Some things you may not know about me...

I was thinking the other day about things people may not know about me. Here is what I came up with:
* I laugh at my own jokes. I don't just giggle; I all-out laugh. I find myself rather amusing. Sometimes I can bring myself to tears.
* Patience is something that truly lack. I try, but I fail.
* I am terribly terrified of the dark. I hate closets and small places because of this.
* When all alone in the house, listening to the radio or iPod, if a song comes on that I love, I will turn it up and rock out! This includes dancing and singing (sorry if you ever drive by and hear me) at the top of my lungs.
* When I ask people how they are,I truly want to know. I wont ask if I don't care.
* I love being read to. I does not happen very often, but I love when someone reads out loud to me. I love to listen to a voice telling a story as I listen.
* I love the beach and being around water - but I hardly ever go.
* I let people hurt me, emotionally, over and over again.
* I always shower with the door shut and locked.
* I hate being told, "I told you so." We both know you told me and we both know you were right. Can we just leave it at that?
* When someone close to me fails at something, I often feel like I could have, should have done something to prevent it. I take responsibility for their failures.
* I have never seen a movie twice in a theater. I will watch one over and over again on television, however.
* Along those same lines, I have never read a book twice. There are too many others that I want to read.
* I am naive enough that people still surprise me and disappoint me.
* I love to sit, usually with my daughter, and watch people. They fascinate me.
* I sleep with the electric blanket on -- even in the summer.
* If you ever need dental floss, ask me. I have some in my bathroom, in my bedroom, on my desk, and in my purse.
* I am obsessed with things being even (thus this last entry!).

There ya go...I let you into my head - I hope you are not forever mentally damaged! I wonder if I surprised anyone...

Speeding? Who me?

Okay, so Natalie and I were on the way home from Target. I was speeding (no, really!). There was a copper. On a motorcycle. I did not see said policeman. He zoomed in right behind me. I slowed down (duh), but still speeding just a bit (5MPH over), I refused to give him the benefit of the doubt that I was going to go the speed limit just because he was behind me. He followed me a bit. I looked to Natalie and said, "If I get pulled over and get a ticket, get my phone out." Natalie said, "Your phone? Why?" I said, "Because I am going to twitter it right from the side of the road if I get a ticket!" Natalie says, "You are going to twitter that you are getting a ticket?" I said, "Yeah." She just looked at me and shook her head. I am not sure exactly what that meant.

For the record -- no speeding ticket! (finding something made of wood to knock on -- my arm? I am Velvet Wood (although Natalie says I cannot knock on myself because I am fake wood -- whatever, Natalie!)

Whatcha gonna do?

Okay, so today I had a very good day with an old friend. Let me preface this by stating my sweet, baby, girl has left for Paris and left me at home childless. I would say this is the first time in nearly 21 years that I have been left without at least one child home for more than a couple of days! My heart is still beating and I am still breathing -- not dead yet. Anyway, it has been a pretty rough couple of days so I was so grateful that my dear friend from Utah came to visit.

Lena calls earlier in the day to make sure I am not going to flake out on our lunch (unfortunately, something I have been known to do), I tell her I have no intention of doing such a thing. Because she is driving in from the Bay Area, she offers to come and pick me up so we can have a little extra time to chat. She is supposed to be here 12...she calls around 11:40ish to tell me she is running a bit late...of course, that ol' Mormon Standard time!!! I laugh and tell her it is against the law to talk on your phone and drive in the state of California. WHAT?!?! We quickly hang up (Not really! I keep her on the line for a while until she starts to panic) Aside note here...I have this great picture of Lena getting a ticket outside of my house. She did not want to repeat that Kodak moment.. however, I would have LOVED it!!

Anyway, she gets here and we head off. I suggested Thai and she thought that sounded great! We talk of good times and laugh. We talk of not so good times, and end up laughing. We remember stupid things and laugh. We remember not to stupid things and end up laughing. We talk a bit of family and some issues we have, we are appalled at what the other has endured yet are willing to do anything we need for each other to make it better. The definition of a really, really good friend.

Okay..so here is the funny part of the story. We are going down a less traveled road in Stockton because frankly we are a bit lost. She probably found a couple of the worst roads in all of Stockton. We go down one road and she makes the car...well, she sort of makes the car fly! We laugh and I say, "Well, it's not your car!" (She had flown in from Utah and was using her brother-in-laws car). She commented that it had over 240,000, it had seen better days! We laugh. We stop at a gas station and have a three minute conversation about which side the tank filler upper is on. She finally gets the car filled up and we are headed back to my house.

Okay, so she drops me off and a little while later I get the following text, "Remember how we joked - its not my car, so....I am now sitting in a tow truck on the side of the freeway. Thought you'd get a good laugh. No pics, but still funny." I replied, "ROFLMAO!!!! What did you do? Shoulda got pics." She replied, "I know ROFL but what does the MAO stand for (funny here is that I am teaching her how to text, so I use these things as a lesson)? The radiator cracked-this time not my fault. Now just waiting for the tow truck to take it to my mom's house." I replied, "MAO = my @$$ off. The whole 'not my fault' thing cracks me up." She replied, "Glad you are laughing - just decided to get Quinn a radiator for his birthday gift. (Quinn would be the newborn baby of her sister, the reason for the trip). I replied, "'It's not my car'. LOL. Happy birthday, Quinn!!" She replied, "You are making me and my mom- she is waiting with me for the tow truck-laugh. So good to have someone to laugh with about the crazy stuff."

You may not be laughing...but as I sit here and write this, I have tears streaming down my cheeks! Thanks Lena for a great Monday!

Karma

I am sure we have all heard the term "Karma" or "what goes around comes around." There are many ways to describe something that you have done that ends up coming back to bite you!! The thing with this Karma, is that you are never really safe. You may have gotten away with something for say...22 years? and then one day - BOOM! Here is my Karma story:

As newlyweds in 1988, my husband and I were living at married student housing in a small town of Portales, New Mexico and Trent was going to ENMU. I was just a young, very, very young (LOL), girl experiencing life for the first time. We were playing a little game of chase in the house! I know, but hey, our mothers were not there to tell us no running in the house! This game took us around this very small apartment. I was running and ended up jumping on the bed, going around to the other side of the bed, Trent chased me and was going around the bed trying to catch me when he inadvertently caught his little pinky toe on the metal post of the bed. His toe was most assuredly displaced and probably broken. After a few minutes of writhing on the bed, replacing the displaced joint (gag) and crying just a few tears, I started to laugh. Come on...it was funny! Two grown people running around the bed and someone gets hurt?!? Who knew? Anyway, I laughed and laughed and laughed...it was a long time ago, but I would bet that I laugh till I cried. Trent limped around for weeks with a very bruised foot and a broken toe.

Fast forward to 2010. I was laying in bed on a lazy Saturday morning. I was not feeling very well fighting off a very bad cold and was just waking up from a NyQuil induced slumber. I got up and out of bed to go downstairs to get a drink and let the dog outside. Yep, you guessed it, I hit my little, baby, pinky toe on the metal frame of the bed. I writhed around on the floor, the tears were flowing, and bruise was already apparent, the swelling had started. I held my foot in my hands for minutes, rolling around on the floor, crying, screaming, wishing I had an IV full of morphine, begging for Heavenly Father just to take my life as I could never live in such pain. Trent....well, Trent laughed! Not so funny. In fact, I would venture to say not funny at all. It took close to 22 years, but, I am guessing, revenge, oh sweet, sweet revenge, tasted so good on Trent's lips.


Taken a few hours after the incident...it got much, much worse


Now, with all that said, Trent did take care of me and help me ice and medicate me, all through the biggest grin I have seen on his face in years!

Karma....gotta love her!

Glass Houses

You know, I often wonder if people really think they can say things about others without someone getting hurt? I wonder if they even care. Believe me, I have been guilty of this in the past and have regretted many things that have popped out of my mouth. But over the last 8 months or so, I have learned that really the only reason someone would say mean, hurtful, and untrue things about another person is because of lack of self-esteem or pure jealousy or frankly just stupidity. Is my family perfect? No, they are not. Is my family people that you should avoid? I don't think so. If you think my daughter or my son or my husband or myself, for that matter, are people that are bad influences, you know what, I think it would be best that you do stay away. I would hate to corrupt your perfect, never-do-anything-wrong, faultless family. And, just so we are clear here, if given the opportunity, I will confront you on this - consider this fair warning to come up with a really good story. The funny thing is, the things I heard that came from your mouth startle me in many ways, but not more than the fact that you and your family are far from perfect. But...whatever, you keep yours to yourself and I will keep mine far, far away from you. A bad influence -- LOL -- I cannot even believe that is what you think.