I was going to post a picture of my boyfriend, and then I decided he probably wouldn’t like that. He is really sweet though. I’m truly blessed.

So, I kept thinking about the ways that he is sweet. And the more I thought, the more “romantic” I realized he actually is. Which led me to a search for chocolate and roses. This is my picture for sweet.

If you participate, please leave me a comment letting me know you did and I will come visit you too!

Friday Fill-In #1

1. ….. is the grossest thing I ever ate.
2. I like to put … on my crackers.
3. I crave … at night.
4. I always add … to my pancake batter.
5. When I think of comfort food, I think of …

My Answers:

1. Liver is the grossest thing I ever ate.
2. I like to put peanut butter on my crackers.
3. I crave chocolate at night.
4. I always add cinnamon or vanilla to my pancake batter.
5. When I think of comfort food, I think of my yummy Chicken Casserole.

Friday Fill-In #2

1. I enjoy … more than anything else.
2. Blogging satisfies my need for … .
3. When I look at a full moon, I feel … .
4. I like to listen to music when I’m … .
5. My favorite … of 2006 was … .

My Answers:

1. I enjoy scrapbooking more than anything else. Hobby wise anyway.
2. Blogging satisfies my need for writing all the time.
3. When I look at a full moon, I feel peaceful and lucky. My daughter was born on a full-moon, lunar eclipse. Oh, and it was a Friday the 13th too.
4. I like to listen to music when I’m writing or scrapbooking.
5. My favorite memory of 2006 was probably our family trip to Louisana which was the beginning of us all as a family.

Friday Fill-In #3

1. My … means the world to me.
2. Books are ….
3. When I …, it’s because ….
4. If I want a snack, I usually reach for a … .
5. The most recent movie I saw, … made me …. I really … it.

My Answers:

1. My boyfriend and children (and laptop) means the world to me.
2. Books are awesome!
3. When I write, it’s because I have so much to give back to the world.
4. If I want a snack, I usually reach for a chocolate bar. Hmm. And I’m wondering where all this weight keeps coming from?
5. The most recent movie I saw, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made me fall in love with the whole Harry Potter series all over again. I really loved it.

Friday Fill-In #4

1. Today I want….
2. If only ….
3. Once upon a time ….
4. Cold weather … .
5. Dude! OMG … .

My Answers:

1. Today I want to seriously get some writing done.
2. If only there were 25 hours in a day, rather than just a miserable 24
3. Once upon a time there was a lonely girl with two children and a lonely guy with three children, living apart from each other. One day, a strange woman introduced them and they have been together ever since.
4. Cold weather is my favorite kind.
5. Dude! OMG I hardly ever talk like this.

Friday Fill-In #5

1. July 21st is ….
2. … is my favorite hand lotion.
3. Mt. Fuji ….
4. Professor Snape is ….
5. I would love to ….
6. When I need a little pick me up, I reach for ….
7. When I daydream, I often dream about ….

My Answers:

1. July 21st is a Saturday.
2. Aveeno or anything from Bed, Bath and Beyond, especially Sweet Pea is my favorite hand lotion.
3. Mt. Fuji is a mountain.
4. Professor Snape is freakin’ awesome!
5. I would love to be in a Harry Potter movie.
6. When I need a little pick me up, I reach for a donut and coffee with a little blog reading.
7. When I daydream, I often dream about my characters in my books. Sad, isn’t it?

Appetizer
How many pieces of jewelry do you wear most days?
One - a ring. Oh wait, sometimes I have a necklace on. In fact, I guess I typically where two pieces. I would wear more, but I am picky about what I wear, and well - I’m a mom so it gets in the way a lot. Oh, and my earrings. I forget I usually wear my earrings. LOL They are diamond studs usually, but sometimes I switch them out to some cute thing my kids have. LOL

Soup
What is your favorite instrumental song?
Absolutely anything by Jim Brickman. Not only is he hot, but he can play the piano like nobody else I know.

Salad
Who has a last name that you like?
My boyfriend - and NO not because I want to marry him. I just like his last name a lot. It’s Cook, if you are wondering.

Main Course
Name a popular movie you’ve never seen.
Hmm…oh wait, that’s easy. I’m almost embarassed to say it, because we OWN it. The Chronicles of Narnia - I swear, I plan to watch it, I just never have yet. Oh, and I’ve also never seen Lord of the Rings - nope - nada - not even one of them.

Dessert
Fill in the blank: Nothing makes me ___________ like ____________.
Nothing makes me a better person, like being reminded now and again, of the kindness, compassion, courage, devotion, strength and determination that my children display.

*Sigh*

It isn’t that I am necessarily tired of this one.

It isn’t that I even want to change the design of this one a whole lot - I designed it myself.

It isn’t that I wish I had a template that reflected my personality a little bit more with my seven person crazy household and my writing and scrapbooking mess.

It isn’t that I am completely jealous of my friend Erin’s awesome new template.

It isn’t that Nurse Betty could not get my template to validate and neither can I no matter how hard I try - so it flatlined.

It isn’t even that I have all these great ideas swimming around in my head but have no earthly clue how to do graphics or even design a new one.

It isn’t that I wish my stuff was laid out better on my blog and that I would like to add some content that is less cluttered that I already have written and done.

It isn’t even that I am in love with the design of this blog or this one, this one or this one or even this one.

I think I just need a change. I need to find someone really good to make one for me. I don’t mind paying for it if I can get what I want from it. Anyone know of anyone who knows how to make their own totally adorable graphics or blogs. I know some of the people who designed the blogs I mentioned above, are not taking orders, or they get their graphics from one of these stock photo places, and I cannot for the life of me, find a graphic of a family of seven that fits ours, which is really what I want.

*sigh*

I really just need to go to bed, and quit worrying about it. Nite!

While I am quite sure I could write a huge list of what I love about being able to blog, and maybe just maybe I will for a future Thursday Thirteen, I thought I’d share my favorite part of blogging.

The people I have met.

Through reading others blogs, and having them read mine, I have formed some really nice friendships. In fact, I have so many blogs I read now, that I am going to have to go through a service like my friend Erin does, so I can get them all at once.

The friendships I have formed, would never have happened if it hadn’t have been for blogging. How else would I meet people in Florida, or Europe. Or Asia or Africa. I am so happy to have these great people, who’s lives I can share through our blog entries.

I’m looking forward to meeting new people, forming new friendships and finding new blogs to read and enjoy!

Just wanted to say thanks to the great people who blog. You keep me entertained daily!

Thirteen Things You Will Never Hear Me Say

1. “What am I going to do with all this free time?”

2. “What’s a couple more pounds? I’m too skinny as it is.”

3. “Oh wow! I just love that rap song!”

4. “I’m thinking about cutting my hair short.”

5. “So what’s the latest Hollywood gossip?”

6. “I really don’t care if I ever get published.”

7. “I just love excercising, I cannot get enough of it.”

8. “My house is way too clean. It almost looks like a museum.”

9. “It’s almost that time of month, I can hardly wait.”

10. “That bikinini would look perfect on me.”

11. “I don’t think I need anymore scrapbooking supplies. I have more than enough.”

12. “Blending our family of seven was the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”

13. “Faith? I have not one drop.”

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

So while I’m browsing around looking at blogs, I’m kinda cracking up, because I find laundry mentioned a lot (wish I had saved a few of the posts - they were really funny). As a family of seven, we go through a lot of loads of laundry a week. Add a few extra loads for bath towels, beach or swim towels and swim suits in the summer and hats, mittens, scarves and coats in the winter, sheets, blankets and pillowcases, and you can sort of see where I am going with this. 

So I sometimes laugh at these people who only have one or two kids who let the laundry pile up, not because I think it’s actually funny, but because yes, I can even relate to that. Even as a single mom when it was just the three of us, it often piled up. But this - this is insane.

I had ALL of the laundry done on Friday before our trip - that would be Friday morning at precisely 11am when I removed the last article of clothing we were taking on our trip with us. When we arrived home and I got everyone’s stuff downstairs finally on Monday night, and I spent an hour separating everything, I ended up with a grand total of 11 loads. Uhm. Hello. That was from THREE freakin’ days. What’s the matter with the people in my house?

So, I thought, if you find laundry mishaps and stories at all entertaining, you can visit the following blog entries that made me smile today.  Because I can SO relate.

You can read the explanation for the blog titled Rocks in My Dryer. So been there, and done that, it’s not even funny anymore, but her blog is.

10 Things I Hate About Laundry - yep. I think I could have written this list!

Able to Ignore Loads of Laundry in a Single Glance - haha. Yup! Until a child is screaming about only having underwear to where to school/friends/camp. LOL

Tackle It Tuesday - Yeah well, I rarely tackle it all at once, so that might just be my problem. Kudo’s go out to her for making it a priority that day. LOL

Cold Coffee Friday - Really cute blog and really funny post.

Topic Tuesday: Laundry Day - You poor poor woman. I can so relate too.

Endless Mounds - She has a potty mouth, but darn it she tells it how it is, and I love it!

Laundry is the Devil - I SO had this happen to me, more than once!

Give Us Dirty Laundry - LOL No maid for me either. I think she ran out on us a long time ago.

How to do Laundry The Shauna-Way Or If My Mother-In-Law Knew, She Would Never Have Given Her Blessing - Oh Shauna, Sweet Shauna, I can so relate. This post totally cracked me up! My method seems to be #2 also!

Why Laundry Never Gets Folded - This is so my life.

Okay, so I make it a habit to leave comments on most people’s blogs if I have time, or if I have something brilliant to say (which of course is almost always - not!)

Have you ever left a comment on someone’s blog in response to something, and honestly feel like they took it the wrong way based on their reply back?

As a writer, one of the things I cherish of course, is the written word. But one of the things that drives me nuts, is the fact that you have to so carefully choose the location of words in a sentence, putting punctuation in places just to get your point across.

Anyway, I got a reply back from someone this morning, in response to a comment I left on her blog. I thought my comment was good, and in no way did I think someone would read that I might being rude or something. Now, in fairness, she ended her comment back to me with a smiley, but I still felt as if she thought I was being rude to her in mine. *sigh*

Ah, the glory of the web.

I love spending time reading and finding new blogs. Today I was just surfing around and found this over at Full Plate (great blog). Too funny, but oh so very true! Out of the mouths of babes.

A CHILD’S PERSPECTIVE on:

1) NUDITY

I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, “Mom, that lady isn’t wearing a seat belt!”

2) OPINIONS

On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. The note read, “The opinions expressed by this child are not necessarily those of his parents.”

3) KETCHUP

A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. “Mommy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now. She’s hitting the bottle.”

4) MORE NUDITY

A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the women’s locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked, “What’s the matter, haven’t you ever seen a little boy before?”

5) POLICE #1

 While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, “Are you a cop?” “Yes,” I answered and continued writing the report. “My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?” “Yes, that’s right,” I told her. “Well, then,” she said as she extended her foot toward me, “would you please tie my shoe?”

6) POLICE #2

It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me “Is that a dog you got back there?” he asked. “It sure is,” I replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, “What’d he do?”

7) ELDERLY

While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, “The tooth fairy will never believe this!”

8) DRESS-UP

A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, “Daddy, you shouldn’t wear that suit.” “And why not, darling?” “You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning. “

9) DEATH

While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently, his 5-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton batting, then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of the deceased. The minister’s son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his Version of what he thought his father always said: “Glory be unto the Faaather, and unto the Sonnn, and into the hole he goooes.”

10) SCHOOL

A little girl had just finished her first week of school. “I’m just wasting my time,” she said to her mother. “I can’t read, I can’t write and they won’t let me talk!”

11) BIBLE

 A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. “Mama, look what I found,” the boy called out. “What have you got there, dear?” With astonishment in the young boy’s voice, he answered, “I think it’s Adam’s underwear!”