It's all HER fault

She started this whole bloggin' thing. Well not the WHOLE thing, but the trend in our family. And then I found her and she introduced me to this. Where I met her and her and her and oh yeah him and that is when all hell broke loose. I started learning about Social Media and "mommyblogging" and was being asked my opinion on things, by people who didn't love me and HAVE to listen to me, they just wanted to. Go figure. So I started sprucing up the blog and even began the new one (go see) and then I found them and that just opened all kinds of doors and windows.

So what I'm trying to say is IM GOING TO BLOGHER! I am very excited! I will be going as a Newbie and will be blogging and tweeting about it all over and I hope I don't crawl in my shell and get to nervous to talk to people. But I am actually going and I can't wait.

Loading Zone Only

Am I wierd?

I enjoy loading the dishwasher, but loath unloading it. It will sit full of clean dishes for days as I wait for someone else in the house to unload it. Dirty dishes will pile up on the counter in the sink, on the stove, all in the hopes that someone other than me will unload the dishwasher.

I don't understand my reasoning for this. Does it go with the whole unloading the dryer and leaving the clothes to sit in a basket for days on end? Or even leaving them in the dryer to start with? Am I an "In with the old" but not an "Out with the New" kinda person?

Does this have a deeper root? I can't see it as just being lazy as once the dishwasher is unloaded (by someone else) I will immediately fill it abck up and clean the kitchen.

thoughts?

Housekeeping

I have made some changes around here. I figured out how to customize my header, I rearranged a bunch of stuff and I added a family blog roll. Those who read this the most will recognize yourselves down on the left over there. Some will see that your updates are there and some may be shamed into actually updating. Hint hint G! If I missed anyone leave me a comment and I will update asap.

I have received some paid sponsors through BlogHer and through CafePress so be sure to be nice to them and visit often. I still recieve the Adsense through Google Ads, so don't forget about them.

I have added widgets (those blue rectangles to the left) that highlight the other blogs that I contribute to. The first is my new review blog, where I will be reviewing products and services. Some of which are provided and some just because. The second is the Amazon Readers that is run by all the Amazon Van Houten Women, check it out for Book reviews. If you would like to contribute to either just leave me a comment or email and we'll talk.

Comments are always welcomed and appreciated. I try to reply when asked a question so check back often.

Wordless Wednesday

Forward My calls

I just don't feel like posting right now so I am sending you over to one of my favorite blogs to read.

Looky Daddy is one I read everyday (well everyday that he posts).

Enjoy!

Maggie's Gone

About 4:45 pm I heard a car honk outside, so I looked to see if Jade was here to pick up Adam. What I saw was this






Yep, some idiot decided Maggie would be better off with them. As far as I can tell that is all that is missing. I called the Glendale Police Dept immediately and they have yet to arrive! It has been an hour and a half since I called. I find it hard to believe that Glendale has so much crime that 1 officer can not come out and make a quick report. I know that the offender will not be caught I know I will never see my Maggie again, but I would like to secure my car and belongings and can not do that until the police come out. aarrgghh!!

I found a window repair place online that will come to the house tomorrow morning and fix it and got a quote of about $200. Which is nowhere near my deductable, but hopefully Maggie will be covered.

At what time point do I call the Police back and say "where the hell are you?"

A New Beginning

http://adrienneshousereviews.blogspot.com/

Oh What a Night

My baby, (he hates that) graduated high school Thursday. He told me not to cry and I did anyways, he told me I wasn’t allowed to scream when his name was called, I did anyways. He told me once he would never grow up, but he did anyways.

My rebel child, wanted to do something different. I nixed the naked under the gown idea, even the boxers only didn’t fly with me. So he opted to personalize his outfit to more befit his personality. 10 points for anyone that recognizes the Logo he emblazoned his mortarboard with, 25 points if you’re over the age of 30 and recognize it.

It was a SUNNY HOT early evening, with many umbrellas shielding parents and friends. The students were looking uncomfortable in their caps and gowns and the poor dignitaries in their black gowns looked downright miserable.

Jade was beautiful as always smiling happily throughout. I forgot to ask Adam when he got home from practice earlier in the day, which side of the “stage” he would be sitting on. Ergo we ended up on the wrong side. But we did wind up just above where Jade was sitting, so it wasn’t a total loss. Not that Adam couldn’t see us, he could, but he wouldn’t acknowledge my frantically waving arms. We settled for communicating during the ceremony via text messaging (I’m so hip – NOT).

After the ceremony a few of Adam’s friends and their families joined us at Little Toni’s Italian restaurant in North Hollywood. Huge amounts of food and great company, what more could you ask for?

Now the grown-ups are all home ready to hit the hay and the newly graduated are off for a night of entertainment.

You can go to flick'r if you would like to see all the photos. You might even figure out the answer.

Just tilt your head

Awards

a 002
Originally uploaded by adriennevh.

This past Wednesday was the Senior Awards. Adam recieved an Award for being a mamber of VAPA (Visual and Perfoming Arts) and he received a scholarship from the PTSA. Presenting that scholarship was the PTSA President, no other than our resident Aunt Kathy. He towers over her. This coming Thursday is Graduation. I don't know if I will be able to handle that.

Something Fun

I stole this from ThreeSeven. And she stole it from someone else, and so on, and so on.

The concept:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.

3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. What is your favorite drink?

7. What is your dream vacation?

8. What is your favorite dessert?

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. What is one word that describes you?

12. What is your flickr name?

My results are above.

What's yours?

The Truth About Lying- as told by a Liar

Everybody lies. It happens, little white lies, fibs, untruths, stories call it what you want, and it is still a lie.

But why does everybody lie?

Sometimes so they won’t hurt someone else’s feelings – Do I look fat in this? The answer is never yes and therefore is usually a lie, because actually that dress makes your ass look ginormous.

Sometimes you lie to make yourself look good. What height and weight are on your driver’s license?

But most times people lie because they have either done something wrong and don’t want to get in trouble – No officer I wasn’t speeding (not only were you speeding but you quickly looped your seat belt on).

Or they are embarrassed by their actions – I got it on sale and I had a coupon and and and nothing you paid full price and you yourself know that that price was overpriced but you paid it anyways.

These are all simple lies.

But what about when it hits closer to home? Another liar once told me she wasn’t lying, she was withholding information. Information that she did not want him to know, because she was ashamed? Because she was wrong? Because she knew she really didn’t have a right to demand things from him that she wasn’t willing to give herself? Who knows, but she lied.

If you see a friend with someone other than their spouse, are you lying to them by withholding that information?

Can lying be ok on a case by case basis? And who makes the ruling? The Liar or the one being lied to (Lie-e)?

I lied to my mother many times as a teen, and usually about stupid stuff. Sometimes I lied, just to lie. Just to see if she would fall for it, and being someone who loved me for no good reason other than I was me, she usually did. And I hurt her. I never got to tell her I was sorry. I had many chances, but I was ashamed and never did.

Don’t let your chances slip away. Don’t lie just to lie.

p.s. and don’t ask a question you don’t want the truthful answer to.

Wordless Wednesday

Shower Challenge

Can you do it? I know I can, my mother was the fastest showerer in the midwest, and I learned well from her. Of course, I don't go for the shaving of any body parts (sorry TMI?), so that makes it alot easier. The quest in this house will to be a certain teenager down to 5 minutes, hmm maybe I can get him to cut his 30 minutes in half, that would be a start. How about you? Is five minutes enough?

More water conserving ideas here at the blog of the originator of this challenge Crunchy Domestic Goddess.

Knee Update Again

When I last left you I was diagnosed and got a steroid shot. Yeah, well, that didn’t work out so well. The shot barely lasted one week. During the entire cruise I was popping Tylenol Arthritis 3 at a time every 8 hours. I didn’t let the pain stop me from much (I think the only thing I shied away from was climbing to the top of the Sphinx and from what I heard I didn’t miss much), so I may have irritated it a little when I climbed the 292 steps to the Acropolis in Lindos or to the Church on the hill in Turkey, but heh, I got places to go and things to see.
Since I have been back I have gone for more x-rays, started physical therapy on the left knee, had the right knee diagnosed, and am getting ready to start therapy on that one as well. The kicker with the therapy is that they won’t work on both of them at the same time, so I will have to go 4 times a week, with a frikkin co-pay of $15 every time! That’s $60 a week! Have a mentioned I haven’t gotten a real job yet? I have done some temp work (more on that another time), but I am still looking. So now, beside the obstacle of the blemish on my record from GUSD, I have to deal with working and fitting in Therapy 4 days a week. AACCKK!
Therapy – What they are doing right now is putting electrodes around my knee and electrocuting me for about 10 minutes while icing my knee at the same time. The whole water and electricity kinda freaks me out, but if I get electrocuted it can’t hurt any worse than it already does. Then they do an ultrasound radiating heat waves into the knee joint. And to finish up it is 10 minutes on the stationary bike. When I got back from the cruise I was supposed to start Curves but the therapist nixed that, he wants me to finish therapy and strengthen my knee before starting there.
If therapy doesn’t work, then we (that would be the royal we) move on to the orthopedic surgeon and see if surgery is necessary. Let’s all hope – NO!

DEWEY WINS

Of course that was way before my time, but it still holds true. In my time was "Gore takes Florida". The media has a way of "presuming" things so they will be the first to report something. ET the other day reported Anjelina Jolie gave birth because someone saw her at a hospital and they wanted to get the scoop.

It has happened again. Barack Obama has been named the "Presumptive Nominee" for the Democratic party. People all over the net are calling for Hillary Clinton to just concede and unify the party. But, what is not being recognized is that Obama has not actually reached the delegate goal of 2,118. He has not even reached 2,000. He has however a "pledge" from some 329 Super Delegates that "swear" they will vote for him at Convention. By a show of hands, who has ever called in to Jerry's kids or PBS and "pledged" to donate money, but then didn't follow through? That's all their word is - a pledge. Super Delegates can and have changed their minds many many times over the recent months and the more recent weeks. And they can still change their minds up until their actual ballot is cast in Denver.

No, I don't think Hillary should concede, I think this has been good for the party and the country. A lot of things that have happened have truly tested our democratic process and have renewed some's (sic?) faith in the system.

BTW yes, I do hope that Obama does finally receive the nomination, I also hope that he choose Clinton as his VP.

The unity that everyone is screaming for should start at your own front door. Instead of yelling and stomping your feet that Clinton has not stepped down. Support your fellow Democrat in her faith in our system and her perseverence in our party.

Pitiful Sainthood

Today was an Election day in California. A Primary for State Representatives and Assemblymembers, Convention delegate selection for both parties, various judicial positions and 2 propositions. The turn out was beyond pitiful. In the District the we worked less than 11% came to vote. There were a few Vote By Mail requested according to our records but that was less than 1%. The reason for the low turnout is (in my humble opinion) because of the states choice to move the Presidential Primary up to February 5. In previous years this day (today) would have been the Presidential Primary and in previous years it had been for naught. But this year it could have made a difference to the other ballot issues because California would have been a big "swing" state in this highly competitive elction year. But because of past experiences the state decided to move it up to "Make California's Vote Count" (that was the slogan all over). I think they screwed themselves. As I mentioned Kathy and I worked in a local precinct. Usually it is situated in the High School, but because of construction it is in the BOy Scout House directly across the street from our house. That is so handy. Kathy could come home a get a cold diet coke any time she wanted. that makes for a happy Kathy. ANd a happy Kathy is a helpful Kathy. Because this isn't our regular place we had to share with another precinct. the room is big enough and we had it set up well to separate and the tables were deliniated by color so people pretty much knew where to go. The Inspector on the other side was a complete slug. He shuffled around doing and caring about nothing. He spent more time outside than in and paid no attention to anything that was happening on his side of the room. Schmuck! Kathy, saint that she is, spent more time on the other side than he did and helped his staffers ALOT. They came to Kathy to ask about questions that were covered in the training and that HE should have been answering. They even came to Kathy to ask about their breaks. This schmuck shared space with us for the Election in February and we were amazed that he was packed up so quickly at the end. There is a lot of counting and reconciling and deconstructing and just a whole lot of work in general and he was out a good half hour before us. This time - surprise - there was a County Inspector there at closing working with him. I don't think he reconciled anything last time and maybe they are finally catching on to his inadequecy. So for that reason and many many others, I am going to nominate Kathy for Sainthood.

A Day with the Bear

Caity was here on Sunday and was wearing the dress I bought her in Lindos on the Island of Rhodes, Greece. There are more pics at http://flickr.com/photos/adriennevh/