I heart

Easter!  Happy Easter to everyone.

I heart

living by the mantra "KISS" aka Keep It Simple Stupid, and here's why:
1. It makes everything easier.
2. Acronyms are annoyingly fun.
3. By KISSing, I have more time for what's important; family and friends.
Here's some examples of the Hard Way (HW) and the KISS way:
HW: Cooking a meal from scratch.
KISS: Cooking the protein, buying premade side dishes.
HW: Buying a designer diaper bag.
KISS: Getting a ziploc bag and filling it with diapers and travel wipes, grab a binky and a bottle and putt them in another ziploc bag; put all of that crap in your designer purse.
HW: Packing up toys every time you go somewhere.
KISS: Rummage through the toy box, pack a bag full of toys the kids won't miss and put it in the trunk.
HW: Face full of make up.
KISS: Powder and black mascara.
HW: Pulling the cork out of the bottle of wine and recorking it after each glass.
KISS: Twisting the lever back and forth on the box of wine.
So my friends, when in doubt remember to KISS.

Can I get an, "I know, right?"

Some things that I hope will make you say, "I know, right?"

1. Creating mix cds is an amazing gesture, music can have such an impact on a person's life and to have a chance to create an experience for a friend is pretty awesome.
2. Receiving a mix cd is almost as good as creating one.
3. Accidentally wearing a red shirt while shopping at Target is the worst.
4. I think blogging is pretty narcissistic.  (And that's quite all right with me.)
5. The sound of Wubbles' laughter never gets old. Really, the sound of any child's laughter never gets old.
6. We call the gizmo that changes the channel on the TV a "TV box."  Many people find this odd.  When I say this, usually people think that I'm referring to the actual box that the TV came in and they think this is a crazy name.  That's ok though, I'm in pretty good company; I've heard friends call this thing the remote control, the flipper, the power (such a commentary on the American way of life, right?) and the clicker.  I don't think there should be one standard name for it, it's such an interesting way to get to know a family.
7. When the power goes out, the first two things I think are: how am I going to get my car out of the garage and don't break the seal on the refrigerator.  (Some people thought it was probably going to be lamenting about the cable... ha! Fooled you.)
8. Everything tastes better when someone else makes it or gets it for you.  Literally everything, I'm even talking about water.
9. I can't fathom a time when an "oldies" formatted radio station is playing hip hop.
10. Giving someone flowers as a way to express your love seems pointless to me.  It's a lot of money to spend on something that after a week dies and smells bad.
11. I wish I was a natural talker and was comfortable striking up a conversation with anyone.  (I'm working on this one.)
12. My favorite number is twelve.  People put a lot of emphasis on luck and corresponding numbers, but I wonder if it matters anywhere outside the city limits of Vegas and Atlantic City.
13. Reality TV will never get old.  I will take a reality show over a scripted sitcom any day.
14. I'm passive aggressive about dressing nicely.  Sometimes I get into ruts where I don't dress very nice (shocking I know) and when I have a moment of "let's pull it together Me-Me," and get all dolled up, I want my Hubs to notice immediately.  I also think that dressing like a "schlep" as my mother would say, makes Jim appreciate it more when I do look put together.
15. I wish I had a hair dresser that I went to on a regular basis.  Hair dressers, in my opinion, are free therapists.
16. Listening to songs that have explicit lyrics or are about sex while I'm in the car with my parents makes me have mild anxiety.  Listening to songs that have explicit lyrics or are about sex while riding in the car with my mother in law makes me have mini panic attacks, I literally want to crawl in a hole and throw up.
17.

This picture is adorable.

This list could go on an on, but I have to stop it somewhere... for now.  I will revisit this one.  Until then, I'm going to keep on saying, "I know, right?" as often as possible.

A good feeling.

It's not very often that a picture captures more than what I look like, so when I saw this picture, I was over joyed.  We took Wubbles and Beebee to the park again and this time Jim did the majority of the picture taking; this meant that I was able to enjoy playing on the slide and pretending like there was a shot in hell that I could even hang from the first rung of the monkey bars. 

Wub has an adventurous spirit, so playing with him means lots of tumbling and running and screeching with joy... it makes me really happy that I have two little boys; I don't think girls are quite as willing to dust themselves off, but my boy is and that makes me really happy.  I cherish every minute that I get to spend actin' a fool at the park with him.

And that's why I love this picture so much.  It was an effortless moment in time that I will cherish forever.

Love.

I heart

gossip and here's why:

1. For real, who doesn't?
2. Pregnant? Engaged? Married? Happy? Unhappy? Crazy? I want to hear it all.
3. Knowing first or early on in the "life" of the gossip is important. I'm not trying to hear about your crazy Spring Break escapades from Cancun 10 years from now. I'm going to Veruca Salt this, I want it NOW!
4. Humans are fascinating. I want to know all I can about everyone, gossip affords me the ability to be genuinely intrigued.
5. All too often, gossip is negative "he said she said" bs, but usually, there are lessons and wisdom to be gained from gossip... pretty sure that's a stretch, but I'm cool with that.

Organization. And this is supposed to come naturally?

For a long time a year, Jim and I have been lamenting to one another about how we need to organize and finally, right before it officially gets Crazy (that's right, I capitalized it, it's that crazy), I'm getting off my ass to get it done started.

Things I don't like about organizing,
1. It sucks.
2. It's time consuming, isn't there a TV show I should be watching?
3. It's total chaos before the end result and that makes me panic even more.
4. In order for it not to get crapped up again it needs to be maintained.
5. People judge you for not being organized; I find those people to be annoying.

Things I love about being organized:
1. Everything looks nice and orderly.
2. My mind functions better. Seriously, when my house is cluttered I swear my mind starts to swirl. It's like the nightmare of having the spins without the awesomeness of the rowdy drinking.
3. I feel like we should immediately invite people over to have them admire our skills.(Little do they know, we've been practically killing ourselves to get the house in order before we entertain.)
4. I usually find at least $20 bucks.
5. It's usually the catalyst of other projects in my life, one taste of "feeling accomplished" and all of the sudden I'm feeling all Martha Stewart Dear Genevieve.

Today This afternoon when I got bored while watching the Talk is just the beginning, but we'll get there... one cleaning frenzy at a time.

The during... thankfully, it looks so much better now!

My little helper... maybe this is why it took so long?!