A Survey

I don't generally like email forwards. And so I am posting this survey to my blog instead of email everyone. Email me your answers, if you like.

Welcome to the new 2008 edition of getting to know your friends! Here is what you are supposed to do. Try not to be lame and spoil the fun. Change all the answers so they apply to you. Then send this to a bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person who sent it to you.
Some of you may get this several times; that means you have lots of friends. The easiest way to do is to hit 'forward' so you can changethe answers. Have Fun!

1. What is your occupation? Broker/Owner of a real estate company

2. What color are your socks right now? none

3. What are you listening to right now? The wind from the open kitchen slider, and the saltwater fish tank noises

4. What was the last thing you ate? A fiber/protein bar

5. Can you drive a stick shift? yes

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? my oldest daughter and the mom of the slumber party kids (at midnight last night)

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? very much!

8. How old are you today? 49

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Japanese sumo

10. What is your favorite drink? water

11 Have you ever dyed your hair? yes

12. Favorite Food? Anything but beets

13. What is the last movie you watched? Hmmmm … not sure. At the theater, it was “Sex and the City: The Movie”

14. Favorite day of the year? Halloween and each of my daughters’ birthdays

15. How do you vent anger? I get really quiet. If it goes beyond that – watch out!

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Thumbelina doll (but she is a real baby and not a toy)

17. What is your favorite season? Fall

18. Cherries or Blueberries? Cherries, and keep ‘em coming!

19. Do you want your friends to email you back? If they have time

20. Who is the most likely to respond? My Mother

21. Who is least likely to respond? Most people are too busy

22. Living Arrangements? a ranch style house with a finished basement (4000 sq ft total)

23. When was the last time you cried? Sometime yesterday, as I watched and anticipated Gotcha Days for kids adopted in China

24. What is on the floor of your closet? Nothing. Maybe Chris’ slippers. We marketed a house for 5 long months a few years back and it built a neatness habit in me from all that compulsive cleaning!

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this
to? I am only sending it back to Renay and putting it on my blog

26. What did you do last night? Took May to a slumber party and created one for Jane and Irene in our living room. Watched “So You Think You Can Dance”

27. Nails painted or plain? Painted if my fake ones are on, plain if not

28. What are you most afraid of? Bees and heights (but I pretend I am not afraid so my kids don’t pick it up from me. Let them get their own brands of Crazy!)

29. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? medium Rare, no cheese, spicy is fine

30. Favorite dog Breed? Great Danes (I like Labs, Jack Russells, Boston Terriers, Pugs, Goldens, and a lot more breeds, too)

31. Favorite day of the week? They are all the same when it is summer and the kids are out of school and you are self-employed and your husband is job-seeking

32. How many states have you lived in? 2 – Colorado and California (I also lived in Tokyo, Japan)

33. What makes you happy? I can find a happy state of mind anywhere, if my brain chemistry is cooperating. I am an optimist by nature.

Barbie's Terrible Head Wound

I have been spending some time each day helping the girls put toys away in the upstairs play room. In this process, I have gathered an entire plastic box filled with items that belong in other rooms in the house. Included in this box was a gift bag with Barbie on it. Probably left from some birthday.

As I picked it up to place it in the plastic box and put it away where it belongs, I noticed that poor Barbie seems to have suffered a horrible blow to the head! She appears to be bleeding profusely from her forehead. (marker? stamp pad? Who knows.)

And yet, her smile is firmly in place. She has her pearls on and not a hair on her head is out of place. She has her crown and her septor, and appears calm and unfazed.

Or, is she in shock?

Is she aware of her injury?

Sometimes I feel like Barbie.

I rarely wear my pearls, though. And, my hair is often out of place! So, I fancy myself to be far more REAL than Barbie in that regard.

There is not a person on Earth, except myself, who could treat my wound.

And so ... with my actions and inactions, I self-treat my wound. So far, so good. I think.

Bling

May got her ears pierced today as an early birthday present. She has been talking about doing this for at least two years. She had a lot of questions, and needed a lot of information. She also needed to be mature enough to control her body and not rip her ears carelessly. She selected the earrings from MANY choices. They are little flowers with pink crystal petals and a clear crystal center on 14k posts. I think they are beautiful!

When I had my ears pierced, I had ONE choice of earrings. Gold posts. That was it. It was 1976 and I was working at a retail store called The Denver. All my childhood, my mother had told me that I was not to have my ears pierced. "Only prostitutes and Mexican girls have pierced ears." Well then. LOL! (Apologies to all you prostitute and Mexican girl trendsetters out there!)

I was 17 and watched an RN do ear piercings every Saturday at the jewelry counter at The Denver. I was sick of the PAIN of clip-on and screw-on earrings. They squeezed! They pinched! They were hard to find in cute styles. The other sales women and I talked and talked about it, and I worked up the guts to "just do it!" On the fateful day, I got it done and went home to show my mother. I stood in front of her and asked her if she noticed anything different. "New blouse?" no. "New hairdo?" no. "New lipstick?" NO! I told her I had gotten my ears pierced, and stood back for the fall-out. "That's nice, Honey."

All that hub-bub and ... it's nice?? Sheesh. LOL! :-)

I think May's earrings look nice, don't you?

George Carlin and his Stuff

I heard this morning that George Carlin died. The reporter said it was an untimely or premature death, but I think 71 years on the planet is not really too bad.

Remember his routine on STUFF? I think that is my favorite George Carlin routine.

For those who are not familiar, you can see it here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac

But, be forewarned that there is just a sprinkling of colorful language, and a "risque" ending.

And now ... George Carlin has truly taken The Good Stuff. He does not need all the other stuff. He has all the stuff that ever was important.

Happy travels, and thanks for all the ascorbic, irreverent, disrespectful, FUNNY laughs. They are just what I need in my overly-sterile, often-times toooooo P.C. world.

The best day EVER!

"The best day EVER!" That is how May (nearly 8) described our day yesterday. Which just goes to prove that you do NOT need to spend a lot of money, buy toys, go to classes or camps, do anything involving electricity or batteries, or take big trips to create SUMMER FUN in your children's lives. :-)

We started the day off with early morning baths for the girls and myself. This was kind of weird to me (I am a morning shower kinda gal), but nice. Then, we piled in the car and drove to south Denver and had fun at the carnival at CCAI (the agency we used to adopt May in 2001). There were bounce houses, lots of games where the kids could win toys and candy, nachos and popcorn and lemonade, and the EVER popular fishing game (magnetic fish, caught with pole and line with magnet attached). The crowd was very light this year, and the weather was not as hot as years past. So, it was really nice!

Let alone seeing friends there that we miss soooooo much.

Janie stuck pretty close to Mom and Dad, and did experience some overloaded moments where she needed a snuggling break. Events like this are hard for a shy person! Both May and Irene were happy to run freely in this safe and familiar environment and play!

After about 4 hours at the carnival, we drove back closer to home and got May some much-needed new shoes (this girl is GROWING!). Then, we headed home to relax a little, gather a simple picnic dinner, and head back out to a park for a concert.

The guy who played the music was a one man band, and he played various percussion (drums, tamborine, etc.) and guitar, and sang. He was pretty good. We had fun listening, dancing and relaxing on blankets while we enjoyed our picnic from home. Then, the girls spied a man who was making balloon animals. He was close to where we were sitting, so the three of them ran off to wait in line for balloon animals. But, they kept getting OUT of line and playing at the little playground nearby, and so Chris went to stand with them in order for them to have any hope of actually reaching the front of the line and getting a turn! LOL!

That balloon guy (he refused to take any money from the many MANY kids and parents in line!) was AMAZING! He was the hardest working guy in the park! He was fast, talented, funny, and kind. The HAPPY looks on the kids' faces as each left with an amazing balloon animal were PRICELESS. I sat and watched for quite a while. I need to find out if this guy is an affordable option for my daughters' birthday parties in the future. He was AMAZING.

May (nearly 8) got an octopus. Irene (5 and a half) got a yellow cat. Janie (4 and 9 months) got a pink cat. They were thrilled!

There was a big, gray cloud above us for a while. I shook my finger at it and warned it not to rain on us! LOL! I told it, "You better do what Mama says!" The two little toddlers sitting near us got a big kick out of that and laughed. But, the cloud listened and some BIG white clouds replaced it. They were very beautiful!

There was a man sitting behind us who looked strikingly like my Daddy did about 20 years ago! I just had to take his picture. Then, he looked right at me when I took a second one. Oops. Busted! The pictures I am posting do not truly cature his Daddy-ness. Hope he is not in the Witness Protection Program or anything. ha!

After the park concert was finished, we headed back home and I made root beer floats for everyone. Yum!

I agree with May that it was the best day EVER. Well, at least one of the best. :-)

Here is a sampling of photos from the day (May has a light blue shirt and a green skirt, Irene has a blue shirt that says "happy" and a jeans/pink skirt and Jane has a pink shirt and a dark pink skirt - be sure to note how long Irene's hair is getting! Yippee!):

That was the carnival. And, here are a few from the park concert: