ABC's of Me

I saw this on my friend Paula's blog, Frosted Fingers and I decided I thought it looked fun and I wanted to do it too. I love doing things like this to share more about myself.

Here are the ABC's of little ole me!

A is for alligator. Oddly enough I am really picky eater and I won't eat lamb or duck but I love to eat alligator. 

B is for Brandy who is my Best friend. 

C is for cupcakes, candy and cookies, I love anything sweet. 

D is for David Duchovny and why won't he love me? 

E is for England where I still have quite a bit of family. 

F is for Family. My family is extremely important to me. We are a tight knit bunch even though we are all over the world. 

G is for God and how much I love him. 

H is for Hawaii some where I want to go. 

I is for Irish and that I am 65% Irish. 

J is for Julie my only sibling. 

K is for the kitchen my favorite room to be in. I love to cook and bake. 

L is for Louise. That's my middle name and I hated it growing up. I used to pretend my middle name was Lynn except my mom called me Louisiana.  I had a lot of nicknames. 

M is for movie quotes and references. I make them all the time.

N is for Noah the love of my life, my sunshine and my sweet son. 

O is for  orchid. One of my favorite flowers. I also really love tulips and different kinds of roses. 

P is for Pepper. I love Dr. Pepper. I'm a pepper are you a Pepper too?

Q is for quiz shows. I love to watch games shows. 

R is for radio and I never listen to real radio. 

S is for Seahorses. I love them. I would love to have pet seahorses someday. Noah always takes pics of them for me. 

T is for travel. I love to travel. It's one of my greatest passions. 

U is for under the sea, I really like sea life. 

V is for Victoria's Secret, one of my favorite stores. 

W is for wandering. I love to just wander around and end up in random place. 

X is for X-ray. I got an X-ray when I stepped on a needle when I was very young. 

Y is for yellow. I can not stand eating yellow candy. Nothing lemon or banana please. 

Z is for is for Zygotes. I love to play scrabble and zygotes was one of my highest scoring plays.

My Accent

I wrote a post about Noah’s accent, but I have recently discovered that I too have an accent. It is not a certain regional accent; it’s my own weird accent. There is no dispute that I am a little weird, and definitely unique. I do occasionally do say fer instead of for or yer for your, which is a typical Indiana accent. I don’t say warsh, like my Grandma Rose did, who would jokingly correct herself in my presence.  My accent is something I only have.  Noah doesn’t do it, and I am not sure where it came from but it is pretty funny.  When I say certain words like anything with a short o sound it comes out like eu. So, movie is phonetically spelled meuvie, move is phonetically spelled meuve for example.  I also do the same thing with the double oo sound.  Not everyone notices it, because I asked them if I talk funny. They said they never noticed it. Now I am being lovingly teased about it.  Now I am constantly listening to the way I talk, before I didn’t even notice I did it.

Do you have a weird unique accent? I look forward to hearing about it.

I Will Never Have My Own Cooking Show

I used to want to have my own cooking show.  Imagine me an eight or nine year old little girl in my kitchen talking to the imaginary camera, while I was cooking. It was really cute and I wish it was really videotaped because I am sure it was hilarious.  It was long before Food Network and most cooking shows. Those were mostly shown on Sunday mornings on channels like PBS.  I knew a woman who had her own cooking show on a local station in North Carolina. I wanted to have my own show someday.  When Food Network started I was in love and dreamed someday I would be on there too.  Eventually, I realized it wasn’t going to happen. It wasn’t because I was not going to be discovered.  It is not I am not an awesome cook, because anyone who has tasted my cooking knows otherwise.  The real reason is because I am not an exotic chef. I don’t want to make half the food those chefs make. I would never touch lamb anything. I don’t like baby arugula or curry or anything like that. I would be a very simple chef that makes food that real people like.  There isn’t really a market for that.

I would love to be on a cupcake show or a challenge show but, really I wouldn’t use any of those weird fancy ingredients that make me gag at the thought of not only putting them in a cupcake let alone in my mouth period.  I wouldn’t win because they judge on eccentric ingredients. I can hear Kerry Vincent saying in her British accent, your cupcakes are a bit plain and unordinary, I expected a bit more of you. My philosophy is that food doesn’t have to be full of weird and expensive ingredients to taste good.   Have you ever tried to make some of those recipes? Most of the ones I would eat have really expensive ingredients.  Especially spices, who wants to spend sixteen dollars to buy a jar of organic Bolivian green sweet pepper flakes for one teaspoon? I don’t really. 

One thing I fell in love with when I was visiting my aunt and uncle was that the grocery store they shop at sells spices in bulk so, in that instance you could get just as much as you need, but not many places do that.  That is how I ended up flying home with 2 pounds of Cumin.  I made sure I labeled it a bunch because my uncle told me that it looked like gun powder.  This is the same uncle who told me they were going to think I was the Unabomber because I had his old Montana license plates in my suitcase from another trip out there.  He likes to pick on me as I am the baby of the family. Anyways, I would have things like fried potatoes, meatloaf, taco bake things that are easy to make and not something you have to spend a week in Morocco to eat. It would be all classic things that wouldn’t make you poor by  making them. When I watch cooking shows I think well you didn’t have to actually pay for your ingredients and you got them from a giant warehouse where you can have access to the finest everything.  I just once want to see one of the products not be perfect, like a bruised fruit or something a little moldy.  Not that they would have to cook with it, they could get a new one, but make it like real life.  I am sure we have all had a bruised fruit or something that went a little bad at least once.

I have also noticed those thirty minute meals never take thirty minutes.  Most people are not really fast choppers or have little distractions otherwise known as our children who constantly need something or throw paper airplanes in the kitchen doing something to distract us.  Normal people do not have Rachael Ray’s super power of being able to carry twelve things at once.  She must practice because she never drops anything. I think she is part octopus, really I do. If they really took thirty minutes, you spend at least twice as long cleaning up and doing the dishes.  I don’t really get the idea of a garbage bowl, its just one more thing that has to be washed. Pull up the trashcan next to you. Everyone owns a trash can right? It’s cheaper and it eliminates the two extra steps.  So, don’t expect to see my bright and shiny face on a cooking show anytime soon.  I don’t have a broad enough palate for it.

I Call Him Red

For as long as I can remember, I have always been attracted to guys with red hair. Not orange hair but dark red. Not famous men with red hair.  I like my famous men with gray hair (Mark Harmon and George Clooney).  It has to be natural red hair too. I don’t really think that fake red hair is attractive. I guess it must be the Irish in me.  I have dated a few guys with red hair. I am not sure what it is so alluring about it. My ex doesn’t have red hair. I guess I am a hair girl. I am mostly an eye girl. I like those eyes that you can get lost in and see the depths of the person’s soul. 

Of course appearance is not everything and personality wins over every time.  A good personality is the most important thing because that is what truly makes up a person. As the brilliant Judge Judy says…. Beauty fades…Stupid is forever.  You never know what the future will bring. I know that a lot of people focus what is on the outside but your outer beauty could be taken from you in an instant. Your inner beauty is forever. Nothing can take that from you as long as your heart is good and you remain true to yourself.  I am sure my dream guy is out there somewhere with red hair and a heart of gold.

So, as a lame attempt to meet a guy… If you have red hair or know of a guy who is single and nice let me know!

Amy Lea, Who are you?

I have a pretty common maiden name. So common that my mom’s best friend happens to have the same last name as my mom does. I used to baby sit for her son and I would use her as a reference. I always had to put no relation in parenthesis. So, they would know I wasn’t giving a family member as a reference. They even team taught together so it I am sure got a little confusing as they worked together at more than one school. I have known her for many years. I was used to knowing a lot of people that I wasn’t related to with my same last name. It was nothing new for me. Until that day……

I was probably a freshman in high school, maybe it started before that, but I would get the mail, there it was. A sorority newsletter for a woman named Amy Lea and my last name. I was like oh they must have had a mix up at the post office, no it was my address. So I did what any good citizen would have done and wrote return to sender on it. It wasn’t a bill or anything but I didn’t want this woman’s sorority newsletter because no one by that name lived there. I didn’t even know the woman. I thought nothing of it and until we received another one a while later. I did the same old return to sender hoping that they would get the hint. Nope. We kept getting them. We started writing No one at this address, wrong address and then eventually we moved. We thought OK hopefully they got the idea that the Amy Lea from their sorority does not live here and the new neighbors can figure out what to do with her sorority newsletters, and letters because return to sender was not working.

Once we were in our new home we were finally relieved to be set free of the Anchora mailings for Ms. Amy Lea. Until, I got the mail and I saw the envelope and it addressed to Amy Lea. I wrote return to sender again. I even told the mailman this person does not and has never lived here. I have no clue who she is. Then it was time for their mailings, once again, there was Amy Lea in my mail box. I think by this time my mom called the sorority and said we keep getting this persons letters and newsletters from you. Please stop sending them you have the wrong addresses. She did it politely of course. The letters and newsletters stopped. We used to make jokes about which of us was really Amy Lea. I was afraid that I would see that envelope or newsletter waiting for me when I opened my mailbox every time I got the mail. Well by this time we moved again.

I remember getting the mail and the first time I saw another letter or newsletter from the Sorority I said Oh no Mom she’s back! It wasn’t like we were getting this woman’s mail. We were not getting anything of hers other than the sorority mailings. It would be completely different if we were getting her bills and other letters. We did the whole return to sender, calling, writing she doesn’t live here thing again. I think I even tried finding an email address for the sorority. This time it didn’t stop. We just kept sending them back over and over again.

We moved a couple more times, and each time the letters would come. It was like the sorority was stalking us. It wasn’t a forwarded envelope, it was just a typed envelope. We did not know Amy Lea. I think we looked for her in the phone book, and didn’t find one. It was just the strangest thing. When we moved to Florida, the sorority found us there too and the Amy Lea letters and newsletters kept coming. None of our names are close to Amy, we have no Amy’s in our family, not even anything that could be remotely close to Amy. We had done everything short of getting a restraining order against the sorority.

We haven’t received one in a long time, I am scared that tomorrow, when I get the mail, it will be there waiting for me…….

This time if it happens, I will find them, and tell them to kindly knock it off, they have been harassing me through the mail for the last fourteen years.

11 More Movie Quotes I love.

I love to watch movies and quote them too. So I thought I would share 11 more of my favorite movie quotes with you all. Just for fun. These are in no particular order they are all quotes that I love from different movies.

11. Just remember that in every pothole there is hope. Well, you see, pothole is spelled P-O-T-H-O-L-E. So if you take the P, and add it to the H, the O, and the E, and rearrange the letters... or contrariwise, you remove the O, T, and the L, you get "hope". So, just remember, in every pothole there is hope! -Mixed Nuts.

10. Get busy living or Get busy dying. -The Shawshank Redemption

9. If you are gonna spew… Spew in this. –Wayne’s World

8. Oh no We’ve been Cloned- White Chicks

7. What will you give me for a basket of kisses? A basket of kisses? Why, I’ll give you a basket of hugs. – The Bad Seed.

6. You can't right all the wrongs of this world by yourself. – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

5. That is why they elected me.. dun dun dun.. Jury Foreman – Jury Duty

4. You know, for kids- The Hudsucker Proxy

3. Well then... what's orange? If this is red, I wanna know, What's orange?- Requiem For a Dream

2. Ladies and gentleman the perfect meatloaf – Serial Mom

1. You tell them that our lives can change with every breath we take... and tell 'em to hold on like hell to what they've got: each other, and a mother who would die for them and almost did... You tell them we've all got meanness in us, but we've got goodness too. And the only thing worth living for is the good. And that's why we've got to make sure we pass it on. – Where the Heart Is

What are some of your favorite movie quotes?

No, I Will NOT Be Facebook Friends with You!

I have been thinking about high school or school in general. It has been 10 years since I was in school and really, not sure how it came up in my head but it just did. There are some pretty random thoughts in my head sometimes so why not blog about them. Two different things came to mind. The first one has to do with Facebook. It seems like almost everyone is on Facebook now. I like it, it is a great way to talk to family that I would normally not talk to. Not, because I don’t like them but because it is so easy to do on Facebook. I am sure I am not the first or the last to think about this but why do people add other people just because they went to school with them or they “knew” them in school. I can totally understand if it is like an old friend you lost contact with. That makes sense. I find it weird that people add people that they weren’t friends with or worse, people they never got a long with. That they hated for some stupid reason. I am all for putting the past behind me and not holding a grudge but really? I don’t really see the point. It definitely seems pretty hinky to me.

I don’t sit up late at night and wonder why so and so didn’t like me, but on the other hand I don’t search them out and friend them on Facebook, in hopes of some magical reunion to work out “our differences” from over 10 years ago. I guess if those people want to be “friends” with someone on Facebook more power to them. For example there is this girl I went to school with I will call her Bobby Sue for privacy reasons who added me as a friend on Facebook. I didn’t accept her request, for a few reasons. One being we were never friends and I couldn’t stand her. Now she just makes my skin crawl and I have no interest what so ever having anything to do with her. She makes my skin crawl because she worked at a brothel for a few years. I don’t want someone like that around my family or in my life. I have no desire to be “Facebook Friends” with someone I didn’t really talk to or wasn’t really friends with. I would much rather put it in my past and not deal with that person again. I totally understand that people change and all that but why even open up that potential Pandora’s Box?

It also leads to talking about being in school again and inquiring about or gossiping about other people. Things I rather not do with someone I wasn’t friends with in the first place. See, no matter how much you think someone has changed or how hard they convince you that catty high school girl comes back out. Of course I don’t mean everyone but more often than not it does. I am not sure if it is because you stir up old memories or feelings about then or what, but it happens. I’ll pass on being involved in all of that. I am not trying to sound like a cynic and I am sure some differences and new found friendships have blossomed on Facebook, it is just not for me.

Do you have any insights in to this? I look forward to hearing from my readers.

Plastic Balloons

Have you ever played with plastic balloons? They come in little tubes and you put a little of the goop on a straw and blow it up? They also smell kind of funny. I used to love to play with them. I found some at the dollar store a while back and I of course had to buy them. I have great memories of being at my grandparents playing with plastic balloons. I decided I would play with them shortly after I bought them. I was talking to my friend Brandy when I was doing them being a complete dork. I decided I would hit one like a volley ball and I hit it in to my spinning ceiling fan. It was a stupid thing to do. I was really scared. I didn’t mean to hit it THAT hard. Thankfully it didn’t do anything but pop and stick to my ceiling fan. Oops.



Sometimes they get holes in them when you blow them up and you have to either fix the hole or put your finger over it then fix it. It’s easy to do you just pinch it. My favorite thing to do is pop them. I will introduce Noah to them when he gets quite a bit older, since they smell so bad and are kind of tricky. I want to share the memories with my son someday.

Do you remember plastic balloons? Did you play with them as a child?

The Camping Music Fans

There are a few campgrounds in my area, not because I live by a national park or even a state park but because there is a music center close by. In the summer I see many camping tents at the local camp ground, which really is someone’s yard with port-o-potties. There are probably three trees not what you think of when you think of people camping out. I assume they make great money by charging people to camp there. They have tried to sell it many times but I am sure the insurance is really expensive on the campground. Most of the time I only know who is playing by what is written on the welcome sign.

I often wonder what goes on at night after the concert is over, and there are all those people with their camping gear. I am assuming it would be kind of scary because you have no idea how drunk these strangers are what kind of drugs they are on, and what kind of life they lead. I am sure it is one big party but, I don’t think you could pay me enough to spend one night there during a Phish concert which seems to be one of their busiest weekends.

I am curious what the owners must be like. I wouldn’t be able to tolerate the immoral activity taking place on my property if I owned it. I am pretty sure there is illegal drug use at the campground too. I wouldn’t be able to turn the other cheek; I would feel like I had an obligation to not allow that kind of behavior and I probably wouldn’t be very successful in the campground rental business.

Have you ever camped out after a concert? What did you think of your experience? If you haven’t would you put yourself in the situation?

I Feel Great and the Power of Positive Thinking

When I was in high school, my biology class went on a field trip. I am not still 100% sure the point of the field trip even now. I loved my biology teacher Mrs. Newman. She was an awesome teacher and I loved that class. We piled in a school bus and went to an educational building and started the workshop. I am sure you are thinking a biology field trip means looking at lab samples and learning under a microscope. This was not the case. I don’t remember the entire field trip but I do remember building things with gum drops and the speaker.

The speaker was a motivational speaker that taught us one phrase. “I feel great”. Those words mean a lot to me even now. He basically told us no matter how we are feeling when someone asks you are supposed to respond “I feel great.” If you tell others you feel great, it will make others feel good and if you keep telling yourself that you will start to feel great. It is the power of positive thinking. I will admit when I was a sophomore in high school I thought that it was kinda weird.

I mean we even got key chains shaped like a number 1 and that said I feel great as a reminder to feel great. Now being an adult I get it. You are how you feel. Only you can decide who you are and how you feel. If you feel good about yourself you will be more positive but if you are negative you will focus on negativity. It is pretty much common sense that I forget about on occasion. I am really hard on myself a lot of the time. I need to stop and remember I feel great because I am great. I know it is easier said than done but I need to try harder to feel great and through osmosis, others will feel great and I will too.

Do you have any tips or stories about positive thinking?

The Ice Cream Man Drives Me Crazy!

I really need to get something off my chest. This is kind of a silly rant but I need to share it. Feel free to poke fun at me for this. It’s Summer and the ice cream man comes to my neighborhood. I would not pay 3 dollars for something I could go to the grocery store and buy a box for a dollar more than it would cost to buy it off the truck. Growing up I used to love the ice cream man and I thought it was really cool and he also sold candy. I have always really liked candy too. So I would get an ice cream treat and a few pieces of taffy or maybe a candy bar. That was undoubtedly 20 years ago or so. I remember when it would cost 50 cents for an ice cream sandwich. Yes, I realize I just sounded like I was 80 years old remembering the good old days. Of course now with “inflation” everything costs a lot more. Makes sense to me. I guess there are people out there that will pay those prices since the ice cream man comes around still. It is just not for me.

That is not what bothers me. What bothers me is our particular ice cream man. His truck plays a song that I can’t identify it is kind of like Pop Goes the Weasel and Turkey in the Straw. I am sure you are thinking OK ten minutes tops a day. Just tune it out. This particular ice cream man drives around and around my neighborhood all day it seems like. We live in the back of the neighborhood so it’s not like I am hearing it on the street behind me. It also likes to park in front of my house! Silly me I know!

Last night I was sitting outside and I hear the ice cream truck this is after dinner. If you are someone who knows me well you know I personally don’t normally eat until around 8 PM. I sit with Noah when he eats and we chat and color and draw and whatever he wants to do I just am not hungry. I occasionally will have a snack while he is eating. I look at my phone to see what time it is. It was 8:40 pm. What on earth is the ice cream man doing driving around my neighborhood at 8:40 pm with the music blaring going around and around? I heard it again a couple more times later. It was thundering and lightening by then. I am not sure a parent would let their children go buy ice cream that late or especially in a nasty storm. I guess in the ice cream man’s defense it doesn’t start to get dark until after 9 pm. Thankfully Noah doesn’t really know about the ice cream man, he just knows it’s a truck that plays music.

Do you purchase items from the ice cream man? If you do what are your favorites? If not do you think it is silly to pay those prices? Let me know your thoughts!

Can I get a Price Check?

I get very excited when I find items I use a lot are on sale. You really have to check and make sure it is in fact a deal. One of my local grocery stores often has a sale buy 10 for 10 and get one free. You can mix and match so it is usually a good deal. One day I was shopping for baby food and I saw in the flier that it was 10 for 10 and get the 11th free. Great, awesome right? Yeah I thought so, until I realized that the item only cost 88 cents to begin with! So, I was thinking they want me to pay an extra 12 cents? I don’t think so. We pointed out the mistake to an employee and they kind of thought I was dumb for pointing it out. I thought it was kind of deceitful to act like it was a better deal when it wasn’t. I often wonder how many times we think something is on sale because the sign covering the price says so.

I always have a million things going on while I am at the grocery store. I don’t check every sale price with the original price every time. I have started to remember to do so. I hope you will remember to make a point to check out prices when you shop and make sure just because it sounds like a good deal that it really is.

The Bees and me!

I was on Facebook and I was reading a status update from my friend Brandy of Happily Blended about how she mowed through a swarm of bees and didn’t get stung, and it brought up a memory of mine from when I was in elementary school. I commented and said “That's good you just gave me an idea for a blog post lol”. She responded “Oh no! LOL funny how a short status update on FB can give us bloggers a story idea!” We both got a good laugh about it. I thought I would share two funny bee stories with you. I have quite a few funny bee stories. I must be as sweet as honey because they always bother me.

I was in elementary school, and it was recess. My friend and I decided we would be cool and tough and kill bees. I don’t know why we decided to do it. I was in 3rd or 4th grade. We decided we would step on them. We were trying to be cool, and show off I assume as it was a long time ago. Well we spent almost all of recess trying to kill bees. I wasn’t very successful, we would try and step on one and run away so we wouldn’t get stung. I finally killed one. Me being the brilliant 3rd or 4th grader I was, picked up the dead bee and put it in the palm of my hand to show my friends and the other kids in my grade. Then it happened, I realized I had been stung. I looked around for the bee so I could step on that one too and then I figured out, I stung myself with the dead bee. I had to go to the nurse’s office and it hurt so bad. In the defense of the bees, this first story was my fault. All the other times I was minding my own beeswax.

It was my birthday and I decided I wanted to go to an Amish Fair for my birthday with my friend. I was a weird child. I even took folk dancing as an extra activity in school. I was very interested in other cultures and you know how I like fairs. I also love cotton candy. I was standing there eating pink cotton candy and I was wearing a skirt and I ended up getting stung by a bee on my thigh. It hurt so bad.

After that bees and wasps visiting me on my birthday became a reoccurring thing. Maybe it was a curse for stomping on a bee in elementary school. I really don’t like bees especially after seeing My Girl. It was so sad and terrifying when the bees killed Thomas J. I will be sharing a couple more bee stories in an upcoming post.

Kid's Pajamas

Noah loves to wear pajamas. He must of gotten that trait from me. I am a pajama girl. Noah has tons of really cute jammies. I usually buy him Carter’s because I love the way they look and feel. I was a Carter’s kid too. I really like Carter’s but I don’t think that the pajamas for older kids last as long as baby jammies. Noah has many pajamas with holes in them. The footed ones are the worst. I don’t like when his little toes are sticking out. Some of his other pajamas have completely fallen apart with him inside them. It isn’t always the Carter’s ones. It makes no sense.

Yes he is bigger and more active than he was when he was an infant or only a year or so but it’s not like he is super active in them. It’s not like he plays football in them. OK maybe pretend football but not to the point where it is rough. I always try and get sizes that are roomy for him. He is known to put stuff in his “pockets” aka his jammies. He also has pajamas that he has that are his favorites. Right now it’s his brown space ship pajamas and his fire truck jammies
(the second generation).

I am not sure what the deal is. I wish they would last longer. He must have his momma’s luck when it comes to pajamas falling apart because you all know I have the same problem. I wish pajamas came with a warranty that they wouldn’t fall apart until your child grew out of them but I don’t think that would ever happen. It’s kind of frustrating. Kid’s pajamas are not cheap unless you get them on sale or a clearance. I feel like I am constantly buying him pajamas. I don’t really mind because I want him to be comfortable. They just need to last as long as it takes for him to go to another size. I am aware that kids can stay in a size for quite a while. It is not like it is happening right away. I guess some of the pajamas are like the velveteen rabbit and the ones that are the most worn out are the most loved; which is true in our case.

What kinds of pajamas do you put your children in? Do you think it happens to you too or do I manage to pick the defective ones in the store every time?

Tuesday Top Five: TV Shows

My friend Shasta of Faithfully Frugal and Free has created a meme called Tuesday Top 5. Today’s topic is Top 5 favorite TV Shows.
Mine are:
#5 Desperate Housewives
#4 Judge Judy
#3 The Secret Life of the American Teenager
#2 Law and Order SVU
#1 NCIS
Be sure to check out HERE for more Tuesday Top Five fun!

Karma? Is that French?

Tonight while I was making dinner I was listening to The 700 Club and Pat Robertson was talking about Karma. I didn’t really hear everything he was saying because I was doing all kinds of things at the same time and I didn’t turn the TV up. I started thinking about karma. I personally don’t believe in karma as a Christian. I don’t believe that what I do now has anything to do with what I come back as because I don’t believe in reincarnation. People are always asking what you would want to be if you were reincarnated. Some people are like a tiger or a bear etc. Even if I had the possibility to be reincarnated I wouldn’t want to be. I would rather go to heaven than live on this earth all over again after I died. You could not pay me enough to give up my chance to go to Heaven someday when it is my time.

I am aware there is a difference between karma in a religious definition and what pop culture considers “karma”. I am not sure how old I was before I knew about “karma”. I can’t remember. I did know Karma was my local music store that always smelled like incense. In fact I have a Grateful Dead afghan that I had to have from there and it still smelled like incense for many years after I received it. People always say oh “karma” is going to get you or it’s “karma”. I don’t really believe in pop culture “karma” either. I think people believe in “karma” because it gives them some kind of comfort that the person is going to be punished for their wrong doings. It helps people cope and the person’s longing for everything to be made right and whole again. Things happen for a reason but I don’t see it as a way to seek revenge on someone.

I am a strong believer in the whole cliché saying “Everything happens for a reason” We might not know the reason, and we might never know, but there is an absolute reason for everything. I also believe that there are set consequences for choices we make. I don’t really believe it is the universe’s way to get back at someone. It just is what it is.

I was an Orphan in Annie.

After two really fun conversations with my friend Victoria I was inspired to do this. One thing you have to know about Victoria is she is awesome. She always makes me laugh a lot and I know she will brighten my day. During our conversation she was reading my blog while we were on the phone. She read my post about acting and singing and said you were in an off Broadway version of Annie? I said yes. Victoria was also in the musical Annie. We were both orphans. She was the nameless one and I can’t remember what the name is of any of my characters were. She told me about how the table broke during the cast photo and we swapped Annie stories.

Then we started talking about the music. We were actually singing Annie songs together. We sang NYC, Easy Street, Thank you Herbert Hoover etc. NYC is probably my favorite Annie song. At one point later in our conversation we were talking about something else and Victoria made the comment of something like things will get better tomorrow. I started singing Tomorrow. We are dorks but we have fun doing it. We decided to start a new Facebook group called I was an orphan in Annie. I am sure there are millions of us out there.

We both decided we liked the song Little Girls too. I was up really late singing Annie songs. I am surprised my son didn’t wake up and cry because I was pretty loud. So, this morning I decided to sing some karaoke in honor of our orphan days. So, Victoria this is for you and all those Annie orphans out there.


Little girls - Vote for my rendition!
There is no reason to vote cause i didn't want votes. Also I want to point out that I am singing it like Miss Hannagain would

What I have learned from Dollar Stores

I love shopping at dollar stores. Everything is a dollar or under. No need to check price tags or ask how much something is. It’s really easy to go crazy in them though. I have been known to come out with 13 rolls of double sided tape or other random items that they sell. They always seem to have that hard to find candy like Now and Laters or Ring Pops. Throughout my many years of dollar store shopping I have learned some things I thought I would share with you all.

1. Just because it is a dollar doesn’t mean you have to buy it just to buy it. I have stopped doing that now. I used to find things I thought I would want and then never ended up using like picture frames.

2. Everything looks so much cooler in the dollar store. I think it is the lighting but once you purchase something and get it home or out in the sun it loses it’s wow appeal and you realize that wasn’t as cool as you thought.

3. You can find some really cute stuff sometimes at the dollar store. When Noah was born or heck I might have been pregnant with him I went to the dollar store and bought a package of plastic squeaky whales. They are some of Noah’s favorite toys. I have many pictures of him when he was a baby chewing on them. I wish I would of bought more.

4. The merchandise is always changing and varies from location to location. If you go and look for something and find it, it might be a good idea to get it while it’s there.

5. Just because it claims to be a dollar store, that might not be the case at all. There are stores out there that say they are dollar stores like Deals but not everything is a dollar. I classify stores like Deals, Dollar General and Family Dollar as discount stores. So, be careful when you go in to a store that claims to be a dollar store. It’s better to get clarification and know what you are getting in to. I didn’t do that the first time I went in to Deals and I looked like an idiot. So, I am saving you my disgrace.

6. This is the most important one of all. All dollar stores smell the same. They have their own Dollar Store odor. It is as if it is pumped in through the vents like an air freshener. It stinks. It doesn’t matter how old the store is, it can be the store’s grand opening and it still smells that way. It doesn’t matter if they are a Dollar Tree, a Dollar palace or a Mom and Pop locally owned Dollar store. It doesn’t matter where it is, even in other states dollar stores stink. Even the ones in malls. I have no idea why that is. It’s weird. I could be blindfolded and have on ear muffs and I would still know if I were in a dollar store.

I hope my post about what I have learned from Dollar stores will help you on the next trip you take to one. I think I will start wearing nose plugs because the smell gives me a headache. I remember my old best friend and I would go to the dollar store all the time and before we went in we would take a big breath of fresh air. If you have any other dollar store tips I would love to hear them so leave me a comment!

Why buy something when you can get it for free?

I find most books really helpful with learning new things. There are books on practically everything. I think books are important but I also think that the internet is a valuable tool as well. You have millions of different types of information at your fingertips. Of course I still love books and the internet doesn’t replace them by any means but I don’t know how people will write books about stuff that you can search online for free, especially when it comes to frugal tips. These little tidbits can be found for free by typing in frugal tips or tips on making your own baby wipes in the search engine of choice. Who needs to pay 10 to 12 dollars for a book that is essentially many other people’s ideas that you wrote down and claimed as your own? I don’t think it is right to make a buck off of other people’s ideas without giving them a cut. In my opinion, I believe it is wrong.

I have lots of respect for those authors that come up with their own content and do their own research. Those are the books you should be reading and buying. They are honest writers that put in a lot of hard work. I don’t think it is a good idea to buy such a book. It is the equivalence to me searching say Food Network’s website and writing a cookbook about it using their recipes. That example reminds me of an episode of Saved By the Bell where they start selling Screech’s Secret Sauce and they find out the recipe was from the Betsy Crocker cookbook. I am kind of shocked that the publisher even published it. It seems like it would be a law suit in the making in my opinion. Unfortunately, plagiarism is everywhere, even some of my blogging friends are getting their content stolen.

I was on Amazon earlier looking at books and I came across a book called, Instant Bargains: 600+ Ways to Shrink Your Grocery Bills and Eat Well for Less, I was reading through the description and the reviews and the book seems like it would be a total waste of money in my opinion as I said before, You can search the internet for anything. Instead of 600+ ways you could have 600,000 from the internet.

I personally think I will save my money and continue to search the internet for all things cheap. I guess my thinking is…If you are cheap why would you pay for something that is free? It kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion. If anyone wants to throw away their money please email me and pay pal it to me instead. I am sure I can put it to good use.

What did you say?

What it do is a popular slang word these days. I always wonder what does what do? I don’t really understand most of these slang words these days. Oh man I sound old. I am 28 but I just don’t get it. I am sure people didn’t understand what groovy meant at some point and time. Just like I am sure my mom didn’t understand why I would say something.

Actually I take that back, my mom knows more slang words than I do. I had to ask HER on several occasions what something meant. She is a teacher and she has taught in some pretty bad areas. So she is well versed in slang. My favorite thing my mom has said is when a kid didn’t think she would know who 50 cent is , my mom said (and I quote) “Please, I knew fifty cent went he was just a nickel.” I thought that was classic. My mom is funny like that.

I know I probably sound like I am going to say whipper snapper at any minute and talk about walking to school barefoot up hill for 3 miles. I did used to walk from the stadium to school and it was uphill but that is beside the point. I guess now that I am older and no doubt wiser I just don’t understand why people say those ridiculous things. I guess I decided that when I was about 20ish I would sound like an adult. After all I am a mom now. My son will repeat what I say at given moment. I want to make sure what I say isn’t a bunch of gibberish. He talks enough gibberish on his own. I don’t need to feed him more.

I really don’t understand today’s teenagers. I think it is disgraceful. I don’t see what is so great about going out and doing God knows what with who ever it is you find that day without any recourse. I don’t understand why people dress the way they do with their hineys hanging out etc. I guess I have always dressed modestly. That was the way that I was brought up. I am fully covered at all times. I just don’t know what society is feeding the younger people these days. It’s kind of sad if you think about it.