Category Archives: Five Question Friday

Hello Friday! It’s taken you long enough. So summer has come to Michigan – yes, in March. On Tuesday, our weather forecast for the whole week had highs in the 70s for EVERY day… this seems bizarre. And then today there was a 2-hour school delay for fog. Welcome to Michigan, where the weather makes no sense. It snowed on Saturday and I wore sandals on Wednesday.

1. Will you run to the store or to pick up a kid looking a mess?
Depends on your definition of mess. I’m almost always showered, unless I intend to work out later because I hate having to shower twice in one day (whereas my husband would happily shower three times a day). But if I have no plans, I don’t do my hair and often on Saturdays when the farmer’s market is open, I run there first thing without even brushing my bedhead hair. For school, I’m usually on my way to work so I try not to look a mess then, it’s better for business if I can appear to have it together. I’ve been having a lot of meetings lately and for those I actually make an effort and put on MAKEUP. I am a grownup.

2. Do you finish a book if it’s boring or you don’t like it?
Almost always, I think I’ve only ever not finished one and I can’t even think of the title now. Though, I guess that’s not true, I have no problem not finishing non-fiction books – I guess I just prefer fiction.

3. Beach or mountain vacations?
With kids, then to the beach but just with my husband or friends – I’d go to the mountains in a heartbeat. My ideal vacation is a cabin in the woods, add mountains and that would be an added bonus!

4. What thing/event says “winter will end and spring is right around the corner” to you?
Flowers popping out of the ground. Which mine are already doing – daffodils, hyacinth and tiger lilies are all out of the ground at my house.

5. Would you prefer couples or family vacation?
I think when my kids are a couple of years older I’d prefer a family vacation but right now I’d go with couples all the way. Because with small children a vacation is not really a vacation, it’s going somewhere new where you don’t have all the conveniences of home. It’s rarely as restful as you would hope and you come back needing a vacation from your vacation. Unless you vacation in Texas with the grandparents, then it’s mostly a break 😉

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question

TGIF, here are a few things I’m looking forward to for the weekend…

• Manicures with Keri this afternoon (the weekend starts at noon today, didn’t you hear?) and a pit stop at Sugar Momma’s.
• Simon’s taking Liam to a monster truck show tonight… I’m not sure who is more excited about this the big guy or the little one. I’m excited to put Jack in bed and enjoy a glass of Malbec (has anyone else enjoyed the box wine from Target – I kind of love it).
• Saturday night is date night! Whoot! Sadly, after date night Simon will have to go to work for a few hours and with the time change he’ll end up coming home after midnight – sad face. But working Saturday means he gets to leave early to take Liam to the show tonight – a fair trade.
• Sunday afternoon we have small group and I’m so looking forward to it, I really like our new small group! It’s been a long time since we had a small group and our last one spanned five years so we’ve definitely lucked out with the groups we’ve been put in. Some of the women from our group came over Tuesday night and we had a great time talking and getting to know each other, such a treat!
• Actually having time to work out… since Jack can’t be trusted while I work out when he’s still awake and now takes forever to fall asleep since moving to his new bed I haven’t been able to get my mid-week workouts done. I can’t wait until it is warm enough to take them walking again…

1. Are you looking forward to the time change this weekend?
I don’t think that anyone with children looks forward to any time changes – it always screws up someone’s schedule. Hopefully this one will be as pain-free as possible, except for Simon who will be working and losing an hour of precious sleep. I much prefer gaining an hour in the fall.

2. Are you getting the new iPad/would you want a iPad?
We aren’t getting a new iPad (we opted to go for the Kindle Fire) BUT if Apple ever wanted to send us one for comparison purposes (also because my husband doesn’t really get to use the Kindle) we would absolutely take one. 🙂 I will continue to enter drawings to win one when I see them!

3. If money was not a problem, what is the one thing you would splurge on?
First class tickets. Even business class. Heck, even premium economy. Because it’s definitely a splurge if upgrading to premium economy for ONE flight would cost the same as purchasing all our round trip tickets to Australia. [I learned this when I inquired about upgrading on our return flight since we got inexplicably bumped up on our way to Australia; to my credit I did not choke when the desk clerk told me the cost. Ummm, no thank you.]

4. How did you and the Mr. (or Mrs.) meet?
Blind date set up by my lovely friend, Jonna. She has had a 100% success rate with her matchmaking skills (we were her one and only journey into that realm). We met at Panera in the mall and closed the place down, perhaps because we can both talk a lot, but really because we just really liked talking to each other. On the way home I ended up stopping at my college roommates’ house and recapping the date with her and I remember thinking, I might have just met the man I’m going to marry. And I had.

5. Summer is right around the corner. Bikini or one-piece?
Ummm, really?

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question Friday!

Wow… that’s all I have to say about this week. Glad it’s the weekend (almost) and glad for a girl’s night out tonight with some of my most favorite people! Super glad to have had MOPS yesterday. And glad for a chance to get to love on some people today. Glad my dad had a birthday (leap year “baby”) this week. Glad that God is gracious and good, no matter the hardships we face and the snitty behavior we display. Glad for good friends who feel like family, and family that feels like friends. Glad to be back on the exercise bandwagon – 62 minutes last night. Glad my husband gets to hang out with some new friends tomorrow night. Glad for productive days at work. Glad for new shoes from Target. What are you glad for?

1. Where is your favorite vacation spot and why?
Place I would go over and over again because I love the people I see when I’m there: Texas or Australia
Place I would go because it’s beautiful but I don’t know anyone: Colorado
Place I would go for a weekend trip with my husband, without kids: Northern Michigan or Chicago
Place I would go for a weekend trip with my girlfriends: Chicago
Place I would go with friends, without kids: Las Vegas

2. What is your biggest guilty pleasure?
Food: Baked goods and jelly beans
Beverage: Iced Americanos with Hazelnut syrup
TV show: Vampire Diaries
Time waster: Twitter and Pinterest

3. What is your favorite fashion trend right now? Or, in the past?
Current: Yellow with gray; bold pops of color; ballet flats [though I feel like any of those could no longer be current, but I’m going with them]
Past: All-Star tennis shoes, band t-shirts and flannel shirts (I was a wannabe alterna-teen back in the day, but I probably liked to wash my hair too much).

4. What are your spring break plans?
Growing up we went to Texas every spring break; before kids, we did nothing. Now that Liam’s in school it just occurred to me that he has spring break yesterday afternoon, hadn’t even given it a thought. Considering our vacation funds and time off were all used up by Jan. 19 of this year, I’d say that for this year we have no plans. And probably won’t do anything too exciting until Jack is in school as well. But I will plan some play dates and Liam will get to have a daddy morning with Simon for a movie and lunch while Jack is at daycare.

5. What baby names do you hate?
I’m not stupid enough to be too specific, because what if one of my friends LOVES that particular name? And there really isn’t one that I hate, per se, though if pushed, I’d say the stupid people who named their kid Espn (after the network). One that I would never pick for us is Benjamin (because our last name is Bennett); Simon suggested this name when we were pregnant with Liam and I at first didn’t put it together that our child would be Ben Bennett (evil) but was not sold on the name because I had known too many Bens. He still laughs about that.

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question Friday!

That photo has nothing to do with this post but it expresses my utter glee in getting my new smart phone replacement in the mail. Doesn’t Jack make a cute Warhol?

1. What’s your favorite way to spend down time (alone or with a significant other)?
Oh, that’s a hard one. I equally like lounging on the couch with the hubs to the solitude and zero-guilt of being by myself. But I get plenty of alone time with Simon working second shift, so really it’s a good balance, I don’t feel like I’m lacking for downtime, especially after 7:30 every night.

2. Are you the kind of person that wants things more as soon as you know you can’t have it?
I would normally say yes but when I started “dieting” last year I didn’t really crave any particular food, never felt like I was missing out. So I guess I do have self-control and the ability to just put things out of my mind. That said, I did rather miss the quick-response of texting… but I have plenty of other technology to survive with 😉

3. If you were given $1000 to spend on yourself, what would you buy?
Either a new laptop or an iPad and spend the left over money on a guilt-free trip to Target. Remember those game shows where the contestants could run down the aisles and fill their carts with as much stuff as they could and keep it (or were this game shows really fictitious game shows they showed on sitcoms – I can’t recall) anyway, that was my dream as a child to be able to run willy nilly like that thought a store and load up. I was apparently driven by consumerism.

4. Do you ever go out to eat by yourself?
I don’t, but I do pick up food and bring it back to the office. I rarely, if ever, sit down in a restaurant by myself (though I have no problem at a coffee shop). When I lived in Chicago and traveled out-of-town weekly for work, I never ate out by myself, partly because I was young and female and partly because I just didn’t like it. Once when I was in Minneapolis I drove to the Mall of America to see a movie (can’t at the moment recall which one) but that was one of two times I saw a movie in the theater by myself. It was a big moment.

5. What company would you want to do a blog review for?
The first thing that came to mind (as I look out the window at the snow falling down) is for a ski equipment company or ski resort. Skiing is a sport I’d love to get into with the kids but it’s also super expensive for something we really have no experience at so to have a chance to try it out with them would be marvelous… Also Qantas – because free flights to Australia (preferably in premium economy or above) would be beyond marvelous!

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question Friday!