My Real Life

May 29, 2012

Truthful Tuesday

Filed under: Truthful Tuesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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No question to answer today.

Just a story.

18 years ago, Memorial Day weekend 1994, Real Man and I were just friends.

We had dated for a few months in high school, and had dated for a few months our freshman year in college (him in NJ, me in Ohio), but even though we had broken up four years earlier, we were still friends.

When I graduated, early that May, and came home, we were hanging out a lot and were realizing that we had never really gotten over each other…the timing just hadn’t been right before.

I was ready to start dating him again, because at this point, I was convinced he was “the one.”

He wasn’t so sure.

Not that he didn’t think I was “the one,” but we had tried it twice before and it hadn’t worked.

What would be different this time?

Memorial Day weekend, he and I decided to drive down to the Jersey Shore together.

We spent the day on the beach at Seaside Heights.

We people watched, we swam, we napped, we laughed.

And, in the late afternoon, we talked, and Real Man said, “Let’s give it a try.  It’ll either be the biggest mistake of my life, or the best decision I’ve ever made, but let’s go for it.”

18 years, (almost 14 of them married), 4 kids, 4 houses, 5 jobs (between us), 7 cars, pounds up, pounds down, arguments, make-ups, tears and laughter later, I’d like to think it was the best decision we ever made.

So, here’s a Happy Anniversary (of sorts) to my sweetie, my love, my life.

And that’s the truth!

May 15, 2012

Truthful Tuesday

Filed under: Truthful Tuesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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Today’s questions come from Heather and Jen.  Heather and Jen were nice enough to create a list of questions for me to answer today, so thanks ladies, and on with the show!

1.  The most important lesson I’d like to teach my children is___________.

To be kind.

I really just want them to be good people.

How we treat others is so very important, and I just want my children to be kind.

There is so much thoughtlessness in the world, I want them to be mindfully kind.

I don’t think people always are meaning to be unkind…I think they just don’t think hard enough to realize that kindness is a choice.

Makes me sad.

If everyone were more kind, the world would be so much different.

2.  Which would be harder for you to hear…..the honest but difficult truth, or a nice but obvious bold faced lie?

Harder to hear?

The lie.

I’m pretty good at sniffing out lies, and I find lies to be the ultimate in disrespect.

So, if you are lying to my face, in my mind, you don’t respect me.

Always tell me the truth, even if you think it will hurt me.

I will appreciate that more than you could ever know.

3.  At the end of your life what would you like people to remember you most for?

This goes hand-in-hand with Question #3.

I’d want people to remember me as a good person.

That would be enough for me.

4.  Peas or spinach?

Peas.

I love peas, but I hate spinach.

I know how good it is for you, but ick.

5.  Fat and funny or skinny and no sense of humor?

Oh, fat and funny, as long as it was true humor and not self-deprecating funny.

I so appreciate a good sense of humor, and people who can make me laugh are always good with me.

Although, with my diabetes, it’s kind of important that I not be fat, so healthy-weighted and funny would be optimal for me. 🙂

6.  What’s one place you really want to go, but need to use your kids as an excuse?

I really, really want to go to Harry Potter world at Universal Studios in Florida.

And, I don’t even bother using the kids as an excuse.

I just want to go.

However, it’s entirely helpful that the kids want to go, too.

7.  Milk out your nose or sand in the bathing suit?

Milk out my nose.

It happens once, it burns, it usually happens because I’m laughing, and then I’m done.

Sand in the bathing suit is a tragedy that never really ends.

You find those grains of sand for DAYS afterward.

So, milk out my nose.

8.  Truth or dare?

I’d take either.

Not afraid of dares and always willing to tell the truth.

And that’s the truth!

May 1, 2012

Truthful Tuesday: Heartbroken

Filed under: Truthful Tuesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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I had a different Truthful Tuesday set for today.

Then, my friend, Bonnie, sent me a link to a blog.

I clicked, I read, I cried and cried and cried and I remembered, once again, how ridiculously lucky I am that my babies are all strong and healthy.

By sharing today, I’m doing my part to help spread the story and help her meet a goal on the list.

Please visit the blog and read.

And as you read, remember how very, very fortunate you are, in your own life.

Avery’s Bucket List

Edited to add:  I just went to Avery’s blog at 10:10 am 5.1.12 and found that she passed away last night.  Heartbroken doesn’t begin to describe it.

April 17, 2012

Truthful Tuesday: Quirks

Filed under: Truthful Tuesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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Today’s question comes from Heather.

Heather writes:

Do you have any really “bizarre” quirks? Like, I rarely if ever buy the same toothpaste two times in a row. I just can’t. I get bored with toothpaste flavor and style and truly, I can’t buy the same one twice. It’s so odd I almost can’t admit it but I just did.

Once again, I turned to Real Man, who, apparently, doesn’t know that the correct answer to, “Honey, do I have any really bizarre quirks?” is “What???  Are you crazy?  You are the perfect woman!  The perfect human!  Quirks?  Ha!  You laugh in the face of quirks!”

Instead, he began to rattle off a list.

1.  When I eat Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Eggs, Trees, Hearts, and whatever other shape they come in, I eat all the chocolate off, until I am left with a weird, misshapen lump of peanut butter.

Then, I put it on my tongue and smush it up against the roof of my mouth.

Then, I try to swallow it and my voice gets all icky and chokey.

And I love it.

Not eating my Reese’s like a normal person.

Quirk.

2.  We try to watch tv in the living room, as we have a beautiful tv in there.

However, some nights, I can tell I’m going to fall asleep, and I hate falling asleep on the couch and having to move, so we go upstairs and watch in bed.

As we’re watching, I think I’m awake.

I’m positive I’m awake.

I hear Real Man say, “Amy, are you awake?”

I say, “Yes.”

He says, “I don’t think so.”

And, at this point, I realize my eyes are closed and I open them and find Real Man’s hand in front of my face, where it has been, apparently, for five minutes.

Not being able to admit when I’m asleep.

Quirk.

3.  The moment I wake up in the morning, Real Man can tell if I’ve had asthma in the night, whether or not he woke up when I used my inhaler.

How?

Because, when I have asthma, even when I’m sleeping, I scratch the lower right side of my cheek.

And I scratch it until it bleeds.

I don’t even know I’m doing it, but I do.

Every time.

Scratching the heck outta my face when I can’t breathe.

Quirk.

4.  When I eat M&M’s, I eat them by color.

Now, I don’t make charts and graphs, like Monkey in the Middle:

But, I do like my M&M’s eaten in an orderly fashion.

Neat M&M eating.

Quirk.

5.  I turn everything into a song.

Everything.

But, Real Man recognizes that he does it, too.

Sometimes we make up the melody, but sometimes we use other songs.

For example, as I am typing this, Tiny is sleeping, but everyone else is up, and we are hanging in the living room.

Monkey in the Middle and I are playing Words With Friends against each other, and he is beating the pants off of me (and no, I do NOT let him win) because he’s got good strategy and he is leaving me nowhere to go.

So, I made one good move and he says, “Mom…you’re killing me!”

And, Real Man and I immediately started singing about me killing him to the tune of “Killing Me Softly.”

It probably went on for ten minutes.

And, after the first three minutes, we started singing in weird voices, and the kids just began to shake their heads.

Putting everything to song and then using a weird voice to sing it.

Quirk.

April 10, 2012

Truthful Tuesday: Hot Buttons

Filed under: Truthful Tuesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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Today’s question comes from Heather.

Heather writes: Do you have a “hot button issue” that you just physically can’t ignore if it’s pushed on FB or in person?

To answer this question, I asked Real Man, because who would know about what makes me hopping mad better than my husband?

And, of course, he immediately began to rattle off a list:

Anyone who is trying to legislate what other people do with their lives or their bodies, namely people trying to make gay marriage illegal and outlaw abortion, and people who don’t know the facts about something and go spouting off about it.

I understand that there are choices that people may not make for themselves, but I do not believe that gives them the right to say that someone else can’t or shouldn’t do it.  It feels like the Stone Age with regards to many things when I hear people say that there is only one way that things can be done.

As for the other, it drives me batty when people say things or post things on Facebook without having all the facts.  I love a rich, full political debate and discussion, but only, only when both sides know what they are talking about and have the facts to back themselves up.  Don’t like Obama?  Okay…I’m fine with that.  But, don’t post a status about how he’s taken away basic human rights or saying he’s raised the debt higher than any other American president, cuz it just ain’t so.  Not a fan of public education?  I’m sorry to hear it, but don’t start quoting test scores when you have no idea what those test scores really show.  And, you should know that it goes both ways.  I wasn’t a fan of George Bush, but I didn’t tolerate misinformation about him, either.

And while it’s not a political issue or one that is even really talked about on Facebook or anything, people hurting children is a stop on a dime, no debate, no discussion, fry their asses kind of topic for me.

You hurt a child, I don’t care the excuse, the story, the reason, there is no rationalization that is acceptable to me, and I want the harshest, harshest punishment for you.

And that’s the truth.

March 27, 2012

Truthful Tuesday – Albatross

Filed under: Truthful Tuesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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I believe I’ve spoken before about a few things that I consider to be albatrosses around my neck.

None of them are as bad as the actual dead albatross that the ancient mariner had to carry around his neck, but then, I don’t go around shooting birds, so none of them would be.

Still, they are burdens that I carry around with me and that I am ashamed of.

Today, I share one of these shameful secrets.

It is this:

See this bag?

It hangs on the back of our bedroom door.

Why is this a shameful secret, you ask?

Well, did you ever see the episode ofEverybody Loves Raymond where they come home from vacation and they have a suitcase that just sits at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for someone to pick it up and take it up?

It sits there for, I believe, months, while Ray and Debra wait each other out…seeing who will be the one to crack and take it upstairs, to where it belongs.

Well, it’s kinda like that, except Real Man and I aren’t engaged in a battle of wills over this particular item.

It’s just kinda there.

How long has it been there, you ask?

Well, remember last summer when we went to the beach with my parents?

In August?

Yeah.  Since we came back.

It was a plastic bag that I carried around as we did a final run through to make sure we had all our stuff.

I have no idea what is in there.

Okay, that’s a lie.

I can see that a pen has somehow poked its way through the side of the bag, so I know there’s a pen in there.

The boys tell me there is a helicopter toy in there.

And yet, even they don’t seem to feel the urge to reach in and get it.

I don’t know what it is about this bag.

A mess drives me nuts.

Things not in their place make me itch.

But this bag?

I couldn’t care less about it.

Even now, as I type this, I am sitting on my bed, looking at the bag.

We clearly haven’t used anything in the bag for 7 months.

I should just pick it up and throw it away.

I throw away EVERYTHING.

I know I’ve mentioned this before.

And, yet…the bag.

So, maybe one of these days I’ll take that bag and shove it.

One of my goals, over Spring Break, is to fill a trash bag every day with items to either throw away or donate and get ’em outta here.

Maybe the bag will make the toss pile.

Maybe not.

Please remember, I’m always taking questions for Truthful Tuesday posts!  Either leave them in the comments or shoot me an email! 🙂

March 20, 2012

Truthful Tuesday: Surprised

Filed under: Truthful Tuesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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As I write this, there are 22 votes on the poll from Monday, yet there are 117 hits on the blog.

So, either, no one cares what I write about…they’ll read it anyway,

OR

I get a lot of random hits during the day.

However, I was pretty surprised with the results of the poll, such as they were.

It appears as though the favorite regular feature, by a mile, is Five Question Friday.

And yet…

My numbers are always the lowest on Fridays.

So, although it seems to be the favorite regular feature, it is also the feature that gets the least amount of readers.

Not sure how to interpret that.

I do know that I get the most hits on Mondays and Thursdays, when I don’t run feature posts, so that could be telling me something, outside of the poll.

The least favorite feature is, apparently, Wordless Wednesday, and I gotta tell ya…that kills me.

Wordless Wednesday is like a day off without actually taking the day off.

I guess I should be flattered that people don’t love Wordless Wednesday, because maybe it means that they like to read what I write, and if there is no writing, they’d rather not bother.

Hmmm…

My plan was to knock out the feature with the lowest numbers, but I’ll be honest..I need to think about that.

I kindaneed Wordless Wednesday.

And that’s the truth.

March 13, 2012

Truthful Tuesday

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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Well, I’m not answering any questions today, but I am still sharing with you something that I might not normally have shared.

I was looking through my iPhone photos, the other day, because I’m now over 1,000 photos, thanks to some help from Baby Monkey who thinks he is the next Annie Leibovitz.

I came across a photo that I desperately wanted to delete, but then decided not to delete because it might be cool for Tiny to see someday.

When I was pregnant with Monkey Girl, I took a picture of myself every month to show the growth of my belly.

I did the same with Monkey in the Middle and Baby, but, as you can imagine, they were lost with the great computer crash of 2009.

With Tiny, I’ll be honest, it never crossed my mind.

And then I came across this picture and realized a few things:

1.  Thank God that kid was 3 weeks early.  I don’t think there was any more space in there for him.

2.  The last month of pregnancy is exhausting.

3.  Boy babies suck the beauty out of you just as much as their girl counterparts do.

4.  Perhaps people weren’t as out of line as I thought they were when they asked things like, “Haven’t you had that baby yet?”

5.  It doesn’t matter how many monkeys I have (and I will only have 4 for the rest of my life) I will always want more.

6.  I loved being pregnant.  (This isn’t news…I just remember how much I loved it when I look at this picture, even though this is, apparently, what I look like when I am pregnant.)

7.  Pregnancy is a freaking miracle and although I know the science behind it and how it all works, I’m completely amazed (and endlessly grateful), all the time, when it goes right.

8.  I’m a very, very lucky woman.

So, here it is.

I’m normally not a sharer of things like belly pics, as I think they are quite personal.

And this could be one of the worst pictures ever taken of me, which is why it made it to Truthful Tuesday, which is about the good, the bad, and the water retention.

However, I’m all covered up here, so I’m going with it.

And that’s the truth.

 

March 6, 2012

Truthful Tuesday

Today’s question comes from reader Jen.

Jen writes:

You, like me have 1 girl and 3 boys. Do you feel you have a different kind of “bond” with your daughter? Don’t get me wrong, I love all my children equally, but for some reason my daughter and I share something different. Maybe it is because she is the only girl, but we have a Mother/Daughter relationship and then a friend relationship. As her mom she respects me, but as her friend, she tells me everything, and isn’t scared to share things with me.

I don’t want to wimp out and not answer the question, but I think I’ve already somewhat explained it with this post from 2009.  Please click the link and read that post and click on the link in that post to get to the answer.

Sounds convoluted, but I swear, it will answer the question and be worth it.

(And if you still feel like I haven’t answered to the best of my ability, I’ll be happy to expound further at another time.)

February 28, 2012

Truthful Tuesday

Filed under: Truthful Tuesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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Today, I don’t answer any questions.

Today, I just share with you something that I saw online a few weeks ago and inscribed itself in my brain.

On my heart.

Why?

Because I do take on too much, work too hard, expect too much of myself, and am my own worst critic.

And while I keep my head up high and hold it together and put on a good front, there are many, many days when this is how I feel:

And that’s the truth.

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