You like me! You really like me!

Bwahahahahaha! My friend Heather @ 365 Days of Awesome passed on this award to me:

Do I deserve an award for my awesome blog? Probably not. ;o) My blogging is sporadic at best and probably boring as hell, but thanks anyway!! The award comes with an assignment: share 10 things about yourself. So here goes...

1. I'm the oldest of three kids; my brother and sister are twins.

2. I have an entrepreneurial streak a mile wide. I come by it naturally - my mom and her dad both started and ran successful businesses for many years. So far I've been a Mary Kay consultant (5 years) and a real estate agent (4 years), and I have yet to come to terms with the fact that I'm probably not cut out for self-employment - I'll be launching home business #3 in a little bit, and I also dabble in freelance graphic design.

3. I used to be thin. Proof:


That's from my grad party in 1998. I still have the dress in my closet...I might even try and wear it again someday.

4. I'm addicted to the written word. Books, magazines, the internet. Fiction, nonfiction. I admit I love romance novels and mass market trash way more than I enjoy "the classics."

5. My favorite movies are Demolition Man, Legally Blonde, Miss Congeniality, Empire Records and 50 First Dates.

6. I love to draw and doodle, although I'm far from what I consider an artist. (If you'd grown up with my brother, who IS an artist, you'd understand why.) I'm pretty good at drawing what I see, but not so much with stuff I visualize in my head, and the finer points of shading and the like continue to elude me.

7. I'm horribly shy in social situations - this probably contributes a lot to my struggle with #2 on this list, since it's really hard to be successful if you hate promoting yourself. I have no problem with speaking in front of a crowd, though.

8. uhhhh....I'm 5' 2" but petite-length pants are always a hair too short on me.

9. I won the district spelling bee in 8th grade. (In 7th grade I got eliminated on "discussion," in 6th grade, "fiery" and in 5th grade, "pigeon.")

10. I've had three horses in my life: Allspice, from when I was 8 til about 14, Frolic, 14-24, And Twinks, 25-present.

WHEW!! That was harder than I expected. I'm passing this gem onto Jill at My Corner of the World.

My Vision

...I envision a home that is warm and inviting.

...I envision a home where everything within it has a purpose.

...I envision a home where everything has a place.

...I envision a kitchen that is stocked with healthy staple ingredients.

...I envision a space all my own - my computer, my books, my papers. With a door, so that if it gets messy, no one else has to look at it. ;)

...I envision a job that is enjoyable and fulfilling (most of the time, anyway).

...I envision a daily routine that balances leisure and responsibility.

...I envision living by a budget that balances leisure and responsibility.

...I envision feeling financially secure.

Gonna Party Like it's Your Birthday...

Happy Birthday To ME!!

This past Thursday was my (gasp) THIRTIETH birthday, and I've been celebrating all weekend. I had asked for Thursday off from work, and since Levi was also off due to an injury (more on that later - can't believe I forgot to blog about it!), he took me out to breakfast at Perkins after the kids were all delivered to their respective destinations. Granny's Country Omelet (no celery), hash browns and two slices of french toast, plus a free birthday muffin (to go, of course). Talk about deeeeee-lish. Then Levi laid down for a post-breakfast nap and I headed out on my "secret mission." I had decided a few weeks back that I wanted to do something totally unexpected to commemorate the big 3-0, but I had told Levi only that I was taking part of my birthday day ALL to myself. Anyway, after a stop at my favorite salon to have my bangs trimmed and my eyebrows waxed - boy, they were due! - I drove downtown and...

...got my nose pierced! Thank you, Nick at Saint Sabrina's, for a great and (almost) painless experience. You can't see in this picture because of the flash, but the stone is actually purple, in honor of my amethyst birthstone.

(Good God, that's an awful picture. Note to self: put on some makeup and retake at next possible opportunity.)

I got back from my piercing adventure just as Levi was getting up, and his reaction was priceless.

Him: Hey, did you have a nice time?
Me: Yup. (diabolical smirk)
Him: So what did you do?
Me: (mocking eyebrow raise)
Him: (eyes bug out of head)
Me: (laughing maniacally)

So far, all the reactions I've gotten have been positive - not that I care if you think it's stupid, because *I* think it's awesome, so there - but the most entertaining thing is that my own mom either hasn't noticed or is studiously pretending she doesn't (I'm leaning more toward the first, since I didn't catch even the slightest reaction when I saw her the next day, and after all, one dainty little nose stud is small potatoes compared to my sister's pierced tongue and lower back tattoo).

ANYWAY...after the kids got home, we all went out for haircuts and birthday dinner at TGI Fridays. Friday was boring, then Saturday we went to lunch at Levi's mom's house and then...THEN...leaving the kids behind at MIL's house, Levi and I scooted off on a long-awaited overnight getaway at a local hotel!

We checked in, then went out on the town, ate, drank, made merry, stayed up late, slept in... (ahem) "snuggled"...then after checking out, we had breakfast at Perkins (yes, again - full plate of french toast this time), wandered around Mall of America for a couple hours since we haven't been in AGES, discovered THE coolest new store/experience called MagiQuest - yup, I'm a geek, and gee I wish I had discovered this earlier so I could have drug all our friends there for my b'day! - and then caught Avatar in 3D before heading back home to rescue MIL from the kids.

All in all, a most satisfactory way to celebrate turning (gasp!) thirty!

Bits & pieces

...Twinks and I worked on ground poles this afternoon. (That's not me or him, but I figured at least some of you might be wondering what the heck "working on ground poles" means.) This is a big deal, because my big baby thinks anything left on the ground is probably going to jump up and bite him if he goes near it. It took us a couple minutes to get over the first one, then once we had walked and trotted over it both directions (because clearly, it's a completely different object from the other side, and this one might be a biter...), we had Britt throw down a second and then a third, which, amazingly, he took totally in stride (ha ha). This is excellent news, because trotting ground poles is an excellent strength builder, and also, it's embarrassing to have a horse that's scared of them.

...A couple weekends ago, our friends Ben and Mel invited us to see Romeo & Juliet at the Guthrie theater (that's it, over there). Never having been, we said "sure!" The Guthrie itself was kinda cool, and I'm going to try and remember to blog more about our visit another time. The performance itself, on the other hand, was only so-so, with the second half being better than the first. But for reasons I can't explain, instead of the traditional 16th (17th?)-century setting, or even a modern-day take a la Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (love that movie, BTW), this enactment was..wait for it...Shakespeare-meets-Charles Dickens. Maybe if we had stuck around for the post-play discussion group(?), they would've elaborated on this decision, but since we didn't, I get to assume that they simply hadn't gotten around to putting away the A Christmas Carol costumes yet.

...The great soap experiment continues. I've been using my Citrus Chunk on my bod exclusively for about three weeks with excellent results. My skin remains soft, smooth and relatively non-scaly. Some days I slap on some lotion after, but most of the time I don't. I've even been using it on my face, probably 90% of the time (the other 10% being when I forget until I'm out of the shower because I'm still used to washing my face over the sink). I definitely do still need a moisturizer for my face, though. I've even tried it on my hair a couple times, and I love the texture and body I get when it works, but it seems kind of hit-or-miss (I suspect the "miss"es are that I'm just not getting enough lather). I hear Jill is working on a new shampoo bar, which I'm thinking about trying. Or maybe I'll just stick with my tried-and-true, if overpriced, Aveda. ;o)

...Now, I really must sign off and go do some laundry. And run the dishwasher. And take a shower.

Thirty

My birthday is next week...I'm turning 30! Still not quite sure how this happened, since most days I feel about 24. Anyway, the big day is almost here, and I can comfortably say I'm looking forward to it. In fact, I kind of feel like I want to commemorate it in some way...doing something that is just for me. I've considered...

• getting a tattoo...I plan to do it eventually, and I love something like this:

(only not quite so minimalist, and with a little color)...

• getting something pierced - my nose, eyebrow, ear cartilage - NOT anything kinky, so don't go there...

• something with my hair...but except for dying my whole head a crayola color or shaving myself bald, I've done most everything else you can do. I've been short, long, red and blonde highlights, purple highlights...

(boo, I don't have a digital pic of my really long hair! Maybe I'll have time to scan it in today.)

I do have this box of pink dye that I've thought of using on my whole head, over my natural color (instead of bleaching first as recommended) just to see what would happen. Hmmmm...

These are ridiculously good!

We are heading over to my grandparents' house to watch the Super Bowl in a few minutes (well...as soon as Josh gets up from his really late nap!) and this is what I'm bringing:


I don't know what you'd call 'em...Crazy Delicious Strange Recipe Meatballs?

2 lbs frozen meatballs
14 oz. can sauerkraut, drained well
12 oz. bottle chili sauce
14 oz. can whole berry cranberry sauce
12 oz. water

You can either heat everything but the meatballs over medium heat until the cranberry sauce is liquified, then add the meatballs and heat through, if you're going to be serving them immediately...or you can dump everything in a crock pot on high for about 90 minutes, stirring occasionally.

So. Ridiculously. Good. I probly should've doubled the recipe, cause I could eat this entire batch myself.

Blogger's Block

Hey, sorry I haven't updated in a while! I've been stuck with a raging case of writer's block...either I can't think of anything worth blogging about or everything I put down on paper SUCKS. Oh, plus Levi hurt his back a couple weeks ago, so I've been called upon to cover some of his work on the days when he really felt like crap, as well as my regular duties, so there's been a couple 10-hour days in there, too. Hey, there's a blog topic for a future date--the perks and pitfalls of you and your husband working for the same small company, which is also the family business.