Random Dozen

Today is Random Dozen Day and my friend Linda over at 2nd cup of Coffee is hosting it.  I loved the questions this week....especially the first one after the NPR report on George Washingtons overdue library.

1. Ever had any run-ins with the "library police?"
Who me?  Never....I was the youngest card carrying member of the Palm Beach County library.  The biggest fine I ever paid was a quarter.

2. Do you have a special organizational plan and place for wrapping paper, gift bags, etc., or do you just purchase whatever you need as you give gifts?  I buy Christmas presents all year and store everything in a gift closet.  I love to find the perfect gift...for the perfect price....what an accomplishment.

3. Have you ever been in (first-hand witness) a natural disaster?  Hurricanes in South Florida....Andrew especially, Opal in Alabama, and numerous tornadoes...but that is what happens when you live in hurricane and tornado prone systems.

4. What's your favorite Barry Manilow song? I Write the Songs and Copa Cabana.  Two seperate genres.

5. What's the best costume you've ever worn? Western saloon girl.

6. Which do you use more often, the dictionary or the thesaurus?  Dictionary

7. What's your favorite breakfast food?  Oatmeal

8. Have you ever purchased anything from an infomercial?  Well duh...and usually sent it back.  How silly is that?

9. Have you ever crawled through a window?  In or out?  I have climbed out a few times as a teen....and in a few times when I locked my keys in the car or house.

10. Do you believe in love at first sight?  Yes, the first time I met my husband....I knew I loved him.

11. How man pairs of jeans do you own?  Two.  We can only wear them on Friday's.

12. If someone were going to bake a cake to honor/represent you, what would it be? (Think creatively, like Duff and Crew on "Ace of Cakes.")  Duff on the Ace of Cakes would be nice...but my friend Deborah....who makes cakes would be my choice.  I love her cakes.

Sew What!

One of my most favorite memories growing up is sitting at my grandmother's feet while she sewed.  I would gather the small pieces of cloth together and with her dress maker pins make doll clothes for my little clothes pin dolls.  I would take a pen and draw a face on the doll and then color her some hair so you could tell if it was a boy or a girl.  I loved this time.  My grandmother's sewing machine was a pedal machine and the hum of the machine and the creaking of the peddle would eventually lull me to sleep in the piles of cloth on the floor.  I am a white noise kind of girl and sleep quite peacefully with a humming sound playing in my thoughts.  I am still that way....a ceiling fan will put me to sleep in a heartbeat.  But this post is not about white noise, it is about sewing.  My mom sewed too.  I remember when I was small she would get scraps of fabric and make me some of the cutest outfits.  We did not have much money then and she was very thrifty with what she had.  My mom could go to the department store, look at a dress, come home, take a brown paper bag, cut a pattern and produce the outfit.  My mom missed her calling in life.  She should have been a fashion designer.  She was awesome with a needle and thread...just like both of my grandmothers....and then I came along.  I took Home Economics in junior high and it was horribly painful for me.  I just could not measure up to my ancestors where sewing and cooking were concerned....but I tried.  It was one of my first "C's" in school.  About that time in my life....Villager dresses became the latest style and fad....they were shirtwaist dresses made out of pastel kettle cloth...and I wanted one.  We were still poor....so my mom....not missing a beat went to Burdines, looked at the dress, came home and produced one that looked just like it....tucks in the front and all.  It was identical....but not to me.  It was a second.  Where the little tag went that said Villager in the original dress...mine had a little tag that said Made with Love by Wilma.  I was mortified.  Kids can be so cruel....and the upper crust kids of my school made fun of my dress and called me a ragamuffin.  I thought I would die.  I hated those dresses because they caused me extreme pain during phys. ed at school.  I never told my mom that....I just told her I did not want the dresses anymore....and believe me...I had one in every color of kettle cloth there was.  I continued to wear them....at least when I left the house....I would have a change of clothes in my purse...and change at my friends house before getting on the bus.  When we got home I would change back.  My mom was none the worse for wear...she never knew.  I went to work for Burdines when I was 16.  My first purchase was going to be a real Villager dress.  Know what...it wasn't.  After I had worked so hard for that check....I just could not spend it all on just a dress.....sooooo....I developed my first compulsion.  I bought shoes!  LOL....I eventually worked in the shoe department of Burdines and shoes became my life's blood.  I could not wait for a new shipment to come in....oh I didn't buy NEW shoes...I would buy the ones on the sale rack.  I learned...I could have two...and sometimes three for what one cost.  Valuable lesson.  I had some of the best looking shoes at school and my friends were envious.  This story takes a funny twist....because when I had my first child....I bloomed as a seamstress.  I loved making cute little things for Kat.  I smocked, did french hand-sewing, candlewicking, I loved anything that involved a needle and thread.  Where was this girl when I was in junior high and needed to pass Home Ec.?  I was an adult now...and I  learned the cost of those Villager dresses.  I discovered just how much love went into each and every one of those shirtwaist dresses my mother made for me.  I actually apologized to my mom one day out of the blue.  I simply said, "I am sorry, Mom."  She asked me why and I could not tell her that I was ashamed of the homemade clothes and shouldn't have been...I just told her...for all the times I had hurt her when I was growing up....she smiled and hugged me tightly.  Today, I would love to have one of those dresses....the blue one was my favorite.  Happy Tuesday!

Hey, It's Okay Tuesday!

I got this idea from Glamour magazine. They have a section called Hey, It’s Okay and will list a bunch of things to be okay about. I think I’m going to do this every Tuesday now. You're welcome to join in and do something like this on your diary. Doesn't have to be on a Tuesday either.

Hey, It's Okay....



To hate when people go, “How are WE this morning?” I always want to respond, “I’m okay, not sure about you though.”


To know that you’ll never be able to do the Silent Sex that is suggested in Redbook because you are too darn chatty.


To know what episode of Friends it is after only seeing a few seconds of it.


To throw up a little when couples constantly say that they are each other’s best friends.


To wish you could afford to go to The Melting Pot every week. Hello, chocolate fondue!


To still jump when people have music on their blogs thanks to the fact that your husband blasts the speakers and forgets to turn them off when he’s done with his game.


To hope that one day an agent will surprise you and be all, “I love your book, I’d love to help you get it published.”


To wonder if Henry VIII gets a kick out of the whole Tiger Woods debacle from Heaven seeing as he was quite lusty in the sack as well (but never got punished because hello, he was King.)


To seriously wonder why people don’t use their turn signals. Is it so difficult to flick your wrist?


To be a little nervous listing stuff on eBay because you worry about encountering an eBay nutter who complains about every.little.thing.


To know that you will never give up Little Debbie snacks no matter how often people go on about hydrogenated oils.

Just Messing Around

I love bluebirds....but I usually like real ones....that is until this weekend when I was scoping out the new stuff at Longleaf Antique Mall.  I had taken some stuff up there to spruce up my booth and as always, walked through the store at a clip just to see what has been added by other venders.  Imagine my surprise when I rounded the last  corner and there it was.  The cutest casserole dish I have ever seen in my life.  I fell in love with it right then and there.....not so much for me...but for a friend of mine who is a bird fanatic.  I snapped a quick pic with my phone and sent it to her to see if she had one of these....and instantly received a message from her saying...get it.  I love it when a plan comes together....don't you?....and you have to admit that this is one cute piece.

The Melting Pot Files

Have I mentioned how much I love The Melting Pot?

No?

Well, I love The Melting Pot.

I especially love when I can go to The Melting Pot without my children present. It means I can relax and not have to admonish a child for staring at another patron. It means I can eat my food AS SOON AS IT ARRIVES and not have to worry about tending to someone else’s.

I got to go to The Melting Pot without children on Friday. I went with my friend Amanda. We left our kids with the husbands and took off.

Seriously. I took off. When it came time for Amanda to pick me up, I kissed my children goodbye and rushed on out of there. Natalie didn’t want to let me go at first. She gripped onto my leg and told me to stay. I was briefly touched (aww, she likes me, she really likes me!) but then I got irritated when she wouldn’t let go. I mean, she was behaving like I went out all the time. She made me feel like that scary ass mom in The Nanny Diaries.

“Er Tom?” I called out, because he was sitting in front of the computer playing his game.

“Tom?” I said again.

Nothing.

“TOM!”

He jumped and turned. “What?” He had the nerve to look irritated with me.

I pointed to Natalie, who was glued to my knee. “Your daughter. I need to go.”

Tom came over and picked Natalie up.

“I want Mommy,” Natalie said and reached her arms out to me.

Oh for—

Look, I’m not THAT entertaining.

She just totally wanted to get her way.

But she wasn’t going to get her way. Because I gave her a kiss and hightailed it out of there. I love her to bits, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I feel like a caged animal who has finally been let free.

I highly recommend The Melting Pot. I do not recommend bringing little children there seeing as a burner is in the middle of your table. Granted, I have seen little children being brought in but I imagine that these are Good Children Who Know Not To Touch. I have curious children who would probably put their palms smack down on the burner just to see if it was as hot as I told them it was.

So yes. No kids when I go.



The first course is the cheese fondue. It’s amazing. I am a huge fan of cheese. The waiter or waitress prepares it all in front of you. This means that they have to be chatty because it would be awkward if they just stood there in silence stirring cheese. Amanda and I had a waiter who I wanted to call Hans even though I believe he said his name was Scott. He looked like a Hans though.



I wanted to hug Hans when he said that we both looked too young to have two children. Because lately I’ve been feeling old and gross and holy crap is that a new WRINKLE near my eye? And here comes Hans saying that I looked young. Granted, I bet Hans just wanted a nice tip so he figures calling women young does the trick. Oh well.



After the cheese course comes a delicious salad. Then the meat. You’re given a bunch of raw meat and you cook it in these scrumptious broth. I tried not to laugh when Hans laid down a large silver spoon and said that it was for floaters that escaped our pokers.

Yes, I wanted to giggle when he said floaters.

No, I didn’t because I’m twenty seven and shouldn’t be laughing at things like that anymore.

Okay, I did laugh after Hans left.

I couldn’t help it.

I’m only human.

The last bit is my favorite.

Want to guess what it is?

Yup.

The CHOCOLATE fondue.

If you sign up for The Melting Pot’s mailing list, you get a coupon for free chocolate fondue if you buy all the other courses we did.

By the time the chocolate fondue came around, I was full. But I’m never too full for chocolate.

I mean, how could you turn THIS down?



You get angel food cake, brownies, strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, and rice krispy treats to dip in it.

Plus if you get the chocolate fondue we got, the Yin and Yang, you could lie and tell yourself that it’s actually quite healthy since it includes dark chocolate and that you’re only helping your heart by ordering it.

At least that’s what I do.

Yes, The Melting Pot can be expensive. With the coupon, it came to $70. But if you split the costs, it’s not so bad.

And trust me when I say that it’s WORTH IT.

It's Not As Easy As It Looks

Frank, my husband, preached one of his best sermons today.  He started out with a story that Garrison Keillor, from Prairie Home Companion tells.  I love NPR and Prairie Home Companion.  Garrison Keillor has such a dry wit.  He entertained us for 19 days on our Pacific Northwest Vacation.  Everywhere we stopped we would find another book on tape so we could hear more of his tales.  I love storytellers...and I think that is why I love Books on Tape so much.  Argh!  I am getting off point here...the story that I loved the most was about a man who was trying to cross the street. As he steps off the curb a car comes screaming around the corner and heads straight for him. The man walks faster, trying to hurry across the street, but the car changes lanes and is still coming at him. So the guy turns around to go back, but the car changes lanes again and is still coming at him. By now, the car is so close and the man so scared that he just freezes and stops in the middle of the road. The car gets real close, then swerves at the last possible moment and screeches to a halt right next him. The driver rolls down the window. The driver is a squirrel. The squirrel says to the man, "See, it’s not as easy as it looks, is it?"  So many times in life we talk about things other people do...how we would have done it differently...and how easy the answer seemed....but...unless we have walked in that person's moccassins...we truly don't know how easy or hard something is.  So signing off for Sunday with my most favorite Garrison Keillor quote, "Goodbye from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." Happy Sunday!

How You Live

Today was Melissa's funeral...no...nope....that is not quite what it was.  Today was a celebration of Melissa's life.  As I told you earlier this week she was one in a million.  This special young lady had the driest of wits, a smile as big as all outdoors, loved deeply, was a daddy's girl, was her brother's best friend, a true friend to her friends....and while I sat there at the funeral with Kat and Brian and my good friend Carolyn I thought to myself...this is what I want.  This is what kind of person I want to be remembered as when my time comes.  The music played prior to Melissa's funeral was not your traditional preludes...nope...it was Free Falling, and How You Live.  The music during the funeral was I Can Only Imagine(sung by her former music minister) and How Great is Our God (sung by Laela Syphurs....a high school friend). The words spoken were powerful and when we left...we all left with a challenge to live our lives to the fullest....just like Meliisa did.  We loved Melissa and she will be sorely missed.  She was one of those students who will never be forgotten.  While she walked on this earth...she left some mighty big footprints for us all to follow in.  I will do my best not to let her down.
How You Live Lyrics...if you don't want to watch the video clip...read the words, they are the message.

Verse 1:

Wake up to the sunlight

With your windows open

Don't hold in your anger or leave things unspoken

Wear your red dress

Use your good dishes

Make a big mess and make lots of wishes

Have what you want

But want what you have

And don't spend your life lookin' back

Chorus:

Turn up the music, turn it up loud 

Take a few chances , let it all out

You won't regret it.  Lookin' back from where you have been 

Cuz it's not who you knew, and it's not what you did. It's how you live. 

Verse 2:

So go to the ballgames

And go to the ballet

And go see your folks more than just on the holidays

Kiss all your children

Dance with your wife

Tell your husband you love him every night

Don't run from the truth

'Cause you can't get away

Just face it and you'll be okay

Chorus:
Bridge:

Oh wherever you are and wherever you've been

Now is the time to begin

Verse 3:

So give to the needy

And pray for the grieving

E'en when you don't think that you can

'Cause all that you do is bound to come back to you

So think of your fellow man

Make peace with God and make peace with yourself

'Cause in the end there's nobody else

Chorus

Tag:
'Cause it's not who you knew

And it's not what you did

It's how you live