ememby

Things I Hate

Posted on August 21, 2012 | 5 comments

When I accidentally click on the wrong icon in my quick launch toolbar so then I have to wait for the program I didn’t want to load and open, only to shut it off again.
Diet Pepsi and restaurants that carry Pepsi products and suggest you get a Diet Pepsi when you’ve asked for a Diet Coke. No, Diet Pepsi is not a proper substitute for Diet Coke, I’d rather have a water (or an enema).
Autocorrect on my phone. I do not “live” my husband, I love him. I do not “flop flop,” I flip flop. No, I did not mean to randomly type “pneumonia” but instead meant “no one.” Ugh.
Cleaning urine off of various things in the bathroom thanks to boys and their bad aim.
The participants on the show The Bachelor Pad. I’ve never watched it but I know I would hate them, the clips I have seen look so annoying. In other reality show hatred, I really dislike that spazzy woman on one of the dance shows, Mary something-or-other, in real life I would be tempted to smack her when she started shrieking.
App updates in my news feed on Facebook.
Vague Facebook status updates, if you want to hint that something is going on then tell people what is going on, don’t go fishing for people to ask you what is going on.
When my can of Diet Coke runs out. Sad times.
When my children quickly do something so cute after doing something pure evil that I can’t help but smile or laugh at them. I hate missing out on righteous anger, can’t they give me that moment?
Overpriced food in restaurants. If I’m going to pay $40 for a steak, it better come wrapped in lobster and with a $20 gift card. And I should not have to pay extra for a dinner salad.
Having to pick up a soggy napkin/tissue/toilet paper to throw it away, even if it is just water.
The crunch of killing a bug.
Having my nose be cold – it’s quite pointy and sticks out there so it can get cold easily. [Side note: I ran into girl/woman I went to school with from 5th-12th grades and she said she recognized me from the side because of my nose. “That has to be Michelle.” I didn’t really know what to say to that. I don’t think it’s as noticeable as say, that girl who is married to the Jonas brother – Simon cannot let a preview for their E! show go by without commenting on her nose.]
Sweet pickles. Give me dill or give me nothing.
Parsley just sucks. Do not like.
People who don’t observe the rules of the road at four-way stops (we need more roundabouts like in Australia).

Instagram | 19

Posted on August 20, 2012 | 6 comments

No Music Monday this week, though I would recommend the following song (it’s an oldie but a goodie): Yellow | Coldplay

And now, my week in Instagram photos:

Olympics closing ceremonies, pretty much my favorite part was the Union Jack setup on the stadium floor, everything else was a bit… meh.

Every time George gets groomed, they put a scarf on him and this time I happened to be wearing a scarf as well… photo opportunity!

We’ve had some gorgeous sunsets this week and Tuesday evening we were treated to a real stunner the whole way home. Complete with a shot of my favorite photo subject.

The boys of summer, Sandy’s kids and mine at her youngest’s birthday party. We won’t talk of the multiple times Jack peed in her yard (without taking his swim trunks off) but instead remember how much fun was had.

Heidi had to run back in her house to grab something for me so she handed me Hutch through the driver’s side window – I would snuggle him all day – what a sweetie! Also, I might have been tempted to drive away with him if I didn’t already have my own cute boys.

Jack’s guitar playing technique might need a little fine-tuning.

Friday night we camped out in my friend Stef’s backyard with her family (Stef has a much better pic of the three of this but this is all my phone’s camera would do). Simon was not inclined to take my place after he got out of work at 11 p.m. (can you blame him) so the boys and I cozied up. The whole experience was super fun, despite the cold, cramped quarters and I would totally do it again. Our small group all got together for a cookout and smores earlier in the evening and since everything happened outside, I feel like I can mark camping off my list. Check!

The following was a text exchange between myself (outside in a tent, where it was so chilly I had to wear a hat on my head to keep warm) and Stef (inside, with her 3-month-old, nice and warm):
Me: I have a hard time believing it is 60 outside right now. That’s all I’m saying.
Stef: Obviously the person in charge of the android weather system isn’t sleeping inside a tent. And neither am I… bwah hah hah.
Me: I checked weather.com, too. Liars, all of them.
Stef: And whores.
Me: Dirty whores.

Jack has picked up a new habit of telling you things, but pausing first to raise his pointer finger up as if to say that whatever it is he’s about to tell you is a brilliant, new idea. Usually, it’s just that he’s hungry for Goldfish crackers.

We love hanging out with friends. Amy and I took our kiddos on a walking tour of downtown, mainly to visit the huge tire swing there but that visit was short-lived because Liam didn’t like it. Ugh. Don’t you hate it when you have something fun planned and your kids aren’t as into it as you would have hoped, but then they happily spent 30 minutes “painting” your deck with water and a foam brush.

6 Comments

Posted in Instagram

Five Question Friday

Posted on August 17, 2012 | 8 comments

I’m trying not to break out into song, but I’m just so glad it’s Friday! (Friday! Gotta get down on Friday! [Side note: How is it that I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard that whole song but I know the lyrics and the tune?])

1. What’s the one thing you buy every time you walk into the store?
Wouldn’t it be funny is someone said something like toilet bowl cleaner, anti-bacterial soap or bug spray so we could all think they were OCD? [P.S. If you buy a lot of soap, I think you are OCD. I’m not judging, just observing.] There isn’t one thing in particular that I get EVERY time I’m at the store but there are things I get pretty often: milk, bread, Eggland’s Best hard-cooked eggs, fruit and Diet Coke.

2. If you had a day all to yourself how would you spend it?
Let’s also say that the Internet wasn’t working. The perfect day (by myself) would look like this: I’d be well-rested so I wouldn’t have to sleep in and could get up at a decent time and not sleep in past 10 (which who am I kidding, would likely never happen because I’m too programmed to wake up earlier, thanks children). On a Saturday, I’d go to the farmer’s market (stopping first for coffee at Kava House), pick up some stuff to make salsa and grab breakfast from the food truck. I’d head home to chop up my salsa ingredients so I could snack on it all day. I’d pull out a good book and read the day away and maybe craft. In the evening, I’d mix up a batch of margaritas, fix some tacos and watch a chick flick. After the movie was done I’d spend more time reading until the wee hours and go happily to sleep. I’d maybe go for a walk at some point just to now feel so sloth-like, but maybe not. Clearly my perfect day wouldn’t be too hard to attain, it includes good food and good media, I’m easily made happy.

3. Are you a speed limit driver? If not, over or under?
I can hear my husband laughing now… heartily. He’s 100% a speed limit driver, though on the highway he might go a little bit faster to keep up with traffic but in Australia, he NEVER speeds because they are way more militant about pulling people over for going at all over the speed limit. I, on the other hand, did not grow up with such – shall we say – anal limitations so, while I am aware it is a limit feel more inclined to fudge the numbers a bit. I’m not the fastest person on the road (because I’m not stupid) but I’m never the slowest.

4. What’s your favorite dessert to make, homemade or from a mix??
Dessert in general is my favorite thing (unless there is Mexican food on the table, then I’ll go for the guac or pico over a slice of cake) so picking ONE is difficult. I love these Cheescake Bars with Chocolate Ganache from Bakerella or this Pineapple Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting from Tasty Kitchen and these Carmelitas are divine. You can’t go wrong with any of those, unless of course you are gluten free, in which case those are no good for you… but might I recommend a gluten-free version of this recipe: Green Dragon (use GF-Oreos) Sandy made it yesterday and it was oh-so-good.

5. Would you rather have a spider or a mouse scurry across your face (no copping out and saying “neither!!”)?
Oh ewww… either one would be horrible, but with a spider, I’d imagine I’d have a greater chance for not knowing it was happening (this assumes I’d be asleep when it happened, either way). I’d like to think I’d know it if (God forbid) a mouse ran across my face. If it were ever to happen, I hope I’d be dead asleep and be none the wiser. Yuck. Now I have to go squig out. I can for sure tell you I’d almost rather die than have a bat on my face – I woke up once to one flying around my apartment and decided I would rather stay under the covers until it went away then get up in deal with it. Then is swooping my bed and I felt it across my legs and I shrieked, pulled my covers off my bed and ran out into the hallway where I freaked out for a good bit and then decided to go wake the girl up who lived downstairs and have her get the bat out of my apartment. Bless her heart for doing that at 3 in the morning – I would not have been as pleasant about it if it were me being woken up (of course, I also wouldn’t voluntarily come within ten feet of a bat). I still shudder thinking about that.

Okay, just to leave you with a happy thought:

Source: tospann.blogspot.com via Aeileeng on Pinterest

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question Friday.

8 Comments

Posted in Five Question Friday

Thursday Randoms

Posted on August 16, 2012 | 5 comments

According to my handy url generator, this is the fourth time I’ve written a post entitled Thursday Randoms, which is completely apropos of nothing, so there you have it, welcome to Thursday Randoms #4!

I had watermelon yesterday that made my mouth feel simultaneously wet and dry – why and how?
Also, who do I complain to when my “seedless” watermelon still has seeds, sure they are tiny, but I still don’t want to eat them.
My apologies if ever you see me on the road and I don’t notice you – I sat behind Heidi at a stop light yesterday, noticing the Taylor alumni license plate holder and M22 sticker – thinking both these things related to Heidi – and it wasn’t until we turned the corner and she turned onto her road that I realized it was indeed Heidi.
I had my blood drawn yesterday (blood tests for old people reasons like checking iron and cholesterol levels) and it made me wonder how many times phlebotomists have the same conversation in a day. Her: I can’t believe summer is almost done. Me: Me either… [ramble on about school starting.] Blood draw done. Her: You’re all set… Then the next person comes in and it starts again. I wonder if they decide at the beginning of each day what their leading question of the day will be.
We may or may not camp out Friday night in our friends’ backyard, depends on whether I can borrow a tent because I’m totally okay with a camp out, but I do require some sort of structure to sleep in.
Trying to figure out what activities my boys will do for the fall, which makes me just not want to do any activities… can someone please be my activities coordinator and just tell me when and where to show up?
It is mid-August. Crap. = The thought that runs through my mind at least five times a day.
I am trying some different salad toppings to mix things up (my life, it is exciting; you are jealous, I know), this week’s new additions: cracked hemp seed and alfalfa sprouts. My previous add-in was soybeans, love.
Based on the song Sitting, Waiting, Wishing by Jack Johnson, iTunes created a delightful Genius Mix that included Two Step (DMB), Sweetest Thing (U2), The Hardest Part (Coldplay) and Babylon (David Gray) and 46 other songs, none of them by women, except one by Feist, one by Regina Spektor and one by Colbie Caillat – that’s strange, right? [Please do not mention that it is strange that I noticed that.]
We attended a birthday party with slip and slides and a pool Tuesday evening, the boys had a blast, but apparently we need to reiterate to Jack that even though he is wet and wearing a swim suit, he shouldn’t just stand in people’s yards with his legs spread and announce he is peeing. And he most definitely shouldn’t do it three times.
Jack is totally the kid that people’s husbands love because he is pretty rough and tumble with a dose of impishness (people in general love Jack, but men don’t always particularly love other peoples’ kids); to wit, Tuesday night Jack got a 5-inch scrape on his stomach and got hit in the head with a contractor’s bucket that was dropped from the jungle gym and despite a few tears, he kept running around and making faces that cracked up Sandy’s husband. Nothing can keep that kid from going for the laugh.
My nephew, Mitch, is leaving for college… the very same nephew who puked on me within minutes of meeting me for the first time (for which I forgave him, hence yesterday’s pictures of my smitten stares) and thinking about it makes me tear up. Like real tears. Sniff… how can that boy be so old?
George has kept his scarf from grooming on for the past couple days and this morning I decided to mess with him a little and put in on him like a bonnet. He was not amused.

5 Comments

Posted in Life in general, Random

Sisters-in-love, x2

Posted on August 15, 2012 | 2 comments

It seems only fair that since it is my sister-in-law Lynn’s birthday, I wish her a bloggy happy birthday as well. I really have lucked out in who my brothers ended up marrying, especially helpful since it seems like they were always in our family – this happens when your brothers are significantly older than you. Lynn and Marty got married when I was in middle school and I got to be in the wedding – my first of many turns as a bridesmaid (also the most wonky I have ever looked as a bridesmaid as I got the worst sunburn of my life the day before the wedding so I was sporting lobster-red skin with fever blisters on my lips – my hotness was unparalleled) but prior to the wedding, Lynn had been in our lives a whole lot longer. In fact, I only recall one other girlfriend that Marty had and the only things I remember about her was that her name was Robina (still the only person I’ve ever met with this name), she had a ginormous Great Dane and she gave me a 6-foot snake stuffed animal that smelled interesting so I’m glad Lynn came along to set Marty straight because Robina wasn’t my favorite.

Lynn has told the story of when she met Marty and how he had a picture of me in his wallet and it took quite a bit of convincing on his part to get her to believe that I wasn’t actually his child. Because what 22-year-old has a 4-year-old sister?

There we all are, so much younger… I think I can confidently say we’ve improved with age. While searching for pictures of the two of us, I happened upon a series of photos from a trip we took to Colorado when I was in high school. I love that in both photos I’m completely smitten with my nephew, Mitch, and Lynn’s hair is crazily blowing about. [Note: Lynn, we need to have some photos taken together the next time we see each other. Second note: You, too, Joan, I have none of the three of us together and very few with you and I… apparently we are always taking pictures of others.]

The first time I met Lynn we played Monopoly, which was a long-standing tradition for our vacations with Marty. We played Monopoly, we listened to music, we ate out at fun restaurants and we toured around Houston and Galveston – Lynn was the perfect addition to those plans. We have created our own tradition of staying up late and gabbing away about everything in life – no matter how much we have already said and how much time passes between when we do see each other, we never run out of things to say or have an awkward moment where we don’t know what to say.

(And look how cute and wee she is… I’m pretty sure I was also bending me knees in that photo.) She was the first person I told that I loved Simon and that he might be the one (which he totally was). We share a love of gift-giving, always finding it easy to find things for each other because we share the same taste – a love of good food and cooking, coffee and smoothies – a dream of owning a coffee shop – a love of reading (she fed my Stephen King obsession for quite a long time) – an extreme interest in shopping for jewelry, home accessories and snack food. All the good things. I would argue, some of the best things. Just like Lynn… the true definition of good people and the best things in life.