That’s My Story And I’m Stickin’ To It

Welcome to another edition of Story Time: Interactive Style. I think I need to explain the directions a little more clearly (I must have slow readers).

  1. I post a picture
  2. You look at the picture
  3. You think of funny/endearing/special/but mostly funny storyline to go with the picture
  4. You leave a comment with that story. Don’t know how to do this? At the end of the post you will see a nifty little white box that you can type in! What will they think of next? If you’re reading this from the main page of the blog then you’ll see little words at the bottom of the post that say “No Comments” or “2 Comments” or “53 Comments” (a girl can dream). Click on those words, it’s an actual working link that will take you to that little white box.
  5. You feel wonderful for making me feel wonderful
  6. We both have a really good day!

Ok, do you feel like you can do it now? Good! Here is this week’s picture. After it I will explain the actual situations of the last two weeks of pictures.

What in the world!?!? Tell me, what is going on?

Now, for the first Story Time I posted this picture. Loved all of the comments (but Leigh Anne, there was no story! Whatup?) Your fictional accounts were actually much better than what was happening. I was at a meeting with the “ladies who lunch” as I call them. They’re all great and that’s not a derogatory title. We were having a luau (obviously) and getting our limbo on. What was up for grabs for the person who could go the lowest? A gift certificate to the one, the only Euphoria Spa and Salon. In that small town it was a source of big city pampering. I was determined to win. Now, my husband can attest to the fact that when there’s a public contest with any kind of prize whatsoever involved, I will be the most competitive female out there. Maybe one time I’ll tell you the story of busting my butt in front of God and all of Du’s “office” members during a scavenger hunt-turned-musical chairs Christmas event. And I wasn’t even having a good hair night.

Of course, I won the luau. You didn’t doubt did you? And I used that gift certificate for a nice massage to unwind me from the amazing twist I got my spine into.

NUMBER TWO: I posted this picture. Dandelionmom, you get a special prize for having commented on both stories. And for having me almost wet my pants reading your versions. Please continue. We were visiting the grandparents in Arkansas. We went on a little sight seeing adventure down the Buffalo River. We were hoping to see some elk grazing along the banks. Didn’t see that, but we did spy these two horses being kept in a pasture by the river. After skipping rocks, jumping from rock to rock across the river, and almost falling in, we headed over to the horses for a simple petting. We were planning on petting them. You see, in the winter in Arkansas the grass turns the exact color as Reagan’s hair. And apparently horses think hay moves around on top of human heads. Reagan grabbed a bunch of grass up and lifted it up for the horse to indulge. This worked wonderfully the first time. So she goes in for round two. This is when Mr. Ed decided to nibble on the living hay. He realized it didn’t taste as good and Reagan was no worse for the wear. She did have to take a bath when we got home. She loved the experience and this only made her love horses even more.

So, now, get to commenting peeps!

Notes on a Move, all in V-minor

I miss my random blog posts. Twitter has stolen them. I think I might stop Twittering.

I tried to remember various things from the move. Here goes. Random style.

  • Ashlyn pulled out my monthly stuff, you know, pads, and took them to someone. I can’t even remember who now. Embarrassing all the same.
  • I love driving by myself. That’s how God meant it.
  • Reagan talks a lot. Thus, my preference for the above.
  • O’Charley’s doesn’t offer free kids’ meals any more.
  • Scanning through radio stations after entering Alabama. “Sweet Home Alabama”. No kidding. I cranked it up and Reagan and I sang at the top of our lungs.
  • Does the iPhone offer ringback tones? ‘Cause you know what mine will be…
  • At the barbecue we were invited to on 04 July Reagan started singing it again.
  • Anybody remember the Spin Doctors? I heard “Two Princes”. Can’t remember if I saw them in concert or not during college. I know I saw STP opening for Aerosmith. Did I see Spin Doctors?
  • And thinking about that got me thinking about the Masquerade and all the fun times had with Andrea. I’ll have to post about my college BFF soon. Anyone not from Atlanta probably won’t get the Masquerade reference. It was there that I saw The Offspring (Hey Du, “drink your milk”).
  • Our new neighborhood rocks.
  • Our new neighbors rock.
  • Our backyard rocks.
  • I can’t believe I’m using the term “rocks”. I remember a waitress at a restaurant I worked at in college would say it. I thought she was too old to be using new slang. It was new back then. It’s only taken me 12 years to start using it.
  • Already sad that we’ll be leaving in a year. Mainly because I can’t stand the thought of having to pack up all our crap again soon. (I’m sending our family very nice “quit the crap” letters soon…I’ll post it).
  • If you ever reserve a room at a Holiday Inn Express make sure you get the rate you were promised online. They’ll try to increase it on you.
  • Instead of having my rate reduced (to the correct amount) I opted for the hotel checker-inner to not charge me $20 for housing two cats for the night. I came out the winner even though they tried to jip me.
  • Speaking of our cats, they are doing very well considering everything they’ve ever known is totally and completely gone.
  • Just as Mo sleeps at R’s head at home he sleeps at her feet in the truck.
  • What’s that huge elephant’s name, the Bama mascot? I wonder if we can change Mo’s name to his? Is it bama?
  • I will punch the first person I hear/see make the association of ‘Bama voting for ‘bama. I haven’t seen it yet and question why God let it enter my mind in the first place. It means I’m not the only one.
  • Family is amazing. Who else will drop whatever they’re doing, inconveniencing themselves, and help you move. And stay with you for days waiting for movers to come.
  • If you’re going to have other people packing your stuff put every little thing in baggies. It’s harder for them to lose all of the Polly Pocket paraphernalia. 
  • Put your unmentionables in WalMart bags. You don’t want strangers touching that stuff.
  • Pack chairs. You’ll need something to sit in.
  • Don’t ever believe the square footage you’re given of a house you have not seen in person.

I’m sure I’ll have plenty more where this came from after tomorrow. The movers are coming to deliver the bulk of our “goods”. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Bloggy Desert Wasteland

I wish I were in the Bloggy DeSSert Land, ‘cuz I’d love me a crème brûlée or a blondie, or a nice big sundae with a cherry on top. But alas, I’m in the desert wasteland. I just can’t seem to get anything written. I’m dried up, parched, gasping for…whatever. Can’t even finish that sentence.

I do have tons of thoughts swirling in my head. But when can I get them written? There are so many little things to do when moving and can’t find a good chunk of time. Then, when everyone’s asleep at night and I do finally have time I’m catching up with the day’s emails and blogs I must read. Not to mention trying to comment on all those. I posted about social networking being an extreme sport (I’m not even going to tryto link to that right now). But blog commenting is way harder. And what’s making it hard and a huge PITT (pain in the tushy) is that my high speed internet through the cable modem with supposedly 10MB of something that is supposed to make it lightening fast isn’t lightening fast at all. Instead it’s gouge-my-eyes-out slow and it decides when to randomly allow me internet access at all. I’m now on hold with them gouging my eyes out because I’m on hold. Apparently they don’t do anything quickly.

So, please stay on hold with me as I get my act together and begin blogging again. My life is at least interesting enough to blog every couple of days. Remember?

Coke Spray

My day was a little stressful. I take that back, my morning was a little stressful. The cable guy called at 7:30 in the morning to tell me he was on his way to hook up the internet. I was still in a coma after staying up until 1am borrowing the neighbor’s internet. I really didn’t know what the person on the other line was saying. I somehow remembered that I had scheduled the appointment for early in the morning so I’d be without internet for the least amount of time.

Cable guy shows up at 7:45 and doesn’t leave until about 10:15. Two and half hours later and one more modem later I’ve got internet access. Somehow our perfectly fine modem that worked when he first plugged it in managed to break when he called headquarters to switch us from 5MB to 10MB. (Heather?) Genius just sat on the floor at my computer staring at the modem waiting for the light to quit blinking. My only option was to rent the modem from Charter. Hopefully when Du gets here he can fix things.

After Cable Guy left I was able to start getting ready for the rest of my day. I was in the bathroom staring in the mirror (waiting for a miracle to happen). Dad had come in to say something. Reagan and Ashlyn were already in there. Ashlyn, curious little kid that she is, had a coke can she pilfered from the pantry. Of course she had been walking around with it, jiggling it the whole time. She was standing directly in front of my dad and dropped the can as she tripped on the tile in the bathroom. The can burst and coke started spraying everywhere. We were all just frozen in our respective positions as the spray spewed all over my dad and Ashlyn. Something snapped in my mind, “you’ve got to stop that from spraying on the house that we’re renting and will have to pay a huge fee to get cleaned.” I grabbed the can and turned it over in the sink. Not much was left to drain into the sink. Ashlyn started crying, I think she was just surprised by the whole thing. I was laughing. What else could I have done. Legally. Dad had to change his clothes. We got the spill cleaned up. Had to use a ladder to clean the spray that reached almost to the ceiling. It looked like the splatter from a CSI crime scene.

The greatness doesn’t stop there. I had to get the UHaul turned in before 12:30 to “Uncle Bob’s”. I plugged in the address (into Jeeves, my navigational unit) given to me by UHaul and it lead me to a residential house. I called the number given to me by UHaul and no one answered. Par for the course. I called the only number I could find on the UHaul contract, road-side assistance. I told the woman who answered I’m not having a road-side emergency (yet), but need to get the regular number for UHaul. She proceded to tell me this is the emergency road-side number. Another Sherlock on my hands. So, I finally got in touch with Corporate UHaul. I told her that I need to find another drop off location. So, instead of looking that up herself (which I know she could do) she transferred me to “Regional”. No one answered the phone. (UHaul’s automated service leaves a lot to be desired. Let me just tell you, if you plan on renting from them don’t expect them to bend over backwards give a hoot about serving you. They won’t return calls. They won’t even answer the phone. They won’t call to confirm rentals. They won’t actually be an actual store where you can return rentals.) I called “Corporate” back and reached someone else. By this time my speech was a little bit shorter and more demanding of assistance. New guy directed me to another location to return the trailer. I called and confirm they are actually a real, live store before heading out.

This was only the first part of the day. I could only imagine what the second might hold. Fortunately it was all good. My brother and sister-in-law arrived. We hung out, ate dinner in lawn chairs around a folding table and played in our amazingly huge and awesomely flat backyard (I’m already getting excited about mowing it). A great ending to what started out to be a challenging day.

Friday 13: I’m Proud To Be An American

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

1776: We adopted the Declaration of Independence declaring ourselves to be free and independent states from Great Britain. Our British neighbors (where we used to live, in Missouri) are sometimes asked if they celebrate the 4th of July “over there”. “No. We lost.” is their answer looking at the questioner with a dumbfounded look.

Patriotism: “devoted love, support, and defense of one’s country; national loyalty.” (Thank you, Dictionary.com)

I believe that over the years our national patriotism has been slowly diminishing. There is this pervasive feeling that it’s not cool to be American. We’re lame, Europe’s cool. Let’s be like them. Please, people. What would this world be like if it hadn’t been for America. I’m patriotic. I love America. I think the world wouldn’t be the same without us. And I think we’re the best thing going. Yes, I just said that and I’m proud. That doesn’t mean I don’t like/love things about other countries and their people. I absolutely loved living in Europe and all the cool things over there. I just happen to think America is the. best. 

We’re taught to be all inclusive and to accept the way things are done elsewhere. We’re taught to detest the “Americanization” of the rest of the world. Well, rest of the world, if you don’t like us so much stop listening to our music, watching our movies, wearing our jeans, and visiting our country. If you’re here and hate it so much, well, leave.

This Friday 13 list I’ve put together is some of my favorite patriotic songs. You can probably hum the tunes to all of these. Do you know the words? Do your children?  I asked Reagan what our national anthem was. She couldn’t tell me the name, but she could sing the first words. That’s awesome because we haven’t studied it yet in school.

So, if you don’t know these, learn them. Teach them to your kids. Be proud to be an American. Love your country while respecting everyone else. Being the best in the world comes with responsibilities.

Friday 13: 13 Great Patriotic Songs

  1. Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key
  2. America The Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates
  3. God Bless the USA (I’m proud to be an American) by Lee Greenwood
  4. My Country Tis of Thee by Samuel Francis Smith
  5. God Bless America by Irving Berlin
  6. Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia W. Howe (great history about the origins of the hymn)
  7. Yankee Doodle (originally use by the British to make fun of us)
  8. Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue by Toby Keith
  9. The U.S. Air Force Song (Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder) by Capt. Robert Crawford
  10. You’re A Grand Ole Flag by George M. Cohan
  11. This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie
  12. The Marine’s Hymn
  13. This Is My Country by Don Raye

And here’s some flag etiquette in case you need some brushing up on that.

What are your favorite patriotic songs?