Search term funnies

Posted on July 25, 2013 | 4 comments

Previous posts in this string can be found here.

My apologies to the people who found my site by searching for the following: “big toes,” “mountain villa” and “before having surgery what I need to bring to hospital”… I’m quite sure you did not find what you were looking for. [Side note: Anytime I write or say a phrase that includes “what you were looking for” I cannot help but think of the U2 song, “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” And now it is in your head, too – you are welcome.]

Other search terms that brought people here:

  • chop “my hair” and donate “my hair” | Those quote marks were necessary because why? The quote marks indicate you wanted to make sure the phrase “my hair” turned up together in the search results; does this mean without the quotes you were finding sites related to chopping your nose hair or donating your back hair?
  • songs for special moments | For some reason, this makes me giggle every time I see it. I wonder what special moments they were hoping to set to music… I hope they chose wisely because there is much potential for disaster if you were hoping to set the mood for a first kiss but picked “Butterfly Kisses” which would be better suited for a father-daughter dance (or, really, for never playing, ever) and probably killed the mood of that special moment. “Want to make out? Here, let’s listen to a song that will remind you of your dad.” Go for “Kiss Me” by Ed Sheeran – that’s a winner. Unless you are hoping for a father-daughter dance song and then it is not appropriate.
  • bungee attach kids to parents | This just seems like a bad idea, but amusing for others to witness. But I am the second listing on Google when you search for this exact phrase so I can understand why you might have clicked on my blog. I do love using bungee cords to making my parenting go more smoothly.
  • camping is our family tradition | Considering we have only been once (or twice according to Liam, since he counts the time we slept in a tent in Stef’s backyard), I think it safe to say camping is NOT our family tradition – should have used quotes with that phrase.
  • wait is very hard | Indeed. Also hard, proper grammar.
  • how can I longer a toe | Not sure why you would want to “longer” a toe? But then, you don’t seem that smart. I have no need for longer-ing my toes, they are plenty long all on their own.
  • braquidactilia severa | I had to Google this term myself as I had no idea what it was, but it appears it’s Spanish for severe brachydactyly (shortening of the fingers) which is related to symbrachydachtyly; love that the Internet connected that with my site (not amusing, just true).
  • suck up those tears | With a vacuum?
  • my second name is definitely not patience | Mine either (or would it be neither?). In fact, I doubt there are many people (if any) with a second name of Patience. But then, celebrities name their babies things like North (West) and Pilot Inspektor so really, nothing is impossible. Also, the phrase you are looking for is probably “patience is not my middle name.” Also, did you hear that the new prince of England is named after my miniature poodle, George?

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Posted in Search Terms

Wednesday Randoms

Posted on July 24, 2013 | 3 comments

ememby_Wednesday_Musings

  • We have not been to the beach yet this summer… I’m hoping to remedy that this coming weekend, or at least in the month of August… then we’re going to make up for it by going ALL THE TIME
  • Simon has made our bed every day since we moved. I have not made my bed since I moved out of my parents’ house (which is only a slight exaggeration – bed-making is just not on my list of priorities, like ever)
  • We have yet to turn on the invisible fence for George and he has not yet tried to run away – though we do believe he has peed in the basement a couple times (I’m actually hoping it was George and not a relapse by the phantom pee-er)
  • I hosted my first get together at the new house last week… which was happy and sad because the get together was to bid farewell (or see you later) to my dear friend, Stef, who has now moved to Ohio. (I don’t want to talk about it. I am in denial and plan on staying there for a while.)
  • I also made sticky toffee pudding which I have always loved but never made because every recipe I found called for dates and I could not believe that something I loved so much actually included dates. I was wrong. It was delicious and something I will make again and if you come over to eat it, forget I told you there were/are dates in it because you will truly not notice – just ask my very picky husband who has eaten it multiple times (warmed up with vanilla ice cream).
  • Speaking of delicious, Sandy made a latte cheesecake for the party and oh my heck… freaking delicious. Like, inconspicuously try and lick the plate, delicious. And practically a health food since it was lower fat and made with Greek yogurt.
  • Summer has sort of killed my social life – people are always out of town on vacations or hosting visitors – they need to get back into the routine of school so I can have people to hang out with again. Come on people.
  • Our new satellite TV account allows us all the premium movie channels for three months so I’ve been getting caught up with/hooked on a bunch of new-to-me shows: Dexter, True Blood, The Veep and Newsroom. Newsroom is from Aaron Sorkin and it is fabulous – by far my favorite of these series options. It is brilliantly written, superbly acted and does for the news what The West Wing did for politics… if you can, you should watch it.
  • We are making new habits at the new house, for example… our mailbox is at the bottom of our driveway instead of up by our house so each afternoon, the boys run down and collect the mail; our yard also plays regular host to tiny little frogs that I feel like should not be in our yard if they are going to have a good shot at survival so when we find them, we “rescue” them and carry them across the street to the pond; and on Friday afternoons/evenings we go down to the river and the boys have a swim (if you ignore the highway overpass that goes right by us, it’s rather idyllic and honestly, the highway is just a constant noise – not like the stop and go/honking of regular street traffic – so it’s easy to ignore).
  • We’ve also gained some less favorable habits of NEVER letting mom sleep in and often trying to climb into bed with mom and dad in the middle of the night and standing on the coffee table (we had kept our coffee table in the basement of the old house since Liam was a baby). Not a fan.

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Posted in Life in general

This Old House

Posted on July 23, 2013 | 1 comment

I still find it hard to believe that someone else is living in my old house. That it is someone else’s house now. I feel like once we left it, our house ceased to exist and in a way, it did because it’s NOT our house anymore, it’s their house.

I have not been back there since we drove away from it two weeks ago but I drove by my friend Sarah’s old house yesterday (she moved two days after us) and it made me wonder what was happening at the old house, almost enough to want to drive by, but instead I look up the new owners on Facebook, hoping they will post pictures of their new home.

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I’m so glad we got to have one final meal there – well, the boys ate while I packed up the remaining items. I’ll miss the coved ceilings, the hickory wood floors and the lilies we planted over the years that come back to greet us every summer. But we took the most important things with us – the people that made the house a home – my boys (and George) are all I need to make me happy (and often frustrated as all get out).
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We put so much into that house in the last ten years:

  • central air
  • new garage door
  • new roof
  • repainted the entire exterior
  • gutted and remodeled second floor, complete with addition of a full bath (and she ended up taking the clawfoot tub that has lived in our garage the last 4 years – you can see it in the picture below)
  • new appliances (all but the stove/range)
  • brought the grass back from the dead and added many plants around the yard

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But the house also gave back so much more that cannot be quantified by money or time:

  • my first house – Simon was the second person to ever visit
  • our first home together – the place we exhaustedly (and happily) returned to after International trips, marathon road trips and weekends at the beach
  • a place to bring both our babies home to (Liam came home in the bright heat of summer, spending his first month swaddled up next to me in the one air conditioned room in the house; Jack came home a month earlier than expected, on an unseasonably warm day in February to a newly-remodeled upstairs that our friends moved us into while we were at the hospital having a baby)
  • location for a couple family holidays (I SO look forward to catching up on my hosting duties now that we have a house big enough for it)
  • play dates, birthday parties, backyard BBQs, girl’s nights with my friends, soccer-viewing on Saturday mornings
  • a home filled with much laughter, few tears, unforgettable memories and endless warmth (and not just before the AC was installed)

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I have so many memories in each room, and despite the negatives that come with an old house, I remembered none of those as I took one last walk through the rooms. It served us well, just like the new place will do in the coming DECADES (because we’re not moving AGAIN if we can help it, have I mentioned that?), but we outgrew it long ago.
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The new house is such a blessing to us, made possible by a sudden shift in the housing market and money left to us by Simon’s mom and dad – it will be their on-going gift to us for years to come and though they won’t see it physically, I know they are watching us and sharing in our joy. I cannot wait to share the new place with you – I just need to finish unpacking and my desire to unpack dwindled once I got the kitchen in order but we are nearly there – give me another week (or five) and I can share the final product with you… once we can actually park in our garage :). In the meantime, if you are local, please stop by for a visit and if you are not local – plan to visit soon! We’d love to have you and start adding to the memories of this new home.

1 Comment

Posted in House, Life in general

Anxiety and peace

Posted on July 22, 2013 | 1 comment

ememby_philippians4_6-7I forget to pray. More accurately, I forget to pray in every situation. I can easily pray for help and healing when I’m having a difficult time or when someone gets sick and I can give praise for new life or gifts received. The highs and lows in life easily lend themselves to prayer (for me). But life is made up of a lot of the in-between times – the every day life (which we will never call boring) or other days when I’m feeling kind of out of sorts, or sad but unable to voice my feelings, or having general anxiety about things in life… on those days, I forget to pray, or maybe I just don’t pray because I feel like I can’t adequately convey whatever it is that is weighing on me. But I don’t need the words; God does know my heart and He gets what’s going on in there and in my head. Words are not necessary but His peace is and as it washes over me, filling in the cracks and gaps… my spirit will find rest, my heart will find comfort and my mind will find quiet. God doesn’t want us to come to Him just for the big things, but all the little things (and the medium things) – He cares about all of it and offers us His peace through all of it.

Thank you, God, for this life you’ve given me and for the blessings you’ve bestowed. Give me your peace. Know my heart and mind, relieve them of their burdens. Amen.

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Posted in Faith

Fer dumb

Posted on July 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

I hit myself in the eyebrow with the car door this morning. Wait, that sounds stupid. Let me try again. I opened the car door into my face this morning. Nope, still not a winner. I am a grown up who apparently can’t judge adequately when it comes to how much space she needs to NOT harm herself with a large piece of metal. [I did this before over a year ago on the opposite eyebrow and sported a bruise for two weeks and the point of impact still hurts if I press on it hard enough (so I do try to avoid pressing on it but I did it just now to test it the truthiness of my last statement).]

This recent incident happened two hours ago and it still hurts, has swelled a bit and grown a lovely red mark. I tried to take a picture to show you but a close up of my eyebrow revealed that I am way past due for some eyebrow waxing (it also revealed a wiry, gray hair). [On a related note, I met an aesthetician at the wedding this past weekend and someone asked her if she ever judged people who come in to get waxed and she said, “Everything is just another body part to me, that is no different than an elbow…” Which is both comforting and amusing when you think about it. And then we determined that a new code for a bikini wax, was getting your elbow checked out.]

We are supposed to be getting a cold front coming in sometime this weekend, which is sweet since it was already in the 80s when I drove to work. I HATE hot weather, it makes me grumpy and sweaty – two things I do not like to be.

My hope for you this weekend is that the weather will be how you want it to be (unless you live in GR and like it to be hot, then I hope you are disappointed) and that you won’t damage yourself with large metal objects you are in control of. Amen.

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Posted in Life in general, Random