3 for Thursday... Again

Maybe someday I'll do something other than this again... maybe.

Evelyn got all nostalgic on us this time around, here goes nothing...


3 Long lost hobbies...

Shopping. I'm way too broke for that to be fun anymore... ahhh to be able to tell that seventeen year old with a full time job who only had to pay a car payment and a cell phone bill and had money to burn to save some of that cash...

Playing with make up. It started when Stinky was a baby. My Great Lash was the first to go... the rest of my eye make up soon followed and by the time Ralph came along I was allergic to almost all make up and forced to leave the house in nothing but loose powder and blush. And anything I buy has to be the fancy hypoallergenic crap. I once went to a Mary Kay thing and reacted to everything they used and then had to dodge the salesgirl for about a year afterwards. Seriously? Weren't you there? I had to scrub my face off in the hostesses bathroom before I could leave.

Driving Around for Fun. I still remember driving around West Kaysville with all the windows down and the roof open with my BFF Stacy Jean singing Savage Garden (played from a tape copy made from a CD no less...) WAY too loud. But back then gas hovered around $1/gallon and it never broke $15 to fill the Civic.

3 Jobs/careers I've had..

I home-schooled through HS and graduated when I was 16. After a disastrous semester at UofU I took a vo-tec class and got to be a Certified Pharmacy Technician. It was a great job. Cushy. Easy. With REALLY good money for a teenage girl. Seriously. I made 20k a year when I was 17. And, the best part, I really loved it.

The semester I went back to school I got a job working for the Disability Resource Center (DRC) on campus. I formatted textbooks that had been scanned in so that they could be printed in braille. It was also pretty easy work and I could do it in the computer lab where Dad worked while I waited for him to be done for the day.

Mom Co. Biological Engineering & Human Resources. Though I'll admit that the Biological Engineering department is suffering from some major downsizing, company leaders are considering cutting the department altogether; The HR side of things is busier than ever with four small people worth of crap to keep track of and take care of.

3 Childhood dreams that came true...

Marrying in the temple. Even at my teenage worst I knew that was something I wanted and I would not compromise.

Marrying a guy who treats me the way my Dad treated my Mom. I know he'd do anything for me, just because I asked him to.

Being a Mom. Deep down it seriously was all I wanted to do. "I just want to meet a nice guy, get married, and have babies." Being here and being Mom and taking care of all the house crap (except the laundry :P ) is really a dream come true. Owning this life, with this guy, these kids, this house... seriously. All I ever wanted.

3 Childhood dreams that didn't come true...

I was one of those preteen girls who wanted to be a Marine Biologist when I grew up. Until I realized I'd need to learn to swim... then that went right out the window.

Med School. I was pre-med when I registered at the U. I wanted to be Addison Montgomery, a maternal-fetal medicine genius. But... babies. I wanna have babies. And I wanna stay home with them. And not pay 200k in student loans while I stay home with my own babies.

I did not, in fact, marry Doug from 1st grade. Even though I kissed him on the playground and promised I would. :)

3 Toys I asked for for Christmas when I was a kid...

This one is tricky. I grew up overseas while my Dad was in the Air Force. We watched base TV, which had no commercials... so no toy ads. I remember flipping through the HUGE Penney's catalog and wanting it all, like all kids do. But I really don't remember anything specific. We didn't really do the shopping list for Santa thing...

I remember asking for a CD player and a spoiler for my car when I was a teenager... my Mom was smart. I still have the quilt made from the stack of material I got instead and it's going to look amazing on the wall in my room as a headboard of sorts over my new bed. We traded the car 5 years ago.

I asked for all the Harry Potter books one year... my sister had a set but I figured she wouldn't let me take hers when I moved out...

3 pictures...

Totally candid engagement picture. My favorite.

Stinky, on the day we brought him home from the hospital.

The cutest dang baby girl there ever was :)

3 for Thursday

So glad that Evelyn brought this back :)

Three things I stole from my kids' Halloween candy stash...

Milky Ways
Now & Laters
Snickers

Three things I buy that have to be name brand...

Mayo (Hellman's all the way)
Downy (It's not the same. Trust me. I tried it.)
Tortillas (a local brand, Mi Casa, is as close to fresh restaurant made tortillas as it gets)

Three things I spend more than 15 minutes doing every day...

Trying not to fall asleep on the couch
Poking around Pinterest
Cooking something

Three things that put me in a fantastic mood...

Girl time out of the house, away from the kids.
Really, really good books.
Unexpected weight loss.

Three things I do that a grown woman has no right to be doing anymore...

Sing along to Backstreet Boys, NSync, Westlife or any other boy band of the late 90's.
Eat mini Snickers bars and Pepsi for breakfast.
Avoid grown ups who get on my nerves.

Three pictures...

Booger Head is confused by this Halloween card :) "What is this? This is mine? Really? Are you sure?"

Dad carved this sweet Avatar pumpkin and I filled it with blue and green glow sticks. It was pretty awesome.

Ralph sitting quietly watching a movie on my Zune during parent teacher conference. Cute little nerd.

3 for Thursday

Thanks to Evelyn for giving me the push I needed to do this today...

Three accomplishments that I have under my belt:
1. Dad and I are approaching our 10th anniversary.
2. This month alone I am throwing one baby shower, making invitations for another, making two Christmas stockings for a friend, starting a pre-school co-op with this fun lady, starting volunteering at the school again...
3. I bought a curling iron and used it without burning myself.

Three things that my grandma and I have in common: (I'm gonna go with Great Grandma here...)
1. We both think her daughter is a little unbalanced.
2. A love of reading.
3. We both love getting letters from each other in the mail.

Three plans for Labor Day:
1. Not getting up at 6:30am to get monsters ready for school
2. Recover my kitchen chairs. Hopefully. Dang kids.
3. Drive an hour to the Scout Store to stock up on awards for Pack Meeting next week.

Three ridiculous things I have spent money on:
1. Shoes that I can't wear because I have crappy feet.
2. Cat toys, and a cat bed, that my cat doesn't even look at when she walks past them.
3. I'm going to agree with Evelyn on this last one. Dumb boys in High School. I could just smack my 16 year old self.

Three things that only time will fix:
1. I like to think that someday I will be well rested...
2. Hopefully our finances.
3. My calendar. Counting down to the end of soccer, again.

Three pictures: 

 Glorious, homemade, Oreos. Mmmm.

Stinky playing games on Dad's Zune while waiting for the dentist. When I took Ralph we watched Muppet videos on YouTube on my phone... not sure what we would do with the kids without the aid of electronics sometimes.

Baby Booger Head back on his birthday. *Sniff sniff* The little turd is growing up way to fast.

Hey! Remember That Blog I Used to Have?

What could be a more perfect way to come back than with the first item on Evelyn's Three for Thursday prompt list?

Three excuses...
I'm tired.
It's summer "vacation."
I have four monsters who kept me INSANELY busy between the middle of May and the end of June. Perhaps we'll cover all that another day... And then I took a week, or two, to try and recover and instead of relaxing I got sucked into some furniture refinishing/decorating projects. The results of which are AMAZING.

See...

 

And... (x3)

Pretty dang snazzy, huh?

Three favorite children's books...

Any of the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems

17 Things I Am Not Allowed To Do Anymore by Jenny Offill

Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess

Three Decorating Styles I Like...

Ummm...

Good Looking & Inexpensive. My living room furniture came from Big Lots. We paid less than $800 for the sofa, loveseat, and rocker recliner combined. I have kids. Four of them. There is no point in shelling out big bucks for stuff they are just going to ruin. This looks decent and it won't hurt as much when we throw it upstairs with the kids when we get in a new place.

I like clean lines and simple patterns. I can't stand over done, ornate, carved and blinged-up, crap. It's just gross.

I want my house to look like the kind of place where real people live comfortably. Not some catalog picture or Parade of Homes type palace.

Three Things I Do Differently Than My Mother...

I sleep in. My mom in an awesome nurse/nursing instructor and she gets up at all kinds of ungodly hours for work and school things. Aside from all the blood and other nasty crap, "early" is another reason I could never be a nurse.

I turn the thermostat down and I leave the ceiling fan on high year round. My poor Mom is always cold when she comes to my house and I'm always melting when I go to her house.
I eat meat and drink milk. A few years back my Mom was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and after some time on meds and being unhappy with how they worked and didn't work, and how she felt while she was one them, she decided to try adopting a mostly vegan diet. It worked and her blood sugar has stabilized and she's gone off all of her diabetes meds. She has a lot more willpower than me.

Three Things I Am Waiting For...
5pm. When Dad will be home.
Ed McMahon to show up at my door with one of those big checks.
August 22, when my house will be significantly quieter during the day.

Three Things I Want To Be When I Grow Up...
Skinny
Well Rested
Content

Three Things I Do Because They Are Good For Me 
and NOT Because I Like Doing Them...
Give up caffeine... again.
Floss. It's just gross.
Wear fancy flip flops that don't make my feet hurt and never wear cute shoes anywhere any more. (I can't even begin to tell you how sick it made me to spend that kind of money on flip flops but they are one of 2 pairs of shoes I own that do not make my feet hurt so bad I can't stand up in the morning. Yay for Plantar Fasciitis!)

Three Things I Appreciate About My Middle Child, 
or Middle Sibling...
I have no middle child. But I have a brother who is the middle of three and the only boy...
He is HILARIOUS. With a capital "H."
He works really, really hard.
He's one of those easy going, easy to talk to type guys and it's really cute to watch him interact with my kids.

Yeah, he and his girlfriend Maren are those annoyingly photogenic type people. Seriously. Every picture they take is this cute.

Three Truths About Me...
I care what you think. But not enough to change me.
I'm not one of those people who think all children are adorable. I love mine, I like yours, but the rest of them...
I'm largely unmotivated. Which is why my house is always half way clean and my laundry is always half way done.

Three Pictures...

My monsters with their adorable cousin Kayli.

 Booger Head at the sprinkler park.

 

We had some new family pictures done the beginning part of June and this was the winner in the "Shot of Monsters Together" category. We bought these stupid balloons thinking, "We can pretend to be those people! Sure bring on the balloons!" Before we had even taken a picture Stinky had lost two and popped one. So here you have...Pinky watching the two balloons floating off into the atmosphere while mourning the loss of her favorite orange balloon, Stinky pouting because he lost his balloon holding privileges, and Ralph trying to keep Booger Head from stealing his balloon. Booger Head's balloon was tied to the back of his overalls. Awesome. The amazing Keli White captured them perfectly.