Six things You Never Knew about me And Always wanted to know!

My sister Alyson, tagged me like several million years ago, and then someone else tagged me right around that time, and I believe some one else, and here I sit today and decided to finally do the tag because I'd rather write than make deviled egg salad for my kids. Kind of fun listening to them in the kitchen...think I am going to regret this decision in a bit....ok be right back you won't even notice I am gone, I promise.

See you didn't miss me did you :)

So on to the Six Things You Never Knew About Me, Six Random Facts, Six things that will help you sleep better at night knowing, well maybe not quite:

1. My favorite color is yellow and blue which makes green. And I know it should say my favorite colors are...but I prefer sometimes to write in improper grammar for the heck of it. Yeah so which is the random fact here?
2. My Mom is the third child, I am the third child, Eric is the third child, Two is our third child and I wanted to name her Tracy (tres three in spanish) but Eric said we couldn't because Tracy is sometimes a boy name....I was like whatever but we decided on naming her after the Labor and Delivery nurse. (so is that more of a random fact about Two than me?)
3. I have never read Harry Potter books, not because I really didn't want to but more because I love the "OH my Gosh!" factor when people hear I haven't read them. I also have had no desire to read them, and even less when people tell me I should. Probably a little of my rebellious side shining through. Maybe one day I will read them.
4. I like to look at people, watch them and make up stories in my head about them. For instance I see a guy driving- kind of in a hurry and imagine he just got a call from his wife saying she just has had it and needs him to come home so she can go out and get her nails and hair done. So he is quickly trying to come to her rescue....maybe that's just a little fantasy of mine.
5. As a small child, I collected snails and slugs in buckets and pulled them around in the wagon. I'd leave them in the buckets over night and be so sad in the morning because the only ones left were the ones that got smooshed in the bottom by their friends trying to escape (or by me, pushing them down and in the bucket to fill it with more....we had a lot of snails). Then I'd make graves for the ones that didn't make it out.
6. I am an imperfect impatient perfectionist. I often don't do things because I know I can't do them perfectly in the amount of time I have to do it, so I don't. And if I try to do something, and am in a hurry I rush and then try not to care. It really is a crazy personality trait, and doesn't make much sense.

**Side note: T-Rex is in trouble!!! He just threw my camera in the phone! not the phone the Toilet! I am tired and I have been up since 4 AM and my parents are coming to town tomorrow, and we have no groceries...though The house is mostly clean but we still have a day to destroy it again. So we are headed to the beach this morning while Eric works.

Flashback Friday: Halloween Not so Long ago...ago really long ago!

Thanks to my sister Aly and her blog posting I was able to "steal" this family picture. It's the kids before Adam our number five child. It really is one of my favorite pictures.

In the way back of my mind I remember taking this picture and wanting to sit on the ladder, I think I was even contemplating giving smiling happy Aly a little push off the ladder. No not really. But look how cute and smiling she is! We were pretty darn cute.

Do you see my kids in any of us at all?






AND:





Those were some really groovy overalls!

Happy Birthday Helga

Today is my mother in law's birthday! October is actually filled with family birthdays from my nieces to my grandmother to my mother in law and my other grandma. Anyway I love my mother in law she has been a big help, having lived close to her for almost all our married life, even sometimes too close when we camped out at their house for awhile. She was so generous to share her living quarters with us.

Some of the things I love about her:

• She always remembers the things you like and makes sure to get them, like mint chocolate chip ice cream for me...my favorite.


• She raised wonderful boys that are very self sufficient in the kitchen!


• She loves to share and tell stories.


• I love watching her sit with my kids and just talk with them. Once while I was sick with maybe after T-Rex was born she came over and bathed the kids and just talked to them for hours, literally. G-Man was just asking questions and anyway it just stands out to me.


• She is always willing to help out, and especially make sure you get a yummy well balanced meal to eat.


• She loves doing puzzles and the kids enjoy doing them with her.

We love you! Happy Birthday! I can't access my old files and only have pictures from Hawaii...not sure how I had pics of my Grandmother on here now that I think about it....anyway!These were taken a few days before we left Texas and the kids are doing a puzzle.

Teenage years....ramblings for the most part. READERS BEWARE!

Last night Eric et al, were invited to a young girl's sixteenth birthday party. We thank them for the personal invitation, flattering actually, because my sixteenth birthday did not have the crazy church family with four young kids showing up. It was a fun surprise party thrown by Maren Nelson, and I remember knocking on the door with Shannon Mitchell by my side, as a whole bunch of high school friends yelled "Surprise" as they opened the front entry and out of my mouth came the words..."You dorks.!" Yeah that's right the only thing I could think to say was you dorks.

I don't remember much of what we did, but I got one of those C. Moore Buns guys, the little plastic person you put in your back car window and it has a little pump you push and he B.As the people behind you. We quickly plastered the fellow in my mustard yellow 1974 Ford truck and piled in about 16 16 year olds into the back of the pickup....not sure where we were headed or what we were doing however I do remember slamming on the breaks for some reason, probably to avoid a run away cat and all my friends flying forward, being plastered up against the window smiling at C. Moore Buns! (See I am laughing now! achieving my new years goals!)

Anyway so at this little teen party, I just thought about how much I want to SCREAM to these young people that "it all doesn't matter!" and "just enjoy" and "don't get your panties in a wad over that!" But then again that would just take away the whole fun and pain of being a teenager wouldn't it?? What would be the fun of young pubescent- hood with out being mad at Susie for having a crush on the same Brian Smith that you are "so totally in love with!" I mean really 10 years from now Brian Smith is probably going to be still working at Burger King, smokin' pot and you are going to be married to some really smart handsome guy! Or at least glad you didn't end up dating him, and dude why were y'all fighting over the guy when he wasn't even interested in either one of you, he liked Jenny or was it Bill? What a waste of Junior year. Not that I am speaking from any personal experience...no really I am and names and actual jobs have been changed to protect their identities.

But really, there is such a bigger picture to life, than what we think and know at the innocent young teen years...really? Remember what was included in your big adolescent world? Some days I'd love to just go back and be caught up in those worries, you know like wondering if Robert really really likes me, or if I am going to pass that chemistry test, or what place am I going to take in Backstroke at regionals. Not that I am making light of those problems, because they were real and scary and caused me to not sleep at night, but after it is all said and done, I realize what the heck was the big deal? If there is any words of wisdom I could impart to my developing adult audience, because I know I have a huge following, it would be this:

1. Spend less time worrying about what others think. If you spent half the time worrying about what other's think of you, you'd realize they are worrying what you are thinking about them and not thinking about what you are doing. So participate in the silly games, dance by yourself in the middle of the dance floor--Heck they won't think your crazy they will think you have a whole lot of self confidence.

2. On another note to that, they are watching you not because they want to see what you are doing but watching to see if you are noticing them.

3. Have fun, really you are a teen and you are suppose to be having fun, and acting stupid, you get the "act stupid free card" because you are a teen.

4. Dating its over rated, there will be plenty of time for one on one relationships, spend time developing friendships, one they will last longer and you will be a better person because you will learn more from friends than singling yourself with one person. Go out with friends, mix company and all, but no need to get serious with one person.

5. Say your sorry, we all make mistakes, and half the time we don't even know we made a mistake or hurt someone's feelings for that matter. You know our hormones are so out of whack, well you think they are so out of whack wait until you have a baby talk about whacked out hormones....anyway we are moody and sometimes the wrong look can set us off, just be prepared to say.."I'm sorry"

6. Never fight over a guy/girl. If you and a friend are crushing on the same dude, let her have him, or just realize as in #4 it is over rated...have fun go TP the guys house, better story for your kids later on anyway. Eat some apples and put the cores in a brown bag on his doorstep, much nicer than dog poop.

7. Do well in school, study and learn, because "friends may come and go" but you will always have your brain and its not going anywhere, unless you do something stupid like lots of drugs.

8. Stay up late, make jello at 3 AM, and realize it won't set up for several hours, so find another snack and enjoy the jello for breakfast when you wake up at noon....oh to sleep in again.

9. Tell your parents you love them, and realize yes they are so totally right, they so do understand and they have so been there. Right now you think they are so imperfect but give it a couple years and realize how hard it is for them, and how they actually did a pretty darn good job.

10. Listen to your gut and not your friends, unless your friends are listening to their guts telling you not to do something. Regret and bad mistakes are totally hard to erase. We can choose our actions but you can't choose your consequences.

11 And last I realized last night that I so wish I could take away the pains of growing that y'all have to experience but I can't its part of life! Take it one day at a time, smile lots and realize these truly are suppose to be some of the best years of your lives, but it does totally get better, just different with different responsibilities.

Well that so wasn't what I was planning on writing about but hey it just came out so anyway, sorry for the lecture! But if it helps just one, I'd be happy to know.