You’re welcome.

Many of my millions of readers have commented to me that I don’t post any more.  This is not true.  I post quite frequently.  In my head.  I’ve come up with a zillion ideas for great posts, but by the time I get everyone taken care of and then can even use my own computer, I’ve been asleep for three hours and have to get up and start the day all over again.  So you can see why I have a hard time making the connection from my brain to the keyboard!  And now that I’ve sat down to punch out a few of the great ideas I’ve had, I can’t remember a single one of them.  Dammit!

I started by calling this Potpourri because that’s the category they have on Jeopardy! when they have a bunch of answers floating around but not enough to make an entire category of any one genre for you to connect the dots to.  I’m grasping at straws trying to remember all my topics!  I used to carry around a notepad so I could jot things down as they came to me, but then people (and by people I mean Honey) kept stealing my pens.  OH!  Pens!!  I remembered something!

• There’s this store in my town called “Tipton’s Stationery”.  I’m not sure why since 80% of the inventory is not stationery related, but rather china place settings, silver settings, and knick knacks galore.  Also they have a selection of Hallmark cards from 1973 since they aren’t a licensed Hallmark store but do carry the products.  Anyway, anyone who knows me knows that office supplies are my kryptonite, my crack, my booze, my crutch.  And at Tipton’s, they have…. PENS!  Lots and lots of pens.  Pens that are my favorites!!  Pens that for whatever reason you either can’t buy them at OfficeMax/Staples period, or you can but only in a box of 9,000 for $45.87.  And really, I just want one!  Or three.
• “Tea” – I took the boys to Miss Donna to get hair cuts.  She works at a salon now instead of out of her home which on the one hand is great, and on the other hand not great (for various reasons).  The salon started as one salon, and then another salon came along and devoured it and put all the product in the universe in the lobby.  Some of this product is a line of Tazo teas, and Tea Forte teas; which aren’t actually tea at all but tisanes and tinctures (a.k.a. herbal teas).  And there is this one that I am dying to try, but not for $10.95/box.  I checked it on Amazon.com where of course, it’s less, but they don’t have the exact flavor I want!  Jerks.
• My friend Brodi Ashton is a real live author!  She wrote a YA novel called Everneath.  I was secretly worried because Brodi is a rock star and what if I didn’t like her book?  But if it really and truly sucked than she couldn’t have got a book deal to begin with so there’s no way it could suck, right?  It doesn’t suck.  It is the opposite of suck.  I read some of it on FB and it is frakkin’ awesome!  Hurry up and make it be January 24th so I can finish reading it (that’s the official launch date)!!  I wish I could attend the launch party at The Kings English.  Since I can’t, if you live in the Salt Lake City area, will you go for me?  And give her a two thumbs wayyyyy up?  K, thanks!
• We got a Wii for Christmas.  Honey keeps kickin’ my trash at Boom Bloxx.  Why, when I throw and release the exact same way every single time, do I sometimes rock the throwing of baseballs and bowling balls, but other times (ok, most times) do I get air balls?  All kinds of cheating going on is what I say!  We also got Parcheesi for Christmas.  In a round about way.  Mom got me a kindle and a kindle cover.  Except the cover was really made for another e-reader and didn’t fit.  So I exchanged it.  For Parcheesi.  (There weren’t any other cute kindle covers at Target, don’t judge!)  Little D has beat us TWICE.
• Why can’t my teeth just brush themselves?  That way when I rush out the door in the morning and forget that I haven’t brushed my teeth, I won’t be embarrassed when I decide to stop off at the grocery store on the way home from dumping kids off at school.  Especially since it’s the eleventeenth commandment of my other religion to smile every waking moment of the day.
• It was 75′ the other day.  Don’t hate.  I had my windows open all over the house.  Now you can hate.  But not for too long, it went right back to the mid-50′s this week.  If Mother Nature were really a woman, she wouldn’t pull that kind of crap on me.  Only a man could be this cruel.

There’s more, I swear, but it seems the faster I type that the faster time passes, not slower, and I simply can’t keep racking up these Mother of the Year awards for picking my kids up from school late.  But if I don’t hit publish now, I never will and then this will just be another post hanging out in the lounge in my head, drinking lemon-mint nojitos.

My son was telling me about Christmas Adam the other day and I thought how clever it was!  SO clever, that I’ve decided to run with it and create a whole new tradition around it.  This year I found it too late, but next year….

Christmas Adam will have gifts.  Gas station gifts.  For those who don’t know about gas station gifts, they are what you get/give to people who tell you late at night the day before Christmas, when all the stores are closed, that they’re coming from great distance to see you on Christmas!!

Christmas Adam will also have games.  “Minute to Win It” type games.  Hopefully, our friends and neighbors will be joining in on the fun.

And food.  Gas station food!  Like crackers and spray cheese.  Funyuns.  Pigs in a blanket.  Beef jerky.  Slim Jims.  King sized candy bars and cheese sticks.  Dessert?  Slushies, donughts, and energy shots!

I wish you and yours the very best on Christmas.  Until then, Merry Christmas Adam!

Mercifully, Jon is alive and well.  Kim Jong Il is the only death today. 

And maybe Shana.

Unfortunately the events were on Sunday.  But I was so happy to be able to pass the hockey tickets on to a friend!  And I can use the gift certificate any time, so I gave it to Honey so he can surprise me some night.

Thank you all for your prayers for Dennie and his family during the last few months.  Thank you for your love and care as we mourn the loss of our special friend.  I cherish and express my sincerest gratitude for the friendships I have with each of you.  I’m grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who has given us the knowledge that one day we will all be reunited in his presence to enjoy the company of one another again.

<3

I made chunky artichoke salsa yesterday and I took the rest to my friend’s today so I could share the awesomeness, but now I’m craving it and I’m out of artichokes!!!  Maybe we have some in our food storage….  that stuff is addictive!  Like crack.  The more garlic you put in, the more you crave it.  The recipe calls for one clove.  I made a double batch and put in 4 cloves that looked like they were on steroids.  I may have added another regular-sized clove, but I forget (I was in a kitchen machete induced haze from all the chopping).

Are you on Pinterest?  Do you want to be?  Because I will totally give you an invite if you leave a comment.  It’s also addicting.  I spend more time there than I do on Facebook these days.  Yeah, it’s that addicting!  So it’s also got me realizing that I really love design.  A lot.  And I’m very into mid-century modern stuff.  So yesterday I found this new “store” online that lives in San Francisco and has extremely reasonably priced mid-century stuff.  The super-awesomest part about it was I saw that once upon a time they had had this bronze-ish Golden Gate Bridge sculpture by the artist C. Jere.  I HAVE THE SAME BRIDGE!!!!!  So of course now that I know the artist’s name I have to troll Google to find out how much it’s worth.  A friggin’ lot!  This bridge is…. unique.  It’s basically hideous, but I totally love it.  It was on the wall of my grandparents dining room when I was a little girl, and when they moved to Seizure Leisure World in their golden years it landed in the dining area there, too.  My mom was like, “You should sell it!” and I would TOTALLY love the $$$, but I love this piece of crap even more.  I have included it in my “stuff I basically got for free but is totally vintage/antique/worth a lot” mental file, which makes me feel like a rock star.

I’ve started watching this show called “Fashion Hunters” on Bravo.  Um, wow.  I never knew how into fashion I was!  Ok, I’m not, but I totally feel these girls!  It’s like Pawn Stars but for clothes/shoes/accessories.  I feel joy for them when they score something for the store!  But it’s only 30 minutes and every time an episode is over I’m shocked that the time has come so quickly!  I get very upset and depressed that I have to wait a whole ‘nother week to see it again!  And I super-love NYC, so it makes me feel like I’m right there.  Yes, I know this is news to basically everyone (including Honey), but if I couldn’t live in sunny CA, I’d have to live in Manhattan.

Ok.  I think I’m done with my word vomit for today.  Thanks for listening.

Our first projects are going to be:

• Weed the mini-garden in front
• Seed the front lawn in sections
• Pick colors for door & trim (I’m thinking some kind of burnt orange or purple currently)
• Remove bird planted tree and shrub

Not bad, eh?

After we get the gutters fixed we can move forward with the plans for the mini-garden.  I have a front bed that gets a lot of sun and the dogs don’t have access to it.  It’s really the perfect size for a realistic garden for me.  I’m going to plant blackberry & raspberry canes, build a trellis that goes on the ground at an angle for planting cucumbers, peas, and nasturtiums (you can plant lettuce underneath!), and then there will be half wine casks on either side of the lemon tree for tomatoes.  Seriously yummy, right?

So please place them in your prayers.  Pray that he can be comfortable, and that their hearts can be comforted.