Why I Love...

... Smells!

Our sense of smell is closely linked to memory. Think about how the scent of a certain dish cooking can remind you of Grandma's kitchen, or a cologne can remind you of hugging your Dad after work. A scent can spark a memory in an instant. Some of my favorite scents:

~Vanilla. Reminds me of baking Christmas cookies. My Dad also used to smoke vanilla tobacco in his pipe. I vividly remember that scent. I love vanilla lip balm, vanilla lotion, vanilla candles, vanilla extract straight from the bottle (hiccup!)...

~My kids. Doesn't matter if they are sweaty from being outside or fresh from the tub. I'm sure the sweaty thing will change when they are teenagers, but for now it is bliss!

~Spaghetti. I love to smell spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove. Next to steak, it is my favorite meal.

~Tomatoes. Every time I pick tomatoes from the garden, I walk back to the house sniffing the life out of them. Something about that smell just screams summer to me.

~Apple Pie. So most of these have to do with food and now I am hungry. LOL! My Grandma makes the best apple pie in the history of mankind and I dare anyone to challenge her... I'll do the taste testing, thank you. ;o)

~Baby powder and lotion. Need I say more?

~Coffee. Love the smell, hate the taste.

~ Pumpkin pie. Again with the food! I should have eaten lunch before posting this. :o)

What are your favorite smells?

Footbaaaaaaaaall!!!!

Here it comes again... football season. Matthew's favorite sport and one of mine as well. Conditioning starts tonight and next week practices will begin.

I've been really anticipating the season this year because last year, I was asked to be a booster club trustee. We've spent all year preparing: ordering uniforms, checking existing equipment, planning fundraisers. I feel like it is all coming together now.

For the next few months, Matthew and I, and sometimes Steven, will spend 8 hours a week at practices followed by Saturdays at games. We'll get home, do homework, eat supper and rush out the door to make it on time.

Our nights will get a bit crazier as we try to cram in as much family time as we can before showers and bed. Not to mention getting some of the housework done before I crash. Luckily, I am much more productive at night (read: not a morning person).

If you know me at all, you'll know that the real part I can't wait for is watching the games. I love to cheer and yell at football games. There must be something in the air in the fall that gets my blood pumping and my vocal chords quivering. I can't help but yell at the top of my lungs when I watch a football game.

Matthew is okay with me yelling as long as he can drown me out or doesn't hear me. Mike is not as cool with it. I know I embarrass him from time to time, but I really couldn't care less. It is an animal response to seeing warfare on the gridiron. I imagine much like the ancient Romans watching the gladiators... only without the mauling and bleeding. That is, as long as they have candy bars at the concession stand *wink*.

My Secret Stash

It's no secret that I love chocolate. Dark Chocolate in particular, but almost any will do. The problem with it is that my kids also love chocolate, so keeping it around is tougher than one might think.

My kids aren't big candy eaters in that it takes them forever to eat holiday or parade candy. I usually end up sending it to work with Mike and he shares it with everyone. I think it's because I have never kept candy away from the kids. It isn't a taboo thing for them, so the temptation or thought that they are going against the rules is removed. Nonetheless, candy that I buy for myself somehow disappears quicker than anything else.

I don't think there is a mom out there that hasn't hidden candy or some other treat from their kids or husband at one time or another. I do it all the time. I often have a couple of stashes around the house for emergencies. You know, stressful days, when I haven't baked, Thursdays. ;o) I think it's a natural thing to need that little sugar rush or satisfaction once in a while.

For some people, a secret stash might be ice cream or doughnuts. For others, it might be something like peanuts or Doritos (OOH! What a great idea! Note to self: start a Doritos stash.) I'm sure the variety is endless.

So I have posted a poll in my sidebar for you to tell me: Do you have a secret stash of candy or treats in your home? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what kinds of treats you love to stash or where you stash them; home, work or your car.

Pet Peeves of Mine

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1. People who act stupid. As in, "What's that??? I'm too ignorant to look it up for myself. Can you just tell me what it is?" Puh-leeze! You don't have to pretend you know everything, but Google something for once in your life.

2. People who are book-smart, but are socially inept and have no common sense. How does that combination happen???

3. People who do not teach their children respect and responsibility. If you have children, that is your job from day one. Don't wait until they are 5 or 10, start now and it will be much easier.

4. Food that gets stuck between my teeth and makes them hurt. GAH! Like after eating corn on the cob. Love the corn, hate the half-hour of flossing that follows.

Why I Don't Like Going to the Movies

I know most people love it... going out for the night, sitting in a Berkline type chair, eating popcorn and drinking a ridiculously large drink and watching the latest Hollywood hit (or flop in some cases), but I really don't like going to the movies.

My reason is simple, I used to clean the local movie theater complex. There are 10 theaters and my job was to remove all of the cups (filled with all sorts of unmentionable things) and paper trash, sweep up the stale, walked-on popcorn, and mop and vacuum each theater. I also had to clean the lobby and bathrooms.

Let me tell you that it was a real eye-opening experience.

You can find out a lot about people when you see what they do when they are sitting in a dark movie theater. OH YES YOU CAN!!! My number one observation is that people are L-A-Z-Y and don't want to get up and walk their butts out of that theater to do anything!! I will leave that up to your imagination...

I no longer enjoy the smell of popcorn- microwave is slightly less stomach-turning for me and I can handle making it for the kids once in a while. I can't stand the frigid air in the theaters - do they pipe it in from Antarctica or something??? The sound takes my eardrums to a whole other dimension of decibel-tolerance- they must be wearing their parkas and ear muffs when they test the volume. I must be getting old, though I've had these feelings about movie theaters since I was a teenager. Until recently, the last movie I saw in a theater was Monsters Incorporated.

I finally did venture out with a friend, her daughter and my niece a couple of weeks ago to see a movie at the theater that I used to clean. The place hasn't changed much and I can't say that I miss it at all. It only confirmed what I have known for years and years... that I hate movie theaters and don't intend on returning to one for quite some time.

Ridding the World of Errors One at a Time

Maybe I'm just picky. Maybe its all of those English and Journalism classes I took. Maybe its permanent damage from studying The Elements of Style to death. Maybe no one else cares,

BUT...

... I saw this when I stopped for gas today and couldn't help but take a picture to share the redundancy with you all.

Doesn't "Prepay" mean "to pay in advance"?

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
PrepayPre*pay"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Prepaid; p. pr. & vb. n. Prepaying.]

To pay in advance, or beforehand; as, to prepay postage.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

AND doesn't the term "in advance" eliminate the need for the "pre"?

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus
Main Entry: advance
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Going before.
Synonyms:
antecedent, anterior, earlier, precedent, preceding, previous, prior

Do I have to do everything for everyone???? Sheesh!

Gimmie A Pair Of Tennies And Some Advil!

When I was little, I would go barefoot all the time. I could walk across it all, grass, gravel, hot sand, broken glass. Okay, maybe not the broken glass, but that would have been a cool party trick!

As a teenager, my favorite shoes were KEDS- the most unsupportive shoes known to humankind. Before that I wore the 'crocs' of the 80's- jelly shoes. Still not much support, but I never had any problems. When I worked in a department store, I wore dress shoes everyday and didn't mind. Once, I even worked 14 hours in strappy heels. I was a warrior!

I don't know what has changed over the years, but I can't stand to go barefoot anymore! We all went to a party at a small beach Saturday night and after cruising back and forth in the sand with the kids my feet STILL HURT! They feel raw- like the skin has been stripped off or something! OUCH!

For the most part, I am a socks and tennis shoes kinda gal. Occasionally I wear sandals, but I despise flip-flops or anything without a sling-back. I even wear tennis shoes around the house because I don't like to walk around in socked-feet either because if I don't wear tennis shoes all day, my feet ache so bad by evening.

I don't know if its from my long feet (size 10) or from the fact that my arches are so deep. When I make a wet footprint on cement, there is a separate heel and toe, nothing connecting them down the outer edge. When I was a cheerleader, we made banners for the track team by stepping in paint and making the words out of footprints. I had to roll my foot to the outside and press down to make it look like an actual footprint.

In spite of my other blog being named The Fat Bottomed Girl, I know it isn't my weight either, I still weigh the same as I did in high school. The weight may be in different places (belieeeeve me it is!), but the total is the same.

Wait!

Hold the phone!

I know exactly what it is... its from having kids! That HAS to be it. I didn't gain a ton of weight with either pregnancy, but the trauma of walking around for that long with that extra weight can't be good for your feet. And after they're born, you carry them around with all of their stuff- and babies/toddlers require a bunch of stuff! You're like a pack mule in the Andes traipsing to play dates and parks with diaper bags, car seats and kids. You get there and collapse from sheer exhaustion and the strain of all that weight and....

... your little one tears off his shoes and runs right across the gravel! :::sigh:::

I Can't Stand It When They Do That!

I have a few favorite shows that I watch on TV and one of them is called If Walls Could Talk. Its a cool show that showcases old homes that have been restored with period furniture and fixtures like Victorian chaise lounges or farmhouse sinks. Its on HGTV and it USED to air at 7 PM. The timing was perfect. I could clean up from supper and turn it on while I relaxed from the hectic day.

Then, it got moved up to 6 :30. No biggie. I could just get my dishes and cleaning up done quicker or finish it up during the commercials.

But one day the nasty, housewife-hating gurus at HGTV decided to yank the rug out from under ol' Heather and they moved the show to 5 PM.

WHAT THE...????????

Of all the crappy moves they could have made they had to chose this one!

Now not only is it on WHILE I am trying to make supper, it will fall at just the time I need to be heading out the door to take Matthew to practices and games in the Fall. How decidedly inconvenient!

Nice work, HGTV!

Now I know I could fix this by getting a DVR or PVR, but the extra expense is not worth it to me. I could also record them on a DVD or VHS to watch later, but I can see that not happening. I would keep putting it off until a "better time" or my "spare time" Which, let's face it, are both figments of my imagination.

HGTV is certainly on my "list" which is as nice a way as I can say it.