I’ve been tagged by  PosterGirl to tell 7 random facts about me. Since I’ve done this a few other times, I can’t think of anything new, until I come up with a theme. Last time my theme was "thankful." Since I was tagged with this, while I was dealing with my Scattered Scattegory Tag, I thought I should keep with the scattered theme. For instance, last week was just plain scattered.

1. Ever wear scattered colors? After I got dressed one morning, I grabbed some socks for the day to put on. Hunter green and burgundy. Hmmmmm… At least the colors go nicely together…
2. Ever have scattered flour? Last week I made some pizza dough, as I often do. After putting the flour in the KA, I usually give it a good whir to loosen it up. Being a scattered type of week for me, I turned it on HI, and…how did you guess? Yes, flour scattered everywhere. Sigh…
3. Ever have scattered birthday cake? One year we traveled out of state and spent my birthday at someone’s house. I can’t tell who. She reads this blog and might be embarrassed. ;) But as I was walking down the stairs into the kitchen, I saw my birthday cake getting flung around the kitchen, flying out of her mixer. After cleaning the kitchen, and putting the remaining batter into a pan to bake…the cake was delicious. There just wasn’t as much as there should have been. ;)
4. Then there was the scattered sandwich. When my oldest was a baby, we lived on base. That allowed my husband the opportunity to come home for lunch. One day as we sat down to eat, we noticed that his sandwich was missing. I knew I made one for him. But where did I put it? I went back out to the kitchen. Not on the counter. Not in the fridge. Not in the crisper or the freezer. Not in the deli compartment. Hmmmm… I looked in all of the cupboards and drawers. Nope. Not there either. Where else could it be? I opened the pantry closet and just stood there looking…looking…looking…until my eyes landed on the bag of loaf bread. What a silly place to put a sandwich. Well, what did I have to lose? I opened the loaf of bread…and there was the sandwich!
5. How about the scattered "beep"? One Christmas I bought a watch for my husband. This was back when I was pregnant with our oldest…not that that matters. But that was a long time ago. I wrapped the watch and put it under the Christmas tree with the other gifts. After awhile, I heard it "beep" with a high pitch. Just one. You know how watches do to signal the hour? I had absolutely no idea how to work all those buttons to make the beep stop. So I just let it go and acted confused, hoping I could confuse my husband for at least a day or two. That is easy for me to do because I have a bad ear from head surgery years ago. A balance nerve was cut, shutting down some of my hearing. Also when I hear sound, I don’t know what direction it comes from. So I could act innocent and get away with it, because my husband is used to me not knowing where a sound came from. He never figured out where that sound came from or what caused it. Even the cat was confused. She’d walk by the tree and hear a beep and she’d walk over and sniff. The cat knew the sound came from under the tree. The really funny thing, is my husband never believed her and looked elsewhere for the sound. ;)
6. Then there was the time of the scattered phone message. Before I was married, I had a roommate, Lori, who loved to create unique phone messages. One March, she played her Mary Poppins record "Let’s Go Fly a Kite" and had me record with her, "Hello. Laurie and Lori can’t come to the phone right now…because we’re busy flying a kite." She changed these seasonally and how I wish I had kept a log of her creativity. Well one birthday my brother gave me a tape cassette of phone messages featuring famous people. When she was gone one weekend, I changed the message on the machine. Lori loved to sing at the top of her lungs. Ahem, not that any of us would listen. So I played Ethel Merman singing, "I’ve got rhythm. I’ve got music. I’ve got an answering machine who could ask for anything more?" Now imagine that last word getting strung out with a super high voice and very long syllables. Lori used to sing like that. During the week, she got lots of comments from friends that they loved her new message of her singing, etc. She was sooooo confused. LOL

Finally, there was the scattered addresses. When Lori and I were roommates, I showed her all the neat things I got from my co-operating teacher, who was retiring. There were old magazine pictures from the 60’s…and some of them reminded us of some of our friends! Always full of clever ideas, Lori said we should caption them to mail to our friends. There was the dad wearing his dress blues Air Force uniform, hat cocked on his head, while he scratched his head. He was trying to figure out the next part of building the model airplane with his son. We mailed that to the guy I was dating (I am married to him now. ;) His caption read, "G______ and his son in 15 years." Then there was the picture of a guy wearing plaid shorts, with his wife and children, by the pool. We laughed so hard. That reminded us of P_____, because he always wore plaid shorts. Remember how big the right kind of plaid shorts were in the 80’s? He was very cool looking and we knew his wife would look just right, like the lady in the picture. And we knew they would have perfect children. So we captioned that, P_____ and his family in 15 years. That’s all I remember, but we did one for C________ and J______ and maybe others too. She said we had to be careful who did the writing, so no one would recognize our handwriting. So I ended up writing most of them; she did one for my boyfriend. As we addressed the envelopes, she got another brilliant idea. We should write their own addresses for the return addresses, so that G__________ was on P____________ and P__________ was on C_____________ and C________ on J____________, etc. So we did that and mailed them. And waited. Then the phone calls started. "Did y’all get one of these crazy envelopes…….." "No," Lori told C_______. Well eventually he figured out it had to be her. Finally she relented. But she told him I was in on it too. C__________ said, "Oh, no, Laurie would never do anything like that!" ;)

Oh, I almost forgot to tag 7 others.  Is that how many I need to tag?  Well, how about I tag scattered friends.  If you're reading this, and would like to play, consider yourself tagged!  ;)  Just let me know so I can check it out!

I was tagged by  kellieann to play Scattergories. I thought this would be fun (Definitely!) and easy (Not! Couldn’t even post it correctly, see below posts.  I finally got things straightened out!)

The game is called Scattergories. Use the first letter of your name and find words with that letter. The number of letters in your name determines how many people you can tag.

What is your name? Laurie

4 letter word: lamp

Vehicle: Lamborghini…My fifth grade boys used to write about these in their stories all the time.

City: London

Boy’s Name: Luke

Girl’s Name: LeAnn

Movie: Little Women

Occupation: Lamplighter

Something you wear: Leotard

Celebrity: Lauren Bacall

Food: Lasagne

Something found in a kitchen: Ladle

Something found in a bathroom: Laptop…What? Don’t believe me? Check this blog entry… 

 www.homeschoolblogger.com/teacupsinthegarden/467148/  

Reason for being late: Lackadaisical

Cartoon Character: Lucy from Peanuts

Something you shout: Land Ho!

Animal: Lamb

Body part:  Lap...This is my kitty's favorite spot, my lap!

Word to describe you…Lopsided…In 1987 I had major head surgery and a balance nerve was cut. Ever since, I’ve had a bit of difficulty with balance, mainly when I am tired. I sometimes walk lopsided. Sometimes when I am crouched to look at something low, I take a tumble. When I did bulletin boards in school and church, I’ve not been able to get the letters up straight. I can’t hang pictures up straight either. Even some of my posts come out lopsided! (see below entries)

When I told my children about this category, I was going to tell them "lopsided" was my answer, when my son yelled out…"Loving!" He said I should use it. I asked him how often I was loving and he piped up, "Most of the time!" Dd agreed!

So here are 6 people to tag:

MayTheyBeMightyMen

 gnjlopez

 4sweetums

SongOfTheSagebrush

 PosterGirl

Journeying with Joy (TOG Blogroll)

Williams Academy (TOG Blogroll)

The other night after 830pm, there was a rapid knock and ringing of the doorbell! Who could that be? We were just settling down for our advent candle. DH was going to ignore them. I started to worry that it was our neighbor who found another snake! DS was so curious, he went and looked and there was a box! The box I’ve been anxiously, I mean, patiently waiting for!

Do you remember this?

During the month of November, Kellie Ann ran a contest with the wreath. Who would be first to find it in a series of pictures? The prize was a cute pair of dangly earrings from Jeep Collins.

My dc asked me if I was going to participate and I said I’d play but didn’t think I would win. "Why not?", they exclaimed. Because I had to be first to see the wreath. Whenever I went to her blog, she already had about 6 comments for her latest entry. I didn’t expect to ever be first.

My dc were horrified with my attitude! "Mom, you’ve got to try! Don’t give up! Just do your best! If you work hard, you have nothing to complain about. You might even surprise yourself and win! You never know! You could if you put forth some effort! If you expect to lose and just give up, what good is that? Come on Mom, you can do it!"

Hmmmmm, where have I heard these words before? I had been working diligently to encourage my children to do their best in school, in chores, in contests they enter, in everything they do. Even when playing board games, they’d be discouraged when they were losing. I kept telling them to keep trying. Over the years, they’ve gotten pretty good at many things. If I didn’t pursue this challenge, my future words of encouragement would become worthless.

Everyday morning they would ask me, "Have you checked yet? Mom, you’re not checking enough!" I’d look at them in disbelief and respond, "I’ve checked 20 times already!" "Come on Mom, check again. You never know!" I’d check again and what do you know? There was a new set of pictures and time to hunt for the wreath! The dc loved joining me in the search.

Then we had a chance to guess how many mints were on the wreath. I figured out how many should be on one side of the wreath, but couldn’t figure out if there were any on the back. It was a choice of sticking with the number for the front or multiplying it by 2 to include the back. Finally I decided there were none on the back and e-mailed my guess. I was wrong. In hindsight, I should have doubled my guess. lol

Then there was the poetry contest. No way could I win that one! Don’t you know it, I’m just not a poet! Besides, Kellie Ann is a former English teacher. I didn’t feel worthy enough to enter the contest. Once again my dc rallied around me and insisted I try. My dc critiqued my poem before they allowed me to send it in. Imagine my surprise to tie for third!

www.homeschoolblogger.com/kellieann/432889/

 My children were hugely disappointed until I read the winning poems. After hearing them, they agreed, those were pretty good! In fact, ds started singing the first place song all day long and making me nutty! Oh, the things children retain!

My excitement over the possibility of winning grew one day. The day after Thanksgivng we drove to the small town of Fredericksburg.

www.homeschoolblogger.com/teacupsinthegarden/432761/

We go to this charming town several times a year to shop, eat and sightsee! Guess what one of the stores was? Jeep Collins! I had never even heard of him until this contest. He is from this area and has a lovely shop, in fact, this is the only shop he has. Nevertheless, he does do mail order!

www.jeepcollins.com

I had assumed he was from Kellie Ann’s part of the country. We walked around the shop and oohed and aahed over the jewelry.

Finally, Kellie Ann tallied up the points and made the grand announcement! I won! She said I was tenacious.

www.homeschoolblogger.com/kellieann/437432/

Well, I had my children to thank for that! =)

And I have Kellie Ann to thank for running this contest! Kellie Ann, maybe someday you can come out here for vacation! We could do up Fredericksburg. www.fredericksburgtexas.com

We could meet at Jeep Collins. We could shop. We could eat. Do more shopping. Do some sightseeing. Do some shopping. Do some sitting. Do some shopping. LOL The best time to come is in the spring when the bluebonnets are in bloom.

www.dannyburk.com/texas%20landscapes.htm

Up the road is the Wildseed Farm. Further up the road is the LBJ Ranch.

www.nps.gov/lyjo/naturescience/wildflowers.htm

Further up is Johnson City where LBJ grew up.

www.russfinley.com/main.php?g2_view=slideshow.Slideshow&g2_itemId=11612 - 61k  

Further up is Austin. San Antonio is to the south with the Riverwalk…more great eating... 

www.pbase.com/richo/riverwalk_christmas 

Being the 100^th entry, I tried to think of something special to commemorate the occasion. I was inspired by the song, "A Few of My Favorite Things" that was featured on "Sound of Music" but is now adapted for Christmas. "Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens…" Cheerfully humming the song, I realized my favorite things also had something in common with my blog! What do you think?

I pulled out my favorite jackets and vests…

I checked my tea cup collection…

My tea set…

And the rest of the collection…

I needed extra storage for the schoolroom so I bought these…

When I go into a fabric store I go totally nuts! These called to me to sew various quilts. Did you notice the two red florals in the top right…I forgot I bought it the first time, a few weeks later I purchased more!

These decorator fabrics (heavier weight) would be terrific for pillows, cushions, curtains…

I have worn out all of my summer clothes. This is a lightweight denim that is screaming to be whipped up into a pair of shorts. There are other floral prints in the lightweight denim collection at the store, so I’ll be buying more…

I thought this was it, but no, the children found still more that they think I ought to include. I loved these notecards so much, that I have them displayed in my downstairs half bath.

Then when I found these frames for the half bath, I went nuts…

I love pictures like these…

Then there is this cross stitch…but in my defense, dh is the one who found the pattern and asked me to cross stitch it…

Then, I happened to find these bluebonnet pictures at the Wildseed Farm near Fredericksburg. The one in back is a cutting board. I had previously purchased a fruit and vegetable one at Wal Mart. I had left it unwrapped, propped on the counter until I could no longer stand it and returned it. Now it was a pretty pattern, just not the right one for me! LOL

Then while on vacation in Virginia a few years ago, I got these…

I fell in love with the gardens of Colonial Williamsburg so much, I decided that owning one of those houses would be my dream home! In the meantime, since I need a daily planner to keep track of our busy lives, I might as well feel inspired! Which reminds me, I need a new one for 2008. Is it too late to order one on line? Then these notecards from CW keep coming in the mail…

Guess what I got in Colorado?

My children thought I should show the t-shirt from Colorado I am wearing, and there are many more just like it! I even have one from the Wildseed Farm in Fredericksburg!!! I’ll let you imagine those.

I love these poetry books filled with gorgeous pictures around the country. They also had recipes, devotionals, a little history and Christian pieces. Since they changed ownership, they no longer offer a subscription. In fact, I have to wonder if they even offer this particular publication anymore.

But then I recalled my magazine collection. The insides are full of delightful pictures of, guess what?

Southern Living is terrific. It has ideas for vacationing, including day trips in my area! Gardening, decorating and wonderful recipes abound! However I think the editor changed and it’s not quite as over the top as it used to be. www.southernliving.com

I’m not as nutty about Romantic Homes like I used to be. They keep changing editors and that changes the style of the magazine. Now there are fewer of my favorite things. That’s why there aren’t as many of them in the picture. I only pick it up once in a while if something catches my eye.  www.romantichomes.com

One December evening, a few years ago, the doorbell rang. I was expecting our music pastor to show up for the Grinch Santa hat I had been resizing for our upcoming production of "Christmas Shoes." His wife needed it the next morning for her Grinch song at the public school. Not realizing this hat had to double duty in 2 musicals, I quickly opened the door, hat in hand, but no one was there! Puzzled, I looked around and something on the ground caught my eye…a can of food and a note. I picked it up and it was a can of pears with the note, "On the first day of Christmas your crazy friends gave to you, a partridge in a pear tree." At first I suspected the music pastor or a choir member. I looked around the corner but saw no one. Here is the list of things we received on the next 11 days, as best as the children and I can recall.

1 Partridge in a Pear Tree-can of pears

2 Turtle Doves-bag of Dove chocolates

3 French Hens-Bag of Fancy Frozen French Fries

4 Calling Birds-play plastic cell phones

5 Golden Rings-can of pineapple rings

6 Geese A-Laying-apple ornament (This was a talented goose to be able to lay apples!)

7 Swans A Swimming-Swan Bubble Bath

8 Maids A-Milking-butterscotch candies

9 Ladies Dancing-(we can’t remember, perhaps little dancing shoes?)

10 Lords A-Leaping-rubber ball

11 Pipers Piping-whistles

12 Drummers Drumming-My friend and her husband and children showed up at door and sang, "On the 12^th day of Christmas your crazy friends gave to you…." Then they gave us some pencils that said "Happy Birthday Jesus."

This was from my dear friend who always said she didn’t have a creative bone in her body. I had to disagree! She wanted to bless me during my busy season of working on the choir production. In the meantime I had gotten very sick, so a lot of our usual Christmas fun had to go by the wayside. This seemed so Providential and I truly felt blessed.

She told me that her children dressed in black clothes and had a flashlight. She drove them to near our house and they snuck out of their van to sneakily approach our house and quickly ring the doorbell and leave the gift. Then they’d run down the street to get in the van and take off. The notes were in handwriting, which I eventually recognized. But I had no idea what they would come up with next. The rest of the family was guessing. DS saw the van the first night and recognized it as theirs, so if any of you want to do this and you accidentally get caught, it's still fun! I had planned on surprising them with treats and a trip to their house on the last night, waiting for them to come back from our house. But my kids and I had gotten sick and life around here seems to stop when I get sick. My plans would have been foiled anyway because she surprised me yet again. On the last day, I was out to check the mail and walking up the hill, when they were standing at our front door talking to dh and the kids. Suddenly I realized why they were there…it was day 12. When I got to the door, they told me to hurry and go in and shut the door. Realizing why, although not knowing what in the world they were going to do, I walked in and shut the door. My family thought I was so rude! They rang the doorbell and we opened the door and they sang the last verse! It took a while for dh to realize what was going on. He still thought our next door neighbor had been doing this! It was too much fun and these are some of my happiest Christmas memories!

This morning began like one of those days. Sigh. I had a 730am appointment for a mammogram. Long travel story short, due to all of the newly constructed subdivisions in my area, I have discovered the hard way that it takes forty minutes for me to drive seven miles to the base hospital at 7am. I was fifteen minutes late.

Eventually I was called in. It’s difficult enough to stand in the mandatory awkward positions necessary to screen for our health. I have the added bonus of not having one of my balance nerves, as a result of head surgery years ago. Not only do I find it difficult to balance myself, but I also become light headed. Therefore, I must dress properly for the occasion. Wearing a pair of sneakers with excellent traction, I have hopes to prevent possible slipping. I am okay while being positioned, but far too many times when the tech has left to take the image, I have found myself precariously teetering while clamped in place, fearful that I would end up slipping, my feet ending up and the air and leaving me dangling…

Always, while in this humbling position, I think of a forward that was sent to me years ago, before I had my first mammogram. I am thankful that I have so far left in better shape than this poor lady…

The first mammogram is the worst, especially when the machine catches fire. That’s what happened to me. The technician positioned me exactly as she wanted: think of a really complicated game of Twister- right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right b***** as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body.
Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my b***** turned inside out. I'm pretty sure Victoria's secret doesn't have a b** for that.
Suddenly, there was a popping noise. I looked down at my right b***** to make sure it hadn't exploded. Nope, it was still flat as a pancake and still attached to my body. "Oh, no" the technician said loudly.
These are, perhaps, the words you least want to hear from any health professional. Suddenly, she went flying past me, lab coat whipping behind, on her way out the door. She yelled over her shoulder: " The machines on fire! I'm going to get help!"
OK, I was wrong. "The machine is on fire" are the worst words you can hear from a health care professional. Especially if you're attached to a machine and don't know if its the machine in question.
I struggled for a few seconds trying to get free, but even Houdini couldn't have escaped. I decided to go with plan B: yelling at the top my lungs ( the one that was still working).
I hadn't seen anything on fire, so my panic hadn't quite reached epic proportions, but then I started to smell smoke coming from behind the partition. This is ridiculous I thought. I can't die like this. What would they put in my obituary? Cause of death: b***** entrapment? I may have inhaled some fumes, because at this time I started to hallucinate. An imaginary fireman rushed in with a hatchet."Howdy Ma'am" he says. "What's happened here?" he asks, averting his eyes.
"My b****** were to hot for the machine" I quipped , as my imaginary fireman ran out again. "This is gonna take the jaws of life!".
In reality, the technician returned with a fire extinguisher and put out the fire. She gave me a big smile and released me from the machine. "Sorry! That's the first time that's ever happened. Why don't you take a few minutes to relax before we finish up?"
I think that's what she said. I was running across the parking lot in my backless paper gown at the time. I figure I might go back in a few years. But I am bringing my own fire extinguisher.

Yesterday 4sweetums gave me this award!  What a surprise! We certainly did meet in a funny way! I had been wanting to change the look of my blog, so I created a new one to practice with. I poured out my heart over there, not intending to advertise and not realizing I could set it to private viewing. She found me lickety split, gave me a wonderful dose of encouragement, and made me a friend! =) I had to run over to her place and tell her I had a real blog with far more interesting entries. She made me feel like a friend right off the bat.

There are many worthy blogger friends but I need to be selective and choose a few. I’d like to pass this award on to the following bloggers who have touched my heart by being faithful blog readers who leave encouraging comments and helping me figure out this new blogging world.  The comments I receive, and the trips I enjoy making to their own blogs, makes me feel as though deep friendships are forming! =)

 proverbsmomof3 She was the first to find me at this blog, my real blog. =) She has given this newbie blogger lots of wonderful tips for succeeding in the blogging world. It’s been a massive learning curve and she’s been with me all the way! Thank you! 

www.journeyingwithjoy.blogspot.com

She is one of my TOG friends whom I met through our TOG yahoo group. We started blogging about the same time. Incidentally, she owns my couch, my rocking chair….and I think something else but I forget! LOL Actually, we own identical pieces of furniture! Even if one of my kids happen to be looking over my shoulder, and they see "our furniture" in one of her photos they always exclaim, "There’s our couch"! Or "There’s our rocking chair!" LOL She reads all of my entries and always leaves wonderfully supportive comments!  

 www.williamsacademy.blogspot.com

Another TOG friend from the TOG yahoo group, she also posts many supportive comments, as well as sending me wonderfully supportive private e-mails! We have discovered that we have numerous things in common. Only a day’s drive from me, she has been making plans for a future trip down here so that we can meet face to face! Of course, she is looking forward to seeing the sites around me that she has not visited in several years.  As you can see, I am trying, unsuccessfully, to be patient! =)  

gnjlopez
She is so sweet, that despite her depths of morning sickness, whenever she’s online she makes a trip over to see my latest entry and post an encouraging comment! I like to play the music in her background because it soothes the depths of my soul!

I came in to the blogging world wondering how I would ever get to know anyone.  Thank you ladies for helping me to feel as though I belong.  =)  This award truely applies to all who have stopped by for a cup of tea in my garden.  Thank you all! 

Being from upstate New York, dh loves autumn. He misses his home state most this time of year, because Texas isn't necessarily lush with vibrant autumn colors. To compensate, I try to decorate the house with autumn items for him. (Un)fortunately the last several autumns dh has embarked on fresh house remodels which showers layers of construction dust everywhere. As a result, my seasonal allergies are not so much the ragweed but the multitudes of dust that cling to every known surface. Daily dusting results in a fresh surface for more dust particles to rapidly accumulate. Therefore, I have a tendency to store collectibles and leave the shelves as bare as possible. Escaping the dust as often as possible, I flee to window shop and complete errands, leaving dh to make more dust. =) How wonderful to walk in stores where I can breathe freely, accented by scents of cinnamon, pumpkin and other miscellaneous seasonal temptations. Meanwhile, the displays nag me, entice me, and call to me. Finally, I purchase a few irresistible pieces, hoping to display them in due time because surely dh’s remodel will be complete before October ends. Meanwhile the autumnal décor waits patiently in a corner of the dining room, stored in the shopping bag, until Thanksgiving passes, the remodel nears an end, and it goes into storage in some closet, cupboard or the garage for another year. Since this has gone on for several years, I have accumulated quite a collection. Forgetting what I have purchased over the years, I’ll one day be surprised as I open packages and decorate to my heart’s content.

Then, if its not construction hindering my decorating efforts, it’s the warm temperatures turning the colorful pumpkins and gourds into a decaying mess. I have purchased early, put them on the porch, and they have gotten yucky. Also, I have purchased late, only to find that there are few left to choose at the stores because they are yucky messes. Wanting a selection of several festive gourds to decorate the last week of October, to use in our upcoming unit celebration, and to decorate for Thanksgiving, I was desperate for an effective means of preservation.  This year I have hit upon what I think is the mother of all solutions to combat our Texas autumnal heatwaves…

Anytime dh goes into the fridge for a drink of delicious apple cider (his favorite autumnal drink) he is met by the colorful assortment on the bottom shelf of the fridge…dust free I might add! ;)

I got tagged for this at the blog of • hmschlmomto2

Two names you go by:

Laurie and well, that’s it.

Two things you are wearing right now:

Blue blouse and ecru shorts

Two things you want in a relationship:

Time together and depth

Two things you want very badly at this moment:

Relief from stress headaches and for ds to stop coughing or I’ll have to call doc tomorrow.

Two pets you have had:

Duke the dachshund-I had lived in Hawaii and became scared of dogs. When we moved to the mainland, my grandma gave me a dachshund for my fourth birthday to get over my fear. He was named after the famed Hawaiian Olympic swimmer, Duke Kahanamoku, who was named after his dad who was named after the Duke of Edinburgh who had visited the island.

http://www.co.honolulu.hi.us/cameras/waikiki_beach/duke.htm

Slipper the tortoise shell kitty, whom I’ve had for 17 1/2 years.

Two people who will fill this out:

Hmmmmm, if interested you can be one of them! Let me know so I can visit your blog.

Two things you did last night:

Made tacos for dinner and took a walk.

Two people who live at your house:

Guys and gals.

Two things you ate today:

Grilled chicken and spaghetti squash.

Two people you talked to last:

I can’t remember…either dh, ds, or dd!

Two things you are going to do tomorrow:

Start school and call the doc about ds’s cough.

Two longest car rides:

From PA to San Francisco, CA when I was 9 months old to fly to Hawaii.

From San Francisco, CA to central TX when I was 3 and returned to the mainland.

Two favorite holidays:

Christmas and Fourth of July.

Two favorite drinks:

Diet Vanilla Pepsi and flavored ice tea from my favorite tea room.

Tropical Storm Erin landed this morning and I awoke to a brief, heavy shower. As the kids got ready for the day, I canceled all appointments. I knew we might not get enough rain to warrant canceling them, but I felt a lot better having done so. Then we got out while the getting was good to go to the commissary and get the rest of the food we needed. We arrived at the store amidst heavy sprinkles and drove home in a shower. After lunch I headed over to one of my favorite blogs,