Elevenses

My most hipster friend Brianne got nominated for this blog chain thing and then nominated me in return. Many of you know I loathe chain mail games, but this one's kind of fun. Since I haven't uploaded any photos to my computer lately, and have nothing else remotely interesting or enlightening to say, I'm going for it. There are a lot of blah blah rules I will ignore. I am supposed to do the following:

1. Post 11 random facts about myself
2. Answer the 11 questions  Brianne posed to her peeps.

Okay, here goes:

1. I have a really hard time making fried foods or foods involving entire sticks of butter. My cinnamon rolls are always too dry because I can't bring myself to slather the amount of butter the recipe calls for onto the dough. 

2.  My left foot is slightly longer than my right, which pains me to no end when I am shoe shopping.

3. I still have a braided leather belt I bought in high school. And I wear it ALL THE TIME.  Since I never tuck my shirt in, no one ever sees it. It lays flat and can be adjusted to any size. 

4. I wish I'd kept my maiden name as my middle name. If I didn't think it would freak Kyle out and confuse everyone who knows me, I might go back and become hyphenated.

5. Sometimes I want to have another baby just so I can use the name Anders for a boy. Then I slap myself back to reality.  

6. I am planning a trip to Europe to celebrate my 40th birthday. I have four years left. I want to visit art museums, large homes, at least one cool castle, and eat awesome food. Kyle is invited. Who wants to watch my kids?

7. One of my favorite ways to waste time on the internet (and there are so many, many ways) is to look at house plans. 

8. I am looking forward to Kate going to preschool in the fall much more than I should. She has been a difficult toddler for a few months now, and my patience sometimes wears thin.

9. I used to wish for an older brother. I thought it would be so cool to have a big brother to drive me around in his truck (?) and teach me how to be tough. No idea where that came from. 

10. I have a very good memory, particularly with names and random facts about people.

11. I am a bit OCD.  Oh wait, you already knew that about me!  I am getting better about most things, I promise.

Moving on to the 11 questions Brianne posed:

 
1. If you could have any profession (other than what you do right now) what would it be? English teacher, professional ice cream taster, life coach
 
2. If you had to live on one food alone for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Ugh, really?? One?  How about manna, because I'm hoping it can take on different tastes.  Is that cheating?  Then bread, because it comes in many varieties.
 
3. What is your favorite book?  Sooo hard to answer this one.  Pride and Prejudice is my standard answer. Not Twilight.
 
4. And what about your favorite movie? Singin' In the Rain
 
5. Pets or no pets? Dog or cat? No pets, preferably.  A dog if I ever live anywhere with land for it to be outdoors, and a cat if I get over my allergies and am a lonely old woman.
 
6. Where is the one place you would love to visit/vacation? Europe - UK and France to begin.  Everywhere else eventually.
 
7. What do you do at night to wind down? Read, read, read, and read. Occasionally watch TV.
 
8. Favorite kind of accessory? Bracelets and earrings.  Not much of a necklace person.  Want to acquire more watches.  I think I need glasses.  Yeah!
 
9. What do you do for "me" time? Exercise, eat chocolate, shop, sew, sleep.
 
10. If you won a million dollars, what is the first thing you would buy? A new house.  I would build it.  And an expensive pair of jeans.
 
11. Do you think it is okay to pair brown with black? What about navy and black?  Brown with black kind of makes me cringe, but I am just fine with navy and black. Very important question.


And one question for you, fair readers:

What is one thing you really like about yourself?

(My answer?  My teeth.)

Today

Today I put Kate back in her bed at 1am and 5am. She also woke up at 6:20am, but I was on my way to the gym, so Kyle dealt with that one.  She really likes to sleep with me, a warm little remora stuck to my back or my chest, softly snoring while I can't move. It's sweet every week or so, not every day.

Today I got the tires rotated on the van.  I was first in line at the Costco tire center.  Victory!

Today I was too tired to take the kids to the movie theater, so I bought them a movie on pay-per-view, made delicious homemade popcorn, fed them sugar, and took a nap. I am brilliant.

Today I cursed the never-ending fog that is sucking the life out of me.  Is it day six? Day 26?  The air is so thick and dirty that I cough every time I'm outside for more than just a few minutes. One word: miasma.

Today I took Hayden to drum lessons and indoor soccer. Kyle made dinner. He makes a very yummy fried rice, and Trader Joe's does a mean potsticker with sweet chili sauce.

Today I am trying to avoid sugar again. The last two weeks have been very hit and miss.

Today I played hide and seek with my family. I squeezed under Kara's bed and almost fell asleep. It was a great game.

Today I thought about mopping my dirty wood floor. I decided to do it tomorrow.

Today I reflected on the great things about America. I tried not to think about the wrong turns I think the country is taking.

Today I danced to gangnam style and looked utterly ridiculous while doing it.

What did you do today?

Christmas Card Outtakes

There were technically no outtakes for our photos this year, since they were intentionally horrible, but I just have to share a few more.  This was the easiest, most fun family photo shoot I've ever been a part of.  I highly recommend it.

 These last five were taken in order, three seconds apart.  We told the kids to do something different for each one.  Man, am I annoying. You'll notice Kate doesn't change much, which is why we had to make her cry to get just the right shot.  We did it very nicely, I promise.  It doesn't take much to make her cry!

 

Christmas wrap-up

Oh my!  The whirlwind that was the holidays has ended.  I am almost caught up on my housework. I finally caught up on the laundry just yesterday. It went down like this:

12/21 - kids finish school

12/22 - 12/23 - prep for Christmas
12/24 - 12/25 - Celebration!!

By 11:30am on Christmas morning I was already wiped out, so I laid down in Kara's bed (quite comfy) and took a long winter's nap. We did Christmas by ourselves this year and, guess what, it was kind of boring!  We did go share dessert with friends Christmas night. We will definitely do things a bit differently next year.

12/26 - Frantically clean for company (California cousins).  Company arrives 3 hours earlier than expected (you know who you are!) so house is 3 hours dirtier than expected.  Oh well!

12/27 - Visit my sister Shauna and her fam who moved up north near Portland.

12/28 - Welcome my parents. Now the party really starts.

12/29 - 12/31 Do fun stuff. Mostly stay inside. Eat lots of good food. Play games.

1/1 - 9:00am - Say goodbye to company.  Try to start laundry and clean up.  Fail.

1/2 - 1/4 Go to Great Wolf Lodge in Washington to relax and play for a few days.

1/5 - 1/6  Try to finish laundry, put away Christmas, and clean house.  Fail.

1/7 - Finally start cleaning.  Starting to look better!

1/8 - Kids go back to school!  Life is normal.  Take a really long nap.

And there you have it.  Now we're 1/3 through January and I've barely got my head above water.  But it was so much fun.  The best part?   Kyle stayed at home until 1/5!  He hasn't taken time off like that in years. It was amazing.  He did a little bit of work at home, but not much.  Probably not enough, if you ask him, but we were all very happy to see him. Kate keeps asking where he is during the day.

The weather has been quite nice here for January, so 2013 is shaping up to be a good one!
Happy New Year!