Hola chicos (and chicas)!

Whassup?

There's so much going on here. I just have a TON of stuff to do for this weekend's pig roast. [sigh]

But in other news, Grace got asked to be on the competitive team at gymnastics. We're saying no, mind you (HER choice, but I was thrilled with her choice), but it was really nice to be asked. Especially since they only choose 9 kids out of ALL the kids that go there that are her age (and there's a lot of 'em... trust me). But she doesn't like it enough to go for the three hours a week they want you there, and I don't think a 6-year-old should be there three hours a week while also going to competitions on weekends, trying to play soccer and t-ball, AND go to 1st grade. So we're not doing it. And I'm glad. LOL!

There's more stuff to talk about, but I have to get my ass in gear this morning. I've got lots of errand running to do today and I believe the kids think I'm taking them swimming, although I'm not really sure where they got that idea from. LOL! Later!

TUESDAY'S STUMBLED UPON WEBSITE OF THE DAY...
This dude draws cool art in the dust on cars' windshields. Pretty cool...
http://www.dirtycarart.com/

Check this Shit Out...

Look, I'm not one (yet) for posting You Tube videos on my blog. But I found this one via Stumble Upon (see post below) and I am officially freaked out. Like seriously, some people truly, truly amaze me...

New Blog Feature...

OK gang. We're going to have a new feature here on the good ol' blog. I was recently introduced to this REALLY cool tool/website called Stumble Upon. You sign up, install a toolbar in your browser, select from a big list of interests, and click the Stumble button on your toolbar. It pulls up random websites based on your interests. And I can assure you, these are sites you would probably never find otherwise. As you pull up websites, you can give them a thumbs up or thumbs down (using buttons in the toolbar), and it starts to "learn" what types of sites you want to see and what types you don't. It's REALLY cool.

Anyway, from now on, we're going to have a Stumbled Upon Website of the Day. I'll pull up some sites, find one I think is cool/interesting/funny/whatever, and post the link here. Feel free to sign up for Stumble Upon and post some of your own finds in the comments section. But beware, if you sign up, you'll spend HOURS clicking that damn button. Guaranteed. LOL!

So with that, I bring you the STUMBLED UPON WEBSITE OF THE DAY. We'll start out with a funny one: 15 Unfortunately Placed Ads

Holy shit.

Please check out this website and tell me that your eyes are crossing too from trying to make your brain AND eyes work together and understand perspective. Seriously, these men and women are truly, truly gifted.

http://foto.blogonline.ru/16227.html

It's Coming! It's Coming!

The pig roast that is. It's in two weeks and we're gearing up here at the L----------- house. The garage is being cleaned out... The invitations have been made, printed, and sent...  Land was cleared and stuff was sprayed in an attempt to finally kill the poison ivy that takes up half our hill in the backyard... Yup. It's here.

I'm actually pretty excited about it this year. Not that I wasn't other years too, but this year, I'm much more relaxed about the whole thing. I won't be on two full-time projects this time that require me to ignore my house guests for the few days that they're here... I don't have as many out-of-town guests coming in (Not that I don't adore my friends that come in early. But it's a lot easier to only worry about ONE set of sheets being freshly laundered and having enough food to feed two people, than like 15. LOL!)... I know WAY more quick and easy recipes for food to make ahead of time... And mentally, I'm just in a better frame of mind.

We're expecting more people than ever before which totally has me pumped. And this year, we're having the entire shindig "down back" on our property. Previous years, the food, beer, bathrooms, etc., were all in our upper backyard, and then if anyone wanted to play volleyball, horseshoes, etc., they had to walk down the hill to the lower property, so I always felt "disconnected" from half the people here. But Steve has busted his ass for months clearing out a ton of overgrown areas, poison ivy, etc. so we can have everyone in one spot. It should be  a blast!

So if I'm scarce for the next week or two (the pig roast is August 4th), it's because there's still a shitload to do in preparation. But I'll be popping in. I swear. :)

What's This World Coming To?

So I'm sitting here right now, watching 20/20, and frankly, I want to puke. It's all about vanity. Things like boob jobs, nose jobs, liposuction, etc. Now let me say right here and now that, generally speaking, I have NO problem with plastic surgery. I realize some people want it and they do it and it's all good. But dear god, you should see this show.

It started out by showing two TEENAGERS whose parents gave them boob jobs for high school graduation. HIGH SCHOOL, people. I'm talking like 17 and 18-year-olds. The girls said it's the best decision they ever made (because you've made a lot of seriously decisions by the time you're 17?). And how it boosted their self-confidence and made them happier, etc. etc. Yeah. Great. But you're SEVENTEEN for the love of god! If you're already unhappy with your body and your self at 17, how the hell are you going to feel after you have a baby or two and your stomach has that tell-tale "pooch"? Or after you get a few laugh lines around your eyes? Dear god. How about, instead of getting fake tits as a teenager in order to boost your self-esteem, you work your ass off in school and get yourself a full scholarship to a kick ass college? Or you work your ass off and break a few records in a sport at your high school? Apparently, it's easier to just ask Mommy & Daddy to shell out $7,000 for some fake tits. [shaking head]

Anyway, then they moved on to other stories. Three women who went to Costa Rica to get their plastic surgery so they could avoid the ridiculous cost of plastic surgery here in the United States. Fine and dandy. I will say, all three women looked beautiful after their surgeries (although I thought they looked beautiful before their surgeries too). But one had SERIOUS complications afterwards and had to return to Costa Rica to get every single procedure "fixed." [shaking head again]

Then they showed this woman who has had (literally) countless operations and procedures done to herself. She applies 8 billion creams and lotions every single day and injects herself with something or other every day, claiming it's "the fountain of youth." Uh huh. Sure it is lady. [Let's all shake our heads again.]

Anyway, I'm not really judging these women directly (although I still have serious problems with the parents who let their teenagers get breast implants). No, I'm judging society as a whole. I'm literally terrified for my two beautiful little girls who will grow up in a society where it seems a woman can never be pretty enough/thin enough/have big enough boobs/etc. It scares the living shit out of me. And I truly mean that. We live in a country where if you don't have big tits and no waist or stomach, you're considered to be "below average." Where if you (god forbid) you happen to need a size 10 or 12 in pants (which by the way, is the average size of women), you're considered "overweight." Where people (and women in particular) stop at absolutely nothing to achieve the "beauty" shoved down our throats daily in magazines, movies, television shows, and by our peers. It's disgusting.

Do I have some things about my physical appearance that I'd like to change? Sure. Who doesn't? But I also find beauty in my body that others may not see.

I look down at my slightly bulging belly and remind myself that the reason it looks that way is because it was stretched while it grew and nurtured my two stunningly gorgeous daughters.

And I look down at my thighs that are a little bigger and rounder than I'd like and remind myself that I'm shaped just like my mom, who I think is stunning.

And I look down at my smaller than average breasts that are just bordering on a B/C size and remind myself that although my boobs may be smaller than most of my friends' boobs, if they were bigger, they may be sagging by now. I, personally, think mine are fantastic. The perfect size if you ask me. Small enough to always remain "perky," but big enough to make me not look like a 10-year-old. They're gorgeously shaped, soft as all hell, and they move freely because there's nothing in there that was man-made in an attempt to make me look bigger/better/badder because someone else out there told me they should be bigger/better/badder. (Note: The following picture is NOT a picture a my own breasts. But they're about that size and I love 'em, dammit.)

Again, I seriously don't give a rat's ass which women out there have had plastic surgery and which women haven't. I have wonderful, true, dear friends who have had cosmetic surgery done and I don't judge them, begrudge them, or think any less of them. I truly, truly don't. But I if Grace or Hannah ever comes up to me while they're in high school and tells me they want to get a boob job, I can guarantee you that I won't be whipping out my checkbook in an attempt to "make my children happy." No, my friends. Instead, I'll slap them upside the head, ask them what the fuck is wrong with them, and then point out every wonderful, beautiful, stunningly gorgeous feature about them, inside and out.

We are ALL beautiful in our own ways. Every last one of us, dammit. I mean, look at this woman! She's breathtaking. I can tell by looking at the lines around her eyes that she spent much of her life smiling and laughing and enjoying the beauty of life. I can see a few of the wrinkles on her hands and fingers and I know that she worked hard during her life, washing dishes, planting flowers, bathing babies, stroking her childrens' foreheads, and doing whatever it took to get through the day. She's beautiful.

Anyway, I need to step down from the soapbox now. But I just needed to get this out there. 20/20 seriously had me wanting to vomit tonight and I wanted to vent. Sorry y'all had to listen to it.

And while we're discussing cool things I've found...

OK. So been referred to would be a more adequate statement.

Anyway, check out Phone Sherpa. Click on this link here:

http://www.phonesherpa.com/home.aspx?af_id=011B439E9E

It's a site that lets you rip songs off of your own CD's and then make your own ring tones for your cell phone. Anyway, I have no intention of paying for the service (LOL!), but you get a no-strings-attached free one. I'm still deciding which song I want to use. :)

Testing and a Few Photos

So I'm trying out this Windows Live Writer thing to start blogging, and I must say, so far I'm really impressed. I may actually blog more now. :)

So let's give this picture thing a whirl... I have two photos from Grace's reptile party. I actually have way more than two and I'll post them later, but these are two of my favorites.

This is the girls walking on one of the boardwalks at the environmental center:

And this is a picture of most of the kids at the party. But some are missing because they wandered off somewhere on the property. LOL! And I don't know if you can tell, but one of these kids was Photoshopped in later. I took a picture of her by herself in front of the rock and then added her to this photo. LOL!

Anyway, I'll be back again later. This Windows Live Writer is FUN! WOOHOO!!! Although it doesn't allow me to upload my photos from there. Blogger apparently isn't supported in that sense. But I CAN blog and just push a button, and BAM!... here's my post. Pretty cool.

8 Things You Probably Don't Care About...

OK. So Geena tagged me to tell 8 things about my husband (Steve) and I. You probably don't care about any of them, and I may not be able to think of 8, but I'll give it a try...

1. We are total opposites in almost every sense of the word... He has a blue-collar, physical job and I have a cushy, work-from-home computer job... He goes to bed around 8:30 and wakes up at 4:00 AM every morning to work out, and I go to bed around 2:00 AM and could count on one hand the number of times I've worked out (on purpose) in my entire life... He loves to be outdoors hunting, fishing, golfing, whatever, and I love to be sitting inside in front of my computer... He doesn't read a damn thing unless he absolutely has to, and I'm a writer by trade and am reading something about 85% of my day... He's kind of a health nut, and I, well, smoke and drink and eat crap and stuff.

2. Our life together has always been dictated (not on purpose) by birthdays. We met on his dad's birthday, he said "I love you," for the first time on my birthday, we had sex for the first time on my brother's birthday, he proposed on his birthday, and we got married on my dad's birthday.

3. If you catch us both in the right mood and among the right people in the right situation, we could possibly be the funniest damn couple you've ever met on the planet.

4. We didn't have sex on our wedding night. We had already been living together for months, and after our reception, we went to a local bar with a bunch of friends. He left the bar to go grab eggs and bacon at the diner next door with my matron of honor and her husband while I stayed at the bar with my work friends doing shots of god knows what. It's all good.

5. I drive him insane because I'm not even remotely organized and/or neat. He drives me up a fucking wall because he's so anal that I can't believe he hasn't died of stomach ulcers or something by now.

6. Both of us absolutely, positively refuse to get on an airplane and fly somewhere. Ever.

7. We make of each other daily, but in a joking/funny way... I tell him his eyebrows look like squirrels taped on his forehead... He tells me my "granny panties" would scare off an 80-year-old man. Like I said before, it's all good. [note: I no longer wear "granny panties".]

8. We are turly in love.For rea.

Ex-Boyfriend Story...

OK. So since I didn't want anyone here thinking I'm stalking my ex, and because Tink commented that HER ex babbled on about wishing they never broke up, I felt the need to explain exactly what my 3AM/half buzzed email said. Nothing weird. Nothing stalker-like. I swear. I even made a point of saying I'm HAPPILY married. It was mostly casual conversation... Like "Hey, what's up with you? What are you doing now? How are your parents? Your brother? Are you married? Do you have kids? Etc."

Now I WILL say that there were 1 or 2 paragraphs where I sounded like a drunken fool, but the truth is, I would've typed the same things regardless of whether or not I had just downed a six-pack. I distinctly remember one paragraph, towards the end of the email. It said (almost a direct quote, but I'm going from memory so it may not be word for word:

"Anyway, I just wanted to drop you a line and see how you're doing. I sometimes think about you... Not in a "Man, I really want to do him again," sort of way, but in a "Hmmm... I wonder whatever happened to him sort of way."

LOL! Now that's not THAT over-the-top right? It's a dman shame and bad timing. Had I not sent that email a week before seeing him, I would've immediately said hello, probably given him a hug (it wasn't a bad breakup at all), and caught up. But because he never responded to my email, I became paranoid. He was there with whom I assume was his wife and was with 2 little girls (coincidence? LOL!) that I assume were his. I KNOW that some women are absolutely psychotic about their husband/significant other's exes and I did NOT want to be that ex that causes a huge fight later that night. I also didn't know if he had told his wife about the email I sent and whether or not she got pissed, so it was just really an awkward situation.

And truthfully, I was surprised he didn't respond to the email. We never had a fight during/after we broke up, we'd had friendly conversations after breaking up, etc., so there was no "bad blood" there or anything. So when I never heard back, my mind immediately decided that his current woman would be pissed if he responded. So when I actually saw him and he was with her, I just avoided him and called it a day. [sigh]

I AM, however, happy to report that he is still smokin' hot (not that Steve isn't), and his wife is definitely cute, but not as hot as I thought his wife would be. And his two little girls were adorable and had unbelieveably curly hair, but my two girls are cuter. ;P (I'm kidding.)

Um, anyway, just wanted to like, clear that up and stuff. LOL!

(Hey wait! NOW I know why he never responded to my email! I bet that for the past 13 years, he's been pining for me, regretting that we broke up, and longing for me, hoping we'd one day meet up again and fall deeply in love again and make a life together. And I bet that once he read my email stressing that I'm happily married, he didn't want to drudge up all of those old nagging feelings of love again, and figured that responding to me would just cause trouble in his married life, where he's pretending to be happy. Yup. That's it. I just know it!)

My life in a Nutshell Bulleted List

** We celebrated Grace's 6th birthday on the 28th by spending the day swimming and then with the family that night for cake.

** Got invited to be on my favorite digital scrapbooking designer's Creative Team. What that basically means is that I use her stuff to create layouts and then post those layouts (and news, events, etc.) in the hopes of promoting her stuff and generating sales for her. It was an honor to be asked and I'm really excited about the whole thing.

** Had Grace's reptile party at the environmental center. It was a HUGE success with the kids and parents alike. There was a slightly stressful 20 minutes when all of the kids suddenly disappeared into the massive 60 acres of woods on the trails (that fork everywhere) and no one was sure which kids were with adults and which weren't, but all worked out OK and everyone was fine. LOL!

** Steve fired one of his employees today. He only had 2. Shit.

** Grace is bored out of her skull on days that Hannah's not here and is completely ready to go back to school already. LOL!

** Spent last Friday at an amusement park where I saw my old college boyfriend for the first time in 13 years. My kids actually bumped into him accidentally. We avoided eye contact and didn't say anything. I'm guessing this was because just ONE WEEK before, I had found him on the alumni site and darted off an email at 3:00 in the morning where I babbled like an idiot and probably scared the living shit out of him. He never responded. [sigh] Karma's a bitch.

** Uhhh... I'm sure there's more, but I'm drawing a blank right now. I'll post some pics later from all of the things I mentioned above, but they're on my other computer and Grace is currently occupying the desk chair.