Blog Challenge

Since I'm doing a 30 Day Picture Challenge on Facebook, I thought I'd also do a Blog Challenge on here. Maybe I can reinvigorate my blog since I tend to go through spurts of keeping up with it. I got the idea from my friend Mary, you can read her blog here Jack in the Blog.

Here's how it works. Every day, you blog about a specific topic. The list below, indicates the blogs I'll be writing on their corresponding days. I'll try to keep up with this the best I can, I can't get on everyday so I may skip a day here and there. Hopefully I'll start tomorrow!

1. Intro about me (as my life is now).
2. The explanation for this blog, and its title.
3. A recent photo of me, and explanation of why I picked that photo.
4. My family explored.
5. My friends explained.
6. My saddest memory.
7. My happiest memory.
8. Life's biggest challenge so far.
9. A book that has had an impact on my life.
10. My hopes for this new year.
11. Something I've lost that I really miss.
12. My favorite trait about myself.
13. My least favorite trait about myself.
14. My favorite color, and why.
15. What would I do with a million dollars?
16. My favorite season, and why.
17. The hardest thing about being a mom.
18. The best thing about being a mom.
19. What I watched on TV the night before.
20. The charity/foundation that means the most to me, and why.
21. What I think the meaning of my life is (so far).
22. My favorite cartoon as a child.
23. My thoughts on religion and God.
24. My favorite piece of art.
25. A song that makes me cry.
26. Something that always makes me smile.
27. My favorite vacation.
28. If I had 3 wishes...
29. A picture of something that makes me happy.
30. My goals for the future.

Five Question Friday

Wow, I've really been neglecting my blog. Life has just gotten away from me I guess. I think about writing but then I feel like I have to be all creative and witty and sometimes I'm just too tired to do that so I wait and then never get around to it.




So, here goes with Five Question Friday and maybe I'll try to add more to my blog soon. 

1. What do you listen to while driving?

It depends on when it is. If it's during the week and I'm by myself in the car then it's typically tuned to 96.5 WTIC FM. If it's the weekend and I'm by myself in the car or if Hubby is with me then we listen to Sirius 8 (80's music). If the kids are in the car with me then we're listening to one of their CD's, either The Wiggles, a kids CD that I have or lately a Disney CD that Hubby bought for them. And then of course there's always all the talking that they do.

2. What is your least favorite thing about Fall?

Hmmmm, I think that it's starting to get cold out. You have to wear your jacket out. You have to wear socks and shoes. I just don't like it! It's so much easier to get out of the house in the summer when you don't have to worry about a jacket and you can just slip on sandals.

3. What does your dream house look like, inside and out?

I think I live in my dream house now. We moved in in February and it's really EXACTLY what we were looking for. We have an open floor plan (kitchen, eating area and living room all together), there's a room for the kids "toy room", we have a separate dining room (which is still in need of major help), we have a spare bedroom, Hubby has his own office. We have a lot of acreage for the kids to run and play. Yup, it's perfect!

4. Would you ever own a minivan?

Would I ever own a minivan? Absolutely NOT!! Just kidding!! I am a proud minivan driver. We bought it when Lovebug was only a month old and I love it! I do miss my Jeeps though that I had before but I still love my minivan.

5. Do you wash new clothes before wearing them?

Yup! I just think it's better. There has been occasion where that hasn't happened if we need the article of clothing immediately for something but 9 times out of 10, make that 9.75 times out of 10, they get washed first.

Friday the 13th Five Question Friday

 

1. Have you ever visited another country?

Yes, I've been to Canada to Niagra Falls although that was a REALLY long time ago and I really don't remember it very much.

I've been to Mexico on my honeymoon. We went on a cruise so it was really just a quick visit 1 day in Ensenada and that was it.

I went to Scotland for work a few years ago for a couple of days.

I think that's it...

2. Where is the strangest place you have ever been?

The strangest place I've ever been? Hmmmm....I'm going to go answer the other questions and come back to this one.

And I'm back from answering the other questions. I still haven't thought of anywhere strange that I've been. 

I give up. I give up. Uncle, Uncle!

3. What is your favorite season?

I think spring. It's just starting to get warm out and since you've just come off of the freezing cold temperatures the weather just feels warmer. Everything is in bloom (ok, don't like the allergies part though), but the trees and grass and flowers are coming back to life. Maybe late spring is better when everything has bloomed. Really, I'll take any sunny and 70 day regardless of what season it comes in, LOL.

I like winter because of Christmas but I could do without the snow. Unless of course I have no where to go and then it doesn't bother me.

I like fall too when all the leaves are such beautiful colors and you get the nice crisp nights.

But spring, I'd definitely have to say is my favorite out of all of them.

I love living in New England where we truly do get to enjoy all 4 seasons too.

4. What one song will always cheer you up?

Anything my kids sing to me cheers me up, hearing their sweet voices singing what they think are the words will always put a smile on my face.

I think there are a lot of songs that will cheer me up or even just make me smile. I was searching for songs online (see #5 for my dopiness) since I can't remember one. And I decided on Footloose. Love the move and love the song.

5. What Disney character do you resemble most?

If we're not talking looks, this week I'd say Sleepy & Dopey. I've been so extremely tired this week but yet I don't manage to get myself to bed at a reasonable hour. And dopey like crazy this week (probably from lack of sleep), I was typing things wrong at work and just couldn't remember things. I sent an email to someone, meant to write "roll" but instead wrote "role", I do know the difference. Just dumb stuff like that.

As for looks wise, hmmm, I honestly can't think of one. I just tried asking hubby, his answers were first Pluto because as he said "I have no idea", then he threw out Minnie Mouse. Apparently he's not help with this question. 

How about I say that Princess resembles Tinkerbell the most and that also happens to be her absolute favorite right now.

Some awesome book giveaways

Hubby's cousin has a book blog and gets some great book giveaways, she currently has 3 going on. Hop over to her blog to check them out. Beck's Book Picks

"Dracula in Love" Giveaway

Ok, I can't find the exact links to the other two. The books are "She's Gone Country" by Jane Porter and "The Recissionistas" by Alexandra Lebenthal. But if you go to her Blog up above, the links to the entry forms are right on the first page.

Five Question Friday - 8/6

It's been a couple of weeks since I did my last Five Question Friday and I think it's time for another one.  So, here is is. Once again this is courtesy of Mama M at My Little Life.

1. Are you a neat sleeper or a messy sleeper?

I'd say I'm somewhere in between. I do move around while I sleep and my covers aren't all nice and neat but I don't pull them out or anything. I think that Hubby and I are probably a good combination and sleep somewhat similar so there's never any problems. Although I have been known to steal the sheets before but then again, so has he. I was probably the neatest sleeper when I was pregnant because I slept with a snoogle and would just snuggle into that all night long. Seriously that is the BEST.THING.EVER for sleeping while pregnant. I was somewhat sad to get rid of it after Princess was born.  But I digress, I'd say that I'm neither neat nor messy while sleeping, just a nice happy medium.

2. Fill in the blank. I wish I was more ________________.

I wish I was more....skinny? I wish I was more....rich? I wish I was more... 

There's so many things that I could put in here, I can't pick just one. So, I'm just going to leave it that I wish I was more...

3. What is something that you wish you had been warned about?

OMG, I know there were so many things when I was pregnant that I kept saying "no one tells you about this" but now I can't remember any of those things. It's true, you just block all that out after the baby is born. And boy it doesn't help that my memory is so terrible after the kids. Maybe that's one of the things I wish I had been warned about, how the baby really does suck some of your memory out of you. Oh, I got another one. I remember shortly before Lovebug was born I heard that sometimes during labor you go potty, like both #1 and #2. I never knew that! I remember talking to my mom that night absolutely horrified at the thought.

Hubby says that I should put in how no one warns you about the possibility of gallstones after having a baby. Yup, I found that one out the hard way after Princess was born. 7 weeks after she was born I had my gallbladder removed.

4. What was the best thing you ever found at a garage sale/flea market?

I will totally agree with Mama M here. I don't particularly like the idea of used things and have never bought anything at a garage sale/flea market. Maybe when I was a child and it was some toy or something but nothing recently at all. It's just not "my thing". I know plenty of people that do but it's not for me.

5. If you could have any meal brought to you right now, what would it be?

Well, since I just got home from dinner I'm not really hungry so this is hard. I could always go for a good ole lobster with steamers. Yummy!! That sounds delicious right about now. Yup, that's it. Ok, now I must find lobster and steamers sometime within the next few days!!!

Bowling alley in our driveway

Anyone who knows us well knows that Hubby is an avid bowler. He has something ridiculous like 30 300's (yes, you read that right, 30 perfect scores!),  high average of 242 and a high total of 865 (that's for 3 games for you non-bowlers). So, I guess it's only natural then that Lovebug would want to pretend bowl while we were playing outside on Sunday. (Hubby was in the house installing our ceiling fans in the bedrooms, woo hoo!)

So, first he gave me a basketball and told me that we were going to bowl on the driveway. It's so funny because he bowls lefty (I think he's going to be a lefty, he bowls and bats that way) and he has great form. When it was my turn he told me to make sure I lifted my leg up, LOL. We did that a couple of times and then he decided that we couldn't get our balls back anymore because we didn't have a machine to bring them back to us. So, we would bowl and they'd have to stay at the end of the driveway. Hmmm, that creates a problem because we only have so many basketballs.

So, out comes the chalk and Lovebug asks me to draw a machine to bring the balls back. So, I of course draw a "ball return machine".  (ignore the flower going through it and the fireworks around it, that was from earlier in the week).

 This is a picture of the top of the ball return machine and you can see the balls next to it waiting to be used. Yup, it's a bit crooked because I was trying to finish it in the middle bay of our garage and had to curve that way. Who says that a ball return machine can't have curves anyway? Again, ignore all of the random drawings around the alley, those are leftovers from the other day.

So, now we had our ball return machine but we of course now need some chalk bowling balls. So, under the watchful eye of Lovebug, I was doing all of the drawing and he was doing all of the supervising and telling me what to draw, I drew a bunch of bowling balls. And if you're a bowler, you'll notice that I even made a Storm bowling ball.

And I kept drawing because for some reason, no matter how many I drew, it wasn't enough. You'll notice that this one contains a "spare ball", it came out more crooked than the others so I decided that it made a nice spare.

And in this one, other than the "daddy" one and the one that looks like an Easter egg I was trying to get that marble look that all bowling balls seem to have. Kinda hard to do with chalk.

So, after we were done drawing all of the above and I use the term "we" lightly. We pretended to pick them up and bowl and then of course the balls came back up the ball return machine. Around this point Hubby came out and pretended to bowl with us. Then Lovebug kept telling me that I needed to make the hole, I had NO idea what he was talking about. I asked if he meant where the bowling pins were but he didn't really say, so I drew a square and that wasn't good enough so Hubby added in the "pins".

So, there you have it, the bowling alley in our driveway. What's funny is that we've never brought Lovebug bowling, he's been to a bowling alley to watch Hubby and he has a play bowling set but he's never been bowling. I guess we'll have to do that some rainy day.

Addition: Phew, it's a good thing that I took these pictures last night when I got home from work. We haven't had rain in quite a while but it poured early this morning and washed everything away. I'm glad I didn't wait another day to do it.

July 16th's 5 Question Friday

So, I'm sitting here waiting for my thirty-one party to start. Have a bit of down time before everyone arrives. Have you seen the thirty-one products? They are ah-maz-ing! Check them out Thirty-One. So, what better would I do with my time than a little Five Question Friday from Mama M, I mean, I could be cleaning the rest of my house but I'd much rather sit and relax for a few minutes. So, here goes. There were some tough questions this week.

1. Do you collect anything? Do dust bunnies count? LOL, Ok, why is my font freakishly large? I can't figure out how to get it the same size as the font up above..weird! Back to the question. I suppose I could say that I collect Department 56 North Pole Houses. I have the entire collection *ahem* I mean that my parents have my entire collection at their house. I also have a small collection of Willow Tree Figurines although they haven't been unpacked yet so they're in a box somewhere in the basement.

2. Name 3 celebrities that you find good looking.

I would have to say...

Bradley Cooper

Wentworth Miller

Tom Cruise (from his Top Gun Days)

3. Do you have any scars? If so, what's the story behind it (them?)? 

Where to start? We'll start at the oldest and work our way to the newest.

I have a scar on each of my knees where I had surgery. When I was growing up I danced A LOT, my inner thigh muscles were stronger than my outer thigh muscles causing my knee caps to be pulled crooked, it was PAINFUL!! So, I had my right knee operated on over April vacation in 8th grade. I had my left knee done the summer after 8th grade. It was the same surgery for both, they had to trim the muscle.

I guess my next scar is from my c-section. That was from Princess. I was ready to start pushing, the doctor did one last check and discovered that she was breach. In I went for an emergency c-section.

My next 4 scars are from 7 weeks after that when I had my gallbladder removed. Turns out I got the ever-so-wonderful pregnancy induced gallstones and one was actually blocking the duct. So, in I went for emergency surgery to have my gallblader removed.

I think that's all of them.

4. What is a food that you like to eat, but others might think it's gross or weird?

Hmmm, I don't think I eat anything too strange. Of course Hubby thinks that any seafood is gross or weird so I guess anything in that category will count for him. LOL I have been known to eat raw oysters which some would probably think is gross or weird.

5. Have you ever seen a tornado in real life?

Nope, can't say that I have. I live in the northeast and we don't really have tornado's here. I'm perfectly happy with that too. We have had some tornado warnings this year because of the freakish spring/summer weather that we've been having. 

P.S. I started this last night before my thirty-one party but then didn't get to finish it until Saturday. Oh well...