Take More Pictures!

This year I plan to take more pictures of my children. It seems the more children I have the fewer pictures I take of them! I have tons of pictures of my first child and by the time #4 came along I am lucky to have one on her birthday and Christmas. I am so busy playing with them that taking pictures is not a priority, but this year it is going to be!

Here you go! Psych! Did you really think I was going to post a picture of my children on the internet? This is Augustus McDoodle our Goldendoodle pup. Isn’t he a dream? Gotta love those eyelashes!

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I had to force myself to finish this book. I am not sure what all of the hype is about as it was a bit boring for me. It started out okay...but then dragged.

The subject matter didn’t bother me, what bothered me is that the author didn’t even get to the subject matter until the last 3rd of the book. I just kept reading thinking it was going to get better and it didn’t.

With so many great books out there I can’t in good conscience recommend this book to anyone.

All I can say is 1 down 11 to go!

Abelincolnaphobia

I will be the first to admit that I am a bit of a freak! I am quite adventurous and will do almost anything, but I have these odd little fears.

First of all I am terrified of frogs and toads. I am a bit scared of lizards, but not as much as frogs and toads. I guess this is a common fear as there is actually a name for it!

Ranidaphobia- Fear of frogs.

Bufonophobia- Fear of toads.

Which bring up my other phobia - Abelincolnaphobia. What is this you ask? Well it is the fear of being shot in a theater. Every time I go to the movies I get a bit anxious. I have this fear that someone is going to shoot me. Stop laughing! It is true and I am sure I am not the *only* person in the world with this fear. I googled it and nothing came up, but I am sure that someone else out there has this same phobia they just don’t call it what I do, right? I mean, it is a perfectly legitimate fear…not at all weird or paranoid. I mean it *could* happen!

So what makes something an actual “phobia” versus just natural fear? Looking at a list of phobias I see several things that I don’t think about on a regular basis, but they do kind of scare the bejeebers out of me! I mean seriously who doesn’t have Helminthophobia- the fear of being infested with worms? If I told you that you *could* be worm infested wouldn’t it scare the #$%^ out of you? What about Leprophobia or Lepraphobia - fear of leprosy? Yeah, I kind of like to keep *all* of my appendages, it would kind of suck to be a leper so add that to my list of phobias!

One of my favorites is Geniophobia- fear of chins. I mean what does this mean exactly? Are these people afraid of all chins, their own chins, other people’s chins, double chins, the mobster cliché “Jimmy the Chin”? Are they scared when they see them or just touching them? Are they concerned that someone is out to take their chin?

I found a very comprehensive list of all phobias at www.phobialist.com. Check it out and see what gives you the heebeejeebees!

Adventures in waxing…aka My God, My God, what was I thinking?!?!

Lately I have been paranoid about what I call my miss-stache, so I decided to have it waxed. I don’t really have much of one and I usually bleach what I do have, but I thought what the heck – let’s wax it! What could it hurt? Well let me tell you it is a pain like no other! It brought tears to my eyes and expletives were spewing from my mouth!

On the way home from the salon I noticed that I had blistery looking bumps on the part of my face where my miss-stache used to be and I panicked! You see I was supposed to go play poker with my darling husband and I couldn’t go to a place as classy as a casino with boils on my face.

I called my good friend who gets her miss-stache waxed on a regular basis to ask her what to do! I knew that she would have just the answer! She told me that I needed to wear something to cover up the bumps. Brilliant idea! Maybe I could wear a pair of those glasses with the attached moustache just like Mr. Potato Head! *That* wouldn’t stand out!

I opted for ice and a prayer and it worked!

Why do women have to put themselves through all of this? Why is it acceptable for men to have hair all over their body while women have to wax, shave and pluck?

Why oh why did Eve have to eat that apple?

Liar, Liar, Pants for Hire!!

So I am sitting here on my computer looking up the best way to clean a glass shower and wondering if you can use Rain X on your shower while listening to my 8 year old DD and 10 year old DS play Nintendo. They are bantering back and forth and my DS said “Liar, liar pants on fire!” to which DD said that’s not it! It is “Liar, liar pants for hire!”

This got me to thinking of the funniest things my kids have ever said and I think that hands down the funniest was when my now 16 year old DS was very young he would say *anything* to anyone. He wasn’t mean, just brutally honest. One of DH coworkers was coming over and was a rather stout man, we just new that DS was going to say *something* to him.

This is how it went:

Me: We are going to have some people over for dinner and one of the men is rather large.
DS. Okay…
Me: Well you know God made people in all shapes and sizes and it is not nice to tell people if they are big or little.
DS: Okay...
Me: So what I am trying to say is please don’t tell Mr. X that he is large.
DS: So I shouldn’t tell him he is fat?
Me: No, that wouldn’t be nice.
DS: Would it be nicer to NOT tell him and let him get stuck in the front door?
Me: (sigh)

The day Mr. X came over….

We thought we did a good job relaying to DS that it would not be nice to tell Mr. X that he was fat. Mr. X arrived, fit through the door and all was well until I heard this little voice say...

“So… how much can you eat at one time?”


(sigh)

Meth Mouth, Dog Pajamas and Chewbacca, Oh My!

Last night was the Halfknits monthly meeting. We meet at least once a month to knit, crochet, eat chocolate and laugh! I always look forward to being with my friends and having a good time. The only thing missing last night was the chocolate! Some of us gave up sweets for a little while…we will see how long that last!

When we get together the topic of conversation is quite random, sometimes very shocking and always extremely funny! I don’t know if we are blowing off steam, have knitters high or what, but we always have such a good time together!

I truly believe all women need to have “girl time”. We women share something that men can never truly understand. We like to talk, we like to be heard and most importantly we like to be understood. I am not saying that men never understand your needs, but seriously when you try to talk to your hubby about those extra pounds you put on or why you don’t like your current hair style you can practically see his brain totally disconnect and you know he is sitting there thinking “nachos, nachos, nachos”.

Let’s face it! Guys don’t really care if their buttock is bigger than last year. They don’t sit around with their friends and coworkers and discuss things like cellulite.

Has Oprah *ever* done a show on how men can find a pair of jeans to fit their body shape? No! That’s because men don't have child bearing hips and can go to any store on any corner and find a pair of jeans that fit.

This is one of the many ways men and women differ. There are just some things men don’t understand!

All you girls…you can scoot down a little further, a little bit further, a little bit further…now relax it will only take a minute.

Once

Last night dh and I watched the movie Once. It was highly recommended by my brother and it did not disappoint. It was an Irish Indie Musical filmed in Dublin in 17 days with a $160,000 budget. Most of the film is singing with very little dialogue, but it works! The characters are not bursting into song as they walk down the street or standing at the top of a hill in Austria. There is no singing in place of dialogue.

The main characters were not given names, but listed in the credits as “Guy” and “Girl”. “Guy” is played by Glen Hansard, a vocalist and guitarist for the Irish band The Frames. He wrote and performed most of the songs in the movie along with Marketa Irglova who played “Girl”. The singing is phenomenal as was the movie.

All I can say is WOW! Glen Hansard is an excellent artist and I will be buying the soundtrack today!

Read More Books!

I believe that my love of reading came from my grandmother who passed it on to my mother and to me. I can still picture my grandma sitting in her chair totally engrossed in a book. She was such a cute little woman and had this big chair that she would turn sideways in so she could rest her legs on one arm. She did this into her 80s and it was always so cute to see her in this position. She must have sat like this as a teenager.

After reading a book she would give it to me with a small note written in the front cover. It would say “read this” or “good book” something simple and to the point. She passed away a few years ago and in my cedar chest I have one of her jackets and a book that she passed on to me that says “Kat read this book!” I can’t tell you the name of the book, but I can tell you that those words written by her are so special to me.

This year I am going to read more books! I learned to knit and crochet 4 years ago and this really cuts into my reading time. That and the fact that I am out of shape and so tired that when my head hits the pillow at night I can’t stay awake long enough to read a page. (See previous resolution about getting into shape) I read a lot of books throughout the day with the children, but this year I plan on reading at least 12 books that are just for me! Yippee!

I will be posting the books I read along with a short review of each book. Right now I am reading Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for years and for some reason I just never picked it up. So far it is a pretty good read!

Here are some of my favorite books in no particular order…I say no particular order, but Lonesome Dove is my all time favorite book and Pillars of the Earth is a very close second.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Fall on Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas
One Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The House of Gentlemen by Kathy Hepinstall
The Absence of Nectar by Kathy Hepinstall
These is My Words by Nancy Turner
Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwartz
The Mermaid’s Singing by Lisa Carey
In the Country of the Young by Lisa Carey
Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Saije
Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
The Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult – actually any book by her.
Cider House Rules by John Irving
The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Today's Resolution

I might as well start with the most popular! Get into shape/lose weight. This has to be the most common New Years Resolution for women in the United States. Every year I say this is the year to get into shape and shed some pounds. I can’t control if I lose weight, but I can get into better shape.

My plan is to walk every day - weather permitting, do some Piyo and use the Bowflex at least 3 times a week.

In the past I would start an exercise program and then stop because I didn’t see any visible change to my body. I need to stop worrying about my appearance and start worrying about how I feel. I may never be thin again, but I can be in much better shape.

Oh who am I kidding?!?! Here’s to a smaller buttock - buttocks – whatever - in 08!

Happy New Year!

This year I am making a formal New Year’s Resolution.

Every year I say I am going to do different things, but this year I am making a list and New Year's Eve 2008 I will see what all I have accomplished.

Hanging near the top of my New Year’s Resolutions is starting a blog. It is not #1, but I would say it is in the top 10. I hope this blog will help me keep my commitment to having a better year in 2008.

I will be posting some of my New Year’s Resolution in no particular order. I am *not* sharing every resolution with you people. A girl has to have some privacy!