cooking.
we were eating out way too much, and the worst part is that i was still doing grocery shopping...so you can imagine what my pantry looks like. we could eat for a month on dry packaged goods and frozen chicken...

tonight i think i might like to watch a movie that i haven't already seen. we've been renting a lot of movies lately, mostly for the girl. right now she's watching 'It Takes Two', again. one of the first films by MaryKate and Ashley Olson, so they're just a little older than her and there's a wedding scene...she loves movies where people get married and live 'happily ever after'.

anyway, i'm in the mood for a different kind of flick. i never got to see the second Pirates of the Caribbean, and i loved the first one! does it get any better than this?

Yum-O!

then i got to thinking, 'what kind of pirate would i be?'...one thing led to another and very quickly i ended up with this...

Your Pirate Name Is...

Arch-Pirate Firecrotch

What's Your Pirate Name?

brrrrr...

i'm talkin' some serious ice here.
i ventured out into the weather this morning to take a few pics of the ice on our trees and bushes...





if only it had been mixed with snow, it wouldn't be so bad. as it is, everything is just frozen. solid.

today's high is expected to be 20 *F...or -7 *C.
although it feels much colder then that in the wind. here is this week's forcast...
frozen.
cold.

ice, ice, and more ice...

and, did i mention ice?

so.
good time to pick up a good book...just wish i had thought of that before the storm.

i guess you can tell that i'm in a reading mood...although i really can't see another book being able to satisfy in the wake of twilight and new moon. honestly.
i was searching for something that may even come close when i noticed twilight is this month's selection for the book bitches. they are really something. i just can't come up with an appropriate word to describe them...but they did make a good choice.

maybe i'll get the opportunity to read this one soon...
it just came out on the 9th, but i'm sure i know someone who has already ordered/received it.
Diesel is supposed to be in this one...and i can't seem to recall much about him from the past books (it really has been too long since i read them last), i think i may have to revisit and re-educate myself. If you haven't gotten it yet, but its on the way, you can get started a bit early with chapter one here.

enjoy.

updates...

on the machete-murderer...
so i borrowed a yearbook from an old classmate of mine who was actually a year behind me in school. funny thing, she and i had classes together and were in the school's drama performances and on the newspaper staff together, and yet we speak more now then we ever did then...still not too often. i think i actually chat more with her husband than with her, but that's neither here nor there.
searching through the yearbook i couldn't find even a hint of his existence...not even a 'not pictured'.
i remember him, though. he ran with the group of 'rebels' who hung out at the gas station during the lunch hour and wore black and cussed a lot, acting bigger and more dangerous than they really were; still, a bit intimidating. none of them were in the yearbook either, though some of their names were listed as 'not included in the senior section'.
oh well, i guess he never outgrew it. rebellious to the end...

on our sleepless in suburbia...
so we had our 'consultation' with the pediatrician. she didn't really tell us much..."the dreams/nightmares, sleep walking, and sleep talking are all very normal. don't do anything to try to stop/change it in anyway. the only concern is for her safety in sleep walking." she suggested we gate an area to secure her from going outside, which isn't necessarily an issue because she can barely manage to open the door when she's wide awake and its unlocked...
on the anxiety and some of the issues surrounding her sleeplessness the Dr. related some of the things our girl has been expressing in relation to vivid thoughts and experiences may indicate a high IQ. (?) she thinks we'll need to have a complete evaluation done, so she referred us to a 'developmental pediatrics' group, and we're still working out what is/isn't covered by insurance and such...more on this when i know what our next move will be.
other then that, we were doing what we should have been doing, so we're to continue with our current behaviors surrounding bed time and mid-night wakings. and so we wait.

on twilight and new moon...
OMG!!!!!!!!
where to even begin!?!?!?!
well, you may have noticed that i haven't been around much this past week...you can totally blame Stephenie Meyer. i started reading her first book on Tuesday eveining, and could not get away from it! i finished it on Thursday and started the second book in the series on Thursday night...sitting down to just read a few pages, i ended up reading the first hundred pages! i finished it today and then went online to see if i could get more of this awesome new-to-me series. don't get me wrong, they probably wouldn't be considered fast reads, as book one has a tantalizing 498 pages of suspenseful and seductive yummy-ness. and book two follows suit with it's 563 pages. these are some of the longest books i've read in a while, and by far some of the best and most beautiful...
its hard to pick just one thing that is so great about this book, but one of my favorite snippets is when Bella thinks to herself, "About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him--and i didn't know how dominant that part might be-- that thirsted for my blood. And third, i was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." i mean!!!! it sends a thrill right through me!
could this cover be more beautiful? i just love it. this one had me flipping ahead, searching the text quickly to see if those i hoped would be, would be. and it did not fail to please me.
i can hardly wait for the next in the series! its supposed to be out in late august/early september, and i can't help but feel thirsty for more of Edward now!

and i don't have anything else to talk about, because these books have been the center of my waking existence since Tuesday. you should totally check them out!

A new approach to an old problem...

so to speak...

today we meet with A's pediatrician for a consultation on some 'stuff' that she/we've been going through lately.
it started near the end of October, so its been going on for quite some time now. she's been experiencing some very real sleep disturbances. sleep walking, sleep talking, nightmares, some so frightening that she refuses to lay down and close her eyes, unless there is someone with her or even touching her.
needless to say, we've all been a little sleep deprived and very frustrated.
i've read books about it.
put plans into place.
tried bribery, etc.
and it doesn't matter what we do, nothing seems to help.
she now sleeps for the first part of the night in her room with her lamp on, wakes between midnight and 2am and comes to sleep with me. since our master suite is further away, although really not that much further, i've moved my sleeping to the guest bedroom in order to be close and comfort her when she wakes. most nights there is no calming her back to sleep and she ends up coming to sleep next to me, where she is able to reach out and feel someone there. and even then, sometimes, this isn't enough to keep her resting peacefully through the night.

we've tried all that we know, we're at the end of our ropes with this...
not to mention, i really miss my bed.

so, today, we get some help.
its a bit exciting to know that we may be approaching a solution to this 'ordeal'.

and last night at dinner these were our fortunes...
now isn't that something?

the gift that keeps on giving...

and may just be the end to my blogging free time...if i'm not careful.
my hubby got me a new Nintendo DSlite for xmas.
What!?! a video game?
and i love it...can't stop playing the clubhouse games...i just can't seem to beat the dang thing at backgammon! and its set to easy! i'd hate to see hard, it would wipe me out even faster, i'm sure.
i have yet to settle on resolutions.
i'm actually beginning to wonder if i wouldn't be somehow limiting myself in doing so.
{does that sound like an excuse? because it feels like one.}

anyway.
we took the tree down last weekend.
removed all the lights from the house and hedges.
packed all the miscellaneous decorations back into the attic.
rearranged our living room furniture to the way it was 'pre-xmas'.
moved additional pieces around getting ready for some decorating changes (or additions)in the new year.
meanwhile my dear daughter stands watching and her only comment is, "Why is everything changing? I don't want it to change, I want it to stay the same!" interesting how at 4 she has such a voice to her feelings. you would be amazed at some of the things she is able to communicate. i would be amazed at the things she is able to communicate that go right past me. She's been dealing with a lot lately...more on this tomorrow.

i think its time for p.j.s and a good book.
my friend just loaned me "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer and i'm really looking forward to reading it.

Small world...

nah, just a small school.
i graduated with a pretty small class, and since graduation (1993) i've only run into a handful of ex-classmates. i don't frequent the 'classmate' websites, or even look for any of them on 'myspace'. i didn't keep in touch with any HS friends in the weeks after graduation, much less through college...
so, yesterday, i was sitting at a fast-food joint, and had been for a while, when this girl pops up out of nowhere (actually she was sitting at the table across from me) and says, "Are you livelee?"*
i answer, "yes." and she jumps right into, "i'm Holly, we went to HS together, i thought that was you! so, you live here?" etc. etc. etc.
then the conversation goes to "do you see/talk to anyone from HS?"
no, not really, here and there...
then she says, "well i saw one on the news the other night..."
"what?" (you may know from my recent post...i don't watch the news.)
"yes, Shawn D. apparently he killed his mom with a machete."
and she said it so casually...
the name sounded familiar, but there was no face to go with it. she suggested i could look it up on the internet if i was interested in knowing what happened.
...i still don't recognize him. but i had to post a pic, 'cause i mean, really, how often do you get to post a mug shot of someone you had P.E with?
he's a bit scary looking, if you ask me. drugged out of his head, totally the machete-toting type.


*the names contained in this post have been changed to protect the innocent.