My Real Life

May 4, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday,Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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1. Do you make your kids finish all the food on their plates?

No.

I think it confuses the whole, eat until you are full mentality.

However, I also don’t give enormous portions, and if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding.

Or, no dinner, no dessert.

We have fruit for dessert on weeknights, anyway, but my feeling is, if you are too full for dinner, then you are too full for dessert.

I’ve never understood when parents let their kids have dessert after not eating their dinners.

But, that’s just me.

If it’s something that I’m trying that is new and I think people might not like it, they get a little portion.

You don’t, however, have to finish your seconds.  If you’ve already cleared your plate once, you’re good with me.

2. Do you give an allowance?

No.

We ebb and flow with chore charts where the kids can earn money for doing chores.

However, we aren’t really good with keeping up with it.

I’m not a fan of giving kids money every week that they don’t work for, though, (because, seriously…I’ve never gotten money for doing nothing!) so there is no regular allowance.

They also are not of an age where they have any real monetary needs, so there hasn’t been a huge uproar about this.

Yet.

3. Do you actually park your car in the garage?

Yes.  We do.

We’ve never had a two-car garage, and when we purchased this home, (with a two car garage), we were adamant that we would use it for the cars.

Our first house had a separate one-car garage that I did use for my little Honda Civic.

Our second house had an attached one-car garage that was filled with stuff from the move…for the entire three years we lived there.

Our third house had a half of a one-car garage that was full of our bikes and lawn equipment.

This house?  Two-car, attached garage with OUR CARS in it!  Yeah!

4. What is one food you will NEVER cook?

Seafood is the obvious choice, because of my allergy.

However, I’ll go the non-allergy route and say liver.

I get gaggy just thinking about it.

I know I’ve told this story before.

My Mom used to make it when my Dad was out of town and make me eat it with her.

I told her it was so gross it was going to make me puke.

She made me eat it anyway.

Then, I puked.

Never again.

5. Do you have anything exciting planned for the summer?

We have two different beach vacations planned.

Then, lots of hitting the pool with the monkeys, going for walks, to parks, small day trips.

It’s going to relaxing, fun, and awesome.

April 27, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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1. Groceries are high right now what is easiest way you have found to cut back?
I used to be the Queen of grocery shopping.
However, we are eating much healthier these days and there are many more of us, and it’s really, really hard to cut back.
I’m making a play for us joining Costco, in an effort to make less trips to the grocery store for paper products, etc., thus saving money because I go in for one thing and come out with thirty.
So, I still cut coupons and shop sales, but it’s getting harder and harder.
2. What are the top 3 things on your “bucket list”?
(in no particular order)
1.  Go skydiving.  I am absolutely dying to do this.  (Pardon the possible pun since this is on my bucket list…”dying” to do it…get it?  Huh?  Huh?  Crickets.)
2.  I want to get to Europe…specifically, I want to go to Scotland.  Then, I want to go to Ireland.  I’d like to hit the English countryside.  I’d love to get to Denmark and see where my Grandpa was born.  Other places, too.  Just gotta hop across the pond.
3.  Get published.  Whether it’s the novel that I have already written or one of the many that I have started.
Validation.
3. Would you rather give up AC or heat?
I’m going to say I’d rather give up heat.
You can always pile on more layers and blankets.
Once you’re naked, there’s not much further you can go to beat the heat without the AC.
So, I’m going with giving up the heat.
4. What’s your favorite cocktail??
I’m not really a drinker, so I don’t have a wide range of cocktails to choose from.
I guess I’ll have to go with a Strawberry Daquiri because it doesn’t have much of an alcohol-y taste.

5. What was your first job & how old were you?

My first job was at a little store called The Town Mouse in Headquarters Plaza Mall.

I was 14.

My boss was a man named Houston and they would often leave me alone, in charge of the store.

Not really the safest mall.

It wasn’t the Murder Mall (which we do have where we live) but not really a place where a 14 year old should be left in charge of the store.

We sold gifty type things, costume jewelry, cards, candy, etc.

I loved that store.

I worked there for almost a year, then moved across the mall to International Coffee where Michaela and I made coffee and hot chocolate for people.

I hate coffee, but wow…do I love the smell.

Then, I moved across the Green to Epstein’s where I worked the rest of my way through high school and into college breaks.  Loved that job.

So, that’s more than just my first job, but I was on a roll.

April 13, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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1. Who mows your grass?
Real Man mows our lawn.
In fact, we have a new lawnmower on the way, as ours broke soon after moving into this house, last summer.
So, he’ll be in lawnmower heaven.
2. Do you have a picture wall or picture gallery in your house?
No.
I don’t like poking holes in the walls.
I have a bunch of pictures from the old house that I still haven’t hung, yet, because I can’t bear to poke holes in the walls.
I’ll even hang pictures in weird places that don’t make sense with our furniture and decorating, just so I don’t have to poke holes in the walls.
So, no.
3. What book has influenced your thinking the most? Or, what blog?
I read a lot.
However, I don’t think that what I read influences my thinking.
I don’t believe in one book, one person, one source as being “the truth” and so I look to multiple sources.
4. Do you have allergies? If so, how do you handle it this time of year?
I do have allergies and I don’t handle them well.
But, I’m guessing that’s not what you were asking.
I take Benadryl, Sudafed, Claritin, Allegra.
I use Visine and a NetiPot.
I got allergy shots from the time I was 5 until I was about 35.
Then, I just kept forgetting to go (I chalk that up to the three kids I had then…I lost a few more brain cells with each one).
So, now, I suffer.
5. What’s your go to meal to cook in an hurry?
Homemade pizza.
Brown up some ground beef, toss it on a shell with some sauce and cheese, pop it in the oven for 20 minutes and we’re all set.

April 6, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 7:59 am
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1. Would you prefer having people over for dinner or going to their house?

Having people over.

I am all about the home field advantage.

Even though socializing isn’t a game you can win.

Until it is.

2. Favorite Bible verse and why?

It would probably surprise people that I can even quote Bible verses.

However, I am a ministers daughter, and spent more hours in church in my first 18 years than most people do in their entire lives.

I also used to have a little Bible in my nightstand, like I lived in a hotel or something.

And, when I was learning to read, I did so by reading the Bible.

I can also recite all the books of the Old Testament in order.

Don’t ask.

Anyway, the first verse I memorized was Luke 24:25.

“Oh fools with hearts so slow, to believe everything the prophets have spoken…”

It’s much longer than that and what I had memorized was about a paragraph or two long.

They used to rent me out for parties to recite the Bible.

I kid.  I kid.

Anyway, today, all I can remember is that line.

It’s when Jesus appears to some of his followers after he has been resurrected and he hasn’t yet revealed himself to be Jesus.

So, I don’t have a favorite Bible verse as I haven’t actually picked up a Bible in a very, very long time.

Yet, I’m going to guess that as a child, Luke 24:25 was my favorite verse.
3. What was the first concert you ever attended, and the most recent one?

Hmmm…my first concert was either the Steve Miller Band at, what was then called, the PNC Arts Center OR Billy Joel at Yankee Stadium.  Steve Miller was a good concert, Billy Joel was a PHENOMENAL concert.

4. The year is 2025. What are you doing, and what have you done?

13 years from now.

Well, first of all, I’ll have a 24 year old, a 21 year old, a 19 year old and a 14 year old.

Unimaginable to me.

I will have been teaching for 29 years and will still be teaching.  (I’ll actually have been teaching for 31 years at that point, but the pension system didn’t recognize my time at a private school.)

I’ll be 53 years fabulous.

I’ll be working on my third novel.

Over the summers we’ll be traveling with the kids to Europe and all kinds of cool places.

We’ll be happy and living a good life.

5. What’s your favorite Easter treat?

Nothing, anymore, but in the days where I could actually eat Easter treats, it was the Reese’s Peanut Butter eggs, hands down.

I could eat 10 of those puppies at a pop, without even batting an eye.

March 30, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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1. What giveaway would you like to do on your blog?
I’d love to give away an iPad.
How awesome would that be?
Read my blog, win an iPad.
Sorry.  Not happening.
2. If you had to choose between natural artistic ability and natural athletic ability, which would it be?
Natural artistic ability.
With natural athletic ability, if I got hurt, I wouldn’t matter how much natural ability you had, you’d be outta the game.
With natural artistic ability, it could be with me forever, barring some strange hand accident.
3. Do you ditch the coat the minute it becomes “spring” or are you a holdout for more cool temps?
I don’t buy “spring”… particularly early “spring.”
So, this year, in particular, I haven’t been believing the hype.
And, then, finally, I busted out my spring dresses.
I got two days out of them.
And then it was back to the 40’s.
Shame on me.
You’ll never fool me again, spring.
4. What would you do if you won the mega millions lotto of 1/2 billion dollars?
I believe I’ve covered this in a previous post, but I’ll play along.
Buy an Audi R8.  For me.  And only for me.
Put away enough money for all the monkeys to go to college (or help buy a home if they decide college isn’t in their plan).
Repaint the inside of the house and build a sunroom in the back.
Buy a riding mower, a shed for garden tools, a playset for the monkeys.
Buy a generator.
Give a bunch away to charity and create an endowment at the local library.
Put the rest away and spend the rest of my life traveling with Real Man and the monkeys and just enjoying the heck outta every day.
5. You are at a hotel by yourself…what do you do?
I’ve actually been at a hotel by myself, a few times, while I was presenting for the Techspo conference, a few years in a row, in Atlantic City.
I took a long bath and read while I was in the tub.
I got out of the tub, put on my jammies and crawled into that huge bed and read some more.
And fell asleep by 8:30 pm and slept until 8:30 am.
It was very, very nice.

March 23, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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My apologies for the format of today’s Five Question Friday.  Today, WordPress and I are not friends.
1. If you were free to just hop in the car and drive, where would you go? Or, if you could hop a plane and go anywhere, where?
Hop in the car and drive, huh?
Well, I’ve been dreaming about getting an RV, taking a year off with the family and just driving around the country for years, now.
So, I’d want to go up to New England, then out to the midwest, down south, out to California, spend some time in the southwest and then some serious time up in the Pacific Northwest.
Basically, all over the US of A.
In an RV…not a car.
Hop a plane and go anywhere?
I’ve always wanted to go to Scotland.
And England.
And Denmark.
And Iceland.
And Australia.
And Austria.
Okay, so everywhere except for the Middle East and the Far East.
Is that specific enough for you?
2. What’s your most recently read favorite book?
Well…recently I’ve been reading some racy romance novels.
They are mindless and entertaining and my brain has just needed a break from any kind of real thinking.
Right now, however, I’m reading Stay Close  by Harlan Coben.
He’s one of my favorite authors.
He grew up in a nearby town and his stories all center in my neck of the woods.
And they are awesome.
Anyway, this latest one was just released this week, so I downloaded it to the Nook and am hooked.
3. What’s your favorite Spring Break memory?
Um, we never went anywhere on Spring Break when I was a kid.
I never went anywhere on Spring Break when I was in college.
So, I guess my favorite Spring Break was in ’93 when there was a terrible blizzard and they closed Route 80 and I couldn’t get back to Ohio from NJ for an extra three days.
Kim was stuck in NJ, too, so it was extra Spring Break with Kim, where we did amazing, crazy things like eating raw cookie dough, lemon squares, Doritoes and milk while watching shows like Duck Tales and General Hospital, on the couch in her basement for days on end.
Ah, my wild days.
4. What do you put in your child’s Easter basket? Or, for those w/o kids, what was put in your childhood basket?
Traditionally, candy.
However, we’ve been working hard to cut the sugar around here, so last year there were a few treats and then they each got a gift card to the local Dollar Store (which was like pure gold to them).
They didn’t miss the sugar, and it meant that we didn’t have Easter Candy hanging around until Halloween.
Because, believe me when I tell you, we still have their Halloween candy hanging around.
So, this year, maybe a treat or two and a gift card or something to somewhere exciting (to them).
5. Do you get a summer haircut?
Last summer, I did.
Tiny was still pretty new and was all about grabbing my hair.
I had lost almost all of the baby weight and wanted to complete the transition from being pregnant with an extra 60 pounds on my frame to being me again.
So, I got a hair cut.
Loved it.
My hair is back to being long again, though, and I’m currently going through a hair dilemma.
Long or short.
Just can’t decide.
However, if this is my biggest problem today, I’m doing alright.

March 16, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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1. Will you run to the store or to pick up a kid looking a mess?
Absolutely.
I have no shame.
2. Do you finish a book if it’s boring or you don’t like it?
It depends on how long it is and how much hope I have for the ending redeeming the rest of the book.
I muddled my way through Blonde because I kept hoping beyond all hope it would get better.
It didn’t.
I pushed through the first hundred pages of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which seemed to be all about the Swedish financial system, praying for redemption.
It came and the rest of the book totally rocked my socks.
Others, I’ve just decided it’s not worth wasting the small amount of time I have to read and so I give ’em the ole’ heave ho.
3. Beach or mountain vacations?
Never been on a mountain vacation but it sounds amazing.
I love the mountains, I love to hike, I love to camp (although it’s been years since I’ve been), and I’d love to do that with my family.
4. What thing/event says “winter will end and spring is right around the corner” to you?
In August, when it hits 65, everyone is in sweats and bundling up under blankets.
In March, when it hits 65, my babies can’t get those shorts and tank tops on fast enough.
And THAT is what tells me that spring is right around the corner.
The bare skin of my monkeys.
5. Would you prefer couples or family vacation?

I think both have their place.

I think both are important.

So, both. 🙂

March 9, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 7:42 am
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Friday, again, my friends!

Time for another edition of Five Question Friday, where I answer some random questions and give you some further insight into the small details of my world!

1. Are you looking forward to the time change this weekend?
Not particularly.
I’m not NOT looking forward to it, either.
The time change doesn’t seem to affect me, either way, since having kids.
The monkeys decide how many hours of sleep I get a night.
Not some scientific schedule that governs the rest of the world.
2. Are you getting the new iPad/would you want a iPad?
No.
My iPad works just fine.
Do I want one?
Sure.
However, don’t need one and we’re in a place where, if it isn’t a need it isn’t a purchase.
3. If money was not a problem, what is the one thing you would splurge on?
DisneyWorld for the family.
We’ve never taken them, and I’ve only been there on our honeymoon.
(Back story – we had tickets to go when I was a kid, then my Dad’s gall bladder went bejeebers and he had to have it taken out in emergency surgery the night before we were to fly out.  My parents never rescheduled.  Oh, and my Mom didn’t believe he was in that much pain and told him to roll over and go back to sleep.  Gall bladder out within hours.  True story.)
Gotta get these kids to Disney and Universal studios.
4. How did you and the Mr. (or Mrs.) meet?
High school.
He was a cute, cute boy that I asked to the prom after cutting gym for half a year and going to lunch with Kim so I could hang out with him.
Charmed my way out of the cuts and snagged the love of my life in the process.
Ah, high school.
5. Summer is right around the corner. Bikini or one-piece?
Ah, such a silly question.
One-piece PLUS a pair of shorts.
I know some people can rock a bikini after 4 kids (and I don’t mean celebrities with personal trainers) but it ain’t me.
I’m working on it, but I’m not there, yet.
Maybe by 50.

 

March 2, 2012

Five Question AND Frugal Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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1. Where is your favorite vacation spot and why?
I’d have to go anywhere other than the Jersey Shore to have a different vacation spot.
Wait!  I’ve got one!
One summer, we took the kids to North Carolina for a week.  Topsail Island.
It was fantastic.
Quiet, hot, deserted.
Perfect.
2. What is your biggest guilty pleasure?
Oh, there are so many.
Must I pick one?
Um…The Vampire Diaries.
Dipping a Hersey bar in a jar of peanut butter.
My awesome yoga pants that have never seen a yoga class, but are well, well-worn.
3. What is your favorite fashion trend right now? Or, in the past?
 Uh, I’ve kind of always been a big fashion don’t, so I’m not even really sure what the fashion trends today are.
And, since that last sentence had the word “always” in it, it’s safe to say I didn’t know much about the fashion trends of any time.
So, I think I’ll just go with yoga pants.
Again.
4. What are your spring break plans?
Not a thing.
I’m hoping to spontaneously do things like the museum, the park, etc.
But, plans?
Spring break isn’t for plans.
5. What baby names do you hate?
Aw, I don’t want to answer that, because, undoubtedly someone who named their baby those names will read the blog and be offended.
I will say that I don’t understand why so many celebrities feel the need to name their children names that aren’t really people names, but they aren’t my kids so I don’t really worry too much about it.
Baby names I love?
Alas, I have no children named Emma, Olivia, Sara, Jack, Sam, or Max.
Those are 6 of my favorite baby names.
Now…as for the Frugal Friday portion of the post…
My friend, Jen, shared this article with me.
I absolutely love stories like this.
I’d love to think we could do this, but I have my doubts.
Happy Friday, everyone!

February 24, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday,Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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1. What’s your favorite way to spend down time (alone or with a significant other)?
Alone, I like to read or write.
With Real Man, I like to hang out and talk, because we rarely have time alone to sit and chat with each other without getting interrupted.
 
2. Are you the kind of person that wants things more as soon as you know you can’t have it?
To some extent, I think everyone is.
I want it, I can’t have it, so I’m upset that I can’t have it which makes it seem like I want it more, whether I do or not.
So, while my gut says “No…I’m not that kind of person,” my guess is that we all are.
 
3. If you were given $1000 to spend on yourself, what would you buy?
This question is harder than you know.
I am phenomenal at spending money on other people.
Especially money that is meant for me.
If I get money for a birthday or for Christmas, whether it is cash or a gift card, you can bet I’ll spend at least half of it on Real Man or the monkeys.
It’s like a sickness.
Probably because I don’t like to shop.
Also, I’ve got pretty much everything I want, so there’s nothing I really need or want.
I guess I’d go to Old Navy and get some clothes, go buy myself some shoes, maybe get an iPhone4, buy a bunch of books, get an iPad3 (assuming this was in the future and not today) and then give the kids my iPad (see, I can work them in somehow), go to a few movies with the monkeys, go to a few movies with Real Man, and for both of those trips, eat all the popcorn we want without worrying that it costs $43 for snacks…
Okay, perhaps I’ve spent more than $1000 here, and perhaps it wouldn’t be as hard as I thought to spend $1000 on myself.
 
4. Do you ever go out to eat by yourself?
I haven’t, and it makes me very sad to see other people eating out by themselves, but, to be honest, I think I would do it.
I ate by myself once.
I went to the mall, about 2 years ago, and got hungry while I was there.
So, I went to the bookstore, bought a book, then went to the Popeye’s at the food court, got some fried chicken fingers, mashed potatoes and a biscuit, found a table and ate and read alone.
It was kind of nice.
Because, (and my friends might argue this point, but it is the absolute truth), I don’t like to talk very much.
 
5. What company would you want to do a blog review for?
Well, I am currently doing blog reviews for Hip Mountain Mama and enjoying it immensely.
However, if it meant I could get a discount on the products, (or get them for free), I’d love to do blog reviews for Apple.
With regards to clothing, I’d like to do blog reviews for Old Navy.
If you were talking food, I’d love to do blog reviews for Hershey or Coca-Cola.
Ah, who am I kidding?  I’d pretty much review anything.
I love to write and I like stuff.
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