I'm in heaven!  By playing along with Mrs. 4444, I get to do TWO brain dumps every week....like there is that much in my brain!


Anyway, go on over to Half Past Kissin' Time and join in on the Friday Fragments!

So here we go-
* Guess what I am having for breakfast?  My choices were: German Chocolate Brownie, Snickerdoodles or Triple Berry Pie.  I forgot that I don't like brownies and bought the German Chocolate Brownie because it looked so good.  How shocked was i when it tasted all chocolatey and gooey like a brownie.  After two teeny bites, I left it on the counter with a note, "Boys, you can split this."  So that leaves the Snickerdoodles and the pie.  Mmm Mmmm.

* We have BIG weekend plans.  Not really.  But I'm psyching myself up for some fun!   Brian and I are going to go see Ryan Schupe and The Rubberband tonight. 


* Garrett is going on a 50 mile bike ride for no apparent reason.  What a weirdo!  He and a friend just decided to ride the Cherry Creek Bike Trail.  Of course the most important thing is food along the way.  He came in and asked Brian what restaurants are near the path...........and I don't think he means Burger Kings and Taco Bells.  I think he's thinking more along the lines of Maggianos and Elways Steak House.


* Garrett will also be spending the weekend "jail breaking" all of his friends IPhones and ITouchs.  Yeah - so it violates the warranty..........but you can add 1,000's more apps.  Where are your priorities?

* Parker is the only smart one in the bunch.  He will spend his entire weekend sleeping and playing.


* I'm taking Mr. Chunkers to his first birthday party ever!  His "friend" is turning 1.  Won't it be hilarious to see one year olds ignore each other and eat cake?


* You are going to be so jealous!  Margaret from Facts from a Fact Woman

made me this really cool button

for my silly Monday feature.  Go here or here and see what Ridiculudicrous is all about.  But come back on Monday and play along.

Have a great Friday!

YOU: ICE TEA ADDICT, NEGHBORHOOD SLOB

Our neighborhood association frequently sends out emails about community meetings, neighborhood parties, coyote sitings and other neighborhood concerns.  They are usually quite business like.
But here is one that went out to the entire neighborhood the other day............unedited (except the street names and the people's names).
For some reason, I thought it was hilarious.  I don't know why.  I guess I have a sick sense of humor.

The Subject Title really was "YOU: ICE TEA ADDICT, NEIGHBORHOOD SLOB"

ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE !!!!


Today I walked along Green Street from my home (at the corner of Blue), down to Main Rd. My mission was to collect the huge amount of roadside trash that has recently appeared. (The amount of trash was WAY, WAY beyond what I've seen on Green Street over the last 16 years. I collected three trash bags on this short section of road.)


Imagine my surprise when I quickly discovered that MOST OF THE TRASH CAME FROM JUST ONE PERSON!


How do I know this? Easy! More than 2/3 of the trash I picked up was nearly-empty plastic bottles of Nestle Pure Life Ice Tea, or plastic water bottles which apparently had been re-filled with ice tea. Each bottle had a small amount of remaining tea in it. I picked up over a hundred of these bottles .... and then I stopped counting.


So if you are the person who is addicted to ice tea, and who has been discarding your old bottles while drving down Green Street; STOP IT!


Neighbors, if you know which of our fellow citizens (who lives in the eastern or southern areas of Happy Neighborhood, or maybe along Blue Street) is the ice tea addict, please send me and our Board President Jane Doe a private note, by email.


This just isn't acceptable in Happy Neighborhood (or anywhere else - so don't just change to dumping your trash along Main Road!).


John Smith


I think this guy was mad!!!!

THIS IS MY LIFE!

Welcome to my world.
Let me share TWO recent conversations with Garrett -


G- "I'm going to go get some protein powder to make protein shakes."
Me - "Okay, just don't get anything with anything crazy in it."
G- "Crazy?"
Me - "Yeah, like steroids."
G- "Duh!"
Me -"Or creatine."


An hour later
G- "Taste this mom."
Me -"No. No way."
G- " Just taste it."
Me - "Nope.  I hate regular chocolate shakes.  The only way I'll taste it is if it tastes like Texas Sheet Cake."
G- "It does.  Just taste it."
Me - "No cuz you don't even like it."
I pick up the ginormous bottle

In addition to the 31 grams of protein it has 940 calories per drink and......wait......what?  Creatine
Me -"Garrett!  This has creatine in it!"
G- "I know.  They all did.  I couldn't find one without creatine."
Me - "Well of course they all did.  You went to GNC.  That's like going to the medical marijuana store and being shocked that their is pot in the brownies and pot in the cookies and pot in the cigarettes."
G- "But the guy said that this one has the lowest amount and it would only be bad if you drank like six shakes a day."


Forget the creatine. Who would want the 6,000 calories a day.  Since he can barely stomach one.  I'm not going to worry.


Last night, I'm reading peacefully in bed.
G- "Mom, does Expo marker come off stuff?"
M- "What stuff?"
G- "Like, say a vase or something.  You know - it's dry erase marker.  So shouldn't it come off?"
M- "What vase?  What?"
G- "I'm just wondering.  Every time I pass by this vase

I want to draw a smiley face on it."

Me - "NO!  Don't draw on it!"

G- "How about on the back, in case it doesn't come off."

Me - "NO!"

It's kind of like 10 years ago when he "etched" a smiley face into my new crockpot.  When I retired that crockpot last year, I gave it a good scrub down and discovered that the smiley face wasn't really etched it, it was ball point pen and with a little muscle, it came off.  I'm kind of sorry I scrubbed it off. But, no, you can't draw a smiley face with a dry erase marker on my new vase!  Oh and at least he asked this time.

Aging Badly but Rice-A-Roni Should Help!

Can you believe its Tuesday?  Again?
Where does the time go?

Well it's time to have some fun with RaNDom THouGHT TueSDaY!

Spit out your own random on your blog and then go on over to Keely's at The Unmom and link up.  It's fun!  I promise!

*What the heck?  I was looking in the mirror (big mistake) and what did I see?

Well of course, there was the usual crow's feet.

But to add insult to injury, I have a ZIT! 

I have a ZIT ON MY CROW'S FEET!

Come on! One or the other.  One or the other.

But not both!!!!

* You know what I have been craving?

Get ready........it's not a cupcake or donut.

I have been dying for Rice-A-Roni...........the San Fransisco treat.

Is it even rice?

It's like pasta mixed with rice.

So right after I had my chocolate cake for breakfast, I whipped up some of that!

Mmmmmm.Mmmm.

* Today, an insurance inspector is coming.

She wants to make sure that we aren't living in a 2 bedroom house and claiming it's more, paying for lots of insurance and the burning the mother down for the insurance money.

Or vice versa - saying we live in a tent and paying $20 a year to avoid paying more.

So you know, she's just coming in for a looksee.

But I woke up in a panic in the middle of the night.

Remember when I ripped the chirping smoke detector down and stuffed it in the laundry room cupboard?

I better get that back out!

AND put it back up.

My room has a cathedral ceiling and I can't reach to actually screw it back in.

Do you think she'll notice if it's just dangling?

Shoot!

* My arms are killing me.

We went bowling with the kids on Saturday.

It was SOOOO much fun.

I can't believe I lost.

Afterall, I took bowling my senior year in college - to fulfill my PE requirement.

I took it because a) you didn't have to change clothes and b) I didn't want to sweat.

Anyway, Sunday, Brian said, "Wow, my arms really hurt from bowling."

I responded with sympathy, "Not mine!  Mine don't hurt!"

I woke up Monday with hurting arms.

* I told Garrett that AN inspector was coming to see the house so he needed to clean his room.

His eye narrowed suspiciously, "What kind of inspector?"

Me: "Well, one from the insurance company."
Garrett: "It's not a HEALTH inspector mom!"

I tried.

Well, I'm off.  I have to go put up the smoke detector and CLEAN for the insurance lady! ;)

I can't help myself!

Happy TueSDaY!

SUPER RIDICULUDICROUS

It's Monday.  It's time for RIDICULUDICROUS lyrics (that your children shouldn't be listening to).

Today's lyrics are provided by Young Money.
Young Money is a compilation of idiots headed by Lil Wayne.
It's acutally a record label founded by him and is an offshoot of Cash Money Records.

If you are young and stupid and not feelin college, or even high school,
but you can rhyme, well.........you don't even have to rhyme,
you should talk to Lil Wayne.
If you can get him to "do" a song with you...........you're in.

and who wouldn't want to hang out with these intelligent, good looking, upstanding citizens!

So the Young Money song that shows incredible brilliance is "BEDROCK."
I'm not providing you with the video or the complete lyrics because it a) doesn't make any sense and b) is complete trash.

But I can't help but laugh at the chorus-
"Ooh (ooh) baby,
I be stuck to you,
like glue (glue) baby,
wanna spend it all on you (you).
Baby.
My room is the g spot,
Call me Mr. Flintstone.
I can make your Bed Rock (ooh).
I-I-I I can make your Bed Rock."

Woooooo.....I can't stop laughing!
Really?
1.) Who wants a boyfriend that looks like Mr. Flintstone?

He was always kind of an idiot, chauvinistic fat slob.

2)Bed Rock?  Bedrock?  Okay - kudos for that!  That IS funny! 
And that is RIDICULUDICROUS!

Do teenagers even know what they are listening to?

Relief Society in Cambodia

Relief Society is the main organization for women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was founded in 1842. Today the organization includes more than 5.5 million women ages 18 and older in over 170 countries.

Relief Society sisters meet for an hour every Sunday to study Gospel topics.  But in addition, there are monthly meetings that provide opportunities for women to meet together outside of Sunday meetings and participate in activities such as book clubs, classes on parenting and homemaking skills, service projects and social events.

Here are some pictures from a Relief Society meeting in Battambang, Cambodia.
It will help you to understand that most Cambodians do not have ovens.  They rely on stoves and some have rice cookers to do the majority of their cooking. 
The captions are provided by the Cambodian woman who sent the pictures.

Visiting Teaching

Visiting Teaching

Baking lessons by Mary

Neak Sambath - learning to stir

The first cake the Battambang sisters baked in church... Thanks to Betty Crocker!

Sisters - two "white" and many "tans

I cried when I saw these pictures and I automatically loved these ladies.  Although we are thousands of miles apart and have completely different backgrounds, circumstances and lives, we share the love of the Gospel and the love of Christ. As we meet to discuss Gospel topics and learn new skills and find friendship with one another, we have more in common and less differences than we think.

TENDER MERCIES

What is a "tender mercy?"
It's a little miracle, a gift from God, a blessing, something to let you know that a) He exists and b) He cares about you.


Sometimes when good things happen, we consider ourselves "lucky" or call it a coincidence.
In my mind, it's God sharing joy with you and maye making your path a little bit smoother because He loves you.


There have been countless tender mercies associated with Trammell's mission.

I knew (or had the faith and trust) that the Lord would watch out and protect Trammell in Cambodia.
Little did I know that the Lord would look out for me too.


My new friend is just one example.
I have been blessed to receive phone calls, emails and notes from his various companion's parents.
How comforting to know that someone else has a 19-21 year old 14 time zones away in a 3rd world country.
They have shared pictures and stories with me.
No, they aren't pictures of Trammell, but they are pictures of the country and the people that help me picture what my son is doing and where he is.


One mom called and told me she was able to talk to Trammell.
Her son was sick and she was able to talk to him (and Trammell) on a speaker phone.
I wasn't jealous that she got to talk to him.
I was filled with gratitude that she shared.
And for that one day, I knew he was happy and healthy and "sounded" good.

Some couples who are serving in Cambodia have blogs that they have shared.
Once again, their blogs have nothing to do with Trammell, but they share their mission experiences, which I assume are similar to Trammell's.


Complete strangers have contacted me with pictures and stories of their travels to Cambodia and how they met Trammell, took a picture, got my email and forwarded it to me.
Thank you!


Sometimes, I "just happen" to be at my computer on Tuesday night, his Wednesday morning, when he is writing us our weekly email.  We will spend sometime emailing back and forth in a short question and answer period.  It's like IM-ing but takes a lot longer. I imagine him sitting in an internet cafe with old computers waiting for our messages to travel across the world.


These are gifts.
These are evidences that Heavenly Father cares about me, one mom.
And He understands my love and concern for my son.
In His mercy, He extends comfort to me in miraculous little ways so that my faith and knowledge can be reaffirmed that Trammell is in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.


It's not just me.
All of us can see the Lord's hand in our lives every day.
He loves us all.

FRIDAY FRAGMENTS

I am so cheating!
As if RaNDoM THouGHT TueSDaY wasn't enough....
I hooking up with Half-past Kissin' Time to do FRIDAY FRAGMENTS.

What does this say about my life?
I'll tell you about my life right about now -


* I just hefted a two ton, 12 foot Christmas tree down to the basement and shoved it in the box.
The box can't be closed and my back is broken.
And so help me, if you make one comment about the fact that I am just now putting the Christmas tree away.....


* Ummm....I can't put away all the boxes of Christmas ornaments in the storeroom because the exploding Christmas tree is taking up all the room.


* Brian invited 30 freshmen over to a party at our house tonight!  Yeah, since he is teaching seminary (early morning bible study) to 30 freshmen, he decided to "get to know them" with a little party.  I hope they don't open the store room door!


* Brian has a fix-it man coming to look at his projector...the one he uses for work powerpoints and stuff.  And the fix-it man just happened to mention that he used to fix Mitsubishi TVs.  He also claimed that there is NOTHING on a Mitsubishi TV he can't fix.  NOoooooooooo..........  What if he looks at our TV that broke two minutes before Christmas and can fix it for like 39 cents?  What will we do with the new TV we bought 1 minute before Christmas?  Don't say, "Put it in the storeroom."


* Do you know how happy I am that it is now 2nd semester?  Yep, we're on the third day of the new semester and so far, my brainiacs have straight A's!  I doubt I'll post their grades every week.


* Brian picked up two donuts for me this morning: a chocolate twist and a maple cake.
I ate the chocolate twist.
Guess what I am doing with the maple cake?
Seriously, if you don't know....go here.

* Wow, am I glad it's Friday........even if I have to clean the house for that party.  Phew!

I HAVE A NEW FRIEND!

Look!  Look!  I have a new friend -

This is Mary, her husband Sda, and her daughter Angel.

They are my new BEST friends from Battambang, Cambodia.

Brian hates everything Facebook.

He thinks it is a terrible waste of time.

I say: everything in moderation.

And look what FB brought me!

It's such a small world!

Mary is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cambodia....in Battambang....right where Trammell lives....right now!

She has posted pictures of Cambodia on her wall and has offered to help us with travel arrangements.

She even asked if I had a special message for Elder Cox and she would print it out and take it to him.

Don't you love her?

I do!

The HOARDER

Hi, I'm Gina and I'm a hoarder.
Not this kind of hoarder -

but this kind -

I KNOW!  It's two cookies!

Here's the thing.

You know how I LOVE cookies and cupcakes and special treats.

I can't help myself.

The two cookies are the perfect example of my illness.

Brian took me to the cookie store on Friday.

I was hungry for about 1/3 of ONE cookie.

I bought two - one molasses and one sugar.

I ate about 1/3 of the molasses cookie.

I SHARED part of the molasses cookie with Brian.......which is HUGE-

the fact that I shared...........not the cookie.

Part of my illness is that I HATE TO SHARE!

Hate it!

So.....

What did I do with the sugar cookie?

I SAVED it!

I put it on my desk and SAVED it!

I saved it until it became stale and now I have to throw it out!

Hmmm..........and therein lies the problem.

It's not bad to buy two cookies if you are going to EAT two cookies.

I buy the two cookies so that I can take comfort in knowing that IF I want a cookie, I have a cookie.

The problem...........I really don't want a cookie THAT often (maybe THAT's my sickness!  I should want more cookies.)

Anyway, I do it with other treats as well.

Brian and I went to Sees Candy on Saturday.

We hand-picked a pound of our favorites.

It's been FIVE days.

I have eaten ONE.

I don't really like chocolate.

One piece could do me for a few weeks.

So why do I buy the pound?

To save for eternity in my bedside table until a) Brian eats his half  and b) after refusing to share withmy children who come in at night and stand by the bed and ask, "Can I have a piece of See's?" I will c) wait two months and throw it all out.

Weird!

Las night, some wonderful people brought me some cupcakes:

three to be exact - one for ME, one for Brian and one for Parker.

Brian knows me, so he grabbed his and ate it.

I never told Parker about the cupcakes.

So, I will probably eat one and watch the other one.

It just makes me happy knowing there is a cupcake in the house.

Wow!  I have issues.

Admit it - there are worse things to hoard!

Admit it - YOU hate to share!
Admit it - you have something special that you are hoarding in your bedside table!

(ooohhh..........those aren't even mine.  I stole them from Brian's Christmas stocking.)

200 FRIEND REQUESTS! 96 PAGE SUGGESTIONS! THAT'S RANDOM!

Phew.........it's Tuesday.  That means Monday is over and we are on our way to Friday.
Why wouldn't you love Tuesday?
Plus it's RaNDoM!

Go see Keely over at The UnMom!
Check out others' RaNDoMNeSS and write your own.
Link up!  Everybody's doing it!

* So, it's Tuesday.  I'm a little disappointed because we've had a long- long weekend and tomorrow it's BACK to SCHOOL! :(  The kids didn't just have MLK day off.  They have today off too!

* We're taking Parker to breakfast as soon as he gets up.
So that will be a late lunch/early dinner around 2!?!!!?

* Garrett just left 5 minutes ago for Omaha - yeah - Nebraska.
He and a friend are flying to Omaha, going to a concert tonight, and taking a crack o' dawn flight in the morning that gets them to school at 8:15 - 15 minutes late.  Remember when you were a senior and you did crazy stuff like that?  No? Me either.

*Garrett is seeing

They were going to go in October when Owl City was in Denver, but that would make too much sense the concert was on Homecoming.
They didn't want to miss their senior Homecoming.
Turns out the dance was awful and they should have gone to the concert.
So they made plans to see  Owl City in a "nearby" venue.
Wouldn't you know that 5 minutes after they made their plane reservations, they discovered that guess who is coming BACK to Denver in April?

* I busted into Trammell's Facebook account.
I'm a bad mom with no respect for privacy.
On his mission, he is not allowed to check FB or his personal email account.
I have his email password and I clean out his mailbox about every three months.
I saw something that ALARMED me.
YOU HAVE 200 FRIEND REQUESTS.
It was an email from Facebook.
Who has 200 friend requests and 96 page suggestions?
I broke into his account and started cleaning it up.
Wow - that could be a full time job!

* Guess what?
Tyler - the other half of the Bonehead Brothers, just submitted his mission papers.
What this means is that he filled out an application (physical, personal info, recommendations, interviews) and marked that he would be available to leave on his mission May 1st.
You can submit your mission application 100 days before your available date.
So, his papers are in and he will find out in about 2-3 weeks exactly WHERE and WHEN he is going!
Any guesses?
I'm not guessing.  I don't like guessing.

Well, I'm sick of waiting for Parker to get up.
I'm going to go have some chocolate chip cookies and Coke for breakfast.
Get on over to Keely's!
Have a Happy RaNDoM!

RIDICULUDICROUS

I've been storing this up in my brain - and that really tells you something about my brain!
Sometimes (like 5 or 10 times a day), I hear song lyrics that are absurd, stupid, ridiculous or ludicrous...or all of the above.
They RIDICULUDICROUS!


And it's time to share:
This week's winner is -

" And now, the dudes are lining up
cuz they here we got swagger.
But we kick them to the curb
unless they look like Mick Jagger."
from Tik Tok by Ke$ha.



THIS is RIDICULUDICROUS on soooo many levels!
Before I explain, let me just comment on Ke$ha's name.
A $ sign?  Really?

Okay, so, 1) Who wants a girl with swagger?  Swagger is like a guy who walks like he's cool.  I don't like that walk and I certainly don't like that walk on a girl.  And besides, anyone who is anyone knows that you don't say "Swagger."  If you are really cool (and singing a song), then you say "Swagguh."  But then that wouldn't rhyme with Mick Jagger............which leads to point #2.

2) WHO wants to go ANYWHERE with a guy who looks like this?  This isn't even a guy.  It's an OLD MAN!  He's a year younger than my mother!  And he is SOOOO ugly!  Is Ke$ha crazy?  Let me change the lyrics to "I'll kick him to the curb if he looks anything like Mick Jagger."  Do teens these days even KNOW who Mick Jagger is?  I'll answer that.  Garrett thought Mick Jagger was McJagger like McDonalds but someone hot.  Ummmm........nope.

Congrats to Ke$ha for ridiculously, absurb, stupid lyrics!

The Fruits of His Labor

Remember when Garrett missed the first day of school?
It was for good reason......kind of.
Here are the pics from this year's catalog.

Oh wait!  I'm in this pic too!  See the blurry blonde girl in the white shirt behind him?  Yep - that's me...with the stylist, the Augusta Sportswear Rep, the photo assistants, etc.  Nope, I did not get paid.

WHERE'S THE GLITTER?

Wow!  I got RIPPED OFF or PWNED*, as the Bonehead Brothers would say.


I like to try new things.......well not really.
I like to try new products in the grocery store.
Remember the Kaboom?


Yesterday, I saw something that caught my eye -

It caught my eye because it said, "The sparkliest hearts in the universe."
I love those Valentine conversation hearts.
I love sparkle and glitter.


Now, I'm not totally stupid.
I did notice that this bag was opaque and I really wanted to SEE the sparkly hearts before buying them.
The manufacturer knew this.
I spent the $2.49.


RIP OFF!

Do these look sparkly?
Do these look glittery?
Do these look divaish?
NO!


Yeah, they taste good.
The flavors are as advertised: Blue Raspberry, Sour Apple, Watermelo, Extreme Tangerine...


They taste really good.
But I WANTED SPARKLE!
Oh AND - you can't even read the hip sayings that they are supposed to have on them.
No ....Rock Star, BFF, Diva!
How are we supposed to have a conversation with these conversation hearts?

I am sorely disappointed!  My Valentine's is nearly ruined!
Don't buy these!  Buy the Brach's conversation hearts at $1 a bag
Don't get PWND!




*PWNED or PONED - owned spelled incorrectly, originally used in playing video games, as in, "Dude, you should have used your rocket launder.  That guy came out of nowhere and PWND you."  But now used anytime you get your behind handed to you, as in , "That Calc final pwned me." Or "Yeah, I spent $2.49 for sparkly hearts and I got nothing!  I got pwned by the Sweetheart company."