You've Got Questions, We've Got Answers

I stopped by over at Aimee's blog, as I usually do, and saw this cute meme. Considering I don't have much else to post I thought I might take a few minutes to fill it out.

Were you named after anyone? My middle name, Theresa, is after my great-grandmother, but otherwise, no, my name was picked out of a book.

When was the last time you cried? Last week....stresses of moving and no money and such.

Do you like your handwriting? Oh HECK no! I have ALWAYS had horrible penmanship.

What is your favorite lunch meat? Roast Beef

Do you have kids? Two lovely lil rugrats

If you were another person, would you be friends with yourself? I suppose so, although I really suck at making and returning phone calls.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Almost always.

Do you still have your tonsils? Yes, but my son doesn't

Would you bungee jump? Not on your life!

What is your favorite cereal? Favorite cereal....hmmm...this is tricky because I like a lot of different ones. I love Special K Red Berries but I also love Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch!

Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Not if I can help it....of course, I curse myself next time I have to put them on because I have to untie them first.

What is your favorite ice cream? Anything by Turkey Hill

What do you notice first about people? Eyes

Red or pink? I'm not into the whole 'Pink is the new black' thing...so Red

What is your least favorite thing about yourself? Do you have a few years?

What is the last thing you ate? A bowl of Special K Chocolatey Delight

What color pant and shoes are you wearing? I'm not wearing pants or shoes. I'm wearing my nightgown. (direct quote from Aimee's blog....which just so happens to apply to moi!)

What are you listening to right now? The whir of the fan behind me and the kids in the other room

What are your favorite smells? lilacs, brownies or cookies baking, cedar, patchouli mixed with amber

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Wayne

What are your favorite sports to watch? ice hockey and any sort of dog sport

What is your hair color? brown....oh, wait, let me see if I can remember what was on that box...Deep Burgandy Brown...yeah, that's it!

What is your eye color? blue

Do you wear contacts? No, the eye doctor says I can't wear them anymore (poo on him!) So I'm stuck with my glasses until I can afford Lasik. Even then I think I'll be too chicken to go under the laser.

Scary movie or happy ending? 9 times out of 10 I'd choose scary movie. I just can't get into the schmaltzy stuff.

What is your favorite food? Seafood. More specifically, steamed clams dipped in drawn butter

What was the last movie you saw? Uh...hmmm. Well, in the theaters we took the kids to see Bridge to Terabithia (that movie was NOT what I expected it to be, so before taking kids to see it, make sure you know the actual plot of the movie!) But that last actual movie I saw was Sunday night when we watched The Fifth Element, one of our FAVORITE scifi flicks EVER, on HDTV!

What color shirt are you wearing? A pastel green with purple flowered nightshirt

Summer or winter? I would say winter hands down because I haven't experienced a winter in 7 years. On the OTHER hand, our entire family has birthdays over the summer. SmartyPants is in July and me, Wayne and WiseGuy all have birthdays within a 9 day time frame in August.

Hugs or kisses? I have to pick one?!?! I refuse!

What is your favorite dessert? This is hard....I LOVE me some dessert. Uhm....oh....sheesh. Let's see...ok, cannoli....NO! Cheesecake. Oh, no, wait! Wayne's Apricot Amaretto Torte!

What are you reading? Weird Hauntings:True Tales of Ghostly Places by Joanne Austin

What is on your mouse pad? A kitty sleeping in a tree. Altogether now 'AWWWWW!!!'

What did you watch on TV last night? Nothing, I was at work til 1AM

Rolling Stones or The Beatles? The Beatles

What is the farthest you've been from home? I'm not sure which is farther, Arizona or Bermuda

Where were you born? Reading, Pennsylvania

There you have it. Questions and answers as interpreted by ME!
I never tag anyone because I have fewer than 5 readers, but let me know if any of those 5 of you do this because I'll come and check it out!

My Trip to Gettysburg

Summer Giveaway!

When I think of summer, I most definitely think of ice cream! How awesome would it be to be able to make your OWN ice cream at home!? Well, just enter for a chance to win your own ice cream maker over at 5 Minutes for Mom.com

Click on the button below to enter!
I already have!

Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen

While both my children seem to be natural born performers, Wiseguy showed that he has a knack for the spoken word. He proved this more than ever on Father's Day. We were visiting my dad and stepmother (AKA Opop and Omom) and remembered that SmartyPants had her recorder in the van. Since Omom and Opop had never heard her play in person she wanted to perform a few songs for them and did so quite well, as per usual. Of course, WiseGuy wasn't going to be left out of the spotlight and stood beside her providing percussion throughout her performance. While it was funny to watch him try to muscle in on her performance I was also surprised that his percussion accompaniment was on beat and fit perfectly with her playing. When SmartyPants had completed her songs WiseGuy decided to sing for us. At least that's what he said. Instead he took on the role of MC and explained many things to us about what was going on 'up there on stage.' He gave out 'prizes' to us all. I was the lucky winner of a pink car and ONE HUNDRED MILLION THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!! WOOOOOOO!!!! We each received our share of the world's money and our own cars. After much talking and introduction he decided to introduce his sister again and this time she would sing. It took about 10 minutes to get him off 'the stage' at which time he informed us all that he would be going to 'the other stage' while she performed her songs. As she started singing we all suddenly heard, from the other side of the room, 'Well hello everybody!' There was WiseGuy doing his shtick on on the other stage. SmartyPants finished the 'It's Saturday!' review (the musical she had a role in at school this past year) and WiseGuy returned to do some standup, telling jokes that just WEREN'T jokes, but you HAVE to laugh for him, anyway. My dad said it was Andy Kaufman-esque and would probably entertain a number of people if we really did put him on stage. He had us almost in tears for about 45 minutes. It was priceless, to say the least.
Now, what I wonder is, would he do this in front of a GROUP of people? Or did he only do it because he was in front of family? I suppose only time will tell. All I know is that I am glad he does it for me.

Sharing the Past

Ok, so it turns out that the scale I weighed myself on was a little off....and NOT in my favor. But, on the upside of that, I actually HAVE lost the nine pounds I claimed to have lost a week ago. It just happened in TWO weeks instead of one. That sounds a little more like it to me, anyway ;)

I have yet to find a job, people. More because I have no one to watch the kids than anything else, though. I've put out apps and resumes and such, so I just need to get one of these high school girls to watch the rugrats and I'll be home free...I hope. Since I've been home all this time I decided to take the kids to few places I went as a kid that were COMPLETELY unlike the Florida they were used to. We ventured up to the Pagoda and WiseGuy loved every hairpin turn on the way. SmartPants couldn't get over how high up we were and the gorgeous view. Today we went for a hike around Antietam Lake. They were both unsure of going 'into the forest' but once there, they had a blast. We took the dog, as well, who was thoroughly enjoying the unfamiliar terrain. They played by the creek, skipped stones on the water, saw worms in the dirt and crayfish under rocks. They even BOTH slipped on the rocks and got the shoes all soaking wet. All in all THEY LOVED IT! As did I. Right now everyone is resting up after the hike....including the dog who is snoring at my feet as I type this.

It's very satisfying for me to share these things with my children. I almost feel like they are babies again....but this time they can walk and talk, WOOHOO!

Maybe next we will head out to Gring's Mill and the Gruber Wagon Works....a favorite spot of my Girl Scout troop, right T?? ;)

Pound for Pound

I've started a weight loss program. Yes, I've jumped on the Weight Watchers bandwagon! My mom has been doing Weight Watchers since January and has lost 30 lbs so far. Another dear friend of mine has been on Weight Watchers just as long and has gotten down over 30 lbs! So, with all that success around me, how I could I resist? Of course, it helps a LOT that I am currently LIVING with my mother. I just eat what she eats and drink a lot of water. I've been doing it for a little less than a week now and I've lost *drumroll please* 9 POUNDS!!! Can you believe it?? I couldn't! I still can't. I'm just assuming that my mom's scale is wrong. Once my clothes start to hang on me I think I'll start believing it more. I suppose I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but it's kind of hard when I still want to EAT the horse! Yeah, I'm a hungry girl most of the time. It's taken a lot of will power to not just pop open the fridge and snack all day long. I'm home with the kids by myself all day so it would be so easy to just cheat and cheat and cheat. Of course, who would I be cheating but myself. It's been getting a little easier. I'm not as hungry as they first few days, but I'm hungry nonetheless. It's all good though. If the weight loss continues I guess it will all be worth it, right?
I've added a ticker on the right to show my progress. Not to brag or anything, but so that I have something tangible to look at. So anyone that is doing any weight loss programs and needs someone to commiserate with, err I mean, needs some support, I'm there for ya, babe!

Right Back Where I Started From

Well, I've made it. I'm back in Pennsylvania. Our flight was very good, and WiseGuy behaved VERY well. The drive for Wayne and SmartyPants and the dog and rats went well, too. They made it here by Friday at dinner time, as expected. The trouble started when we had to unload the Uhaul. Wayne and I backed the Uhaul to the storage facility just as it began to rain. We thought ourselves fortunate that the Uhaul could fit prefectly in the large doorway and kept us out of the inclement weather. Soon enough, though, the rain began coming down HARD and the lightning and thunder began. I kid you not when I say that there were lightning strikes happening all around us. Our friend Jake arrived to help us unload. We all walked to back to see the size of our facility. To our dismay it didn't look large enough to accomodate all of our things, but we thought if we played a little Tetris we could manage it all in. So we began to unload and haul loads back down the little hallway towards our storage closet at the other end of the facility. With the thunder still booming and the lightning strikes still coming on strong and the three of us unloading one handtruck full of boxes the entire facility went black. Oh yes, gentle readers, the power went out. We made our way towards the light at the end of the tunnel...yes the LITERAL tunnel and decided to take a short break, hoping that the lights would come back on in that time. They never did. So, I found a flashlight in one of our boxes. The juice was running low, as the light was a dull brown color, but it was enough to light our way towards the back and illuminate our closet to pack in more and more of our possessions. Finally, we decided to call it a night. 75% of our belongings were packed tightly into the storage closet and the other 25% were strewn out behind the truck. We packed it back into the truck and headed towards my mom's house. We still had a few days left on our truck rental, so there were no penalties. We found another storage facility elsewhere to store the rest of our things and returned our truck. The man at the rental place told us the lights never did come back on before closing.
It was an adventure to say the least. Nothing and no one got broken in the transport and for that I am truly thankful.
Wayne already has a job working with my stepfather and now it is my turn to find one once I find someone trustworthy to watch the kids during the day. Either that or I have to find an evening job....oh FUN!
I'm finding that this is going to take more adjustment than I realized, but I don't mind so much....I just know that I'm home.