Current Song Stuck In My Head

I need to preface this by saying that I have no control over the songs that get stuck up there. As much as I love High School Musical 2, this song has been hanging around a little too long. Like over a week now. I am hoping that by posting it here it will help to purge it from my head. Kind of like when you have a reoccurring dream and you draw out the dream.....I'll tell you if it works.

It alternates between the above and below version of the same song

ATTENTION: Calling All

FREAKY PEOPLE OF THE WORLD

Gather round and listen up!

LEAVE ME THE HECK ALONE!!!!!!

It started this morning when I was looking at the stats for my blog (which by the way I know people are still here readin' even if you are not saying anything) and it shows me if someone finds my blog by doing a search. I get pretty normal searches. Except for yesterday. Some perv was on my blog and it really makes me ANGRY! And not just any perv, the worst kind of perv. So I promptly removed myself from search engines and blog listings.

Then just a little while ago I took myself down to the local WalMart (please read with a heavy hick accent) to get the last few items I needed to make my Christmas shopping complete. I took Aubrey up to my mom's work while I was there so she couldn't see what I was buying. My mom had to leave work to take Lauren to a doctors appointment so she brought Aubrey to Walmart to me just as I was leaving the store.

She pulled up at the front of the store and gave me Aubrey. Then I started walking to my car. When I got close (I was parked all the heck of the way at the end of the lot) my mom pulled up beside me and said I was being followed by a scary looking guy. We looked around and he was gone but my mom said he had just been right there behind me. There was a car waiting behind her so I told her to pull into a parking spot and I would get the girls in the car and talk to her about it. As soon as she stared to drive off, Mr. Creep-O materialized and started walking up to me. I looked over to where my mom was and he saw that she was just on the other side of my car and he asked me for money. I told him I didn't have any and he left. My mom said he was right behind me when I came out of the store and he stopped and watched everything we were doing when I got Aubrey out of her car. Then he started following me again. She had a really bad feeling about it so she also followed me to my car, thank goodness! She said he was right behind me and every time I would weave in and out of cars, he would do the same and he never took his eyes off me.

If you know anything about me you know that I am pretty much just normally freaked out anyway. That's just how I come. So this has made it so much better. I was going to go to the grocery store after I left there but heck if I'm gonna go now without an armed escort. It makes me mad because I am normally very alert when I am out like that (like all good freak-a-zoids should be) but I was so concerned with trying to keep Aubrey from seeing what was in my cart that I was paying no attention to anything else. And another thing that makes me mad is that I just stood there like an idiot when he came towards me (durka-durka-doo). I have seen plenty of Oprah's to know better. I KNEW I was being followed. I KNEW I should have faced him and yelled, "STOP! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!", and then jabbed my key in his eye. Is it silly to wish I could go back?

I am just glad my sweet little girls and I came out of it unharmed. I am so grateful my mother was there and was more aware than I was. And I wanted to share this story with all of you so you can remember when you are out shopping at this crazy time of year to always be aware of what is going on around you. And don't forget to yell STOP!

Monday Morning Musings - My Baby Poops Better Than Your Baby

So I stayed up 'til 1:30 in the morning to watch the Survivor finale. I was so glad my little Toddy won. He has been my favorite since the beginning. However, what was up with him during the reunion show. You would think given his lifestyle preferences he would have had a little more fashion sense about him. Thank goodness I didn't have any cookies in the house. I kept craving them the whole time because he looked like a Kebler elf. Seriously. The mullet? The vest? I couldn't find a picture of him but you can click here if you are just dying to see what I am talking about. You have to wait until you are about 35 seconds into the video.

Ok. I'm back. I just had to take a little "break". My dear sweet little Addison needed some major help. She has this talent for pooping and pooping BIG. Like the kind of poop where you are holding her out at arms length thinking, "Holy cannoli, I don't even know how to begin to clean this up". She is all nice and clean and brand new now.

It was so late last night and I just couldn't stop watching Survivor and a commercial came on and it was for The Nutcracker. I had another vampire moment (that is what I am going to start calling it when I try to make my real life and my fantasy life match up) because I thought, "Why are they advertising the Nutcracker after Christmas. Oh, this must be and old recording. No, I just recorded this tonight. They must still do the Nutcracker for a couple weeks after Christmas. OH MY GOSH!!!! WHAT IS MY PROBLEM? CHRISTMAS HASN'T COME YET!!!!"

So you know I have said before that I have little papers all over the house where I have written down blog ideas as they have come to me. Emily found my paper that said, "Emily-Oops I did it again". Now every time she sings a song she makes me a post it note with her name on it and the song she was singing.

I have a confession to make. My hypothetical opinion survey wasn't exactly hypothetical. We were all so lazy on Saturday. The kids finally got dressed because Zac got invited to play at a friends house. Then the girls got dressed except for Addy because she can't dress herself. I actually took a shower but I didn't put in contacts or do makeup or hair. When we went to pick Zac up from his friends we were all starving. I didn't feel like making dinner and so we decided to go out to eat. I picked the one place where I thought we would be safe. IHOP. Usually when we are there we are the only one's there. But just as we were sitting down at our table, in walks a girl from my ward. I am so glad she could see nasty me and my orphan looking children in public.

I know that everyone is busy getting ready for Christmas and getting ready to go out of town, but come on people! I feel so all alone her in blogger land. I feel like I am back to talking to myself again for a little entertainment.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Shanty Town

Gingerbread houses. What could be more Christmasy? My mother bought gingerbread house kits for each of the kids and my sister so they could have fun building and decorating them, and then enjoy their festive aura and spicy gingerbread scent all December long. We did have fun assembling. The proof is in the pictures:

AubreyEmily
Zac
Lauren
They turned out so perfectly sweet:
So then you might be wondering what would possess me to forever ban gingerbread houses from ever entering my happy little abode again. Our fun little works of art have turned into this:

Our own little gingerbread shanty town.

And this is the kind of stuff I have been hearing on an hourly basis for the last week:

(please read the following quotes in a high pitched, whiny voice)

"MOM!!! SOMEONE KEEPS EATING CANDY OFF MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!!!"

"MOM!!! NOW THERE ARE 37 PIECES OF CANDY MISSING FROM MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!"

"MOM!!! EMILY HAS CANDY IN HER MOUTH!!! I THINK SHE TOOK IT OFF MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!!!"

"MOM!!! NOW THERE ARE 42 PIECES OF CANDY MISSING FROM MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!"

"MOM!!! ZAC IS IN THE KITCHEN PULLING CANDY OFF THE GINGERBREAD HOUSES!!!!"

"MOM!!! NOW THERE ARE 49 PIECES OF CANDY MISSING FROM MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!"

It has just brought so much fun to my holiday season. I think we are about to have a free for all, sugar mania, tear down the walls, shove it in your mouth as fast as you possibly can, gingerbread house distructo session, and what's left after that is going in the trash.

Flashback Friday - Christmas 1996

Allyson and Farrah

Steve and Allyson
We had to force Steve under the tree for this picture. You can tell he looks thrilled.

It's My Birthday Too Yeah!

Today is my 34th Birthday. In keeping with the blogging tradition of Farrah, Kristy and Coren (click on their names for their B-Day posts), here are 34 fascinating and totally useless facts about yours truly:

1. I have never had a haircut I have liked

2. Aside from the people and the ice cream, the thing I miss most about Texas is the rain

3. Most scented things give me a headache so I use unscented everything

4. I know that there are more than 50 ways to eat a pancake

5. I like my hot food to be hot and my cold food to be cold and my soup to be scalding

6. One of my favorite pass times is throwing things away

7. I could eat Frosted Mini Wheat's for 3 meals a day, everyday

8. I have a thing for music, I sing all the time, and I always have a song stuck in my head

9. My favorite song is Me and Bobby McGee (which I sing to my kids as a bedtime song), my favorite band is The Beatles, my favorite singer/songwriter is Carole King

10. My most favorite place to be in the whole world is in my husbands arms

11. I think old men are cute but they make me sad

12. One of my favorite foods is fried okra

13. Sometimes I shine my kids laser pointer in my neighbors windows

14. I drink water 99.9% of the time and I prefer it at room temperature

15. Cadbury mini-eggs are my favorite candy (please don't confuse them with the big nasty creamy ones, which most people do when I disclose this info. to them)

16. I check on my kids anywhere from 5-10 times a night after I put them in bed

17. I knew my husband for less than a week before I said I would marry him

18. I took Hebrew in high school for 2 years

19. I can't stand it when people put the toilet paper roll on backwards and if I am at your house and find it that way, I will correct it

20. I throw my kids school work and art projects in the trash as soon as I look at them

21. I love cemeteries and sometimes when I am alone I stop and walk around in them

22. I have always wanted to be a funeral director

23. I know all the words to the full version of American Pie by Don McLean, and that my friends is a long song

24. It freaks me out when people leave the lid off the milk when it is at the dinner table

25. I have this belief that everything is dishwasher safe and if I find out that it actually isn't, that's OK, I didn't want it anyway

26. The last movie I watched without falling asleep - ?????

27. I can make up a song about anything at the spur of the moment

28. I love American Idol in a very serious and sometimes scary way

29. I love musicals and my favorite is Fiddler On The Roof

30. I can quote the entire movie Dirty Dancing and I can do the dance at the end (well, I like to believe I can, if you saw me try you might have a different opinion)(which will never happen so don't even ask)

31. My favorite movie is The Big Chill

32. I would love to run The Amazing Race with my husband and I think we could win

33. I can't watch anything remotely scary and if a scary commercial comes on TV I must change the channel

34. Steve and I never fight

Monday Morning Musings - Hello Clarice

Current Song Stuck In My Head:

If you put rubber bands on your face like this:

You will smell and taste rubber bands for the rest of the night. I don't recommend it.

Does anyone else find it odd that this was my lunch yesterday and today and I was excited about it on both occasions?

You don't? Well then, clickity,click, click here.

Like A Bowl Full Of Jelly

The NIght The Lights Went Out In Georgia

OK, so I don't live in Georgia. And the lights actually went out in the day time. But this song has been going through my head all day long. It has been snowing since yesterday evening and it pretty much hasn't stopped. We have had a few brief pauses today, but not many. And it is coming down again as we speak. Or as I type and you read. This morning the power went out around 9 AM and didn't come on until 1 PM. So, what did we do to stay entertained while the lights were out????

• I showered by candlelight.

• The kids put on their snow suits, gloves, hats, coats, and snow boots and went outside for 2 minutes. Came back inside and took off their snow boots, coats, hats, gloves and snow suits.

• We repeated the above sequence several times until I said they could NOT go outside again.

• We had to smell our stinky gas fireplace that is in the basement. It still stinks in here. But I am VERY grateful we have it. It came in handy.

• We drove remote control cars in the house and chased the baby with them.

• We took great delight in knowing that our outside Christmas lights were actually off for the first time in 3 days and we didn't have to put forth any effort to make them that way.

• The girls got 500 games out and made a big fun to clean up mess.

• I added "can opener" to my grocery list. The electric one just wasn't doing the job.

• Steve, Keven (our juvenile delinquent neighbor) and I had push up contests. Steve won by a long shot. I tied with Keven.