Just because Melissa hasn't done this in a while...

5 Movies I'm Embarrassed to Admit I Find Funny:
* Blades of Glory
* Supertroopers (see above)
* Animal House
* Wayne's World (excellent!)
* Zoolander

(Not all movies are appropriate for people under 18, or for people who prefer not to watch things rated R, because let's face it, while some of that stuff isn't very edifying, it sure is funny!)

Oh, Oh, I Love You So...

(A guy I had some classes with with whom I had some classes in college had that tattooed on his forearm. Now he's getting a Ph.D. at the London School of Economics. Just goes to show you never can tell.)

One completely unhealthy & unnatural food item I love are the Italian Nachos at Johnny Carino's. Now, you can make your own! Divine Domesticity has a recipe, and it looks like it would come mighty close to the real thing...

And Bear? I solved my own html issues to do that strikethrough above. You should be proud. ;)

Earth Hour 2008

Simple, simple, simple. Just in case you haven't heard about this yet, Earth Hour is a program begun in Australia last year where folks all over the planet are going to turn off their lights for an hour tomorrow night, from 8-9 pm (local time). It would be really fascinating to see what kind of $$ that saves, in addition to the tons of pollution it prevents.

Another fun fact: if you don't have one of these ginormous blue bags from IKEA yet, you should get one, because in all seriousness almost ALL of our groceries will fit in one. Sure, it's difficult to pick up, but that means you get free exercise AND you prevent the use of all those nasty plastic bags that just tear under the weight of your groceries, anyway.

Spring Reading Thing

I am woefully behind on posting my booklist for the Spring Reading Thing at Callapidder Days.

However, sticking to my traditional "better late than never" motto, here you go. Things I'll be reading include:

*Thunderstruck, by Eric Larson
*The Devil in the White City, by Eric Larson (both of those from my brother for Christmas, yikes)
*Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol, by Nell Irvin Painter (for work)
*Invisible Allies, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (you can take the girl out of Russian history class...)
*The View from Clausen's Pier, by Ann Packer
*A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry (even though it was one of Oprah's)

Now, let's see if I can stay on task & read these books, rather than the others I find between now & summer.

Happy Reading!

Etc.

Very belatedly planning Spring Break - we're going to Florida for my great-aunt & great-uncle's 50th wedding anniversary celebration, and discovered last night we're staying close to the Everglades, so we're adding a day to the trip to explore the swamp. (Say a prayer that the gnats won't be Jurassic, just dreadful.) Then, we're driving up to Sarasota so that Lindsey can see a pretty beach & green water before heading back home to do some house & yard projects. Whew!

Meredith from Like Merchant Ships linked to this post at Morning Ramble, which linked to this post. Great food for thought, especially at this time of year when we're all trying to clean & organize our lives.

A random email today provided this site, which gives some frightening stats about what we're putting on our skin... I looked up my allegedly "natural" moisturizer, and found some scary details. Obviously, I don't know the chemistry behind all of it, but let's just say that I will definitely be examining some different options for the summer....

Finally, this isn't my tragedy, so I'm not going to dwell on the details, but one of my brother's friends lost his father last night in an accident. Keep them in your thoughts, if you don't mind.

Easter...

Yesterday, we had Chris & Torrence over for Easter dinner. Naturally, I failed to take a picture of them. :) Lindsey made roast & potatoes, Chris made his killer chocolate pecan pie, & Torrence made broccoli salad. I decorated. (ha! see our little appetizer setting above)

This was definitely an Etsy Easter, decorating-wise. Mom & I found these darling bunnies, & she bought a grey set for herself & the white ones for me. They came packed in the green paper grass...
The Easter bunny brought me this very cool beeswax rabbit that looks like he came out of an old-fashioned chocolate mold, complete with seam!

Lindsey says, "Hi! I didn't get anything from Etsy!"

Here we have the festive Easter basket from the motherina - made out of felted sweaters! I don't even KNOW what to put in it, but I know I like to look at it. :)

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend. Our Good Friday service was amazing - we have a small choir, and they're always great, but this was above & beyond fantastic! They make me wish I could sing. Church was full on Sunday, of course, and Susan (Susan's famous!) managed to include a pretty funny joke before her sermon. The sermon discussed the ending of Lent, and on our way out, two our of funny preteen boys were doing some sort of "dance" that they claimed was their Lent-is-over dance. It basically looked like Malibu's Most Wanted had walked into the building, but it definitely cracked me up.

Off to the farmer's market....

Funny coincidences.

Today, Easter Monday, it snowed at lunchtime in Atlanta. Only very briefly, and nothing even thought about sticking, but it's still pretty amazing.

The only other time I've seen snow at Easter was when we were in Eastern Europe (Krakow, Poland, to be exact) during my junior year abroad. We were staying in some sort of dormitory on top of a small mountain about two miles outside of the city. The setting was gorgeous, but four of us were staying in a room with one twin-sized bed, so I woke up with an aching head & back from sleeping on the floor to find a snow-covered mountain below our window. Our friend Heather had secretly made Easter notes & decorations (in Polish she learned from a friend!) and put them up around the room. Not one of those experiences you forget.

I should point out that this was well into April, and that when Caro & I were leaving Paris, it was very warm, so we almost didn't take our winter coats on this trip. Thank goodness for the "oh, well, we'll take them just in case" attitude that we developed shortly before we left for the train station.

There are so many good stories of that trip. I won't share them all today. ;)

Just in case you're missing Paris in the Spring (which is not as lovely as Paris in the fall, but no one ever sings about that), you can sign up for a fabulous swap here.

Tomorrow is Sweater Day!

The REAL Mr. McFeeley talking about tomorrow's celebration of Mr. Rogers on what would have been his 80th birthday. Wear a sweater and remember Mr. Rogers.

When people ask me "what's wrong with today's kids?" I have three answers:
#1) Not enough time outside
#2) Not enough personal responsibility
and #3) No Mr. Rogers

And I'm serious.

Fun randomness (or is that random funness?)

I know this will shock all of you.

I have signed up for another swap.

It's been almost a MONTH since the last one, and since I can finally see the light at the end of the traveling-for-work tunnel, I felt like I could actually dedicate enough time to seeing this through. :)

You can participate, too! Just head over to Tamy's Ga-Ga for Garlands site, and sign up.
This is my latest crafting endeavor - a little Q-tip lamb. That's right; you layer Q-tips to get all of that fleece. It doesn't take too terribly long, but there is a point in the middle where you question exactly WHY you have decided to try this. If you're interested, head over to Crafts for All Seasons for directions, though I found this project through the incomparable genius found only at Craftster.

For your viewing pleasure - fabulous pictures of last week's trip to the zoo.

While we were eating lunch, Lindsey decided to make Kenzie look like a librarian by buttoning her top jacket button, & not putting her jacket on her arms. This was very funny to Lindsey, Naomi (Kenzie's mom), & me, but Kenzie will probably never get it, since she'll never have librarians who do this. Sigh...
Here we have the lovely Thompson family. Kenzie is such a mixture of her parents; it's rare to see a kid who looks like she got exactly 50% of her genetic material from each parent.
We had tons of fun at the zoo, but the best part was giving Kenzie her birthday present. We took her to a football game at Lindsey's school this fall, & she absolutely loved the band. Since she's a bit young for brass & woodwind instruments, we settled on percussion. Fortunately, she has very easygoing parents, although Erik (her dad) did say that he would one day return the favor, by passing on the drum when Kenzie outgrows it. :) However, as you can tell by the look on her little face, the drum was a big hit. (ha)
And just in case I don't find the computer again until then, Happy Easter!

Tagged...

I'd be hard pressed at this point to say exactly how I found Julie's blog over at Red Hen Studios, but she's always posting fun stuff. And her kids are involved in the coolest things. Plus, right this second, very cool music is playing from her blog! Stop by & visit.

So Julie tagged me for a 6 Random Things meme. Fortunately, randomness is my forte, so this is not TOO challenging.

The rules for this are easy:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Here are 6 things about me:
1. I went to Mardi Gras for the first time when I was 6, was knocked unconscious by a spooked horse, had a concussion, went to the hospital, appeared on the evening news after my dad almost smacked a rude cameraman while carrying me out of the hospital, was mended, & then taken to more parades by my parents. And it's any wonder I went back to New Orleans for school?? :)

2. I have used the phrase "blown to Oz" more times than I can count in the last 24 hours, and my husband is REALLY hoping I won't use it all tomorrow. Or, really, ever again.

3. #1 ended my professional football career, because now I'm afraid to get another concussion. One of my high school friends did a brainscan of me for a science fair project, and one of my brainwaves really does fire early, which is consistent with head trauma. Cool, huh??

4. I listen to a LOT of NPR. A lot. And now I get my favorite shows' podcasts to listen to while I drive all over Nowhereville, Georgia. And I am actually seriously annoyed by the fact that it costs MONEY to get Prairie Home Companion's podcast.

5. While 85% of all statistics are made up on the spot, 92% of all listreaders don't read #5 on any given list.

6. I will buy all of my clothes used, and pay full price for books. It's not a hard & fast rule, but it happens A LOT, and says a lot about what makes me happy - shelves full of books. :) And on that note, I'll be sharing some fabulous bookie finds with you tomorrow, as well as a nifty Easter craft, not to mention some cute pictures from last Sunday's zoo outing. PHEW!

I TAG YOU!:
* Melissa, of Sparkly Like a Holiday
* Natalie, of Betternat Squash
* Lennye, of Life is Hard, Enjoy the Ride
* Jeannie, of Put Some Polka Dots On It
* Sarah, of The Misadventures of Mama & Jack/Making Projiks
* Kristin, of My Polka-Dotted World

And a little free advice...

This is the second seriously close call we've had. The first was a few years ago when we were living in Hampton & a tornado tore through the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Anyway, what I've learned is that when there's constant lightning going HORIZONTALLY through the sky, you get a tornado. I've seen it twice in my life, & both times, there's been a wretched tornado.

My mom taught me when I was little that if the sky turned green, there would be a tornado, and I think that's true in the Midwest, but not so true down here. Of course, it's also not helpful when they come at night.

Public Service Announcement is now over. Thank you for your attention. ;)

We're fine...

Thanks to those of you who called last night to check on us. The tornado in Atlanta appears to have gone by the north side of our neighborhood (Grant Park) into another neighborhood called Cabbagetown. The division between these is literally a single street. Lindsey drove through on his way to do some work at the church this morning, and said that it's pretty awful. The pictures online aren't too encouraging, either.

Since we don't watch TV, we were woefully underinformed last night. Turns out that Atlanta radio doesn't give out ANY information except the actual warnings. After people started calling to tell us that our neighborhood was on the news, I did look at the streaming footage online, and figured out what was going on. I also grew up in a community with tornado sirens, and there certainly weren't any going off here last night, so I don't know if we don't have them, or if there was so little warning that they never turned them on.

Regardless, it did give us a nice taste of how ill-prepared we are.

Anyway, my yardwork plans for today are officially scuttled, since worse storms are on the way. I think cookie baking might be in my future.

Those of y'all who are close, take care. *love*

Snowing...

This week: 70 degrees, then thunderstorms like it was July, now it's snowing. This is the first Atlanta snow I've seen this winter, though, since I've managed to be out of town the three previous time. The flakes are big & pretty. I'll upload some pictures later.

Now, though, if you'd like to do something fun & un-wintry....

...you could try the Spring Reading Thing from Callapidder Days. Amy brought it to her readers' attention, and I think it sounds like a good time. I do have a stack of things to read, which often get overlooked for something else, so this is a good challenge for me.

Some of you will be shocked to know I've been up since 7:30. :) Weekend Edition has been really great this morning, including a discussion about the spate of recent faked memoirs. It's funny - when I first heard about this (where a gal claimed to be half White/half Native American, raised by an African-American foster mother in the hood where her foster brothers were in a gang & she sold drugs, etc., etc., etc.), I was instantly skeptical. However, the author hoodwinked a whole bunch of authors, editors, reviewers, and journalists, until her own sister called her out. Turns out she grew up in a tony suburb of L.A. Nice. Appropriating other people's tragedies as your own to sell a book. She claims she was just trying to share their stories, but I don't believe her. (Imagine that....)

Home.

Kenzie
Originally uploaded by sarahblascovich

Despite crazy weather & NASCAR traffic, I made it back from Macon in record time. Lindsey is doing some NASTY dishes that he left at school for way too long, and then we're going to have Mexican. Cheese quesadillas & beans = Lenten staple. :)

Guess who I get to see this weekend?

That's right - this precious little one & her parents. We're going to the zoo! Now, let's hope it's not snowing on Sunday afternoon! Happy weekend.

Just when you think you understand the world.

Brett Favre retires. Now, I'm no football nut, and I really don't even care for the Packers (though I do understand how that team could bring some joy to your life if you're from Green Bay, where it's 32 below and snowing in JULY), but you could just always count on Brett.

Not to mention, it's one of the most egregious mispronunciations of a French name that I know of. The v comes before the r, yet you pronounce it in the opposite order.

sheesh.

Sometimes, she can plan...

Now that I travel, I pay attention to the weather. I am famous for never knowing the forecast (or what time it is, but that's a different post). I used to wake Lindsey up to ask him what the weather was going to do, which I am quite sure he found very annoying. In fact, I know he found it annoying, because he used to say things like "how would I know? I'm not up yet!"

Anyhoodle, because I now use weather.com for purposes besides convincing myself it was within the 12 degree temperature range that allowed us to take the kids to recess, I knew YESTERDAY it was going to be rainy & gross today. That meant I went OUTSIDE yesterday, and read on the swing, and walked around downtown Decatur. I left all of the yucky inside chores for today, so today I get to do the following things:

1) Clean. In a big way.
2) Organize fabric into cloth bins suggested by the amazing Sarah.
3) Laundry. You all know that laundry is an uphill battle for me ALL THE TIME. I used to have to stay up all night in college sometimes, not to do schoolwork, but to do 15 loads of laundry. Ugh. I'm not that bad anymore, but I still really hate it. And believe you me, if I didn't have moral principles that prevent me from hiring out housework to people Lindsey & I refer to as domestic wageslaves, I'd definitely let someone else do my laundry. But that would be wrong.
4) Write a bunch of thank you notes, sympathy cards, and general mail that hasn't been sent for a variety of lame reasons.
5) Work on a master plan for VBS.

Did I mention that I bought Steel Magnolias for $5 at Target??? That means at some point today I'll be bawling my eyes out, if you're interested.

And has anyone listened to Lennye's playlist yet? It's definitely quality, but for some reason it makes me think I should be drinking while I'm listening to it. I'm not sure what that says, exactly, but it's an unsettling feeling at 10:00 in the morning...

Finally, I don't think I've shared this yet. While in New York, I got to check out the fabulous Purl Patchwork store. The thing is about the size of a large closet, but they have it very well stocked with some gorgeous fabric. I'll have to photograph my fabric selections for you, but here's a shot of the store:


For added excitement, you get to swivel your head to see this, because I forgot to flip it before I downloaded it, and I just plain REFUSE to waste time downloading it again.

Happy Tuesday!

Vintage Heart Swap - from Becky

First of all, I need to offer HUGE, gigantic, enormous apologies to the Fabulous Becky, who sent me such fantastic swap gifts, and whom I have neglected to thank publicly! So, Becky, I'm truly sorry it's taken me this long to share with the bloggy world the great things you sent me. :)

Secondly, y'all are going to be amazed with the things Becky sent. It is not acceptable to drive here and try to take them, but I am willing to let you see them when you come to visit, I promise.

Without further ado.....


This lovely framed art piece is made from a vintage quilted heart, vintage fabrics, trims, and a heck of a lot of ingenuity. I LOVE it. I am having trouble deciding where to put it, but it will be an all-the-time piece of art, not just a Valentine piece of art.
Becky also sent a pretty basket full of treats, including a silver heart box full of old buttons (!!!), a bunch of candy that may have disappeared very quickly, or so I heard, a nifty purse holder, another quilted heart magnet, some Mary Engelbreit items, and more.

And because this is hanging in our hard-to-photograph computer nook, I am linking to Becky's post about the calendar she designed & illustrated herself! It's a very high-quality calendar, and the images are just darling. I am not lying when I say that I hope she does one every year. ;) (Hint, hint, Becky!)

THANK YOU, Becky!!! This swap was a blast. :) If you're interested, you can see Becky's post about what I sent to her, here.

She's back. Again.

But only briefly.

I did manage, though, to swing two days off in a ROW. I got those to atone for working Saturday & Sunday. Yesterday lasted longer than I thought it would, so poor Lindsey had to go to my Sunday School meeting for me. Yes, you heard right. I have decided to teach Sunday School (again.) I gave it up for quite a while, since I had kids all day long every day, and I just didn't have much left to offer come Sunday morning. Since I don't have kids all day right now, I figured the time was right, plus they really needed someone to start a new class. So, here I am, the new 4 & 5 year old co-teacher. (They've arranged for two of us, but something tells me..... I digress. Ahem.)

Oh, and did I mention that I'm co-chairing Vacation Bible School, too???? That's only a week-long extravaganza, not to mention that I've never done that before.

Here's a question for you church-going readers: how much is expected of the parents of the children in your Sunday School programs? We're in a small quandary over this right now. I'm interested to know if we are unique in that none of the parents are directly involved in the Sunday School program.... They do other things in the church, but not this.

Very shortly, there will be another post, just as soon as some things get loaded into Flickr.... Be patient....