Perception vs. Reality

Go Ahead, Make My Day!

Swiped this one from ClemsonGirl. Totally fun, and while Heather would argue (legitimately) that I read WAY more than five blogs every day, these five of my faves. You all make my day, girls!

1 & 2. Badger Meets World & Make Your Own Damn Dinner: OK, so I realize that this is actually two blogs, but if you're a mom who's ever been faced with the dilemma of children refusing to eat what you cook, you must read up on Badger's solution in "MYODD". Her regular blog is just as hysterical.

3. A Study of Schoolbooks & Shoes: Libby makes me want to pack up, move to Boston and go to law school. Hope Fate is kind to you this time around, Libs!

4. Barely Keeping It All Together: Sasha and I both have a Wild Child in our lives, and share many other similarities. Love reading her kiddie posts, as they remind me that sanity is relative.

5. JourneyMama: Rae is amazing. There are no other adequate ways to describe her, so go check out her blog before she heads off to India with her husband and three-soon-to-be-four children.

So girls, if you're reading this, and are willing to accept your award, please "pass it on" by doing the following:

Write a post with links to five blogs that make your day.
Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
Display the “You Make My Day Award” logo.
Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs or emailing them the news.

Working Diva Present and Accounted For!

Yes, I'm still here. Alive, anyway. My mental state is open for debate, but that's another story! :)

I returned safely from "Lost Vegas", as Sweet Son #1 refers to it. The conference went well, and even though my flight (and three others from Vegas) fell prey to the Southwest cancellations. Nana & Papa survived my trip as well, which is no great feat, considering they took care of The Manimal for the week.

More soon, I promise. I have to get back into the swing of blogging. Also, I haven't forgotten about the giveaway, ladies! I've got the packages just about ready to send, so hang in there with me.

In the meantime, check out a new addition to the blogosphere, my dear friend Heather. She's a frequent blog reader and is joining us on the writing side!

Lucky

Well kids, tomorrow I'm headed west for my conference. By myself. Sans children and husband.


Aaaaahhhh...


Thanks for allowing me that moment to savor my upcoming five days. Yep, I'm headed to Vegas, Baby! And while I'm not a big gambler, I do plan on relaxing and having a bit of fun. Maybe one of the one-armed bandits will be kind to me.


We'll see if Lady Luck is on my side.


In the meantime, I did the drawing! Now, because this is my blog, and I can do whatever I want, I let Miss Cindy get in on the action, even though she was a bit late. I'll just chalk it up to that relaxed California mentality!


Here are the seven lucky participants (please excuse the cell phone photos)...
Now for the drawing (out of my fab Vera Bradley lunchbag)...
And the winners are (drum roll, please!)... And just in case you can't really see my oh-so-fabulous photos, Congratulations to Kelly and Demand More! Ladies, e-mail me with your snail mail info, and I'll get those out to you as soon as I return from my trip!

Many Will Enter...

At least I hope!

C'mon fellow blogging friends, I know there are more than two of you reading. Well, maybe not a LOT more than two, but at least a few more.

Who doesn't like fun surprise gifts? Not that I wouldn't be thrilled to send the packages to Kelly and The Princess, but at least make the randomizer do a bit of work!

So leave a comment here, and maybe you'll get lucky. No, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter, as this is a family blog.

And for a little cinematic fun, see if you can figure out the quotes that are left here.

Oh, and hop on over to see Chloe and Bryan. Both are new parents of beautiful babies. Well, Bryan's pretty experienced, as their new addition makes FOUR BOYS. Oy! I'm lucky I can handle the two I have. Congrats to both newly-enlarged families!

Pay It Forward

I found out that I'm one of the lucky winners in Sasha's Pay It Forward Giveaway. I tried to find the initiator of this fun giveaway, and traced it back through several blogs, including Traci's, Jen's, Flutterby's, Bunny's, Mindy's, and ended up at Frog's. I stopped there, because I couldn't find Frog's "Pay It Forward" post. As far as I can tell, hers was from October or November of 2007. Pretty cool!

So here's the dealio.

Leave a comment by Thursday, March 6th at 5 pm Central Time (sorry, I don't do time conversions, you'll have to figure that out for yourselves!). I'll do a random drawing that evening for TWO lucky winners of a little care package that will make you feel young again.

EDITED TO ADD: I forgot one of the most important parts! If you are one of the lucky winners, you have to agree to "Pay it Forward" and do a giveaway of your own. Sounds fair, right? Spread the blogging love! :)

Have fun!

Movie Mayhem

As indicated in my previous post, I don't get to see too many movies in the theatre. This does not, however, mean that I don't love a good movie. I've never been one of those people, though, who can quote chapter and verse from their fave flick.

So when I found this meme over at Badger's place, I was intrigued. It's fun, and here are the ground rules:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out (I'll be darned if I can figure out how to do that!) when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. GUESSERS: NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions. I mean, you can cheat if you want, but is it really that important?
6. One movie guess per blogger. Give people a chance to guess before you steal all of the awesome!

Here we go, kiddos!

1. Way to go, Cami! From "The American President"..."How'd you finally do it? Do what? Manage to give a woman flowers and be president at the same time? Well, it turns out I've got a rose garden."

2. Carrie Lea! Carrie Lea! Carrie Lea! From "Rudy"..."We're gonna go inside, we're gonna go outside, inside and outside. We're gonna get 'em on the run boys and once we get 'em on the run we're gonna keep 'em on the run. And then we're gonna go go go go go go and we're not gonna stop til we get across that goalline. This is a team they say is... is good, well I think we're better than them. They can't lick us, so what do you say men?"
3. Yay, TulipMom! From "You've Got Mail"..."Brinkley is my dog. He loves the streets of New York as much as I do. Although he likes to eat bits of pizza and bagels off the sidewalk and I prefer to buy them."

4. Let's hear it for our South African blogging friend, Hanlie! From "The Princess Bride"..."Hear this now: I will always come for you. But how can you be sure? This is true love - you think this happens every day?"

5. "Sure you didn't put booze in that? Something better. Perhaps you should give it to my daughter. Melt that chilly disposition of hers."

6. "They say you're the world's only living heart donor."

7. "Up until now everything around here has been, well, pleasant. Recently certain things have become unpleasant. Now, it seems to me that the first thing we have to do is to separate out the things that are pleasant from the things that are unpleasant."

8. Home Run, Kelly! From "A League of Their Own"..."Careers and higher education are leading to the masculinization of women, with enormously dangerous consequences to the home, the children, and our country. When our boys come home from war, what kind of girls will they be coming home to? And now the most disgusting example of this sexual confusion: Mr. Walter Harvey of Harvey bars is presenting us with women's baseball. Right here in Chicago, young girls plucked from their families are gathered at Harvey Field, to see which one of them can be the most masculine. Mr. Harvey, like your candy bars, you're completely... nuts."

9. "You think that mosquitos, monkeys, and lions are bad? That is just the beginning. I've seen things you've only seen in your nightmares. Things you can't even imagine. Things you can't even see. There are things that hunt you in the night. Then something screams. Then you hear them eating, and you hope to God that you're not dessert. Afraid? You don't even know what afraid is. You would not last five minutes without me."

10. "That's all."

Have fun!

File This Under "Is She For Real?"

Before the children made their appearances in our lives, The Husband and I enjoyed going to movies. We don't do that so much anymore. As a matter of fact, I may have sprained my brain trying to figure out the last movie that I saw in the theatre.

After reading this, I don't think I've missed much.