Oops.

So I was checking out free blog backgrounds at lunch and saw this cute pink and leopard print one on Aqua Poppy Designs and decided to give it a whirl. But it looks a little too girlie for me. And now I can't remember where I found my last background. Of course I didn't copy and save any of the HTML coding. And of course I used to be a bad blogger and I would change some of the code so that you couldn't see their tag/link. Which means I wasn't reminded daily of where I could find it again. Bad blogger, bad, bad blogger! Alas.

What are your thoughts about this background? This one or the loosely interpreted zebra stripe one? I think if this one didn't look so patched together in some areas I'd like it more...but I might be outta luck!

Nevermind...it is now a few minutes later (5:16 to be exact) and I found the last one...it was from Aqua Poppy, too. So I can get it back if I want to. Thoughts?

Game Night - Finally!

Finally, a game she likes! We've tried Memory and Candy Land and Disney Princess Yatzee (a bit over her head yet) and Hi-Ho Cherry-O and some Dora ABC game and...but finally I found "The One" and she has been playing it nonstop! Let's hear it for Hungry, Hungry Hippos! I thrifted it and paid a bit more ($6) than I normally would for something at a thrift store but it looked brand new (retails for $18.99) and seemed to have all its parts. So we brought it home, set it up, and started feeding those colorful hippos! And we kept on feeding them. Into the night. After her bath. Instead of a bedtime story. When she woke up this morning. When we got back from church. After her nap (make that rest time). And...

But apparently we weren't the first owners after all because it turns out it was missing one marble and, well, I'll let you see if you can figure out the other thing...

My guess is some little tyke was in charge of affixing these two poor hippos' sticker eyes in the right place. The green and yellow ones were fine. And, after receiving permission from Little Miss M, I peeled these guys' eyeballs off and relocated them!

Work In Progress

Here's a little look-see into what's cookin' in my kitchen redo...

And here's what was cookin' tonight for dinner:

Chicken Enchiladas from Mique's (of 30 Handmade Days) food blog. Yum!

Memory Lane

For some reason I've chosen this week to delve into the crazy insane mess of boxes in my craft room. Because of said boxes I am unable to actually use the room to do any crafting. So...I jumped into it and, as usual, I have only created a larger mess. Because, of course, I find it necessary to sort through every little thing which reminds me of something else that I need to find which leads me traipsing through the rest of my house. And if I do make progress (which is mostly just creating a toss pile) it looks worse because instead of throwing all the junk into a big black trash bag I have to make several more piles of stuff : one that should be shredded, one for donations, one for stuff to be recycled...and on and on it goes.

But this long and arduous process has gifted me with a few surprises and smiles. For example, a random photo of my step mom whom we lost 3 years ago; old birthday cards from Kristin; the past seven (7!) years of Valerie's family Christmas photos; a CASSETTE TAPE of Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians (I used the artwork from that cover for my 8th grade art scale-to-scale drawing project...21 years ago - egads!); some confetti shrapnel from one of Leslie's cards; a "Hot Shot" hot water dispenser (where were these in my college days?); four of my old cell phones; and this:

It was in a box of some stuff that didn't sell in our last garage sale but I wasn't quite ready to donate it for whatever reason. And remembering that I pulled some CDs out because people noticed that some were missing from the cases, I opened it to see if I could just throw it away. But the CD was still there and so was this:

The first year I went back to OBU to work as a dorm (excuse me, residence hall) director I had an awesome group of young ladies working for me. At the end of that year they printed 250 of these business cards and snuck into my office and apartment and hid them EVERYWHERE. I was finding them all over the place the first month. In drawers, in work files, in the key cabinet, in my sock drawer, in cookbooks, etc. I've kept every one I've found over the years and I think I'm up to about 200 of them. Everytime I find one (and it's getting much further in between findings) I can't help but smile. I hope I continue to stumble across them on into my 50s! What a fun group of girls!

A Long Time Comin'

So after at least eight (8!) long months I FINALLY got my hair trimmed. I remember that last winter my hair was pretty dry but this winter has it topped. My split ends had split ends! How does that even happen?! No joke, one of my hairs was split seven times. Yep. I counted. At work. When I should have been using my time more efficiently. But even with the sorry state of my hair I never got around to making an appointment for a trim. Until last week. I finally called the hair salon I went to years ago when I lived here before.

And there was some massive confusion about which Janice I used to go to back then. Because there are two Janices. I had no idea which one. By the time it was over I thought I had made an appointment with Janice H. only to find out later that it was actually Janice W. I used to see. But then I remembered I had a conference on Tuesday and was going to use it as an excuse to cancel the appointment. But after I told them I was unable to keep my appointment because of a conference it ended up I was on the right Janice's schedule after all. Noooooo! And she wasn't going to be able to fit me in again until Spring Break. Nooooooo!

Anywho...yesterday I spent more time than necessary looking at my split ends and breaking them off (it was kind of cathartic in a gross, creepy way) and I decided I had to do something about it. I was even going to head to the mall when I decided to call them back just to see. I'll spare you the script of that call. Mostly I was awkward and not very clear. I think the way I worded it ("Do you have any openings?") made them think I was looking for a job. But I was able to get in! I didn't get anything drastic done. Really it was just a trim (but she had to whack off around three inches to get rid of most of those ugly little suckers) and a little bit more bang than last time. And she told me if I took 2-3 flax seed oil pills a day for a couple of weeks I'd notice a big difference in my dry hair. Hmm...I'm up for that experiment.

And that, my friends, was a great big snore fest of a story for each and every one of you. And now I have to actually do more productive things while at work. Boo.

Oprah's Full of Inspiration

So here's what my dining area looks like:

Pretty blah, no? The biggest issue is that I'm unable to use the french doors to the backyard because the (rather small) table is right smack dab in the middle of the fairly small room. So I end up using the door to the utility room which leads to the garage which also has access to the backyard. Way too many steps out of my way if you ask me. Which I know you didn't.

And then there's this cut out or pass through or whatever into the living room to contend with. So not inviting. I know, I know, I really should have hung something on the walls by now. But it's only been six months. Cut me some slack, people! Sheesh.

I know, blah blah BLAH! But then I picked up the Winter 2007 issue of Oprah's O at Home magazine in a recent thrifting trip and all my dreams came true. Or at least I finally solved my decorating dilemma.

I don't know if it's because my old dining room was chocolate brown or because I have an oversized gold frame or that I own one of the EXACT SAME black and white chairs or what but I'm so drawn to this room. And I think it's similar in proportion to my teensy tiny room. I checked the shopping section in the back and learned that she just slipcovered an Ikea bench so I made some notes for my upcoming trip to Texas. But then I went into TJ Maxx and found this:

Methinks it's perfect! And it's a storage bench to boot...for cookbooks or extra dishes or (gasp!) the toaster oven my grandmother has convinced me never to get rid of but right now is awkwardly sitting on top of my dryer. Genius!

Also, I'm not planning on doing brown again. If I ever get around to it my kitchen will be painted white. Although I did consider painting that back wall in black chalkboard paint for Little Miss M but then I nixed that idea. And unfortunately my gold frame is too big for the space. So I'm going to hang a black mirror there for the time being. And I'm keeping my black table. And two of my dining chairs. The armless ones. I'll reupholster the seats in something snazzy...black and white zebra stripes perhaps?

Pics of the work in progress to come. Hopefully leaving all (three) of you faithful readers hanging will motivate me to whip the room into shape. But for now the big question is...what will I buy on my Ikea shopping trip over Spring Break now that I found the bench?

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life - P

Papa - my grandpa was an amazing man. I always thought he was kind of strict and I can still hear him "talking" to me through the bathroom door whenever I got mad and locked myself inside, "The world does not revolve around Courtney Marie, you know." But underneath his tough exterior was a big softie. When my mom, my sister and I lived with them for a few months he would kneel between our beds, scratch our backs, and hum us lullabies. Ah, sweet memories!

Pepper - love me some pepper! I don't do much salt but you can always count on me and pepper. Especially in my ketchup. Yum! A funny (if not predictable) story about me and pepper...just a few weeks ago I was lunching at McAlister's and was trying to sprinkle some pepper on my chicken caesar wrap when the whole cap came off and a heaping pile of pepper ended up on my plate. I seriously considered shaking what I could off to continue eating it but in the end I was persuaded to get them to replace the meal. And the pepper shaker.

Persnickety - I just love this word and its meaning!

Pickles - it's a toss up where pickles and pepper are concerned. I lurve pickles! Dill, mind you. Spears preferably but chips will do in a pinch. Not bread and butter and never, ever sweet! And the combination of Mazzio's ranch dressing and their bitesize pickles in the salad bar cannot be beaten. To. Die. For. Which is a silly thing to say, I realize, about pickles. I love pickles so much that my grandmother has gifted me with pickles on two occassions...for my 13th birthday I received a case of pickles and one Christmas I received a large box of individually wrapped pickles. Like they used to sell (and maybe still do?) at the roller skating rink. And I have wonderful friends who know of my love for pickles and will sacrifice their lunch spears to see me light up when they offer me theirs. Except for now Steph has a kid who also happens to lurve pickles so I am no longer the recipient of her pickle generosity. Cute kids....hrmph!

Pickle-Chiffon Pie - This was a favorite book in our house when I was a child. My mom read it to us a lot. Unfortunately we no longer have it. And unfortunately I don't really remember much of the story. Something about a weird monster competing for the hand of the princess and bakes her father, the king, this crazy pie concoction. I keep my eyes out at thrift stores but I really ought to just suck it up and order it from Amazon. A side note...growing up as latch key kids my sister and I had a secret code word that was to be used if our mom had to, for some reason, send someone else to pick us up. Stranger Danger and all. "Pickle-Chiffon Pie" was our word. And to top it all off, the book was written by a guy named Jolly Roger. Gotta love that! Pops -Yay for gas stations + soda pop marts + yummy hamburger joints! Head on over to Arcadia, OK and try it out for yourself.
Pugs - I do not what it is about this breed of dog but I am completely smitten. From their snorting and snuffing and smashed in faces to their curly Q tails. My friend Amy got a pug right after college and I thought she (both Amy and Maude the pug) were crazy. But then I volunteered to dog sit for a friend and ended up having both his husky and his pug for a couple of months. Gigi chewed up my shoes and the arms of my sister's futon (thank goodness I hadn't bought a couch of my own yet!) but she had such a great personality. So quirky and spunky. I was sold! And here I am, nine pugs later.

Becker and Bijou - my first two pugs

Ingrid, Buster, Humphrey, and Greta (sans baby Bing) - my last little puglets