Random + A Giveaway! Hootie Hoo!

Okay, so I have a feeling that this will be the first of many off the wall, random posts, now that I have so much free time on my hands.

For your sakes, I hope not.

I am amazed, amazed I tell you!  At how clean my house is right now.  I hate to be sounding like a boastful, bragging snot, but my house is clean.  CLEAN!!!  And so far, 3 days and counting, it has continued to stay clean after the girls get home.  Call me crazy, but I think that the cleanliness bug is catching because it would appear that they are actually picking up after themselves.  Somebody pinch me.

Not only is my house clean, but things are gettin’ done around here sister!  We’ve had a throw pillow on our couch with a huge gaping hole along the seam for months.  For whatever reason, I could never find the time to just sit down and sew that sucker back up.  Oh we’d continue to use the pillow and all.  Someone would lay on it and then all the stuffing would come out and I’d come in to find it and holler, “Now WHO, pray tell, forgot to stuff the pillow back when they were done using it?!  What is the MATTER with you people around here?!”

Okay and so yes, I know that’s just ridiculous, but it’s true, that’s what we did.  For months.  And then yesterday, I saw that pillow sitting there and I just walked over, got my sewing basket and got down to fixing that thing.  It was so weird to be able to see something that needed done and just walk over there and do it, instead of just making a mental note of it for the bazillionth time.  Now I have time to get things done that never even made it into the ballpark of my To-Do list before.

Still, I miss my girls.  Especially in the morning after walking them to school.  It takes me about 10 minutes to walk back home and all the time I’m walking, I’m thinking about them and how much I miss them and how much of a humongous wimp I am because what’s the matter with me, anyway?  Why am I so sappy?  I’ll see them again in the afternoon, geez.  And then I get home and I get busy and I feel better and I love the progress I am making.

Then when it gets closer to time to pick them up, I start to get excited and wonder how their day went.  I try to have something special for them or something neat for us to do when they get home and finish their homework.  Today it is Extreme Fudge Chocolate Brownies.  And then I’m going to do their nails.   Um actually, today is a little over the top now that I think about it.  I am going to have a hard time topping today’s activities.  Ah well, you only live once, right?

So here’s another bit of randomness, Katie was apparently using my camera yesterday and snapped the picture below without my knowing.  Nothing special about it, but look at Willie Nelson’s eyes.  That dog has the craziest eyes.  Doesn’t he?  Maybe I’ve just lived under a rock my whole life and you already know plenty of dogs running around out there with eyes like that, but to me, they are crazy.   And for as big of a pain in the butt as he is, he sure does make me laugh a lot.  Crazy eyes and all.

And by the way, can any of you professional photographers tell me why my pictures look so blurry?  When I pull them up in Picasa, they look crisp and clear and then when I load them on here, they look like poop on a stick.

Okay and last (I think) on my list of randomness, I am sad to report that I think Katie may have inherited my clumsiness.  Yesterday we were on our way down the street to deliver a jar of salsa that the Spinster had requested.

My niece came riding up beside us in her boyfriend’s car and they had stopped to talk to us.  Katie and Hannah were riding their little scooters and Katie was up ahead of us a little ways.  She was completely stopped and had one foot on the scooter and one on the ground.  She went to turn back to look at us and when she did, her scooter rolled away from her a little bit and then just flew completely out from under her.  She landed flat on the front side of her body, arms and legs extended all crazy-like and from my angle, it looked like she bounced her face off the concrete.

When I got up to her, she was crying like crazy and her leg was bleeding.  We were just in front of our neighbor’s house, so I thought that even though she’s gotten so big lately, that I could carry her home.  I threw her scooter into my neighbor’s yard and picked her up in my arms.  By the time we reached our door, she was barely hanging on.  With each step I took, she slid further and further down my body until her butt was a few mere inches from the ground and I was holding her by the tips of my fingers, moving at a snail’s pace.

She’s still wailing her head off, and me, I’m laughing, because I know how ridiculous we look.  And why on earth did I think that I could carry her all that way?  And at this point, wouldn’t we both be better off if I’d just put her down and let her hobble the rest of the way?  But no, I had to just keep on trying to get her to the door even though it was painfully obvious for the whole neighborhood to see that I am a giant weakling.  I also thought to myself how this was another one of my fabulous “Mother of the Year” moments.  I hope and pray that this was just a one time fluke and that she has not inherited my gracefulness.  Lord help us all if she has.  I don’t think this family can survive two of me.

Okay, so I thought I was done, but I have just one more thing.  I’m doing my first ever giveaway!  Could be my last too, so you better get in while the gettin’s good!

Actually no, I’m lying.  I did a giveaway once, long ago, but it doesn’t really count because it was lame and I was just trying to get rid of this little Coca-Cola glass that I didn’t know what to do with, but couldn’t stand to throw away.

And since I was just rifling through some old pictures and found this most hilarious photo of myself, I decided to incorporate it into the giveaway.

All you have to do is tell me what you think I’m doing in this photo.  You might remember what that photo was from, but you don’t have to guess it correctly, in fact you can make up your own scenario or caption to go along with it.  I will pick a random winner from all that reply and you will win a fabulous parting gift!  Tell ’em what they’ll win, Rod!

“Ladies and gentleman, by entering this contest, you have the chance to win this wonderful, fabulous,  brand new, used……..BOOK!”

Okay, so I know it’s not a trip to the Bahamas or anything, but I will tell you that I enjoyed reading it and got some great ideas from it.  And I loved the fact that the ideas were all simple and doable.  I’ll allow comments until August 25th, and then announce the winner.

Okay, I’m done now.  🙂