21

Last night, as I was tucking Olivia into bed for the night and snuggling with her, she rolled over to face me and said, "Mom, I have 21 fingers and toes! I just counted them."

Me, "um, are you sure you did that right--let's recount."

Her, "Yup! 21! I counted again!"

Me, thinking to myself, "Well, crap, Kindergarten "end of year testing" starts pretty soon and we may be in BIG trouble here."

Outloud, "honey, lets try one more time!"

Olivia, apparently THINKING to HERSELF, than aloud, "OH!!! There are only 20--see 5 on each hand and 5 on each foot, that makes 20!!! I guess I MISSED ONE the first time!"

Me "giggle, giggle"

Off to search for that one lost toe amongst the blankets...

banishing the dust bunnies....

Spring is in the air! It is the time when all "good people" clean their homes from top to bottom. The problem with "all good people" is that I apparently do not fall into that catagory.



...of "all good people".

(Although I am CERTAIN with some hired help, I could make tremendous strides forward in this area of my life.) Since I have admitted a small sampling of my faults in past blog posts, I am here to hang my head in shame and admit another....

Our home has dusty blinds. And not just ordinary dusty blinds, but extraordinary dusty blinds.

Now while my home is probably never (ok most certainly NEVER!) "eat off the floors" clean, I would say it is "well maintained". (it includes a weekly cleaning of all rooms and floors, vacuuming, dusting,sloshing through the toilets, emptying of garbages, all those good things). I am not mortified when people drop by "unannounced" at my home. (Well, the exeption for this rule would be my mother in law. I am usually in some higher state of "uncleanliness" the nights she chooses to drop by-- but then again, she clearly falls into a whole seperate and elevated catagory of "clean"! While hers is "celestial" clean, mine borders more on a "telestial" level of clean!)

However, the fact that I have sadly neglected my blinds for *ahem* a while now was brought to my attention by a wee 2 year old child who tried to eat the dust bunnies (as in frightening and freakishly large, the "stuff nightmares are made of" sized dust bunnies) as they literally fell from my blinds one day last week...and clobbered her on the head. She was knocked to the floor by them and possibly unconscious for a moment or two. (that has yet to be verified by medical personel).

It is possible she went after them, assuming in her mind, that they were some mutant remnant of oversided Easter Peeps, still waiting to be found in my blinds. Overlooked somehow in the excitement of Easter festivities.

This sweet child (who happens to still be alive after being assaulted by said bunnies as they fell from my blinds, and inhaling the noxious fumes, er, fluffs of dust!) brought upon my soul much mortification and embarrassment. To think that she was witness to such things in her young life. I pray for her daily, that she will recover from the experience.

I was horrified, and ashamed, and I am quite certain I blushed deeply, an appropriate shade of scarlet.

How could I, as keeper of my home, have neglected the blinds for SO LONG?

They sit there so quietly day after day. They let the light in, or shut it out, depending on their mood. They give us insight to the passing of the seasons. The comings and goings of the neighbors in their daily activities. Pale and white against the windows--so pale, in fact, that they blend in, and one *almost* forgets that they exist. Surely, they do their job well and deserve to be rewarded with a wipe down now and again. Right?

I say it loud and say it clear, I had failed my blinds!


I am here to proclaim however, that my humiliation led to action, motivated me to move, challenged me to change and that my blinds are now officially clean....

...as in "eat off of with a spoon" clean. As in, they would "make my mother in law super proud" clean--yup, they are really, really clean!

They have been sanitized, windexed, vacuumed, rubbed down, and towelled off. I have chased dust bunnies for several hours today and am the proud new owner of virtually spotless blinds. They once again hang proudly, their slats are held a bit higher than yesterday, perhaps. (could be because the sheer weight of the dust has been removed from them too)

Truth be told, the sun is shining brighter through my now clean windows and my dust free blinds.

I am thinking of inviting people over to view the newly clean blinds.

Maybe I will serve rabbit stew?

Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut, Sometimes You Don't...

you know why?

Just because!

More love from the 80's....and dontcha just LOVE the teacher and
the short shorts? you boys know you ALL had a pair just like 'em!

for the love of ALL things 80's....as in the 1980's!

SERIOUSLY funny, copied, not mine...but boy oh boy will you get a laugh if you grew up in the 80's! You gotta love the 80's....they STILL are providing some seriously good laughs!
ENJOY!


* You remember Don Johnson when he was "cool" (i have a whole previous post dedicated to Don!)
* You know who shot J.R
* You remember when Michael Jackson was actually considered something of a sex symbol
* You practiced getting in and out of your car through the windows
*You owned at least one skinny leather tie.
*Your first Walkman weighed 10 pounds and was the size of a brick.
* You wore L.A. Gear tennis shoes.
* You know the meaning of Wax on/Wax Off
* You're always "in the mood for dancing"
* If you can "See Better" with sunglasses that have paint splattered all over the lenses.
* You wore lace gloves with the fingers cut off, bangle bracelets up to your elbows, bright redReebok high tops and parachute pants to a school dance
* You need a shopping cart to carry your personal stereo with you.
* You remember what Michael Jackson looked like before the surgery.
* You go rollerskating every Friday night (not to skate, but to 'hang out')
* You still want to take Karate...(after you move to California)
* You watch NYPD Blue thinking, "Well, they're no Crockett and Tubbs, that's for sure".
* "Outrageous!" is the term to describe something neat and cool
* You think that Garbage Pail Kids are your children's worst enemy
* You had a poster of Bo, Luke & Daisy Duke
* There was nothing to question about Bert n' Ernie living together
* The feeling in your thumb is only now just returning after holding down the Atari joystick tocontrol the racecar in Enduro Racer
* You went out and purchased the sound track for 'Miami Vice'
* You remember the magazines of song lyrics
* If you think Hulk Hogan is the best wrestler of all time.
* If the best non-slasher movie in your opinion is An American Werewolf In London.
* Two words: The Clapper.
* Six words: "This is your brain on drugs."
* You STILL want to live in 'the Valley'.
* Ferris Bueller was your idol...."Bueller, Bueller..."
* You watched 'Star Search' on a regular basis.
* You can sing all the words to "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head, and now you understand that it is about chess.
* You had an entire wardrobe of Esprit clothing (or coveted one.)
* If you know the words to the "Oscar Mayer" theme songs
* Your bangs are teased perfectly to 7 inches above the rest of your hair.
* Have multi-colored earrings that touch your shoulders
* Played Upwords, Boggle or Trivial Pursuit (the original) on a rainy afternoon
* You're still bitter that WHAM broke up
* You know whose phone number is 867-5309 ("jenny i got your number...")
* You drink Diet Coke because Max Headroom told you to
* You can feel St. Elmo's fire burnin' in you.
* You still wear a bandana tied around your leg and/or a ponytail off-center on the side of your head. (OH! MY! GOSH!!! FUNNY! FUNNY!)
* You have the tendency to turn up the collar of your polo shirts
* You never go out for a night on the town without frosted blue eyeshadow and feathered bangs
* Everything in your wardrobe is either pastel or fluorescent
* People are constantly "gagging you with spoons"
*You know all the words to "I'm just a bill, sitting up on Capitol Hill" and "School House Rock."
*The phrase "Where's the beef?" still doubles you over with laughter.
* You still can't believe that Milli Vanilli was deceiving you all that time
* Every now and then, you blurt out: "Ooh noo, Mr. Bill!!!"
* You still watch things on Beta tapes
* You know who Martha Quinn is.
*You still carry your boom box on your shoulder
* You think David Hasselhoff was awesome in Knight Rider but sucks in "Boob Watch" aka "Bay Watch."
* You wanted to be "The Hulk" for halloween
* A piece of folded paper and two hands could tell your fortune.
* Knickers and leg warmers were cool
* If you remember Bruce Willis from Moonlighting, not Die Hard
* You had ringside seats for Luke and Laura's wedding
* You ever had a Dorothy Hammill haircut.
* You thought a Commodore 64 was the highest technology available
* When you saw luging at the Winter Olympics you poured water down your driveway and tried ityourself.
*You want to be "Where Everybody Knows Your Name"
* 'A Different World' kicked butt
*Remember "Dancin' to a Big Mac at McDonalds!"
* You know who played Magnum P.I. and thought he was SO HOT!
*One Phrase, "The Plane, The Plane"
* You can name at least three members of the Brat Pack
* Still think banana clips were a godsend
* Still wear Wet n' Wild makeup (oh come on ...who doesn't?)
* If your idea of hi-tech toys is still the heat-sensitive color-changing sticker on Transformers
* You ever wanted to learn to play "Stairway to Heaven" on the guitar and choreographed "Dancing Queen" by yourself in your room.
* You still wear your "Members Only" jacket.
* You still have a couple of those barrettes made of woven ribbons.
* You had snap bracelets
* You remember when Pee-Wee wasn't a pervert.
* You had had five pairs of socks on at any given time
* You still think Donkey Kong can beat Mario up
* If you still have your scratch-n-sniff sticker collection
* If you ever used Lee Press-On Nails
* If you ever wore jelly shoes
* If you remember when you heard that drinking soda and eating Pop Rocks would make your stomach explode
*You still play with that CASIO SK-1 Keyboard
* You're still hoping for a New Kids on the Block reunion tour
* You still argue over who was better: Tiffany or Debbie Gibson
* Every time you hear the "OH YEAH..." song you think of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"
* You still watch tapes of Stingray, McGyver, and Airwolf

got 7-UP? after all, who needs milk?

we are on our 11th straight day of sick kids here. i claim full responsibility for being cursed with a flu like illness running rampant through my home in April. after all, it was *I* who claimed in the last days of March how LUCKY we were to have had 6 people, all of whom had NOT BEEN SICK at all this winter. no sooner had i breathed the accursed words, than illness struck our humble abode. CURSES! foiled again.

well, sweet little Olivia will only sleep and breathe next to her mother. apparently sometime during the night last night, she awoke with a fierce thirst (after all, fever will do that to you) when i awoke this morning, nestled in the blankets with us, was her 7-UP bottle wrapped carefully in the crook of her arm. for one never knows when one will awake in the night, needing a sip of the stuff! we are hoping that everyone will be well by midnight tonight...for that is when SPRING BREAK officially begins! right?

PLEASE VOTE.....

you may vote as many times as you want for the next week. POLL Is at the VERY bottom of the blog page (please scroll down).

Regarding whethere or not Kyle should "walk" at the U. of U. graduation ceremonies...
(i'm making him do it anyway, it is a GREAT accomplishment that needs to be celebrated!)

BUT, vote anyway! thanks for you input!