Serving Up the Randomness

If you haven't been here for RTT, I basically throw out a bunch of random thoughts for your reading pleasure...

**I love the sitcomes on CBS on Monday nights.  Big Bang Theory cracks me up.  Who doesn't love nerds?!

**Remember the nerds on Saved By the Bell?  Did your school have nerds that looked like that?  Mine didn't.  We had nerds, but they didn't dress quite that nerdy.

**It snowed some more last night and today.  Surprise, surprise.  The kiddos got a snow day and are gonna get another one tomorrow.

**I'd love to have 100 followers of my little blog here.  I know that's not really that many, but it woud make my day month year.

**I've been working on a cake recipe.  It's almost there and quite yummy.  I'll share it when I'm happy with it.

**Ever notice how people who gripe about the government and taxes and all that never seem to gripe when they get a tax refund.  Suddenly, they're all happy to claim Uncle Sam as their own. 

**Remember back in the day when you had to blow on the video game cartiridge to get it to work.  I kind of miss that.  My dad actually still has his Nintendo from back in the day.  It still works.  Every once in a while we all play Mario Bros (not super, just the plain ol' version) and Duck Hunt.

**I made myself a cheese pizza for dinner and it was so good that I ate too much.  Oh well.

**Baby girl says "Dada", "Bubba" and "puppy" but not "Mama".  I wish she'd just say it already.  I think she's just messing with me.

And that's the randomness for this week.  Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!

Super Observations

Last night, I participated in a very American activity: I watched the Superbowl.  I was glad to see an exciting game.  The game really did come down to that interception in the last quarter.  Until that moment, I think both teams were playing really good ball and it could've gone either way.  I do think that the Saints had a little more momentum in the second half starting with their recovery of that on-side kick.  Personally, I think on-side kicks are a dirty trick.  But they're legal, so what are you gonna do.  Anyways, I made a few quick observations that I thought I'd share with you...

**The Doritos commercials were hilarious!  By far, the best of the year.  Really, other than those, the commercials pretty much sucked by Superbowl standards.  However, I expected this because I'd been hearing for weeks about how advertisers just weren't shelling out the cash for spots this year.  Darn economy!

**I think I'll apply for the job of bookin halftime entertainers.  Seriously, The Who?!  They needed wheelchairs to get on-stage.  Let's not even talk about last year's fiasco of booking the JoBros.  Two years in a row the halftime show has equalled a fail in my opinion.  Whatever happened to the good ol' days of Janet Jackson flashing her nipple or Britney Spears attempting to rock out with Aerosmith? 

**For some reason, the Saints Kenny-Chesney-look-alike coach gives me the creeps.  I don't know, there's just something about him that rubs me the wrong way.

**The Colts coach did an awesome post-game interview.  He was well-spoken, classy and had his cliches down pat.  (If you've never seen Bull Durham, then you totally didn't get the cliche thing...)

**I get that Hurricane Katrina was a tragedy.  It was horrible and I know that there are people and communities that are still struggling to recover.  However, that does not mean that the Saints "deserved" to win the Superbowl.  I have a hangnail but no one believes that I should win the lottery because of it.  The Saints played good ball, worked hard and beat a worthy opponent.  For those reasons, they deserved to win the game.

**They sell DVDs of the championship team...who buys those?  Who watches those?

Alrighty, well that's all I have for you.  Did you watch?  What do you think was the best part of this great American tradition?

Who's Awesome?!

ME!  Well, at least according to Tesa at 2 Wired 2 Tired.  She gave me this fabulous award...

...and ya'll know how much I love awards!!  Especially ones that say I'm awesome!  So, thank you so much Tesa!

This award comes with instructions to tell you 5 things I like to do and then pass it along to 5 deserving bloggers.

I like to...

1. Read...I can get totally lost in books...the state of my house proves this...
2. Cook...If I was going to be trapped on a desert island with only two things, I'd take my crock pot and a book...
3. Travel...When the hubby retires, I have big travel plans...Europe, Asia, any states I've not been to yet...
4. Watch mind-numbing television shows...Seriously, I have an addiction to Wife Swap re-runs on Lifetime that is probably not healthy...but it's like a train wreck, you just have to look...
5. Shop...groceries, shoes, new clothes...it doesn't really matter, I just love to shop...

I am passing this awesome award on to the following totally awesome bloggers...

1. Shell at Things I Can't Say...I just love her candidness, she even has her own word...go check it out!
2. Ashley at Love Grows Best in Little Houses...We're related, but better than that we're friends!  And she has a fabulous blog.
3. April at A Labor of Love...She and her hubby are waiting on the love of their life to come along, follow along on their journey.
4. Vicki at Frugal Mom Knows Best...She has such a lovely blog with humorous moments and touching ones too.
5. Cheryl at Blue&White Life...She's a Colts fan and her awesome blog always amuses me.

Go check out these lovely ladies!  And, again, thank you , Tesa, for this awesome award!!

Oh How I Love You, Friday!

Yay for Friday!!  This week has actually flown by, but Friday is still oh-so-sweet.  I wasn't sure this was gonna be such a great week.  On Monday, I overslept a bit.  I woke up at ten til 8.  We have to leave the house by 8:15 to get the boys to school on time.  However, this little conversation made me giggle and made me forget about having overslept...

Oh, first, let me set the scene for you...I woke up at 7:50 and freaked out that I'd overslept.  As I leapt out of bed, I hear cartoons in the living room...

Me (running down the hall, pulling clothes on): Boys, what are you doing?!  It's Monday!  Didn't you hear the school busses going by?  Why didn't you wake me up?!

Oldest kiddo:  We heard the busses, but we were going to let you sleep in.

Me:  Um, why?  You have school.

Middle kiddo:  Because we love you.

Oldest kiddo:  Yeah, and we thought if we let you sleep in that you'd let us skip school and watch cartoons all day in our pajamas

Me:  Wow.  Nice try.

Needless to say, I did not let them skip school and by some miracle, I managed to get them to school with about 30 seconds to spare.  Oversleeping is never a good way to start the week, but my silly boys made me giggle a little bit and the week's been good since then.  Hope it was a great one for you guys too!

Quirky Rules of Living a Military Life

I spent the morning fighting with my paper shredder.  Right before lunch, I gave up on it and decided I needed a new one.  It was then that I broke one of the golden rules of living on a military post...never go shopping around lunchtime...especially on Thursdays.  This might seem a bit odd to you if you don't live a military life so I'll try to explain it some, along with some other rules of living a military life.

1.  Never go shopping around lunchtime...especially on Thursdays!  The PX (it's like a department store on post, think Wal-Mart...the old school version, not the supercenter versions) on each post has a food court.  It is a popular lunch destination for Soldiers, so around lunchtime the PX is packed.  Thursdays (at least on training posts, like our current one) are generally graduation days for basic training.  So, on Thursdays, not only do you have to deal with hungry Soldiers in your way, but you also have to deal with newly graduated Soldiers and their families.

2.  Never curse all those moving trucks blocking your street because soon enough those trucks will be blocking the street in front of your house.

3.  Whatever you do, do not piss off the people at the housing office.  They can make your life miserable.  They can assign you to some horrible house, ticket you for leaving your Christmas decorations up until Easter and nag you to death over parking in the yard.  Happy housing people will ignore all these things.

4.  Make sure you have enough groceries to get through all Federal holidays, because they shut everything down.  Seriously, you can't go buy a loaf of bread around here on Columbus Day.

5.  Don't get caught talking on your phone while you're driving.  It'll cost you $500!  I was reading the court proceedings in the post paper the other day.  Talkers got fined $500 while speeders going 10-15 over in residential areas got fined less than $100.  So, by all means, speed...just don't do it while talking on your phone.

There are so many more quirks that you pick up on when living on a military post.  Many are the same from post to post, but many posts also have their own quirks.  For instance, where we're at right now, the commissary (the grocery store) is closed on Mondays.  I'm sure in many ways it's like living a normal civilian life, just with a lot more moving!

Quick, Cute, Crafty Project

Yesterday I was feeling the itch to do a little something crafty.  Now, here's the problem with that: I tend to lose interest in craft projects after about 30 minutes.  I have seen a lot of cute canvas wall hangings lately.  So, I decided that trying something along those lines couldn't take that long.  As I don't necessarily need more stuff hanging around my house, I decided to make them for my niece and nephew. (Yeah, my sister just loves me.)  It took me about 20 minutes to do each one, so I didn't lose interest and was actually pretty impressed with how they turned out...See....

 

Now, I suppose you would like to know how I made these impossibly cute wall hangings...Well, hang on to your horses, I'm about to tell you...

I printed off the letters I was going to use and an oval for the frog face.  Then I cut them out and placed them on the canvas I was using.  (I used 11x14, but any size would be perfectly adorable.)

I used a cheap foam brush and some acrylic craft paint I had laying around to paint the canvas.  I was really careful in painting over the letter (and the oval for R's) so it wouldn't move or get paint underneath it.  (I'm sure there's a better way to do that than mine...)  When I had the canvas completely painted, I removed the letter stencil thingys.

Then I took some Qtips and filled in the letters with a different color paint.  I used a small foam brush to fill in the oval for the frog face.

Next, I glued some sparklely crystal things I had on to L's and used a Qtip to paint some little embellishments.  I glued googlely eyes on to the frogs head and used a Qtip to draw a smile.  Then used a foam brush to do the embellishments on his.

These took about an hour to get pretty dry, but I did let them sit over night just in case before I shipped them off this morning.

I think they turned out pretty well.  They aren't "perfect" but that seems to be the trendy thing for children's decor right now.  Maybe if I can't find a job, I'll just whip up some of these babies and hit the craft fair circuit!

My Brain Works in Random Ways

It's Tuesday!  You know that means it's time to get random.  Read my randomness, then head on over to visit Keely and enjoy some more randomness...


**Baby girl has moved into that stage of life where she wonders around stealing food off plates.  She also puts everything off the floor in her mouth.

**I have a little crush on Kevin Costner.  I love him in Bull Durham (my fave movie of all time).

**I think Sean Connery is the greatest bond, followed closely by Roger Moore.

**I got crafty today and made a present for my niece and my nephew.  I'm considering posting pics and maybe a how-to.

**I should've been doing homework instead of being crafty.  Oh well.

**I really am a dedicated student.  I just spend as much time complaining about homework as I do actually completing homework.  I am sure it's one of my more unattractive traits. 

**One time when I was in 3rd grade, I watched the news and they said it would be 65 degrees the next day.  I thought that was really hot and meant I could wear a skirt.  After many hours of trying to talk me out of this, my dad finally gave up and let me pick my own clothes that day.  I wore a skirt and froze my butt off at recess.

**I took the Jeopardy test online last week.  I don't actually expect to ever get on Jeopardy, but it's fun to say I did it.

**I am still in love with my fancy pants Nikon D3000 camera.  I am also still learning how to use it.  I'm having fun with it and don't expect to be fully proficient for quite some time.  I'm taking it slow and enjoying the learning process.

**I totally adore Diet Coke with Lime.

**We are moving in 6 weeks.  6 weeks!!

**I'm thinking of a new comment system...any suggestions??

And that's the randomness for today folks.  I'm off to put Baby girl to bed then watch NCIS do some homework.