It's in the book

I am not a teacher. For a reason.


It's not my calling. I recognized that early and I'm eternally grateful for those who do this job day in and day out. Thank you!

And nothing makes me feel more like a teacher than the dreaded HOMEWORK!

We have been up to our eyeballs in book reports this weekend. I'm not talking about your standard, run of the mill book report. Noooooo, we've had to get all fancy this time.

Lego-Man has a "Cereal Box" book report based on a mystery book; and the Princess has ye ol' diorama from a biography. Just imagine the fun we've been having, if you can. I'm in a fun stupor!

We had to change the boy's book midstream, when we realized the plot of his Hardy Boy's book had to do with smuggling DRUGS. He had his cereal named "Smuggler's Surprise" with the cereal in shapes of bottles and pills. Umm, yea. Fortunately he just finished another Hardy Boy's book, which was about missing coins that were melted. So we are going with that one. Anybody want some "Corn Crunch" Cereal, complete with coin shaped marshmallows that melt in your mouth?!

When I found out the Princess had to do her diorama on a biography, I offered up a list of possibilities......Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, etc. In one fail swoop she shot down all my suggestions with one sentence, "Mom, Taylor Swift is a REAL PERSON too!"

Seriously. I mean, what was I thinking?? Of course, Taylor Swift. Duh. She's lived on the planet 20 years and done what.....made two albums and been dissed on national television by Kanye West.

I was hoping the Princess' teacher might help me with the battle of the biographies, but no such luck. The book was approved, so Taylor Swift it is. Just look for the box with glitter letters, a CD, cowboy boots, guitars and a Barbie doll dressed like Taylor Swift.


I can hardly wait for this week's homework assignments!

Let's Take a Vote

Last week's craze on facebook was changing your profile photo to one that fit into the "blast from the past" category.

Easy peasy.

I produced this fabulous photo from my soccer star days back in the early 80's:



Oh how I miss THAT body.

Moving along.


This week I noticed people changing their profile photos, yet again, with this little note attached:

"This week is 'Doppelgänger Week.' During the week please change your profile picture to someone famous (actor, musician, athlete, etc.) you have been told you look like."

Phhhffft, I've never really been told I looked like any celebrity or musician. However, I *was* told that mine and Michael Jordan's basketball styles were very similar or not.


I thought back to that one time, in college, where one of my friends told me I looked like a certain celebrity from back in the 70's.


Me in Kindergarten (and thank you Mrs. Mayhall for making sure the comb marks in my bangs were just so):




Yep, that's Davy Jones from the Monkees.

Celebrity Match? You decide.

Tick, Tick, Tick....

That is the sound of the clock.....time is ticking away before I leave for the blogging community's party conference of the year, BLISSDOM!

I am getting nervous.

I spontaneously signed myself up to join 499 other bloggers for three days of blogging info overload? Seriously.

Did I fall and hit my head?

Why?

I.Have.No.Idea.

While the people who know me well would disagree, I am an introvert. New places, new situations and mingling with a roomful of people I don't know makes me queasy. Nevertheless, Thursday morning I am headed to Nashville's Opryland Hotel to get my Bliss on. There I will be rooming with one of the fabulous gals I have met online this past year, Dedra.

I will be mingling amongst some of the best bloggers, including one of my personal favorites, Kristen from We Are THAT Family. She's my 'Fro Me to You friend. I hope to meet her and pray I don't just stand there with my mouth open! I'm also looking forward to meeting other of members of the blogosphere and a few of my twitter friends, including Jessica of Muthering Heights and Jill of the Diaper Diaries.

The excitement factor overshadowed the nervous factor last week when I found this little Blissdom "happy" on my doorstep:

Right now my mind is worried about what I will wear and will I find my way there. I'm sure as time gets closer I will be more worried about not having any clue what I have gotten myself into. Oh well.

Stay tuned....

Stuck in My Head

Pants on the ground,
Pants on the ground;

Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground...

For Me?

Dear Enormously Large Pink Striped Lingerie Company,

Today I came home to find your latest and not-so greatest catalog in MY mailbox. Now, there are a lot of people who will find this completely hysterical, starting with me.

Ms. Victoria, the truth is your "secret" is, well, not really a secret. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a secret as: kept from knowledge or view : hidden.

And, honey, there ain't nothing kept from view in your catalog. Perhaps you should have gone with something more like Victoria's Great Reveal.

The pictures on the front and back of your catalog, alone, should require it to be encased in a brown paper wrapper! I imagine the male postal workers have a hard time focusing on their routes on the days this catalog is delivered. Perhaps the government would like to waste billions more of taxpayers dollars researching this. You know, in the name of increasing mail delivery and productivity.

I suspect my name got put on your mailing list after purchasing a gift card for a family member. Let me be clear, if I had wanted to receive your catalog I would have registered for it. I did not.

Now that I have that off my chest.....ahem, no pun intended.....I must get back to finding out how to cancel my latest and not so greatest catalog subscription.


Sincerely,

A girl who likes a little more SECRET than Victoria

Pick Your Battles

Yep, that's my motto....for almost everything that involves the rearing raising of my children. This especially includes the Princess' wardrobe.

Examples of self-dressing I have said "yes" to:







Recently the hubby asked, "are we letting her go to church like THAT??" I quickly answered, "Absolutely! We've got bigger battles to fight."

I mean, if she wants to wear her fabulous tan boots with an all black ensemble, I say go for it!

However, yesterday I had to draw the line when she came out of her room dressed like this:



Yes, I realize she looks super cute and is probably copying some of the things she sees the high school and college girls wearing. However, it was 40 degrees outside and beneath that lovely ensemble is her SWIMSUIT because we were headed to swimming lessons.

Much to her dismay, I had to put a stop to the cheerleader skirt and made her put on more "it's-freezing-cold-outside" appropriate clothing.

Otherwise, I would have said, "get in the car."

Heaven knows, I am just trying to help her make good clothing choices. So, one day, when she looks back at her yearbooks, she doesn't regret having her picture taken in something like this:



She'll thank me one day.....I think!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Y'all remember that song, right?!

Last week, the GRITS family was immersed back into the real world after a restful week off after Christmas.

The kiddies went back to school on the 4th and I jumped back onto the anesthesia planet with both feet!

The big news for this past week has been the weather. The South has been in the grips of sub-freezing temperatures. Now y'all, we aren't built to endure such torture.

And the forecast for the dreaded "S" word, showed up early last week. As per standard protocol, pandemonium broke out, milk and bread were scooped up off grocery store shelves and the schools were closed on Thursday.

It was all for naught, snowflakes did fall from the sky and that was about it. No surprise. Better luck next time with your forecast, dear meteorologists.

Now on to the more important event from last week.....

Anybody watch that little football game on Thursday night??

Can I get a hearty ROLL TIDE

It wasn't the prettiest win on record (ahem, SEC championship game), but we did win.

As per standard fan protocol we all were sporting our team's colors. Lego-Man was wearing his Alabama cap that he has worn on every game day this year. We had to send him to bed at his usual bedtime because the not-so-snow-day was not continued on Friday.

Here's how we found our dedicated Alabama fan around midnight:




When we asked him why he wore his hat to bed, he replied, "every time I've worn it that way, Alabama wins."

Spoken like a true 'Bama fan who just learned what it means to be National Champions!



Now, I'm not a country music fan by any stretch (we'll save that discussion for another post), but I found this and thought my fellow Alabama fans would enjoy:

Smart Shopping

Anybody who knows me well enough, knows I love me some Target!

That statement alone probably qualifies me to begin a 12-Step program.


Yesterday, at the end of an grocery shopping extravaganza, the cashier handed me my very long receipt and FIVE store coupons.

Coupons, schmoupons....

I gave up coupon cutting MANY years ago because I either left the coupons at home or in the car. On the extremely rare occasion I remembered to take them into the store, I would forget to actually use them!


So, needless to say, I didn't give a second thought to my Target coupons, I just planned on putting them in the trash recycling bin. However, while I was sitting in the carpool line my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to peruse the small stack of coupons.

The variety of coupons chosen for me was certainly interesting.


Here are the first two:





Starbuck's coffee, oh yea, bay-beeeee! This coupon was totally intended for moi.

And, hey, who needs a Sonic care more than one dedicated coffee drinker?!


Now, for the next two:




I use these two items almost daily in my home. Kinda Target Coupon Big Brother-ish dontcha think?!




Last, but certainly not least:





What exactly is THIS supposed to mean?!

Hmph!

A Clean Slate....

Just like that, one tick on the clock....one year ends, and another begins.

2010 seems impossible to me. I have a vivid memory of sitting in math class in middle school and calculating how old I would be in the year 2000. In my very young mind, I was going to be OLD.....and now I am 10 years older. *sigh*


I don't make New Year's resolutions. The end.


But what I do hope, is to continue living life one day at a time. Trusting in the Lord. Spending more time with Him. Thanking Him in every situation. Praising Him. And raising my children to love Him.

As my husband would say, "the rest is just details..."

Happy New Year and God's blessings to you all as we begin 2010.