Thinkin' Thursday - Much Ado About Nothing

Have you noticed my Thinkin' Thursday's haven't been all that political lately?

So, this very post that you are reading right at this very moment is post #388. That means I am only 12 posts away from a major milestone of 400 posts.

And I was thinkin' , being Thursday and all, I was thinkin' , I wonder how long it will take me to get to 400. I mean, I have been really busy so I haven't been doing much blogging lately (or reading blogs, I will catch up on you all very soon), so it could take a while. But man, I am so close, I wanna be there now. Why? I don't know, cause I got nuthin better to think about.

As that thought was rollin about in me noggin I started to think, ya know, I have a tendency to ramble on about nothing all the time. Remember my 5+ minute ice cream video? So I thought, I bet I could roll out a whole slew of posts real quick like and be at 400 in no time.

And I started to wonder how many days it would take me.

And I started to wonder how many days you think it will take me.

And I though, wow. Blogger has a nifty little polling device I could add to my blog and people could make a guess.

And then I thought, who needs sleep, I think I'll go downstairs and whip up a poll right now.

And here I am.

Rambling again.

So, take the poll. All you silent readers can take it too. I promise it won't kill you.

And now the screen is blurry and I feel like I have a rock in my contact so I think I will shut it up now.

Don't forget to check back often. I'm about to start my bloggin roll. Just as soon as I perform my rock removal and get a little sleep.

Peace out!

Seriously? Did you have to say that?

Freak.

WebCam Wednesday - Splish Splash I was Takin' A Bath

This is my wild monster baby (I really should stop calling her that) (she really should stop acting like one) taking a bath. Yes, this is how she takes a bath. Every time. Yes it makes me crazy. It doesn't seem to bother her that she almost drowns every time she does it. So, this is why I only bathe her once every 2-3 weeks. And I don't actually put her in the tub, I just hose her off outside.

Don't Be A Square

Since someone came to see the house on Sunday, we had to vacate the premises. So we went downtown to Temple Square. Here are some pictures of our little adventure. Once again everyone had a great time, except for the person trying to keep Monster Baby quiet and destruction free. That person was me.

Monday Morning Musings - Hello, My Name Is Allyson And I'm An....Just Read On

Sooooooo.......Somebody came to see the house yesterday. They want to buy it. I'm trying not to get too excited because they just moved from out of state and they still have to sell their house. They were transferred here with the husbands company and his company has some type of program where they will buy their house. They are checking on it. My agent said that those programs usually put the house on the market for 3 months and if it doesn't sell then they buy it. They said they want to rent it from us if they can't sell their house now. Not sure how I feel about that. We will wait and see what happens. In the meantime we have some one coming to see it tonight. HELLO! The house is spotlessly clean now from yesterday. How am I supposed to keep that up til tonight when I have 4 kids running around?





It really is running me ragged trying to keep the house constantly clean with all the kids home. Especially with Monster Baby in the mix.





Speaking of Monster Baby. Hhhhhhh. That child is.....I don't even know. She is making me very tired. My mom and Lauren got really mad when they read my post about her being naughty. How dare I call their sweet baby naughty? She's not naughty. Ha. Well, guess what? They babysat her on Saturday. Ummm hmmmm. Guess who's calling her naughty now????





I had a very disturbing dream the other night. VERY DISTURBING! I had a dream that something upset me and I started drinking to numb my feelings and I became an alcoholic. It was very detailed and very vivid and I was feeling all the emotions and everything. HELLO! What the heck?! OK, I have never even touched a bottle of alcohol. I have never had a desire to drink alcohol. I was drinking to numb my feelings? Holy cow! I have this thing about taking any kind of drug into my body. I freak out if I have to take Tylenol. The dream was a couple of days ago and I am still upset by it.





I was cooking the other day and I was making something with lemon juice in it. So I took a big swig out of the bottle (there's my alcoholic tendencies showing through). I tried really hard not to make a sour face. I swallowed it and everything without making one and I was able to hold off the sour face for several seconds after swallowing but then the sour face came. I'm just curious if it's just me or does everyone have to make a sour face when drinking lemon juice. So will you please try it and let me know? Like right now?

OK, I have been trying for forever to embed this video but for some reason it won't work. You can click here to watch it.



Last night I put Addy and Aubrey in bed. Zac and Emily were supposed to be in bed reading. I was dead tired so I was up in my room. A while later I went to tell them it was time to go to sleep. They were watching Jurassic Park in Zac's room on his PlayStation with the volume turned way down. I was so mad because I know we are going to have repercussions from their viewing. I have somehow managed to raise scaredy cat children (I have no idea where they get it) and I didn't want to have to deal with them not being able to sleep or go down in the basement by themselves for fear of dinosaurs lurking around. So I was saying something along those lines to them while I opened Zac's blinds to check his window and make sure it was locked. He looked outside and, even though it was still a little light out, said "Oh, it's already dark outside. It must be late. I think I'll turn this off and go to bed." Oh, did I forget to mention that it was at the very most scariest part of the movie? And also that Zac is my hardest child to get to go to bed at night. It just made me laugh.

Flashback Friday - The Nanny

Thank you to all of you who have commented on my Thinkin' Thursday so far. I am excited. I already know which pictures I am gonna use for some of you. And I have some in mind for those of you who I think are probably reading this in silence still, so speak up will you!



I must say, there are still more people looking at my blog today than there are commenting. Thank you to Momma Gibbons who so far is the only person brave enough to comment who hasn't commented before. I have a picture in mind for you too. So see, don't you wanna know, all you out there who have yet to comment? Don't you wanna know what picture I will post for you?



And thank you to "The Nanny" who was the very first to comment. Just for that you get a bonus picture. The nanny grew up across the street from me. I was her very first babysitter. No wonder she turned out so good. She's all grown up now and ready to head off to college. I have enjoyed reading her blog and getting to know the adult her a little better. I have found that the two of us have a few things in common, other than growing up on the same street. We are both scaredy cats. We are both opinionated. And most importantly, we both like crunchy sandwiches.



So here is a picture of The Nanny when she was a flower girl at my wedding.

Thinkin' Thursday - I'm Outin' You, Right Here, Right Now

It's like this. I know you're there. I do. You might be slinkin' in here all quite like and not sayin' anything, but I know you're there. I have Google Analytics on my blog. It gives me all kinds of interesting information on who is looking at my blog. One of the things it tells me is not just how many times my blog was looked at, but how many different people looked at it. So you might see the comments that people post and say, oh, there are only about 5 different people reading her blog because there are only about 5 different people who comment on my posts. (thank you to all of you who make me feel validated in life)(not that I rely on your comments for validation, but, well OK, I do)(sigh)

Anyhoo, back to the subject at hand. I usually have between 20-30 different people look at my blog everyday. If I look back over the past month it tells me that 167 different people looked at it. And if I look all the way back to when I first put analytics on there it tells me that there have been 1,372 different people look at my blog. So I happen to know that there are more than 5 of you reading this at this very minute. Well, maybe not at this very minute, but you know what I mean.

So, since it is Thinkin' Thursday, for a few more hours anyway, I am thinkin' it is about time you came out of the closet. Stop your lurking and come on out into the open. I know you want to, you have just been waiting for the right moment to make your presence known. That moment is now.

This is what I'm gonna do. Ya know how tomorrow is Flashback Friday? Well, the very first person who comments on this post, I am going to find a picture of you (I promise to be nice and not put up an embarrassing one) and I am going to use it for my Flashback. Then, I will take all the comments on this post and go in order and feature the each person who commented every Friday in my Flashback. If I don't have a picture of you, I will find one that you are sure to enjoy. If you have found my blog through someone else's blog, tell me who's blog it was and I will feature a picture of them that I am sure you will enjoy (those will be embarrassing). If you don't know me, and I don't know you, and I don't know any of the people you know, and you don't know any of the people I know, I'll come up with something, I promise. (that was a very comma filled sentence)

As I am typing this I have this feeling that the same 5 people are going to be the only one's who comment, with the exception of 1 because she gets mad when I post pictures of her when she was a teenager (Coren). But I am asking you to just be brave and do it. So that I don't look like an idiot for posting this. You owe it to me for keeping you entertained on an almost daily basis.

For those of you who profess not to know how to comment (mom) this is what ya gotta do. At the end of this post, there will be some blue words. One will say comments, with a number by it indicating how many comments there are for this post. Click on the blue comment word. There will be a box for you to type your comment. If you don't have a Google account you can click on Name/URL and it will give you a place to put your name. You can leave the URL field blank. Or if you would like you can click on anonymous and just put your name somewhere in your comment.

OK, I'm gonna be really mad if you don't participate. I think it will be fun to try and come up with pictures for everyone. And it will be such a relief to you to finally say something. Trust me, it will. If I look at my stats tomorrow and see that 25 people looked at my blog and only 10 commented, well.......I don't know what I'll do, but you won't like it.

What are you waiting for? Say something already.

WebCam Wednesday - The Ice Cream Chronicles

What's Been Goin' Down Here Abouts In Our Part Of Town

Put away the Kleenex, dry your eyes. I'm back. I never actually went anywhere. I have just been busy, tired and hot. It has been almost a week since I last posted. Wow. That is a long time.

We have had several people come through and look at the house. Thank you for all your prayers on our behalf. I am enjoying a clean house, like all over clean, and it has lasted for almost a week. It is nothing short of a miracle. And well, we just haven't been home much. That might have something to do with it too.



I was really craving avocados the other day for lunch. I had 4 that I had just bought at the store 2 days before. I cut them all open and this is what they looked like inside. I was really mad. Mad mad.



My cousin Jennifer came home from her mission in Guatemala. Here is a little video of the family celebration to welcome her home:



The kids and I went to the Aquarium last week. Emily and I went back today with the Activity Day girls. Here is a video of my children trying to torture innocent marine life. There is some unknown kid in the video. No idea where he came from. Thankfully he didn't make it home with us.



Aubrey got new sunglasses.

We went to the Museum Of Fine Arts and saw the special "Monet to Picasso" exhibit. Steve and the 3 older kids loved it. I spent my time there trying to keep monster baby quiet and trying to avoid destroying priceless Renoir and Matisse masterpieces. I have decided that I need to go back by myself and have a looksie.


We have done a ton more but I will only bore you with the highlights. Peace out!
(that is a really goofy way to end my post, I know, but I am so tired TY-ERD, that is all I could come up with.)(stupid. i've got to come up with something better than that. i'll tell you when i do. peace out? whatever. or as aubrey would say, WHATEV!)(i'm just kind of rambling now, it's been a long day and like i said, i am tired. so i'm just gonna go now. really. bye.)(peace out)(shut up already)(you are so annoying)

WebCam Wednesday - MINE!

So I know that my 3 older kids did naughty stuff when they were really little. However I don't recall them walking about in a constant state of naughtyness. Like their little sister Addy does. A CONSTANT state of naughtyness. I told you about the fingernail polish and face powder. It is like one thing after another with this kid. Just like yesterday. She flushed almost a whole roll of toilet paper down the toilet in the hall bathroom on the main floor. The same toilet her sister Aubery did the same thing too about 2 1/2 years ago. If you recall, that left extensive damage and took over 3 months to repair. This time it wasn't so bad. We were home when it happened, we were all just down in the basement and didn't realize it until the water started gushing into the basement. Steve was out in the desert shooting with his scouts. I really think I lost it for a minute there. I was thinking it was going to be like last time and we were going to have to tear down drywall and remove and replace flooring like last time. Thankfully it isn't that bad and thankfully I have wonderful neighbors willing to help and keep a sane mind while I am sitting there dumbstruck. I have someone coming to look at the house later this afternoon so send a little pray up my way that I can have it together by then. And that my carpet won't be stinking up the entire house. And that the people will make an offer. Let's see, what else can I have you pray about..... (by the way I don't recommend googling naughtyness to see if you spelled it correctly. I think it might be misspelled, but I didn't want to click on any of the links to see.)

Tuesday Morning Musings - Cause I Just Feel Like Yackin'

First of all I'm about to go crazy because this song is stuck in my head and it is stuck good and hard:


This is my kids favorite song and they play it all the time. ALL THE TIME. Just yesterday, Emily taught herself how to play it on the guitar. Right Emily (I know she is going to be reading this later) you can play it on the guitar. Blessedly she plays it along with the song as it is playing on her CD player, so I heard this song about 562 times yesterday. It's a very lovely and beautiful song but it somehow loses some of its appeal after hearing it 562 times in a 12 hour period. I've been singing it over and over, and I can't just sing it the normal way, so I sing stuff like, "Hey there Miss Addy what's it like in Salt Lake City". And the whole time I am thinking.....Andy......(thought with a disgusted snarl).

Zac just left for his 2nd day of Cub Scout Day Camp. He had so much fun yesterday. I am kind of missing him though. He was out of town all last week with Steve and now he was gone all day yesterday and will be gone all day today. Did anyone notice that in one of my comments I said Steve was out of town last week and no one came and killed me in my sleep? Thank you all for being so nice and thoughtful.

Last night Zac begged me to buy him a Lunchable to take to Day Camp today. He said that yesterday all the boys were making fun of him and his other friend because they were the only ones who had lunches made by their mothers and everyone else had Lunchables. Seriously? So I woke up today to go on my morning walk and decided I would walk to Walgreen's and buy him a Lunchable. I thought I should tell Steve where I was going just in case I didn't come back so he would know what to tell the police (yeah, I have issues, did you click on the "killed in my sleep" link above"?). I explained to him why I was going there and this is the conversation that followed:

Steve: They were making fun of him for that? He should have called them "cancer patients" because they ate processed food.

Me: Are you making fun of me?

Steve: (with a deadpan face) Why is that making fun of you?

Me: (stare) (raised eyebrows)

Steve: (with a deadpan face) How would my saying that be making fun of you?

Me: (stare) (raised eyebrows) (thinking: he got home late last night, he probably didn't read it)

Me: Because I said something like that on my blog yesterday.

Steve: (with a deapan face) I don't even know what Gatorade you're talking about.

Me: You ARE making fun of me!


So, ummm Walgreen's doesn't open until 8:00. So I decided to go next door to 7-11. Let me just tell ya, there are some mighty scary people at the 7-11 that early in the morning. We never go to 7-11 so I don't know if that is the normal crowd or if all the freaky people just convene there at the wee hours of the morning. They only had one kind of lunchable there and it was a small one and I didn't want to send Zac off with cancer food and make him be hungry all day, so I walked up the street to Alberston's and bought the dang Lunchable. Bratty little Lunchable toting scouts.

Anyway I left the safety of my little neighborhood and walked all the way to Alberson's and back and I wasn't accosted once! I am so proud and relieved all at the same time.