Feast 158

Appetizer
Who is the easiest person for you to talk to?

Michael (my husband) and Sue (my bebf for 25 years)

Soup
If you could live in any ancient city during the height of the quality of its society and culture, which one would you choose?

Ancient Egypt- I have always wanted to see the pyramids

Salad
What is the most exciting event you’ve ever witnessed?

Wow for some reason this is a tough question for me-I've been racking my brain: first I thought what exciting events have gone on in my lifetime? and all that comes to mind is the moon landing which I got to watch on TV in first grade for most of the day. In person: not having much luck with this one either but I do remember being excited when we got our first color TV- it was used but we (my mom, dad, sister and myself) were all there when we watched it for the first time.

Main Course
If you were a celebrity, what would you do for a publicity stunt?

If I was ever became famous I would hope I would use my notoriety for good and not evil. My cause would be education in inner cities.

Dessert
What do you consider the ideal age to have a first child?
To me the age of the parent doesn't seem to matter to have a happy child, just if they are involved.

Check out more feasts at Friday's Feast!!

Every Picture Tells a Story

(lyrics by Rod Stewart)
...So three must be a novel. When I was photo hunting I ran into these pictures and they always make me smile. Michael & I were babysitting my newphew Ian for a couple days. Ian loves helping with the chores and trucks. He was really excited when the Garbage Man waived and tooted his horn at him.

The GRE & Me

In response to Shelby's intrigue (any one reading: you should check out her site, her pictures are incredible!) I am taking the GRE's on November 17.

I took the practice math part and only missed two questions-due to reading the question wrong--however the language part is another story. I specifically chose my masters program so I wouldn't have to take the GRE's. But unfortunately that will not fly for a PhD program.

There are only two schools near me offering PhD programs in Education-and they are USC and UCLA both which are very competitive to get into -so although I have the GPA's to get in, I will need a very good GRE score. I been working in my Kaplan GRE verbal workbook and add 5 new vocab words to my knowledge bank about every 3 days. So I decided to just sign up for the test and go for it, then I'll at least know where I stand.

TV or No TV?

My husband Michael feels TV is the devil because it zaps all our energy, and we can waste hours of our life watching others do something instead of out doing something for ourselves. So on June 1st we unplugged our cable and spent about a month and a half TV free. It was amazing how much stuff I accomplished, cleaning cabinets, giving clothes I hadn't wore in years to Goodwill, playing tennis twice a week, swimming everyday, and cooking dinner on a daily basis.

Well the TV is back and we are once again channel surfing and letting it zap our energy. So our new date (Michael this might come as a shock to you) to turn off cable is September 1. Now since we have Tivo we are allowing ourselves 5 shows to record a week. My five will be the following:

1. Top Chef
2. American Idol (only after they pick the top 24-I don't like how they make fun of people who are not hollywood bound)
3. Side Order of Life (a new series on lifetime)
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. Two & A Half Men

Ode to Samuel-The Adventurous Cat

Sam had two people campaigning for him that he should of been in the favorite animal photo-so this blog is devoted to him. Now I love my cat, he is very personable and handsome, but he is not photogenic-hence why I did not chose a picture of him. But let the record state, I was the one who chose him when he was just two months old at the SPCA. I grew up with dogs and always saw myself with a dog, however due to Michael's and my lifestyle, a cat seemed like the better fit. So we were at the pound and all the kitties were meowing-"pick me". I had my eye on 3 kitties, a gray tabby, Sam, and Sam's sibling. Well people would pick Sam up, he would swipe at them, and he would be put back in the cage, he even swiped off a hoop earring from one lady- I told Michael "I want him" to which Michael replied "Of course you do."

Samuel's adventurous spirit has never left him even after 11 years: Although he does not like getting wet at all, he loves to play with water. He leans all the way over and then splashes the water with his front paws, I do not know how he doesn't fall in.

This is when Sam tangled with a skunk and lost-he came running inside and sat on every piece of furniture we had, our house smelled like skunk for weeks. We learned that tomato juice is only a myth- it just disguises the smell-because the skunk spray has oil in it that you need to get off the fur. This was a very traumatic incident for all involved. (Did I mention how he doesn't like to get wet?)

Lastly Samuel likes his freedom, however we have recently moved very close to the mountains where wildlife comes to visit us often, and in the morning we see cat eating coyotes walking down the street. So Samuel is only allowed in the back yard, under watchful eyes. He tries to escape when he thinks we are not looking- here he is contemplating a break out. We had to add bricks to our backyard wall to keep him from being able to jump it.

So as you can see if the title of the blog was my favorite animal I would of picked Samuel, but since it was my favorite animal pose, and my adventurous kitty just doesn't have time to pose you can see my dilemma

Photo Hunt #15

Well being new to blogging I was just giving myself photo challenges, but now I realize there is a blogger topic once a week on photos called Photo Hunt. This weeks topic is "Happy".

This is a photo of my sister-in-law who is the one who got me into blogging. She loves to take pictures on all sort of subjects, especially her two beautiful boys. This past Christmas she got the camera of her dreams and was extremely "happy". Currently she is on a break from blogging but if you check in her archives you can see lots of creative pictures http://www.snoopmurph.blogspot.com/

Photo Challenge #2 Favorite Animal Picture

It has been a hot and dry summer so the deer have been coming down from the mountains.
We have a family of 3 that like to visit and eat our flowers. Lately they been liking the shade our front yard has to offer. The reason I like this picture is because I asked the deer to lift his head and he did. I know I am going to have to do an ode to my cat Samuel since I did not choice him as the subject of my favorite animal picture

Feast 157

Appetizer
Say there’s a book written about your life. Who would you want to narrate the audio version?
Ellen D. because she can make anything sound interesting or possibly Barbra S. because we share such a great singing voice.

Soup
Take the letters from your favorite kind of nut and write a sentence. (Example: Perhaps every avenue needs understanding today.)
We Always Love Nice Understanding Teachers (Walnut)

Salad
If you could go back in time and spend one week in another decade, which decade would you choose?
Probably 1860 because I always liked Little House on the Paire

Main Course
Name a song that brings back memories for you.
Ooh so many to chose from, The Greatest Love of All by Whitney, when I was in college about 10 of us went to Utah and this song came on every morning and the girls sang their hearts out to it and the boys just cringed- to this day I still sing this song very loud with the radio when it comes on.

Dessert
Do you prefer to wash your hands in cold water or warm water?
warm

Photo Challenge #1: A Current Picture that Best Describes Your Personality

My sister-in-law said I needed pictures on my blog so I have started my own theme of Photo Challenges to anyone reading my blog and has a blog of their own.

This picture was taken at Death Valley Christmas 2006. Michael and I got up about 5:30 am to take pictures of the sunrise (believe it or not Death Valley is one of the most scenic places I have been to; even in the winter time). Not being as critical about my pictures as my husband I was done with my picture taking and was getting a little ansy- so I started running up and down this hill singing and dancing and being goofy. I think this picture shows my personality because I like to be happy and silly.

The 10 Smartest Mothering Moves

If you remember the blog titled "Family Quiz" and the question "Who is the smartest person in your family?" I mentioned that I thought my entire family was smart, because we were all smarter than each other in our own special ways. Well my mother was highly distraught when I did not include her in part of my examples, so today's blog is dedicated to her and what I believe to be her top 10 smartest things she has done as a mother.

1. Cultured Me: My mom took us to the library, music lessons ( I played the violin, trumpet, organ, and piano) and to plays and musicals.

2. Tough Love: When I was 8 my mother told me I had to join the swim team so I would be a strong enough swimmer to stay at the pool by myself (one of their close friends managed the swimming pool). Well I did not want to join- so she said it was my choice but the only time I would go to the pool would be when she went-and she never went- so with tears in my eyes I went to my first practice- and I had a great time.

3. Involvement: My mother made sure we were on the right track with our education. I always scored in the 99% range in mathematics on standardized test, so when I was placed in a special math class in 6th grade my mom had a thing or two to tell the guidance counselor and I was returned to the classes I was used to.

4. Independence: My mother was the homeroom mother in first grade, that meant she went on all the field trips. One of the field trips was to the zoo and my best friend Lisa's mom was going to be a chaperon on the trip so we would be split up. I tried to talk Lisa into going with my mom but she wouldn't so I went with her mom, leaving my mom with a bunch of kids she didn't know. I had enough belief in my mom's support that I did not need to be with her 24/7 and knew she would be their if I needed her.

5.Always having my back: My sister went to Catholic school for two years and they decided it would not be the place for me when it was my time to enter 1st grade. That meant I needed to go to special classes to be able to be confirmed. I spent about 6 months in these classes, and then I had to meet with the priest- well that did not go well at all, and he said I would not be able to get confirmed- I was in tears after I came out of the meeting. Well my mother got on the phone, talked to my confirmation teacher and then made an appointment with the priest. All I knew is that after that meeting I was going to be confirmed.

6.Letting me start over: As I tell my high school students, it is important to pick something you love as your college major so you will enjoy the work you will be doing someday. I also tell them it is a very hard thing to decide what you want to be for the rest of your life at the age of 18- Well 4 years after college I was at a crossroads with my career, and I talked to my mother who not only encouraged me to go back to school but paid for it.

7. Taught us responsibility; I think both of my parents had a hand in this one, they made us do chores around the house, they had us open saving accounts, where we would put a % of our earned money and gift money into-we would keep track of our balance. They instilled a good work ethic in me, which I have til this day, and they are both timely people.

8.Supportive: As I mentioned in a previous blog I couldn't wait to learn how to read, however I read painfully slow (I am slightly dyslexic) so when we had our Shakespeare unit, where both the language and form was very hard for me to read my mom read me the entire book, she also read the Iliad to me. ( this was before the concept of books on tape)

9. Travel: My mom loves to travel, and would make sure we saw different sites-both my sister and I have this travel gene.

10. Loved: I always felt loved and she is always ready to help me out of any predicament.

Now I know my mother thinks she is smart because she did so well in nursing school, but I think her talents lie in being a smart mom.

Feast 156

To all my new people reading the blog, a feast is a group of random questions to answer-just like survey questionnaires.

Appetizer
Describe your laundry routine.
If I am doing laundry I am called laundry girl, and if Michael is doing laundry he is laundry boy (we have a song for laundry girl and boy) The person doing laundry separates the piles of laundry on the living room floor where Sam our cat will usually play in them or nap on them -Laundry boy is usually quicker than laundry girl and finishes in a day, it take LG about 2 days, however LG puts the clothes away right after they are folded but LB leaves them on the pool table for about a week.

Soup
In your opinion, what age will you be when you’ll consider yourself to truly be old?
101.

Salad
What is one of your goals?
Most people know my goal of wanting to be on The Price is Right, however a loftier goal of mine is to receive my PHD in Math Education and teach the Method courses to potential Math Teachers at the college level.

Main Course
Name something unbelievable you’ve seen or read lately.
I heard of a little boy selling lemonade and the proceeds to go to his sisters operation. There are so many bad stories on the news, I usually hate to watch it, but I love to hear human spirit stories.

Dessert
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how happy are you today?
I am about a 7.5 today. I played tennis with my sister and although I played way better than last time (I lost 0-6 twice and today the score was 3-6), I still did not play what I thought was my best. I don't mind losing since I have only beaten her once in my life-I am used to it- I really just like playing, but I would of liked to have given her a more competitive game. But Justin (my nephew), my dad, and myself just got back from a minor league baseball game where we had a nice time and enjoyed each others company.

Family Quiz

Who's the smartest person in your family? Well of course I am -at least at math --One of my favorite articles that I have read was on SNOB Appeal (I read it over 20 years ago, and I still have a copy of it) The article uses cases where people believe they are better than someone because they have a special talent.

Who's to say I am smarter than my sister who is very artistic and can spell very well when I struggle to draw a stick figure and have a very tough time with spelling, or am I smarter than my musical Arizona in-laws when I can't clap on the right beat, or am I smarter than my dad who can fix practically anything. So I would have to say my whole family is rather smart.

What is your dad really good at? Carpentry

What can you do better than dad? Swim, although he taught me how, he stop racing me when I was about 9- that is when I finally start beating him.

How are you like mom? We have the same sense of humor and worry a lot.

How are you different from mom? I am more positive

How old is mom? 30 years older than me.

How tall is dad? I would say about 5'8'' but I don't really know

What one thing mom always says to you? "When I go you can have this"

What did you and dad do together that you'll always remember? So many things, playing ping pong in our basement, playing kickball in the back yard, going to the race track, going to 6:30 am church together to get me to swim practice on time, however the most vivid is him being at 99% of all my swim meets and I swam competitively from when I was 8 to 21 with swim meets twice a week during season.

I also remember driving into Philly for invitationals and how we would always "get misplaced" (never lost) in some very interesting places.

How do you know that mom and dad love you? Because they always put me in front of their selves.

A Change in My Top 10

My virgin posting was about the top ten things I like to do. Last night Michael and I went to the play Wicked. I highly recommend seeing it if it comes to your town. Well that reminded me that I love going to plays especially musicals and dinner theaters. So looking at my top ten sadly #3 -slipping into bed with clean sheets is going to have to go.

If you haven't heard of the play Wicked it is about what happened before Dorthy came to Oz- it sheds a lot of light on the movie. Luckily the two stars of the play the Wicked Witch and Glinda the Good Witch were the ones who starred in the play on Broadway. They were amazing!

100 facts about me

This topic seems like a hard one so I was going to cheat and knock it down to 50, and was even thinking of doing just the ABC's about me that would -but since my only fan is the one who came up with the topic I figured I needed to give her what she wanted. (plus I was a bit demanding on her photo shoots)

1. I love being early (some people may say I obsessed about this)

2. I am very logical (must be that right brain math thing)

3. I am missing 4 of my permanent teeth. (2 due to a family trait and 2 to even out my mouth.

4. My favorite age to have been was 25, although I don't mind being my age-just a number -it is how you feel that counts.

5. I like all my hangers to be the same color

6. My grandma used to make peanut butter cookies and put Hershey kisses in the middle of them, I would eat the kisses and hide the cookies behind one of her chairs in her living room.

7. I like my name

8. I have 1081 skydives

9. I was a tom boy and wore shorts under any dress I wore when I was in elementary school.

10. I had trouble saying my r's when I was little- like in rural & world and went to a speech therapist

11. I only have taken one puff on a cigarette- that was when I was in 8th grade and my friends were amazed I never smoked a cigarette, so to say that I did I took a puff on one of my mom's True Blue's-but I didn't inhale

12. I have never done any drugs, although I have been offered them on several occasions.

13. I once told an undercover priest (he didn't have his priest suit on) that I prayed every day and he said that was commendable- he gave me a virgin Mary medal that I keep in my car.

14.I do not like cursing

15. I do not like clutter

16. I like to walk through old houses

17. I like to sing- however I tend to sing off key and some people say I even sing off beat

18. My favorite pair of pants were my mauve suede hip hugger bell bottoms that I wore in 6th grade.

19. My mom always cooked us our favorite meal on our birthdays, I always wanted spaghetti with no sauce.

20. I didn't like pizza until I was about 12- yes stupid kid

21. My mom is 30 years older than me, so it is easy to remember her age

22. I have a nervous giggle

23. I am not a good bricklayer

24. I love organizing photos

25. I do not use my cell phone

26. I do not wear a watch

27. I use my credit card for everything to get miles- I rarely have cash on me

28. I still think as Delaware as home

29. I have rescued a person from a rip tide

30 I have successfully preformed the Heimlich maneuver

31. I have ridden in an ambulance-along side one of the swimmers I coached

33. I have been hit in the head with a golf club ( I know this explains a lot)

34. I have hit someone in the head with a golf club (moral-golfing is dangerous)

35. I have been a waitress (not very good-I always messed up the orders)

36. I have been a bank teller

37. I have been one of those annoying teller marketers

38. Growing up I wanted to be a football player or a gym teacher

39. Growing up we always had dogs, Rusty a cocker spaniel, Flipper a beagle, Sam a English setter, Snoopy an Irish setter, McDuff a carnien terrier, Bear a German Shepard.

40. My favorite types of dogs are setters and golden retrievers

41. Our cat Sam is named after Samuel Clemens

44. My dad cut my hair til I was about 6 (he had no formal training-evidenced by some of the earlier pictures I am in)

45. I have been a maid of honor 3 times

46. I have been in 6 wedding parties

47. I wore my cousins wedding dress at my wedding- because when she walked down the aisle I thought- she stole my dress

48. The first time I saw a SMOG CHECK sign in California, I thought it was for people to check how much smog was in their lungs- and I thought to myself-wow it must get really smoggy here

49. I have walked into the men's room by accident once

50. I always wanted to play piano, so my parents bought a piano and I took lessons-unfortunately I was no Mozart, and stop taking lessons shortly after a very bad recital experience.

51. I liked gymnastics when I was a kid, and taught myself to do a cartwheel on a balance beam that was 3 feet off the floor.

52. I almost have a minor in history

53. I almost have a minor in computer language

54. I am not a big birthday person, although I did enjoy having a barbecue for my 40th birthday.

55. I was voted shyest of my senior class

56. I only keep in touch with one person from high school

57. I only keep in touch with one person from college

58 I like to play dominoes on the computer

59. I am trying to be tv free

60. I like making chocolate chip cookies

61. I used to eat cake mixes out of the box when I was a kid

62. I do not parallel park well

63. I do not spell well

64. I learned to ski when I was 19 by Sue telling me to just point my skis down hill

65. I had lasik done- it is nice since I finally can see the clock while lying in bed

66. I started wearing glasses in 3rd grade

67. My mom made most of our clothes when we were in elementary school

68. My mom taught us how to sew at an early age like 8 or 9

69. I did not inherit my dad's talent for building or fixing things

70. I did not inherit my dad's talent for gardening

71. I did inherit my dad's nose

72. I did inherit my mom worrying gene

73. I like to gamble

74. Going into both my grandparents basements used to scare me when I was little

75. I have no broken bones (knock wood)

76. I am more graceful in the water than on land

77. My mother was in the convent and was also a stewardess so people used to call her the flying nun

78. I hope that either my husband or my self get our pilots licence one day

79. I hope to retire when I am 55 (but then again who doesn't?)

80. I remember I couldn't wait to learn how to read- funny since I don't read that much now- I read painfully slow.

81. The year I graduated high school

82. I got a F in a college course my first time through- when going for my teaching degree I graduated summa cum laude

83. The day after meeting my husband for the first time I dumped the guy I had been seeing for about 2 years.

84. I have been married for 13 years but we dated for 6 before we got married

85. The year I graduated college with a business degree

86 I have my masters in math education

87. When we were little we used to go to the woods behind our house to cut down our christmas trees

88. I like swimming in the rain

89. I like taking bubble baths, with the radio on, candles lite, and I usually play saduko

90. The year I graduated college for the second time with my math education degree

91. I have lived in 3 states, DE, PA, and CA

92. I have lived in 4 houses (3 of which I've owed), 1 condo , and 2 apartments.

93. When Michael is away I sleep with a hammer under my pillow and this last time he was away I added a can of lysol on my night stand.

94. I think my husbands best features are his dazzling blue eyes and cute little nose, and his ability to make me laugh.

95. One of my favorite sayings is "If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours"

96. Another one of my favorite sayings is "when you have conflict with someone, before reacting walk a mile in their shoes, then you will be a mile away and have their shoes"

97. I have very wide feet. I do not like shoes

98. My confirmation name is Maire

99. I made my first holy communion at my parents house, and my wedding reception was also at my parents house

100!!! I like to laugh

Wow!!! that is tough- it you don't think so try it yourself!!! Hopefully I didn't bore you to tears.

Time Travel Tuesday's

My sister-in-law Linda is the one who inspired me to blog, and Tuesdays are devoted to a Time Travel topic. This weeks topic is "The first day of school"

I always loved going to school, in fact I couldn't wait to start so my mother enrolled me in pre-school a year early, so I had to do two years of kindergarten because I wasn't old enough to start first grade. My sister always tells people I flunked kindergarten.

Although I don't remember my first day of kindergarten, I have heard this story enough times, that it was almost like I was there. My mother brought me to the kindergarten classroom where some of my new classmates were already there quietly playing. There were two boys playing with blocks, building a tower- I walked over and kicked the tower down. The boys started crying and the teacher was yelling "Who did that?" My mother who saw the whole thing just quietly left without saying anything.

Places I Have Been

Well one of my top ten things to do is to travel, I mostly like travelling inside the United States and one of my goals (other than to be on the Price is Right) is to visit all 50 states. So I am making the list of states I have been to in black and the ones I still need to visit in red (14 states to go)

1. Alabama 2. Alaska, 3. Arizona, 4. Arkansas, 5. California, 6. Colorado,
7. Connecticut, 8. Delaware, 9 Florida, 10 Georgia, 11 Hawaii, 12. Idaho,
13. Illinois, 14. Indiana, 15. Iowa, 16. Kansas, 17 Kentucky, 18, Louisiana,
19, Maine, 20. Maryland, 21. Massachusetts, 22. Michigan, 23. Minnesota,
24. Mississippi, 25. Missouri, 26. Montana, 27. Nebraska, 28. Nevada,
29. New Hampshire, 30. New Jersey, 31. New Mexico, 32. New York,
33. North Carolina 34. North Dakota, 35. Ohio, 36. Oklahoma,
37. Oregon, 38. Pennsylvania, 39. Rhode Island, 40. South Carolina,
41. South Dakota, 42. Tennessee , 43. Texas , 44. Utah 45. Vermont,
46. Virgina, 47. Washington, 48. West Virgina , 49. Wisconsin,
50. Wyoming

Other Countries I have visited
1. Canada
2. Mexico
3. Ireland
4. Scotland
5. England
6. Switzerland
7. Australia
8. British and Us Virgin Islands
9. Puerto Rico
10. Bahamas
11. Antigua
12. France
13.  Italy (rome, Florence, Venice)
14.  Croatia

My Top 10 of Things I Like to Do

1. Having my friends over for a barbecue and TGIF's with friends
2. Visiting with family
3. Crawling into bed when new sheets have just been put on.
4. Eating at the Melting Pot (especially with Sue)
5. Playing games: Charoodles, Pictionary, Cranium, Trival Pursuit, Scrabble
6. Travelling
7. Decorating for Christmas and singing Christmas songs
8. Hanging out with Michael
9. Playing tennis , swimming, sailing
10. Going to the spa