Monthly Archives: February 2007

Am I a Dumb Blonde?

Tonight Luke and I got the opportunity to take a shower together. As we were drying off, we were talking about the dumb blonde joke that goes like this.

Q: How do you drown a dumb blonde? A: Put a scratch-n-sniff sticker on the bottom of a pool.

I decided to be funny and imitate her by sniffing. For those of you who haven’t tried it, sniffing when your face is wet is not a good idea. I sputtered, and Luke said, “Or tell her a joke in the shower.”

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5 Things that May Surprise You

I have been tagged by my husband (Big surprise….he loves chasing me and I have to let him catch me once in a while!!) πŸ™‚ I am supposed to tell you 5 things about myself that you might not already know. Let’s see. I have 3, I mean 4 children, but I bet you already know that. I am homeschooling…wait, most of you already know that too. This is tough for me because extroverts have trouble keeping secrets – even about themselves! OK. Here goes….

1. I am an extrovert.

Throughout grade school, I was an extremely shy person. Because of this, I always thought myself to be an introvert. It wasn’t until I got married and was looking through books on personality types that I discovered that being a shy person is not what defines an introvert. An introvert is idea oriented (not me at all!), but an extrovert is people oriented. I care what people think of me – usually too much so!! When I was a freshman in college, one of my friends joined the yearbook staff. I was very interested in both writing and photography, but would not join because I was afraid my friend would think I joined because she did!! I know that is absolutely silly, especially from this friend, who actually asked me if I wanted to join in the first place. But I did not see how silly it was until recently. I care what people think. As a matter of fact, I considered leaving out this illustration because I was afraid people would think I am a fruitcake. πŸ™‚ Fortunately, there are people who do not mind, and may even like fruitcakes!

I enjoy working with the elderly.

My grandma used to take me with her when she visited the nursing home. We would see her friends and people that had no family to visit them. Thus the beginnings of my interest in the elderly. In college, I was part of a group that visited a nursing home regularly. It felt a little awkward at first, but then I realized how much our visits were appreciated. To some at the nursing home, we were the bright spot in their week!! Even if they did not know us or thought we were somebody they knew, they enjoyed our visits. Between my grandma and the college group, I have formed a soft spot in my heart for the elderly, even if they do get a little mixed up sometimes. Speaking of getting mixed up…..

3. A friend and I used the men’s restroom by accident.

Yes, we actually went into the bathroom and did not notice until we were coming out. Yes, we heard someone actually come in, do their business, and leave while we were in the stalls. I am sure the looks on our faces were priceless when we walked out of the stalls and noticed 2 whole rows of urinals that we had walked right past on the way in. Somehow it did not make sense to ask if they were there when we went in. (I guess it would now be pointless to mention that maybe I’m not very observant!) πŸ™‚ Fortunately, we got out of the bathroom without getting as embarrassed as we could have been. I don’t know why the cashier looked at us so strangely when we came out……. πŸ™‚ Even though this experience may make me appear a little ditzy, I am actually quite smart. As a matter of fact…..

4. I am currently learning Ruby on Rails.

A month or so ago, I looked at my husband as he was working with a database and said, “I bet I could do that.” He loved the idea and has been working with me off and on ever since, teaching me what he knows about building databases and how computers work. I still have a long way to go!! For those of you who are wondering, Ruby is a programming language, and Rails is a framework that makes it easy to connect a database to a website. The learning process isn’t exactly fun, but I look forward to the day when I can create my own usable database that will make both my life and the life of others easier. And last but not in the least…….

5. I have a blog!!!

I hope that someone is actually reading this post because nothing I have typed here is a big surprise to me!! πŸ™‚ Plus, if no one is reading it, no one will ever know if he/she got tagged by me!! If you are reading this and were surprised by anything I said, I would love to hear about it. Leave me a comment. If you already knew I had a blog, why haven’t you commented on it??!! An extrovert is getting lonely, here!! Oh, I hope that didn’t offend any of you…… πŸ™‚

Okay, now for the fun part!!! I tag Marie, Rebekah, Chris, Kelley, and Amanda. If you have a blog or are willing to start a blog, please post 5 things that you think others may not know about you and tag 5 more people. For information on how to start a blog, my husband has described how to do it here.

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What a Surprise!!!

Anna Marie and Bethany had a joint birthday party last night. As Anna Marie was opening one of her cards, Peter sat there watching her. When she pulled the card out of the envelope, he excitedly shouted with genuine surprise, “It’s a birthday card!!!!”

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Training Pants or Panting Train?

Phillip is finally potty trained!!!! At least during the day. He only has an accident about once or twice per week!! That is wonderful progress!! Yahoo!!!!!

Anyway, today he came to me with his pants around his ankles to excitedly announce that he had successfully made it to the potty. As he was walking back to the bathroom, he kicked a balloon that was laying on the floor. But because his pants were holding his ankles together like train cars, both feet went up in the air, and he had an unexpected crash with the floor!!

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Am I Breathing?

Ph: Mom, am I breathing?

Me: uummm…..yes.

Ph: OK. I guess I need a breathing treatment.

Makes sense. Whenever you are coughing, you get cough medicine. So I guess Phillip figured that whenever he breathes, he needs a breathing treatment.

Phillip has azthma and seems to thoroughly enjoy the attention he gets from it. Sometimes he gets to be cuddled in Mom or Dad’s lap or, at the very least, he gets to stay up later than the other kids. I think maybe he misses being the baby of the family. Sometimes he gets creative in trying to get medicine or breathing treatments – like breathing just to get a breathing treatment!! πŸ™‚

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One Step Ahead

There are several baby products I have heard of or seen while visiting friends, that I had never seen in a store. Of course, I haven’t been to the big name baby stores, so that might be why. But today I stumbled upon a catalog that has just about any baby product you could imagine. They have baby gates that open and close on hinges and gates that reach wider than the average door. They have protectors for surge protectors, braces to keep furniture from tipping over on a child, an inflatable travel tent bed with UV protection, a bath stool with storage for bath supplies, car chargeable bottle warmers, a dishwasher basket that actually shakes to give cup valves an extra bit of cleaning, and the list goes on and on. I must admit that there are some products that seem to go a bit overboard – like the helmet to keep your child from hitting his head on the coffee table or the dome cover to keep a baby boy from giving you a shower during a diaper change. But for the most part, One Step Ahead has some pretty nifty products!! To see other items offered by One Step Ahead, go to their website:

www.onestepahead.com

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One More Birthday

While backing out of a space at our apartment complex yesterday, we got pretty close to another car. Peter yelled out, “Hit it, Dad!” Luke said, “If we hit that car, we won’t be able to eat for 2 years because we’ll be paying for the car.” AM was talking about how long that would be to go without food until Luke reminded her that you can only live about a month without food. AM then asked, “Dad, does my birthday come before a month is over?” When she found out that it would, she said, “Good, At least I’ll be 7 before I die!!” Talk about goals in life!!!

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It’s Been a While

While reading history with AM, I learned that the Liberty Bell is 25 years older than the United States. I asked Luke if he knew that already, and he said, “no.” Then I came back with this bright statement, “Well, it’s been a while since this book was written. It has been longer than 25 years by now.”

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