Thanksgiving Edition of Midweek Confessions

I so enjoy the Midweek Confession posts over at E, Myself, and I. Mostly because it makes me feel like I'm not the only crazy mom in the world (and by crazy I mean loving and a little exhausted). Now that the Dude is 7, he's starting to recognize my craziness loveliness. Fortunately, he's about as odd ball as I am, so it all evens out.

So let the confessions begin!

- My favorite and most comfortable pair of black flats are...how else do I put this?...STINKY. We live in Texas, so that means they made it through the sweaty feet of the hot spring, the uber-sweaty feet of the sweltering summer, and the sweaty feet of the warmer than usual fall. Just like we wait on the first freeze to kill all the bugs. In my house, we also wait for the first freeze to kill the stinky in our shoes. No such luck. I'll just continue to spray massive amount of Oust in my shoes daily.

-I have this thing about combining contrasting flavors of food. It has caused me to crave some very interesting combinations lately. Fluffernutter sandwiches. Apple pie with cheddar cheese. Frosties with french fries. Yam casserole with tortilla chips. No, it's not a pregnancy thing. Just a weird taste combination thing.

-Yesterday was a craptacular day. Basically, just a crappy day. Now on an overall scale of crappyness, the day probably ranked relatively low. I still found myself at one point crying to my sweet momma, "Aren't I allowed to have a bad day too? Is that alright with everyone?" I know I should be thankful that people were kind enough to wonder about why I wasn't my normal self, but the truth was I just wanted to get through my day without having to give some half-true answer about what was really bothering me. Some days are just crappy days. 14 hours of sleep later , and I'm feeling much better.

- Nerd love: When a glass of wine and an episode of MythBusters becomes a romantic evening. Yeah I <3 br="br" nerds="nerds">

-Last Saturday our church had a rummage sale where my son and I for a mere $2 purchased endless hours of fun. You'd probably call it junk. We call it FUN! (Pictures to be posted soon)

-In a couple of weeks, the hubs and I will celebrate our 8th anniversary. Some girls like diamonds. I asked for him to help me paint the front door and shutters on our house...And I love that that wasn't weird to him!

-I think my 7 year old likes Pinterest about as much as I do. Is this bad???

So that's the crazy in my life these days.
Have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Randomondayisms

Here are a few of my random thoughts to start off the week:

1. The first week or so of changing back to Standard time is great because my internal clock is too confused to not wake up early. 

2. My brain can't help but associate thing - even serious things - with something that makes me laugh. For instance, yesterday while listening to a guest speaker, I couldn't help but thing how much she sounded like a pirate when she got excited. Fortunately, I share this character flaw with my husband, so I always have someone to snicker with. 

3. Fluffernutter sandwiches. That. Is. All. 

Happy Monday, friends. What are some of your random thoughts to start the week off with?

Life Lately: October Edition

I often find myself having to post "Life Lately" posts on this blog to play catch up. The past two weeks have been relatively hectic. Hectic is apparently my normal state, but at least it keeps life interesting.

Here is a photo breakdown of our life lately.

I was blessed to be invited by some friends to join them for a hospitality conference. We had an amazing time! The Lord really used that conference to prepare me for some things that would be coming up in the weeks following. 

IllumiNATION Radio had a very special guest in studio one Monday night. The Dude joined us to talk all things Christian rock...and to play games on momma's tablet in the corner. 

My beautiful momma had knee replacement surgery two weeks ago. She'll be back to doing high kicks like a Rockette in no time! I gained a new appreciation for nurses and caretakers during those two weeks. More on my adventures in housekeeping coming soon!

It's Fall Fest time! This year, Halloween found our family at 3! Fall Festivals. We had a great time at each of them. The Dude went as an "Army Man" to all 3. His costume included a very realistic looking bazooka thanks to his PaPa. Thanks to a little search on Google we found an idea of a way we could incorporate rock music into our Trunk or Treat decor. We played some rockin' tunes, handed out lots of candy...and at the end of the night The Dude decided that he would like to add a neck collar and backboard to his costume with a quick trip in an ambulance to the ER. Praise the Lord, he was checked out and all is well! There is nothing like the power of prayer. 

That's our life lately. What have you been up to???

What Do Ya Know? It's Wednesday... I Mean, Thursday

I can't believe it's Wednesday. Ok, I couldn't believe it was Wednesday. Now I can't believe how this post has slid on in to Thursday. Well, what do you expect from a person who's ToDo List looks like this???

That's right. It's blank...And rather sad, if you ask me. Normally, there would be 20-30 items on my list, with at least 10 of those items followed by the beautiful word COMPLETE. Instead it's just blank. 

Six weeks ago, I decided to join the digital age and start using my lovely Samsung tablet to keep my to-do list on. I have kept to-do lists off and on over the years, usually on the backs of used envelopes, tiny Post-its, a notebook that I promptly lost. This time was different. Technology made keeping up with my to-do list a snap.

Then I decided to do an experiment...Had six weeks of routine items on my to-do list become routine? Would I remember those to-do's? Did having a to-do list really make a difference? The answers to those questions are yes, sort of, and YES!

Yes, six weeks of the routine items on my to-do list have become mostly routine. I have worked in the same position for almost 6 years now. Even though what I do varies from day to day, there are some parts of my job that are pretty much the same-oh-same-oh. That makes it easy to remember what that routine is. Sort of.  I did forget to follow up on something that I would have notated on my to-do list. Thankfully, it got completed just under the wire.

Yes, having a to-do list has made a huge difference for me. It keeps me on task. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. A girl needs that, even for the easy routine stuff.

Note to self: Make your to-do list next week!

Ten T Topics on Tuesday

I have a weekly running to-do list. Writing a blog post has been on my to-do list for the past...well longer than I would care to admit. It's the thing that tends to get pushed to the end of the list and purposefully overlooked. I decided today, Tuesday, is the day that I am posting darn it!

Without further adieu...Ten T Topics on Tuesday:

1. Twitter: Twitter and I have a love-hate relationship. I'll admit I enjoy Facebook much more, so it's very easy for me to Tweet an average of about once every 6 months. That's a slightly worse average than my posting average for this blog.

2. Trashed: The best way to describe my desk.

3. Tomatoes: I don't really like them unless they are fire roasted or in the form of tomato sauce or Spicy Fancy Ketchup from Whataburger. (Note to Whataburger: Please bring back the limited edition Spicy Fancy Ketchup. I ran out of my stash months ago.)

4. Thousand Foot Krutch: Remixes released on Noisetrade last night. Get them now...and tune into IllumiNATION Radio next Monday night to see if they are the Noisetrade Pick of the Week. (See how I did that shameless plug right there? It's not like I'm the host or anything.)

5. To-Do Lists: Ode to My To-Do List
                         Love them.
                         Hate them.
                         Long and looming.

6. Totally Stuck in My Head: "All My Balloons" by Children 18:3 (Amazingly talented punk band)

7. Tired: I'm feeling a tad bit yawny (not Yanni) at the moment. Maybe it's time for a nap?

8. Trying to think of a few more "T" things...

9. The Great Tea Debate: When did Americans become too lazy to sweeten their own tea? When did pre-sweetened tea become the norm? No matter how hard you try, unsweet tea and sweet tea sound exactly the same over those drivethru speakers...unless you're at Chic-fil-A where it's called Diet Tea. For the purpose of full disclosure, I am one of those odd Southerners who does NOT like sweet tea. We're like unicorns, difficult to find.

10. Texas: I love your beautiful weather today!

What's your T topic for Tuesday?

Life Lately

Life lately has been well lived. It has been exciting, fun, a little challenging. You know, all the things that make life interesting.

The other day, I was thinking about the hubs and our first date. One of the things that has stuck with me through our years together (8 years for those who might be wondering) is our conversation about not wanting to live an ordinary or "boring" life. I guess God held us to that (probably with a little snicker - yes, I believe God has the ultimate sense of humor) because life hasn't been ordinary since that moment. You know what? I'm good with that. I wouldn't have it any other way. Life is infinitely more interesting than I imagined it might be. I'm glad God blessed me with such and amazing adventure.

Since I haven't posted in awhile, lets blow the cobwebs off this blog. Here's a rundown of our summer:


The hubs and I began hosting a radio show called IllumiNATION Radio on the Fishbowl Radio Network this summer. I can't begin to tell you how much fun I am having gabbing it up on the radio each week!






I was blessed with the awesome opportunity to officiate (yep! I'm an ordained minister) when my parents renewed their vows on their 33rd anniversary in June. Honestly, I was very honored and humbled for them to have asked me. It was a
wonderful celebration with family!




June was a busy month! Chas and the Dude both had birthdays!
The best part of C5's 7th birthday celebration was having 15 Cub Scouts do an ice cream eating contest WITH NO HANDS!
Yeah, I'm that mom. Don't worry, though. They got all cleaned up during a water balloon war of epic proportions.

Last, but certainly not least...X-Fest.   Our concert ministry, Ten Talents , produced and hosted  the 12-band Christian rock festival in August. This was our second year to  produce X-Fest. We doubled in size this year! Preparing for X-Fest kept us busy for most of the summer, but it was amazing event! We're looking forward to see what God does in 2013! 

Well that's some of the fun we had this summer. Bring on the Fall!

Midweek Confessions, Part Deux

Time to blow the dust off this ole' blog, and what better way to do that than some Midweek Confessions? Hey if that's the only thing that gets me blogging at the moment, then I'll take it. My philosophy in life is to appreciate the small victories... or try to. So for this week, writing a post instead of just reading other peoples' posts and wishing I was writing a post will have to do. I think I just confused myself.

Let the confessing commence! Here are my top 5 confessions of the week:

1. I have static cling in my skirt this morning. I'm pretty certain I walked through the entire office with more of my back side showing than the law allows. Good thing I was the only one there.

2. O laundry, how I loathe thee. I recently discovered that it is better for me to do a small load of laundry every couple of days than it is for me to wait an entire week to do laundry. If I wait the whole week to do laundry, then I will likely let it pile up for another week and another week and...you get the point. At this point, I've got at least a week's worth of laundry to catch up on. Ugh.

3. Last night my husband pointed out that I was listening to Incubus while reading an assigned reading for my the religion class that I'm auditing. Apparently, in his eyes anyways, listening to Incubus while studying the Torah is ironic.

4. The word nerd in me went to look up the correct use of the word "ironic" (see confession above). Apparently, my use of the word is not accurate. Did you know that many scholars consider the word "ironic"  to be the most abused word in the English language? Isn't that ironic? Don't you think? *Sing it with me, people.*

5. My office is currently a disaster. It's not like it isn't anything other than a disaster on a regular basis, it's just that I'm noticing what a terrible disaster it actually is today. Perhaps I should be cleaning instead of blogging. Nah!

Have a great week, friends!