It's time again for Raven's Saturday Wordzzle.  Like Boggle, it's meant to get our creative juices flowing. Participants are to incorporate the 10 words given in the challenge into a SHORT paragraph.  Raven also offers a mini challenge for anyone opting for less words.  You may also opt to use all the words in one story.  I must warn you, this one is NOT short... but it was fun and it's a true story.

This week's ten word challenge is:  Florida, spit, child bride, operatic, busy, holding pattern, sunflowers, ginger jars, office, superintendent


And for the mini challenge:  music to my ears, plot, powerful, braggart, super model



1:36am (bedroom clock)

There's nothing worse than watching time go by...

1:37am  (bedroom clock)

Something wakes me up.  I try to go back to sleep...

I lay there for a bit, with my eyes closed.  But sleep is a fickle mistress.

1:47am  (bedroom clock)

So, I get up.  I meander into Buddy's room.  I absently feel my foot brush up against something.

Suddenly, I hear "Driving down the highway, in my little tow truck, honk, honk, beep, beep, I'm on my way."  This is NOT music to my ears!

I freeze, like a deer caught in headlights.  Fortunately, the sound is muffled by the fan in his room.  He doesn't move... The song ends.  I kneel down to reach around the side of the toy truck, trying to turn it off, but I fail.  How many buttons does this toy have?!  I accidentally press one.  It starts playing another operatic tune!

I manage to turn it off, but not before he stirs.  He rolls over, powerfully smacking his leg up against the crib rails. Thud!  The sound reverberates in my ears.  My heart skips several beats.  Have I been discovered?

I stay in my squatting position like a toad in a holding pattern in a Florida crocodile swamp, waiting and hoping.  I'm no super model but I can squat for long periods of time.  What a braggart huh?  He's still.

I slowly get up to leave.

But not before catching a glimpse of his clock.

1:56am 

I head downstairs.  I peak into BG's room.  She's sound asleep.  She's stretched out all over the bed.  Her sheets are festooned on her head and are dripping down her shoulders.  She is a child bride in pink.   I know there are Lincoln Logs all over the floor.  The little logs are all standing at attention like little ginger jars at a flea market.  They mock me, daring me to enter.  I leave them to their own devices.

The dog is next on my list.  He's sleeping in his kennel.  He looks up at me as if caught cheating on his time card by the superintendent herself.  After what seems a long time, he lazily puts his head back down, his eyes closing.  I wonder if he was even sleeping.

As I walk through the kitchen, my stomach reminds me I'd traded dinner for an early bedtime.

2:09am  (microwave)

I open the fridge and dig out a cup of soy yogurt.  The drawer makes an uncanny sound as I close it.  In my mind I hear the bats scatter as if in a bad movie.

I take my yogurt into the computer room.  I turn on the light and nearly blind myself in the process.

2:16am  (computer clock)

I sit down to catch up on blog reading.  I check my e-mails.  I don't comment or reply because I don't want to get any flak for being awake.

2:21am 

I sit in silence, reading and listening to the hum of the air conditioner.  I read a little while longer.  Then, return to the kitchen to toss my cup.  I put the spoon in the sink.

I go back upstairs and go into the bathroom to brush my teeth.  I spit quietly.

There's a clock in the bathroom.

2:52am

I get back in bed.  I close my eyes.

They flutter back open.

4:06am  (bedroom clock)
4:07am
4:08am

Was the trash bill due this month?
Will it rain tomorrow or will I have to water the garden?
Is it too late to plant sunflowers?  Is there even enough room in our plot for them?
My basil is dying, I need to take it out of the pot.

Do ants sleep?  They always seem so busy.
I make a mental grocery list; soy milk, eggs, whole milk, dish washer soap, low sodium turkey...
I remind myself to add these to the list when I get up.
I make a mental note to check the messages on the voice mail when I get into the office.

4:12am

I consider turning on the TV, but Hubs is blissfully snoring next to me. 

I close my eyes again.

Snore.  Snore.

I rub his arm until he shifts.

There's silence.

I close my eyes. 

Snore.  Snore.

4:23am

I turn over.

4:28am

I sit up.

I consider getting up to take my shower and go to work early. 
Even at this time of night, that seems like an obscene notion.
It's too damned early to get up!!

I close my eyes, again.

Snore.  Snore.

4:45am

I remember I have to call the library to see if my books came in.
I close my eyes, again.  I try to take shallow breaths.
I imagine my feet falling asleep.
Then my ankles.
Then my...

6:56am

I tally up the number of hours I slept in my head; seven total but not consecutively.
I feel hung over and groggy.  I'm grumpy about the wasted hours...  My eyes close.  My brain is tired.
I can't seem to shrug off the sleep... I roll over.
Then I hear Buddy say, "Mama, where are you?"

Blargh, insomnia really stinks!  So much for getting a good night's sleep...

For other Wordzzle stories, please click here.

        

Last week's

1. She had a great disposition set of teeth sense of style (ha haa - I could go on and on)!

2. My camera is by my side, always.

3. I know this: If I didn't have to work, I wouldn't!

4. Be still.

5. These words apply to me: I wish they were doing an In Plain Sight marathon this weekend.  I am sooo hooked on that show right now!  I also want to go see "My Sister's Keeper," anyone care to join me?  I hear it's not a flick for Hubs.

6. The day my mother died, the sun was shining, and it felt so wrong.


And this week's...


1. When I heard that Jon and Kate were separating, I felt sad.

2. Sleep is the best medicine.

3. It's late, but I am still hungry!!

4. I miss my mom, always.

5. My eyes have seen the seven wonders of childhood.  They are a sight to behold!

6. I strongly suggest you come back tomorrow for Raven's Saturday Wordzzle Challenge! 

7. And as for the weekend, I'm looking forward to decluttering the house a bit, fireworks with the neighbors, weeding, bike riding, and sleeping; not necessarily in that order.

For other Friday Fill-Ins, please click here.

Have a great weekend!

        

For other Wordless Wednesday posts, click here and here.

For my previous WWs, click here.

Happy Wednesday!

        

I dropped it.  My camera.  On concrete.  And it bounced.  I almost cried had a heart attack.  But ever since then, the macro capability has worked better.

Perhaps I knocked something back into place...  Nothing else seems to be wrong.  So for now, I'll take it.

I was walking around here just looking for stuff to photograph and this crazy looking bug landed near me.  I took the picture as fast I could before it flew away.  It wasn't moving so I just kept snapping.  I was above it but I didn't want to scare it away so I took pictures of the end that was closest to me.

It wasn't until it started to walk away (ok, run away really) that I realized I'd gotten a photo of...

the wrong end.  And, yes, you're right about what it was doing with that end... (he-hee).

 I've done some searching and I thought it was a Colorado Potato Beetle (CPB ), however, the CPB does not have a tail and I was not in Colorado (I don't know how relevant that really is with bugs).

Ironically, when I was taking these pictures, I thought of Lisa's blog since she always has really cool pictures of bugs on it... maybe someone can identify this bug for me?

To join in on Macro Monday or to check out other posts, please click here.

        

Buddy's been talking a lot lately.  He says lots of things.  Sometimes it's gibberish, but sometimes it's coherent words.  Words that describe things.  Words that mean something to him, like baby and lawnmower, and shoes, and downstairs.  Of course, they don't all sound like they should, but he gets his point across.  We understand him.

Recently, we collectively noticed that he is able to say Daddy correctly but that he says "ghore" for door.  So, the other night, while I was putting him to bed, I decided to work on it with him.  I thought I would set him straight.

I said, Buddy, say Daddy.  He said, Daddy.

Say door. He said ghore.

Say dddddd-daddy.  He said, ddddd-daddy.

I said, say, ddddd-door.  He paused, then said ddddd-ghore.

And then he looked at me and laughed. 

Who set whom straight?

Dammit, Gumby!

        

* Edited to add

Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer at the age of 62 today.  Read more about it here.

Then, later the same day (today), Michael Jackson died too?

I'm speechless...

        

The best kind of pizza is free!

The other day, I DID NOT feel like making dinner, so I ordered a pizza and packed the kids up in the car to go pick it up.  It was supposed to be a 10 minute affair.  This particular pizza place does not deliver to my house but it is the kind my kids love so I know they're gonna eat it!

BG claims to like pepperoni but she doesn't really, and Buddy, well, he doesn't even eat the cheese... so I ordered half cheese, half pepperoni.  Easy enough right?

When we got there, the pizza was already to go.  Perfect!  I pulled out my card to pay.  As the guy was ringing it up, Buddy noticed it was pizza and started yelling, peeeezah, peeeezah!  Yes Yes I told him.  We can eat it when we get home.  But then BG started in on it, so I thought that seeing the pizza inside the box would calm them down a bit.  Mind you, normally I would never open the box until we got home.  I don't know why, but I just don't think to do that there.  I opened the box.  Inside was a whole pie, covered with pepperoni.

As soon as BG saw that she twisted up her face and said, "I don't like pepperoni!"  She started wringing her hands.  Buddy just kept pointing and saying, peeeezah, peeeezah (aka, feed me, feed me already)!!

I looked at the guy and I said, "I'm sorry, I ordered half pizza, half pepperoni."

The guy looked over at BG and in his best voice said to me, no problem.  Then he turned his head and yelled to someone in the back.  We'll make a new one, he said, just a few minutes (yeah right, I know how long it takes to cook a pizza!).  But he was so nice, I couldn't be mad at him.  It was an honest mistake.  What else could we do?

Argh, so I signed the receipt and we walked outside to roam the strip mall until our pizza was ready.  The kids were already hungry and had started to get whinny on the car ride there.  I was not happy we had to wait an extra 10 minutes.  But it was that or take the offensive pepperoni pizza home!  So, we waited.

When we went back to get our pizza, the guy opened the box to show us (BG) that it was half cheese, half pepperoni.  She beamed with approval.  As I picked up the pizza to go, he pulled out the "other" pizza from under the counter and asked me if I wanted to take it.  Sure, of course! I said. 

And that is how we got a free pizza.  Had I known, I would've asked them to make the second one cheese only because when we got home BG ate three slices and Buddy ate two.  There were only four slices of cheese in the pie which means I had to pick off pepperoni to give them another slice anyway.  Crazy, crazy...

        

More garden pics


For other Wordless Wednesday posts, click here and here.

For my previous WWs, click here.

Happy Wednesday!

        

The theme/prompt for THIS week, June 23, is:
TAILS - "Summertime memory"


I was talking to a co-worker last week and we decided that our strongest memories of when we were kids are from the summer.  School memories are mostly a blur.  But the summers... they stood out!

I am all about the experiences.  I try to offer my kids every experience I can possibly give them.  I want them to be able to say, I tried that, I saw that, I made that, I broke that!

I know they're still young, but it's never too early to start is it?

We're growing a vegetable garden this year.  BG was all excited about helping me at first.  But of course she gets caught up in playing and only helps for about five minutes; long enough to dig up a worm, and then she's outta there!

But I still think it's a good experience.  When I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Kingsolver talked about city kids who didn't know that potatoes grow in the ground.  They were floored when they learned you had to dig them up to harvest them.  I vowed then that my city kids would not be like that.  My kids will not be afraid of dirt and they will know that vegetables don't come from the grocery store.  They don't?

As I've told you before, we are growing an organic garden, which means I have to get rid of pests the all-natural way.  Now that I have my groundhog detail (Super Dog), I am even more excited because that means I won't find half-eaten tomatoes everywhere. 

One of my favorite pesticides (if you will) is what my mom and I affectionately called "Slugweiser."  I either use skunked beer (which occurs during the spring months when we leave beer out in the cool garage on an inordinately hot day!) or we buy really cheap beer.  I set out my recycled yogurt containers in about three spots around the garden and come back to find the slugs drowned in the beer instead of in my cucumbers!

Slugs love salt, so they gravitate to the stuff and of course once in, they can't get back out.  My only issue with this method is that sometimes I wonder if I am inviting slugs versus actually preventing them.  But, I have seen slug damage and it is nasty... so I opt for the Slugweiser!

Due to all the rain, I've had to change out my cups more often.  As I was changing out the cups yesterday (full of slugs) I didn't want to just dump them out in the yard (gross) so I emptied out as much of the liquid as I could and then I put the rest in a plastic grocery bag to take to the trash can.

Well, one thing led to another and we stayed outside too long.  In my rush to round up the kids and all the gardening tools I left said plastic bag hanging on one of the fence posts.  I figured I would come back and get it after I put Buddy to bed.

When I came back to get the bag, I found that it had been chewed through.  There were only two slug parts that had been left in between the soggy bag pieces.  As I looked over at Super Dog I wondered if I noticed a slight slant in his gait...  He sure seemed very happy with himself.  Perhaps he wasn't drunk but he had gotten all the beer and as an added bonus, he'd gotten some doggie caviar for his trouble!

That's the last time I leave that baggie hanging there on the post.  My mom and I used to hang those there all the time and our previous dogs, classy Great Danes that they were, never even sniffed the stuff! 

This memory will be fresh in my mind all summer long; every time I see a slug, I will think of Super Dog's silly grin. 

I wonder if slugs have any nutritional value?

For other please click here.

        

You eevr go thogruh yuor day jsut thninikg aubot sfutf...  but not auctlaly ralely lisinetng to yuor thhogtus?

I had one of those days the other day.  I had all these great post ideas even... about how to put down on blog some thoughts I've had lately, etcetera.

But then I just kept on moving, presuming, of course, that my fabulous ideas would stay with me... and did they?

Of course not.

So, here I am eating popcorn and thinking about what it was that I had so cleverly thought to say.

Did you know that not everyone can read the first sentence?  But that about 80 percent of people (don't quote me on that) can?  Apparently, the brain doesn't actually read every single letter so it can figure out the words as long as the first and last letters remain the same.  Freaky huh?

Hmn, where could this be going?

I heard somewhere (radio perhaps) that just like we should exercise the body, we should also exercise the mind.  And one great way to exercise the mind is to play word scramble games.  Just as an aside, I plan to bring back Boggle Me Thursday soon.  I hope you'll play; and it's great for your brain!

Another great way to work your brain is to change your daily route/routine.  You ever notice how when you're near home or on the road you drive day in and day out, that you tend to go on autopilot and not really pay attention.  All of a sudden you might ask yourself, was that light red and did I run it?  You simply can't remember!  It's because you are on autopilot - your brain has assimilated that route and it knows it so well, you don't need to focus.  That's also why people are more likely to get in an accident closer to home or work than they are anywhere else.  Because when they're somewhere new, they have to focus and pay more attention.  By taking a different route home, you actually have to engage your brain!  How interesting huh?

Even switching hands to brush your teeth is good brain exercise!  I did a quick internet search and found this - check it out.

Anyway...

Ya ever wonder what the difference is between tired and sleepy?

Lately I've been very sleepy... but when I'm sleepy I don't necessarily feel tired.  And by tired I mean that tired-to-the-bone tired that I often feel after a long day of slavery work.

Well, if you figured it out, I'd love to know.

Hmn, Hubs and I watched the movie Taken the other night.  I thought it was pretty good.  Good action, love Liam Neeson and the chic from X-Men although she wasn't very nice in this movie.  I would recommend it.  Of course it's a bit far fetched, but hey, it's a movie!!


I hope you get a chance to work out your brain today and everyday!

(I did categorize this post as random .)

Happy Belated Father's Day to my one male reader. *smirk*


I'll leave you with this great song from the Toys Soundtrack.
There's no video so you can just click play and listen while you go check out my other webpage.

        

For Wordless Wednesday yesterday, I posted this with the promise that I would tell you what it is...


For those of you who said it was a reflection of something, you were correct.

It is indeed a reflection of this merry-go-round.



The photo below is the same shape - do you see the outline?

            

So, as much as I would have hoped that it was something extra terrestrial, it was only a fun amusement ride!

To check out other Tell Me Thursday posts, please click here.

        

 Wanna know what it is?  Come back tomorrow to find out.


For other Wordless Wednesday posts, click here and here.

For my previous WWs, click here.

Happy Wednesday!

        

Have you ever noticed that when you go on a trip, the kids move onto the next phase of their development during the trip?

For instance, when BG was a baby and was just figuring out how to sit up on her own, she learned how to sit up during an actual trip.  When Buddy was learning how to roll over, he did it for the first time in the pack-n-play.

We just got back from four days of breathing fresh mountain air.  We had a small family reunion and it was just so much fun.  We stayed here.  The place is absolutely beautiful!  The kids had a magical time there.  It's a place that is away from the daily grind of our world.  It truly is a getaway.  Time has no meaning there.  There is no cell phone reception and even though they have internet, the place is so amazing and filled with things to do, that you don't want to waste a single minute sitting in front of the computer (as you can see from my lack of blogging).

During this particular trip I saw BG as the grown-up little girl that she's becoming.  It was amazing to see how much she's becoming her own little person.


Although I learned some neat things about my kids, what surprised me the most is what I learned about myself.  Because I had no daily work or home stress to deal with, I was able to bring myself to the top of the list and I was able to listen to myself.

And I did not like what I heard.  First of all, I am in need of physical restructuring (aka. I need to lose weight).  This has been on my mind for some time, but this trip helped me realize how crucial it is.  Secondly, I learned that I am not happy in my current state of existence.  Perhaps you already knew that from reading my blog, but this trip helped me confirm it to myself.  In the hustle and bustle of going to work everyday I've managed to make my life into a habit instead of a joy.  I am constantly stressed out by so many meaningless things.  I feel like I'm focused on all the things that don't matter.  My kids are growing up before my very eyes and I feel like I'm missing it...


I did not make any concrete decisions and I still have a long way to go but I am seriously thinking twice about how I live my daily life and about what changes I need to make.

I am starting small.  I have promised myself that I will walk three times a week and gradually progress to four or five.  I will also drink more water and eat less chocolate and junk food *puts chocolate down*.

Next, I need to make a pros and cons list about certain aspects of my life and make decisions about which changes to make.  I need to schedule daily time for myself and I need to give myself a drop date by which to make some pertinent decisions.

I am so thankful that we go to take this trip.  I feel like I completed this wonderful quest for myself, and now I know what I need to do next.  I get to pass go and collect $200!  It is a wonderful feeling!

        

For other Wordless Wednesday posts, click here and here.

For my previous WWs, click here.

Happy Wednesday!

        

The theme/prompt for THIS week, June 9, is:
HEADS - "Tune"

Make any kind of post using the theme/prompt "Tune."


As a typical four year old with a vivid imagination, BG likes to watch the movie of choice, over and over and over and over and over again!

The latest movie being Wall-E!

It is to the point now that when I dream, this tune plays in my head - I'm not kidding!  I cannot shake it!!

I am now going to share this tune with you - ladies and gentlemen, Peter Gabriel!  Enjoy!

Isn't it a great video?