Miscellaneous Me

I feel the time has come for another truly random post. I've been accumulating tidbits for this eventuality over the last few months. I don't yet know how many individual things I will share and/or discuss, but to maintain some shred of organization I'm going to number each picture and/or sundry remark. They will be in random order, of course.


1.I've always liked the fresh crispness of new school supplies; little notebooks, folders, colorful pens, and whatnot.

Look at these sweet folders and notepads. I notice sugary designs featured on nearly everything these days. I have a built in radar system for it all. But that doesn't mean I buy all of it. Just the very cutest and cheapest things.



Just look at these folders with clever food landscapes (but don't eat them).


A house made of cheese? Yes please.


Mountains of bread and a cracker cart full of grapes. Nice stuff.


2.My finger nails were recently cute. I bought a little pack of polish strips that I'd been curiously eyeing for a while. They finally went on clearance, so I got 2 boxes of them.

I was surprised they had this print left. One of my very faves, white with black dots.

They chipped after a few days, but I loved them while they lasted. I got lots of comments on them. So many that I almost got sick of all the extra attention. ;)

Cora helped me take pictures of my illustrious hands. I thought it would look cool to get most of my fingers in one tight shot, so I layered them like this. . .

=) Yuck!! My pile of seemingly disembodied old lady fingers reeks of Halloween. I'm thinking of projecting this image on our front door for the holiday.


3. Speaking of Halloween, Oliver has told me a few times over the past several months what he wants to dress up as this year, but he can never remember the name of the holiday, so he keeps saying: "I want to be ______ for Christmas." =) Cute, confused little kiddo.

4.Speaking of Oliver, here's a precious picture of him. One morning I went in to check on him and found that sometime in the night he'd wiggled his way under the edge of the fitted sheet on his bed. I guess he couldn't find his blanket and was forced to improvise.

The upper right corner of the sheet was still tucked in and everything. =)


How about another picture of my fun-filled little boy?


What the heck, how about I add a few cute things he's said lately?

He's been riding his bike a lot, but every time I ask him if he wants to try without the training wheels, he tells me he wants to wait until he's as big as Dad. =)

One recent Sunday after church I was trying to drum up some conversation about his lesson based on the coloring page he'd brought home. When I asked him what it meant to choose the right, he sort of shrugged and said: "Uh, be quiet?" =)

He likes to watch shows on "Neckflix". =)

5.
I read a book this summer: The Pillars of the Earth. I asked Gavin's wife if I could borrow a good book to read on the plane to Arizona for my grandpa's funeral, and this is what she offered me.
The story is set in the mid 12th century, so there are castles, battles, curses and cathedrals, monks, outlaws, lords, whores, and craftsmen. And tons of other presumably greasy people (based on the time period).
It's a historical fiction, and overall I found it interesting. It took me over a month to finish all 927 pages of it. It's by far the longest book I've ever read, and the most lascivious! It made me grateful that the frequency of bathing has increased drastically over the centuries. Imagine getting fresh with a stank partner! All their medieval noses must have somehow grown immune to the stifling stench. At least I hope so! These weren't couch potato type folks - they were hard working, sweaty, filthy people. No deodorant, and at least a month between each bath. In the book it said the men bathed on two different yearly occasions (can't remember what the holidays were) and it was customary for them to wash on their wedding day. I don't know how historically accurate that is, but whew! I'm sure glad I wasn't around back then, even though there were real live castles. Kind of takes the romance out of all the romantic medieval movies out there. And I don't think they cleaned their teeth back then, either. That's a deal breaker for me, for sure. Stinky breath automatically cancels out desirability.


I can guess what he was thinking about when this photo was snapped. Breasts, perhaps? 'Cause he sure worked them into this big book's storyline a lot. I bet he had this same smug look on his face as he wrote each steamy love scene.

One of my favorite parts of the book was when the author used the word bumptious. I don't remember ever hearing that one before, but I like it. It's another word for arrogant.


6.Deadheading my happy mess of flowers is pretty much a daily activity. I've been collecting the withered petals in a shoe box.

I don't want to just toss these colorful, dried nuggets out with the trash. What should I do with them? Put them in a lovely glass vase and display them in our home? Pour them in a cereal bowl, add milk and eat up? Decisions, decisions . . .


7.I delight in the three tall, cylindrical shrubs near our front door. They were in desperate need of a shave, so one morning last month I lent them a helping hand.

Here they are before . . .


And here they are after . . .
So much better. Sometimes I kind of wish they were wider at the base so I could figure out how to sculpt them into giraffes.

That same day I also needed to maintain the shrubs in front of the house. They were getting pretty ugly. (love that oxymoron.)

Before. . .


After . . .

Nothing like a neatly trimmed bush. . . =)


8.We have one of those old, motorless push mowers. It was given to us as a hand-me-down (or hammy down, as I thought they were called when I was a kid) from my sister Erin. They were no longer using it, so we decided to take the free mower instead of buying one. There are other things I'd much rather spend our money on, like treats. =)

It's certainly a better workout than those fancy self-propelled mowers. Plus, we never have to deal with motor issues and keeping it loaded with pricey gas.
I just Googled the spelling of pricey, and while I was there I went ahead and listened to the pronunciation of it. He said it a little too cheerfully, in my opinion. Yes, listening to computerized voices pronouncing words is one of the many ways I've been known to entertain myself. It's fun, you should try it. =)


This is backbreaking work, I tell you what.




9.
I wonder how long a person could survive on just Cheerio dust.

10.
I don't understand why perfectly able-bodied people will circle around a large parking lot to find the closest spot to the entrance of the store. They're going to be doing a lot of walking while they're shopping; why not add a few dozen extra paces? Think of the calories they'd burn trudging inside to buy those cookies.

11.I don't always see everything on Facebook, for whatever reason. So if something sad, bad, or even glad happens, and you post it, and all of your other friends (except me) offer appropriate sentiments, it probably means I didn't see it. I often worry that I'll miss something serious, but then I remember that not so long ago none of us had Facebook to rely on for easy access to news. So I try not to worry too much. Life will happen whether I know about it or not.

12.Am I the only one who feels like roughly 63% of daily life is spent combing the house for kids' misplaced shoes?
You know horseshoes, how they're nailed to the animal's feet? There needs to be something sort of like that for children.

13.I've been listening to the oldies station a lot lately. I didn't realize how much I'd missed them. Select oldies make me happy. I turn the radio up and sing myself silly in the kitchen, tricking myself into thinking housework is rather pleasant. It's hard to let any negativity hang over me when my ears are savoring one special treasure after another. I melt when anything by the Everly Brothers starts playing, especially "All I Have to Do Is Dream". I love the duo's buttery harmonies. I also appreciate anything by Frankie Valli, the Shirelles, the Supremes, the Turtles, Simon & Garfunkel, etc. This list is in no way complete. There's just too much to cover in one post. But I should mention that my heart still skips a beat when anything by the best band in history comes on. I won't insult your intelligence by typing the name. =)

My beloved "oldies but goodies" are a delightful respite from some of the crap happening on today's radio. I do like a lot of current music, but not much of it compares in quality to what was popular a few decades ago, and some of the songs kids are subjected to these days simply should not be played over the airwaves, namely that stupid whistle song. The beginning of it sounds catchy, and it draws the listener in. But the moment you hear the first words you'll wish you hadn't. I'm pretty sure the singer is not a helpless coach or referee, so that leaves only one other possible scenario. If you haven't heard the song, don't. Please. just. don't. It's one of those songs that gets embedded in the brain. Why is it that the suckiest songs are always the ones to get stuck in my head the most?
This is why I've turned back to the classics for the past bit.

14.Whenever I go on a road trip or do anything that could potentially lead to my death, I worry about what my hair and makeup will look like as I lie defenseless in a casket.
I try to avoid traveling with greasy hair because I'm not so sure someone at the mortuary will bother to wash it for me. And who at the funeral home will know how to style my quirky mane? What if it ends up looking matted and ridiculous? They won't know anything about my daily styling routine. It won't occur to them that my unruly bangs will need to be straightened with a curling iron before my remains can go on display.
Maybe I'd better request a closed casket regardless of the circumstances. I really don't want my loved ones to remember me dead in a box with flubbed up hair.

15.
That awkward moment when you're passing a store in the mall, only to realize you're walking to the beat of the music.
The blaring tune may as well be "I'm a model, you know what I mean..." Because that's what it feels like. =)

Well, I think that's enough random rambling for one post. Ya think?