My Real Life

I have a holiday nemesis.

It’s not the Elf on the Shelf, although I hear he’s a popular nemesis.

(And…if you are looking for some holiday laughs, go buy my middle-school friend, Jen’s, book Spending the Holidays with People I Want to Punch in the Throat  She has lots to say about the Elf on the Shelf, and I can guarantee it’ll make you laugh!)

No…my nemesis is something much smaller.

Something that disguises itself as holiday cheer.

Something sweet to share with the family or with guests or to bring with you if you are invited somewhere.

Something to make people smile.

Russell Stover Caramels and Chews.

Not just any box of Russell Stover candy.

The Caramels and Chews box.

There is not one single piece of candy in this box that I don’t love.

I thought I’d escape it, this year.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our home for my parents and my father-in-law.

I knew what they were bringing for dessert, and so I thought I was in the clear.

But Real Man headed to the store and came home with the box.

Good Lord, I love them.

I’ve been relatively well-behaved with them in the house.

Well, I mean, I ate the Roman Nougats (both of them) within 30 seconds of the box being opened.

The fruit and nuts were close behind.

Oh, and the peanut chews.

I guess I wasn’t as well-behaved as I thought.

However, I’ve been exercising and my glucose numbers have been good, so I’m going to allow myself a little Thanksgiving fun.

And if another box comes in the house.

I’ll do better.

Perhaps.

Instead of a blog post, today, I’ve spent some time cleaning up the blog.

I deleted a few pages like the Real Food page.

This isn’t Pinterest.  No one cares what we eat.

I also deleted the Grocery Goal page.

I still try to do my best when I shop, but I don’t remember to post it…ever, so I don’t think we need a page.

I’ve kept Books Read 2010 and Books Read 2012 and will be adding Books Read 2013, because I think some people like to see what books others are reading.

Kind of like Goodreads.

Love that site.

I don’t always remember to keep up with the Books Read 2012 page, but when I do, I add.

I kept Real Weight Loss, as I am trying hard to keep myself accountable with the exercise.

I do great when I’m not in school.

I do terribly when I am.

My major goal for 2013 will be to figure out an exercise plan that I can stick with, even during the week when I am working.

It may involve some very early hours or some late nights, but I really, really, really need to take better care of myself, for so many reasons.

I’m always open for ideas, if there is anything you’d like to see on the blog.

New feature days, new pages, etc.

Comments and questions always welcome!

Daily Gratitude, Day 25

Today I am grateful for my health.

Hide and Seek!

Daily Gratitude, Day 24
Today, I am grateful for family. The one that lives in this house and the rest that don’t.

Daily Gratitude, Day 22

I’m grateful that I have so many things to be thankful for that I have a hard time narrowing it down, each day, for the daily gratitude.

Daily Gratitude, Day 21

I’m grateful that 15 seconds after crying, Tiny can give a smile like the one above.

Okay, it’s not really my new pastime.

In fact, it’s not really even something I do every day.

However, when I get a minute here or there, I find myself thoroughly enjoying Quora.

It’s kind of like Pinterest for words.

People ask questions and people respond.

Sometimes, the answers are funny or snarky:

Question: How did Neil Patrick Harris get the job of Barney Stinson on “How I Met Your Mother” considering he’s gay?

Answer:  It’s called acting.

Sometimes they are serious:

Question:  What are the Obama girls really like?

Answer:  Nobody knows.
That’s by design.
There is a time-honored tradition in the USA that the children of the president are off-limits in any public forum.    No pictures not posed-for-with-the-prez, no speculation, no gossip.
They didn’t run for anything.    By an accident of history they are known world-wide.
It’s hard enough growing up with a team of secret service in tow and a helicopter over-head.
Let our curiosity give way to decency.

It’s also an area for people to create boards and share and store information they find.

Some of those boards are fun:

Famous Barney Stinson quotes (can you tell I was browsing some “HIMYM” boards?)

“Jesus waited three days to come back to life. It was perfect! If he had only waited one day, a lot of people wouldn’t have even heard he died. They’d be all, “Hey Jesus, what up?” and Jesus would probably be like, “What up? I died yesterday!” and they’d be all, “Uh, you look pretty alive to me, dude…” and then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected, and how it was a miracle, and the dude’d be like “Uhh okay, whatever you say, bro…” And he’s not gonna come back on a Saturday. Everybody’s busy, doing chores, workin’ the loom, trimmin’ the beard, NO. He waited the perfect number of days, three. Plus it’s Sunday, so everyone’s in church already, and they’re all in there like “Oh no, Jesus is dead”, and then BAM! He bursts in the back door, runnin’ up the aisle, everyone’s totally psyched, and FYI, that’s when he invented the high five. That’s why we wait three days to call a woman, because that’s how long Jesus wants us to wait…. True story.”

Others aren’t funny, and I won’t share them because…well, they can be boring.

You can type in just about anything and find information that is entertaining and relevant.

Granted, it’s written by regular people who aren’t necessarily experts, unless they are quoting research (which they often do) but it’s just a great site to get sucked into.

Teacher friends, so much discussion, insight, and information on teaching and education.

It’s like professional development on your couch.

Anyway, if you find you have a moment or two, head on over.

It’s a blast.

Daily Gratitude, Day 20

Today I am grateful that I have a life where I can engage in some mindless browsing of a site like Quora.  Too many people in this world are working three and four jobs to make ends meet and downtime and free time are words that have no meaning.  How lucky I am to have been given the opportunities that are denied to so many.

I’ll be honest with you, folks.

I got nothin’ today.

I’ve been trying to come up with a topic for today’s blog all weekend, and just keep coming up empty-handed.

Our dryer broke, so we’re washing clothes and then taking wet loads to our parents homes to dry which, logistically, is a bit of a pain, but how fortunate are we to have our parents all living within a five-mile range of us?

Here’s the irony.

Is it irony?

Probably not.

Here’s the thing.

Yeah, that’s better.

So, here’s the thing…

When we got married, my parents bought us our first washer and dryer as a wedding gift.

We took them with us when we moved from house 1 to house 2 and then from house 2 to house 3.

When we moved into house 3, the owners left behind their washer and dryer, but we wanted to keep using ours, so we gave the ones that were already in the house to my father-in-law who had a washer and dryer held together with rubber bands and chewing gum.

Then, when we bought this house, it turned out they had the exact same washer and dryer (forgot to see how old they were) so we decided to leave our wedding gifts at house 3 and go with the ones that were left behind here.

My bet is that the ones we left behind are still going strong.

This one?

Not so much.

Anyway, we spent our Sunday with Real Man up to his elbows in wires and tools and electricity and then researching washers and dryers and ordering and scheduling delivery for my new babies and driving our wet laundry around and drying it at our parents’ homes.

Saturday was spent at school, for Monkey Girl and I.

It was the dance auditions for the musical, and that eats up a Saturday.

However, once again, I have to say that the other directors are people that I enjoy immensely, and that takes the sting out of working all day Saturday.

And…I LOVE being the musical director of the show.

This year, we are doing Annie and it’s one of my favorites.

It was actually the second show we did when I started working at my current school, and I’ve always hoped we could do it again.

Saturday night, the monkeys were playing in the basement and Real Man and I were watching television in the living room.

As we flipped through the channels, Jaws was on and I commented that I had never seen the movie.

I’ve never seen The Godfather, either.

Apparently, I’m missing out.

Anyway, we started watching and Monkey in the Middle came up to ask me a question.

He got sucked in and crawled under the blanket with us.

About five minutes later, Baby Monkey came upstairs to see what the hold-up was and got sucked in, as well, and also snuggled under the blanket with us.

Finally, Monkey Girl, having been abandoned by her brothers joined us, and Real Man and I were no longer sweetly snuggling together on the couch, watching Jaws.

Instead, we were completely smushed into the couch, while three relatively large children were sprawled on top of us, asking a million questions about the movie.

I’d say they watched the last 45 minutes of the movie with us and, surprisingly, weren’t too scared by it.

I swear Baby Monkey has seen the movie before, because every few minutes or so, he’d say “You know what I’d do if I were on that ship?”

And whatever he said, the characters did in the next few minutes.

Love that kid.

Anyway, it turned out to be a really nice ending to a long day.

So, busy weekend that left me with no actual topic.

Hope you didn’t mind the recap.

It’s all I’ve got today.

Daily Gratitude, Day 19

Today I’m grateful that I have a career that I love which take the sting out of Monday mornings.