Owner: Writer-Mom URL:http://writer-mom.blogspot.com Join Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 09:58:02 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: "Random daily surprises in all colors shapes and sizes."
A grab bag of my thoughts, life with four little boys, on being a pastor's wife, on Christianity, on music, on writing and books. You really never know what you are going to get. Site statistics:Click here
ALL HAIL PEANUT BUTTER!! 2006-09-30 21:33:00 Let's spend a moment of silence right now to honor our dear friend, Peanut butter.Peanut butter. We love you. We adore you. We worship... (okay... I guess I'm going too far there). We are gathered here today to pay homage to our friend, Peanut Butter. What can peanut butter not do?It can be eaten between bread with jelly. It can be eaten on toast. It can make a killer batch of cookies. It can be stuffed inside of chocolate cups. It can be smeared on the floor to slip up your worst enemies. It can be spread on a pine cone, rolled in bird seed and be the perfect bird feeder. It can remove gum from hair. And lo and behold I am here to tell you today (thanks to the advice of other very wise women) that GLORY OF GLORIES it can REMOVE RED PERMANENT INK FROM BEAUTIFUL NEW OAK KITCHEN TABLES!!!Peanut butter, today we salute you. We love you. We call you more than just a food we eat, more than just a key ingredient of many delicious recipes. We call you our friend (unless we ar
Blood Red Reminders 2006-09-29 23:15:00 About an hour ago I went into the kitchen to check on my six year old who had finished most of his school work and was now doing what he really loved. ART. He absolutely loves drawing cars. This child knows more about cars than I ever will. He knows more makes and models and defnining features better than half of you do I am betting. We went for a walk several days ago and from 50 yards away he saw an old fashioned car. All I could see of it was that it was an old fashioned car. He saw enough, even from that distance, to perceive that this was a honey of a Studebaker. He went running and shouting, "A Studebaker!! A Studebaker!!"This all comes of watching Overhaulin' and Rides every week on TLC, two shows dedicated to the beauty and artistry of automobiles. It is a family passion now, though he leads the pack with regards to enthusiasm and knowledge. His idol is Chip Foose, to whom he recently sent his first piece of fan mail along with his own artistic depiction of a hotrod. Read more:Blood
, Blood Red
Planning Ahead 2006-08-19 19:35:00 The other day my husband and I read in the local news of a couple whose brand new car was stolen out of their driveway! Of course they called and reported it to police but they also decided to not sit idly by and wait for the cops to recover the stolen vehicle. They just so happened to have a set of keys still in their posession which just so happened to include the keyless entry and alarm remote. They headed to the local retail conglomeration and pushed that button that arms and disarms the car alarm. I don't know how many times they pushed it before they located their car but they finally did. Once they did, they decided to sit and wait for the perpetrator of the crime to appear. He had to be somewhere of course.Not much later, a boastful teenager came swaggering out to show off to his two buddies what he had acquired (which 'apparently' had been given to him. I don't know if that claim has been confirmed or denied yet). The victims of the car theft confronted the teenager
Confessions of a Former Crank Caller 2006-08-06 23:49:00 If you have ever been the victim of a crank call I may have been your worst enemy about 16 years ago. My best friend and I started our short-lived but notorious careers as professional grade prank callers at a rather young age. I recall with clarity our very first crank phone call made in the fifth grade to a friend. We found her phone number in the phone book... or was it on the class list? I don't know. But I do know how it went down. In the realm of crank phone calls it was short and sweet.*dial***ring ring ring***"Hello?""Hi. Is this Christine B.?""Yes."(Pregnant pause)"Ohhhh, that explains EVERYTHING!"That was all there was to it. I have no idea why it was so invigorating. So thrilling. So exhilerating that it actually became a pass time for us. A dual hobby. You can see why we could have possibly become known in some circles as "double trouble". When you hear "double trouble" you probably picture some cheesy Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson B movie about a sneaky set of ide Read more:Former
, Crank
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Phil 2006-05-18 19:00:00 My big brother, my fellow movie and sitcom quoter, the one who prepared me for all the potty talk that my boys come up with... thanks for making it less shocking by easing me into it throughout childhood!I clearly remember being stuck in the sandbox (top closed) and thinking we were never going to escape, screaming our heads off for someone to come and rescue us! I still don't know how it closed on us in the first place. I remember going to play in the empty lot. I remember catching polywogs with Dad that time when we walked down to the creek, then keeping the smelly things in a jar until they sprouted their limbs and we didn't know what to do with them anymore... oh how many Teenage Mutant Ninja Frogs are out there now because of the mass flushing funerals we had.I remember getting Rusty. He was "your" dog. I remember Dad and Mom saying over and over, "this is Phil's dog" but it was a family affair of course. I remember making bubble beards and Coke flavored snow cones in the
Sandy 2006-05-16 20:23:00 My older and only sister, my dear and permanent friend, a kindred spirit...Playing house, I was always the baby. You were always the responsible mother. I did anything I could to get Mom to give me a baby bottle when I was much too old for one. We shared a room and a queen size bed. We had nightly rituals that we had to fulfill in order to have pleasant sleeps; "Goodnight, sweet dreams, I love you...", collecting lint balls off the underside of our bedspread and amassing them in a jar... oh how exciting when we finally fill the jar. Did we think something very special would happen when we had enough lint to fill the jar? Back scratches, back to back, crawling down the hall and croutching behind "the rocks" to listen to Dad and Mom talk or to Dad watching t.v. I am still haunted by accidentally catching a portion of Jason and The Argonauts where the skeletons were battling. Lying in bed, convinced that Mom and Dad were scheming evil plans against us... and that's why they did so Read more:Sandy
Family Memories... 2006-05-16 20:18:00 Last night I was lying in my bed remembering moments from my childhood and I decided that I would blog for the next few days about some of the memories I can conjure up of some of my family members. If you decide to blog about your family memories. Please share the link to your blog in my comments.As much as this is for anyone else to read and enjoy it is mostly for me. I'm sure I will come back and edit some of these as I remember things. I just wanted to start getting them down in print.Nan Read more:Family
iTunes, Bargain Hunting and My Mother 2006-05-06 04:34:00 Well, though I've had my ibook for over a year now tonight was my first time to venture out into iTunes
land and make my first download purchase. Oh my. Can we say addictive? I think I just spent my Mother's Day allowance.It really is like the dollar store. You see that you can get all your favorite songs for only .99 a piece so you go a bit wild. Before you know it your little imaginary shopping cart is full and you have spent more than you thought you could. This is what happens to me at a place so deceptively labeled, the Dollar store... also at thrift stores, garage sales, Ebay... I find so many incredible deals. High quality products at a fraction of the cost. I do come by this honestly though. My mother is the supreme Queen Bee of bargain hunting. I used to be mortified by her "scrounging" ways. So full of myself and concerned for my reputation (which was extremely fragile in it's pupa state) I would hide under a blanket in the back seat of the family station wagon Read more:Bargain
4/16/06 - My history with pink 2006-04-18 18:42:00 Have you ever gone through a pink phase? I imagine that most girls have, somewhere around fourth or fifth grade. Depending on the era you grew up in the pink phase may have been baby pink, Barbie pink, Barbie and the Rockers Pink, magenta... But am I right or just stupid in assuming that most everyone in the female hemisphere has gone through a pink phase at some point? Perhaps you never even grew out of it? Perhaps you are still in a continuing state of cotton candy bliss.I went through my pink phase in fourth grade. I had my room painted pink, I had pink curtains, a pink satin lacey bedding set... Pink PInk PINk PINK!!! What power of mind or emotion did I hold sway over my parents that they would consent to letting me paint my room pink and have pink bedding? Perhaps it was the previous 9 years of my life that had been lived up in a tree, wearing holey jeans and day camp t-shirts that had them running for the pink the minute I decided I liked it. They were probably just rel
3/10/06 - Do I have to have an excuse to share about Grandma? 2006-04-18 18:31:00 Do I have to have an excuse to share about my Grandma
? I wrote this for her memorial service, held back in November.My Grandma Baileyby Nancy Grandma Bailey was my friend. The last picture I have in my head of Grandma Bailey is one of her sitting in her chair, fluttering her bare feet happily and brimming with excitement that we had come to visit her. As a small child I remember going to Grandma and Grandpa’s pink house in San Leandro. I remember the smell of a lemon tree in the backyard. I remember helping to feed Grandpa’s doves. I remember always being tempted to eat Grandma’s decorative grapes and fruits that she displayed on her coffee table. I remember Grandpa Bailey’s doll room. Grandma would bring me back to just look in there every time we visited. I think I loved that room and was scared of it at the same time, so many eyes looking at you all at once! I remember licking the beaters after Grandma baked a cake. I remember playing Grandma’s organ and pressi
Speaking of Memories... (A Meme) 2007-04-30 00:50:00 I've got a challenge for you! And I want you to take me up on it and pass it on by way of your blog. Sign Mr. Linky and remind your readers to come and sign Mr. Linky too! :^)Tell me and if possible show me about your childhood toys, games or playgrounds. Do you have any pictures of you at the park? What about pictures of you with your favorite toys? I was really hoping to scan some pictures for this but my scanner and my computer are still not on speaking terms. They are not responding well to group therapy. If you don't have a scanner or don't want to post your own pictures, let Google do it for you. Or you can just post pictures of toys that you wish still existed because you would really like to buy them for the child in your life (so that you can play with them.)Find and share some pictures of your favorite childhood toys, places to visit or games. You can post just the pictures or you can post a story (or two or three) with the picture(s). I think this will prove to Read more:Speaking
Childhood just isn't what it used to be... 2007-04-29 06:55:00 Childhood seems to have been turned into a very sterile and safe existence. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for safety. But really, just look at your local new community or subdivision. At least where we live they seem to mow down every single climbable tree, level every bump out and plant tiny sprigs that they call trees, the branches of which would bend if a baby pygmy marmoset climbed on them let alone a 47 pound child.Tree climbing - OUT!!The playgrounds are similiarly innocuous. No more enormous rocket slides. I know some of you thirty-somethings know what I'm talking about... 12 foot high tubes that children ascend in order to whiz down a 25 foot diamond plate slide with chain link fencing up the sides. They were the bomb! The rocket topped all other playground equipment. But some philanthropist who didn't have a childhood, somewhere deemed a couple of stitches here and a broken arm there too great a price for childhood thrills and proceeded with knocking down rocket sli Read more:Childhood
More Giveaways! 2007-04-28 20:47:00 Check out Mod*Mom's Mother's Day Giveaway! The entry "fee" requires only that you go and oogle some very cute products at Give Simple and tell (in Mod*Mom's comments) which one is your favorite! The only trouble I had was trying to pick my favorite! The Deadline for this one is Midnight on May 13th!And once again Design Mom totally outdoes herself with this sweet sweet giveaway (Especially take note if you are Mom or Grandma or Auntie of a little girl!!) The Deadline for this one is Midnight on April 30th!Someday maybe I'll be able to host my very own giveaways but until then I will just plug all the other good ones that I find!Nan
Stranger than Fiction 2007-04-28 06:53:00 You MUST watch this movie. You must.It has a very Truman Showesque feel about it. But it's better. So much better.It is, quite honestly, my new favorite movie and I literally just finished watching it about 10 seconds ago.Can you picture Will Ferrell in a semi-serious role? He pulled it off. Swimmingly.Parts of this movie are hysterically funny. For those with compromised bladder control, you might just need secondary protection during the film. It is seriously funny.At the same time it is serious. Romantic. Sad. Thrilling. Sweet. Insightful.Go rent this movie. Now.Update: And if you like special features, watch the one about the Graphic User Interface or GUI (pr. Gooey) It's quite fascinating. Nerds and wannabe nerds will especially eat it up.Nan Read more:Stranger
, Fiction
Random List 2007-05-02 19:20:00 What I'm reading:What I'm listening to:andWhat task I just completed (sort of):What subject I am teaching right now: What is happening outside my window today:What is making me smile today:Nan Read more:Random
Contest Alert! 2007-05-02 16:52:00 I think everyone probably already knows about this one but I am compelled to pass the word anyways!But you will especially want to click on THESE GIANT RED LETTERS because you will find out rather quickly how to be entered to win an Apple iPod Nano! Now I know by the time I write half of this sentence you will already be gone because you will have clicked on those enormous red letters. So now I can say whatever I want because I know you are not even reading anymore. Your mama wears army boots. You smell like rotten chicken livers. You... what? You're still reading? Oops. Sorry. I didn't mean a word of it. Now go click those giganticus red letters and enter to win!!Nan Read more:Contest
, Alert
Momtrepreneurs in the Spotlight! 2007-05-02 07:31:00 I love it that the internet has made it all the more possible for Stay at Home Moms to pursue more of their goals while maintaining their personal priorities at the same time. So many of us desire to stay at home with our children. Some of us strongly desire to homeschool. Before the internet these choices more often than not precluded pursuing personal career goals or at least meant putting them on hold for a long time, which many of us were and are more than happy to do even though it was a sacrifice. Some of us, like me, are still just coming to a firmer realization of what they want to be when they grow up.The internet, and more specifically the blogosphere, has taken that fact and has turned it on it's head.I'm not really what I consider to be a feminist. (At all.) I am not a banner waving, bra burning in your face kind of lady. But even as the relatively conservative Christian that I am, I am extremely encouraged to see more women making the absolute most of their time at Read more:Spotlight
Cool Stuff Alert! 2007-05-02 01:21:00 Click on the button to find out how you can be entered to win a fabulous prize from: Nan Read more:Alert
I like blogging because... 2007-05-01 17:24:00 It's like show and tell every day. And oh, how I loved show and tell! One time I brought my teddy bear. One time I brought my new baby brother (mom came.)Nan
New Recipe! (And an inane perambulation with regards to my (ab)use of the English language.) 2007-05-01 04:47:00 I'm in a very salady mood lately so I posted a 'licious salad recipe today on my recipe blog. Pay no attention to the fact that the template is different. I am working on maybe changing it up a bit hopefully.Oh and to veer completely off the topic of foodstuffs, just as a side note to explain the use of the word, salady, I like to add the letter Y to all sorts of words in order to turn them into adjectives. Especially adjectives that describe how I am feeling. Worky. Hurty. Shoppingy. Bloggy. Or about the perpetual state of the roads around here. Trafficky. Constructiony. $%#@*&!/+*^#@y. ( Read more:English
, language
Let's hear it for life with boys... 2007-01-16 05:33:00 Everyone in our family, except for my purty little self, has the same barber. His name is Daddy. The job used to be mine but I didn't like being called "the barber" and there's something that reminds me of my sweet Grandma when I hear the words, "my hairdresser" so the job shifted from being mine to being soley Dad's. He alone weilds the scissors. He alone holds aloft the golden clippers.Really, the clippers aren't golden and if he does weild a pair of scissors, somebody better hold onto their ears because he's not too confident with them. But my incessant flare for drama impaired my inhibitions and I just couldn't resist the build up. I wanted you to picture my dashing husband holding a pair of glistening electric clippers up to the bursting beams of heavenly light like King Arthur brandishing Excalibur!Saturday night was haircutting night. Everyone has the same barber. Everyone gets the same exact haircut -- the one Dad knows -- a buzz. And everyone was getting a bit f
Beware of the preschool doctor 2007-01-11 19:15:00 My three year old little guy has told us that he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. This jives well with the fact that his two favorite toys in the past several months have come from a now disemboweled and dismembered doctor's kit that he received for his 2nd birthday. When he received it all of its components fit snugly into the little case that it all came in.This story, though, is as much about him having strange favorite toys that he cannot be without as much as it is about poor bedside manners in dealing with "patients."He, like so many others his age sleeps with a certain stuffed animal, though it is really only stuffed in the nominal sense. It has retained little, if any, stuffing in it's midsection and if hanged upon a clothes line would fold over itself about as flatly as a bath towel. Woofy has only enough stuffing to fill his head and all four of his feet. The bulk of his stuffing has either been loved or washed to oblivion. Until he turned two he could not funct Read more:Beware
Meme Time 2007-05-04 23:56:00 Lauren @ Baseballs and Bows tagged me with a meme entitled SEVEN RANDOM THINGS.So here they are in no particular order:1. I am a transplanted Californian, now living in Canada.2. I met my husband 2 weeks after graduating high school.3. The only surgical procedure I've ever had had to be done twice because the first time didn't take. (Don't ask!!)4. I have Approximately two large suitcases full of letters and cards to and from friends from high school and college sitting in my basement, including notes passed in class.5. I just figured out what I want to be when I grow up.6. I've kissed three boys in my life. (okay, 2 boys and one MAN.) ;^P7. I'm contriving a plan to one day travel Europe with all of our kids when they are teenagers. (All that flying though?! ACK! That's what they make tranquilizers for right?)I really don't know who to tag. So I tag no one in particular. But if you are experiencing a brain freeze and need something to post about (this meme came in ha
The effect that Bob Ross can have on a person 2007-05-04 00:00:00 1. Renews one's appreciation for the noble profession of the local Barber.2. Makes you want to learn to paint.3. Makes you want to fall asleep while thinking #1 and #2.4. Makes you believe that the trees really are happy.Nan Read more:effect
, person
More Momtrepreneurs? 2007-05-03 19:52:00 I am hoping to make regular posts spotlighting Momtrepreneurs.What is a Momtrepreneur? A Momtrepreneur is a word I made up (as far as I know) that means; a woman who simultaneously does the at home mom thing while at the same time running their own business, no matter how big or small; a brick and mortar business or an internet based business. As an at home mom and hopefully as a future momtrepreneur I feel that the one thing I can do for those that are forging through with their personal goals while either changing diapers and wiping noses or schooling their children is to pump more business their way. Are you a Momtrepreneur? Do you know of any that deserve a spotlight feature? Tell me about it! Click on the e-mail me link in the left sidebar and make sure to make your subject line "Momtrepreneur Spotlight!" (please note: As much as I support women in these professions, I prefer not to spotlight those working in direct sales. I tried my hand at it before so this is nothing
My favorite little guys... 2007-05-03 17:47:00 My sister sent me an e-card today which reminded me of how very much I love these little
guys.So if you want to laugh today click on some of the images below:Second Guess ThursdaySarcastic WednesdayIt's TuesdayIt's Monday
Mark your calendars people!! 2007-05-03 16:47:00 If you have been here for any amount of time you already know that Ree at Confessions of a Pioneer Woman is my all time favorite blogger. She quickly becomes just about every body's favorite blogger once they get their boo-hineys over there and read her stuff, see her photography and find that they have the sudden urge to spend 12 hours at a time reading her archives. I have been plugging Ree's blog for about as long as I've been blogging because when she started her blog I had only been blogging for a couple of months myself. Her readership quickly multiquintuplicated from a handful of us to what it is now, at a humble 9,000 page views a day.This coming Monday she will be celebrating one year of blogging. And to celebrate she will be hosting one of her famous photo naming contests. These contests are not just any little old contest. They are hilarious. The pictures are usually quite memorable. The 900 to 1000 entries will make you want to pee your pants laughing and the sus Read more:people
Most idiots probably already know this... 2007-05-07 05:17:00 But I didn't.If you are planning on handling these:Wear a pair of these:Or you will end up like this:But the awesome Pico De Gallo was worth it!****************************************In other news, my favorite blogger, who you've heard of a couple hundred times from me, is giving away a Nikon D70 camera tomorrow in her 1 year blogiversary "Name that Photo Contest." Her very own. The camera that she bought just last year. The camera partly responsible for some of her incredible photography. I knew she was going to do this. It's so like her. While I don't know her in person, I know her via e-mail and she is every bit as kind and generous off the blog as she is on it. What you see is what you get with Ree. I only wish I knew her in person. I can only imagine that my only regret would be that I would likely wet my pants with uncontrollable laughter on a routine basis as I do whenever I'm in the same room with my friend, Corrie.Prepare yourself for stiff competition though. S
Enter: Academic Competitiveness 2007-05-06 16:15:00 My husband and I were finishing up our morning coffee after sending the boys upstairs to get dressed for church. The normal routine involves a couple of reminders, amidst the rumbling and 'hootin' and hollerin' as my mother would say, to stay on task, get dressed... or else. We were discussing art classes for the older two, talking about how though the oldest has most proficiently shown a penchant for art, his younger brother has a strong desire to draw though his skill is just now emerging. We were discussing how we want to discourage too much competitiveness, though a tiny bit can prove to be a helpful motivator.It was at this very moment that we heard, "YOU DON'T KNOW LATIN!!" being shouted at the top of someone's lungs. We looked at each other and busted up laughing at the irony of the moment.I ascended the stairs to get the littlest dude into his clothes and finish getting myself ready. I couldn't let the Latin based insult go unexplained. So I asked what that was all Read more:Academic
, Competitiveness
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