Wordle...Sudoku for dummies!?

I LOVE Wordle! It's so much fun!

Do the Shuffle...do, do, do, do, do-do-do-do-do...;)

That's right...the IPOD shuffle! I totally robbed this idea from my friend Misty's blog!

Hit shuffle on your IPOD and list the songs as they appear. Then explain why they're on your pod. How did they make their way into your life. I'm gonna do the first twenty:

1. Jive Talkin' by The Bee Gees - This song reminds me of Kasey Perritt and her neice, Katy. Katy used to do the claps performed in the song perfectly at age 3! Other than that, I'm just a fan of disco!
2. Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind & Fire - Always makes me wanna dance! Can't wait to get down to this little number!
3. How You Remind Me by Nickelback - Good song; great band!
4. You Can't Hurry Love by Phil Collins - Always puts me in a good mood...is a morning ritual at least twice a week.
5. Can't Get Enough of Your Love by Barry White - This one was resurrected for me with the Teen movie "Down To You" (Freddie Prinze Jr.). It's soulful, deep and another dance song for me.
6. Survive by Jimmy Buffett - It's Jimmy...what can I say? I love the man.
7. September by Earth, Wind & Fire - You would think I'm some radical fan of theirs...maybe I am. Another song to get jiggy to.
8. Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye - Always reminds me of Gary Vaughan at Auburn. If you can wear out a theme song, he did.
9. Victim of Love by The Eagles - The Eagles, man. Does it get any smoother?
10. Last Cigarette by Bon Jovi - Not my favorite Bon Jovi song, but can you really go wrong with this band? Heck no!
11. Shake It Up by The Cars - This song - and anything by The Cars really - always takes me back to my senior year of high school. I'm riding shotgun with Kristin in David Bentley's version of K.I.T.T.
12. Get the Party Started by Pink - You gotta have Pink on your IPOD. She's a straight up rocker!
13. When the Sun Goes Down by Kenny Chesney and Uncle Kracker - This one is catchy...that's for sure. You can't help but sing it when it comes on. And Kenny is hot knee deep in the water.
14. Welcome to the Family by Little Big Town - Again, not one of my favorite songs, but a great group. I'd probably skip this one.
15. Ill Wind by Frank Sinatra - Ol' Blue Eyes himself. He's so suave. I won't always listen to Frank. I have to be in the mood to do so.
16. To Come of Age by The Doors - I love Jim Morrison and I'll listen to The Doors anytime. I'm always mesmerized by them.
17. Burn This Disco Out by Michael Jackson - Old school Michael from his Off the Wall album. Reminds me of Amy because she gave me the disc.
18. Peaceful Easy Feeling by The Eagles - See #9.
19. California Dreamin' by The Mamas & Papas - I hate this song. I will delete it as soon as I get a chance.
20. Amazed by Lonestar - Another one that I could do without. It was most likely loaded by someone else.

So, that's my list! What about you? What does your IPOD have to offer by way of melodic therapy?

Multi-tasking home decor...

Back around the holidays, my husband (bless his heart) got a novel idea. Create something to anchor into the walls of our living room to help absorb the sound, thereby decreasing the echo in the room.

Our living room has 18 foot ceilings, so noise does bounce around. The only way I take notice is that I can never enjoy watching TV in the living room because I can't ever get the volume right. I'll have it loud enough to hear while I'm in the recliner, but it's way too loud to those entering the room. So, I retreat to the bedroom for TV 99% of the time...you know, for arguments sake. Sigh...anyway, so being the engineer he is, he came up with something we could "build".

Basically, it consists of a 4'x4' piece of plywood, foam backer board, lots of glue, quilt batting and material. Now, multiply that by four...cause that's how many we made. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, hanging them was a whole nother issue. I suck at math. So, I was automatically on the manual labor side of this endeavor. Nothing like perching yourself atop a 12 foot ladder and trying to "muscle" a 4x4 material covered piece of plywood up over your head and try to ring the anchor in the wall with the hanger on the back of the "creation"! Just ask my sister-in-law. She and I were the lucky birds doing the perching!

Nevertheless, they are up. I don't gather that they muffle much noise, but they certainly add something to the blank wall they now adorn. My neighbor refers to them as "Sound Barriers". He said anyone that lives with me would have to come up with something to absorb all the noise I create. Great...now I'm paranoid that he's seen me at my redneck-iest (screaming at the kiddies in the yard!) No worries, though. I am loud. Always have been and most likely always will be. I hate to say this, but it's just the way I'm wired. :)

Ode to the Grocer!

Please allow me these few precious moments to thank you…and I mean really thank you.

As a little girl (like many at a young age) I wanted so badly to be a cashier. I loved the idea of scanning the items, taking the money, using the register and bagging the groceries. (So strange that nowadays I desire a profession in the hospitality industry…but that’s for another blog!)

So, I thank you, local grocer - which shall go unnamed to protect the innocent – for making my dream come true this evening. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for employing young, ignorant teenagers who scan my items with such disdain even I no longer love life. And, also for teaching them the thing to do when they see a young mother of two struggling to weave her ridiculously overloaded buggy down the isle is to not even move their cart of ‘items being returned to the shelf’. No, no…please, finish your phone call first, “Bret”. I’ll just stand here and age.

(Sidenote: As my children grow up and get jobs of their own, I hope that society doesn’t alter so much so that being on your cell phone while stocking groceries is acceptable. Seriously, the only person important enough to call you at work when you’re sixteen is your mama…and then, by God, you better answer. Am I right?)

In addition, I’d like to personally thank you for allowing me the privilege to bag my own groceries. I was certainly feeling sub par in the challenge department (seeing as how all I did was get out in the cold and brave your supermarket in heels with two kids in tow). Bagging groceries was just what I needed to relieve my stress. Perhaps I’ll work it into my routine on a weekly basis? It was also a nice touch to have 10+ trainees standing at register 3 (me at register 4) and witness this tacky, yet somewhat comical, display of errors as I tried to bag my items correctly and according to placement. I mean, you can’t bag hamburger meat and grapes together, right? I feel that they may have picked up on some pretty important customer service skills while standing there popping their gum, texting their friends and rolling their eyes. Say it with me now, “That’s not my job!” Goooooooood! And if that wasn’t enough for them, they can just tune into my cashier “Tiphany’s” grand attitude about it all. She’ll have you perky in no time! I might have had sympathy for their acne ridden selves if I didn’t stand before them with my “bindi” in place.

So, again, I thank you. Thank you for helping me see the error of my ways. Thank you for proving that my decision to come to you and avoid the long lines at my local discount store that sells tires and groceries was WRONG!!! At least there I can do self checkout and get the real rush from playing cashier! You know…minus the money and all.

Up yours….truly!

A little office humor to brighten your day!

glumbert - Bad Day at the Office

The techno world in which we live!

Tonight, my husband and I had an evening to wine and dine ourselves. On the agenda for the evening was dinner and a movie – boring, maybe. But, that’s enough for me.

We made it to dinner, but not the movie. It was decided that we would catch a film through Dish on Demand (Technology extraordinaire). We headed to dinner and took our time. We weren’t rushed. I didn’t have to take anyone to the potty. No one spilled their drink…wait, Brent did. But, only a little. There was no whining about crayons or the lack thereof. Nope…Granny had the kids. I took comfort in the fact that they were safe and sound with her at home, bathed and in PJ’s.

We were halfway through the appetizer when I got the call…all of you with parents of the baby boomer generation know the one I’m talking about!

Me: Hello?

Mom: Hey! We need help.

Me: Oh. What’s wrong?

Mom: We can’t get the DVD to work in your room.

Me: Why don’t you watch it in Hayden’s room or the living room?

Mom: We want to watch it in your room – it’s more fun. Your bed is bigger!

Me: Well, here’s what you have to do…

I proceeded to explain the process of switching the receiver to the correct setting, changing the channel on the TV to AV2 and making sure the DVD player was on, not the VCR. Shortly after that, Ratatouille was in surround sound!

You can’t help but laugh at all this! Heck, I’m even guilty of being technologically illiterate. Once it’s all setup in my house, we have to have a run-through of how things operate and what buttons on which remotes get me to Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday nights. DVR was a whole nother demon I’m proud to say I tackled! But, it wasn’t so long ago that I remember the only thing you had to do to get a movie going in my house was turn the VCR on. Moving a TV from one room to another didn’t take an act of Congress and it was so simple an 8 year old could do it.

Not anymore. This Hi-def world we live in today provides us with clearer pictures, better sound and wider screens. But, unless you have an electrical engineering degree from Auburn University, you probably can’t get any of it to work!

I laugh at my mom. My in-laws are the same way. They’ll go out of town and call my husband with, “Your mom can’t get the satellite working! Tell her what she’s supposed to be doing!” But, because it’s the latest and greatest, we want it. Nevermind that we don't know how to use it!

I can only imagine the horror that awaits me as my son rolls his eyes and says, “Give it here, mom! I’ll do it.” He’ll probably walk away annoyed and laugh at me with his friends. They’ll all joke about how they can’t figure out how we’ve raised them this far. They’ll throw in that they can’t imagine cassettes and having to listen to an entire set just for the one song and God knows computers will have far surpassed us by then…but that’s part of it, right? Living, learning, growing and being made fun of. Yep, that day when I no longer know more than them is just around the corner. I don’t look forward to that!

Until then, I’ll continue to bask in the glow of being the one that was on the other end of the phone that got Ratatouille working! Because right now, I’m still the hero…and that’s good enough for me!