Better Person

Do you have someone in your life that just makes you want to be better? For me, this person makes me want to be a better everything. I want to be a better wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, Christian, let's see, what other hats do I wear? Oh - - aunt! I want to be better at all of them. I love being around her because she makes me want to be a better person. Period. I love her. I love how she makes me feel. I love the sense of peace and calm that she always brings with her. Her priorities are right, therefore, her heart is right. Her faith is unshakable. I am continually in awe.

Thanks, G. Thanks for loving Him like you do. Thanks for making me want that more. You'll never know how much. You'll never know how much I needed it right now.

My Date

Whew. No tornadoes. Not even a funnel cloud. That I could spot anyway. But keep in mind, I'm not a trained storm chaser either. (Those dudes crack me up.)

We deposited the children at their temporary holding facility (aka Parents Night Out at church) and we got the heck out of dodge. Thing 1 was quite happy with the arrangements. He was going to get to play in the water and eat pizza. Thing 2, however, thought a death grip on my leg might make me take pity on him. He thought wrong. I left with him screaming. I later learned that he cut that nonsense out about five minutes after we left. He should be ashamed of himself. Trying to make us feel bad. On date night. Tsk, tsk.

Where to eat? Outback or Bonsai? We went to Outback last time. So Bonsai it was. The food was fabulous and our chef was very entertaining. We had fun. After that, we decided to walk the mall. This is where things got interesting. Have you ever been to our local mall on a Friday night? Put that on your list of things to do. Since I'm into observing people, which I did, let's talk about a few of my and Husband's observations.

• The Spurs Family - Okay, I'm all about the Spurs. Obviously. But dressing up the whole family in matching Spurs clothes, this far past the championship, is just, well, gay. Husband and wife both had jerseys on and kid had a t-shirt on. Wife had hers on with a mini skirt and her "big girl shoes." That's right. She was wearing spikes with her jersey. And girlfriend needed some fries with that shake. The thing was, she was *not* all that. But apparently she thought she was. They were quite a show.
• Thugs - Yes, the street toughs were at the mall. I guess that's what they were. Or they might have just been some dorks that needed to pull their pants up. When will this look go out? Will we eventually get to where they just skip the pants all-together? Can someone expedite it? Please.
• Hoochies - These seem to be attracted to the above mentioned thugs. Some of them can be seen hanging all over them. The sad thing is, I bet none of them are more than fourteen. Their clothes are certainly less than appropriate. Nasty girls. Hoochies make me glad I don't have a daughter. And heaven forbid either of my boys *ever* bring a hoochie home to meet us. (Can't you just see the look coming from me to her right now?)
• Coin skipper - this man was trying to skip coins in the mall fountains. It was just funny.

We left the mall and made one other brief stop before going home. We vegged at the house for about 45 minutes and then went to pick up the kids. All in all, it was a great night. After a tough week, it was just the break I needed from the kids. And I got some quality time with Husband. I always cherish that.

Okay. Happy Saturday.

Potential Conflict

I have a date with Husband tonight. There are dark storm clouds all around us. That's not a figure of speech. There are DARK STORM CLOUDS in the sky. Did you hear me? If this storm messes up my night out, I'm gonna be ticked. The weather thingies I have installed on my laptop say that some funnel clouds have been spotted nearby but they rarely produce tornadoes. And that even if they do, they usually are short-lived. Huh? A tornado is a tornado is a tornado. And the same goes for a funnel cloud.

I am not happy.

I even shaved my legs.

Where's my Pledge? I feel like I need to clean something.

Interesting

Today, J asked me to take him to the store to buy some fish food.

I find it necessary to point out that we don't own any fish.

A better time...

Or was it?

Back in the day. Oh, not as far back as you might think. But far enough that life has since given us quite the edge in technology. Enough to make us laugh at our attempts. Our attempts at what you ask. I'll tell you. But you have to promise to comment me back with your favorite song that you tried to record.

Remember when pretty much all we had was a radio? And *it* probably did double duty as your alarm clock. Mine did. I remember back in the summer, while I was in late elementary school, I would listen to that radio over and over. This mostly occurred after dark when I had to be in my room and my friends all had to go home. We didn't have cd players, mp3 players, and we really didn't have tape players with our radios. They were just radios. So, we were pretty much at the radios leisure. We just had to listen to the "top ten at ten" and catch our favorite songs in order to finally hear them. Back then, the top ten was determined by which songs were most requested. So, you could call in and request a song. And what fools we were. Did we really think that if we "disguised our voices" the dj would not figure our that it was the same 7th grader calling 20 times wanting to hear "The Eye of the Tiger?"

Now when I was in about the 5th grade, I got a tape recorder. Just a tape recorder. So my best bet would be to set the recorder next to the radio and hope for the best. And wouldn't you know it? That's when that stupid dj would go on and on with his intro for the song. Blimey. I was just a 5th grade girl who needed a good copy of "Freeze Frame."

Do any of you remember doing stuff like that? Maybe accidentally bumping the recorder while it's recording? Or your folks walking in and saying stuff in the middle of your perfect rendition of Open Arms.

What's not fair are these punk kids now. They just download whatever they want. They don't have to make complete jerks out of themselves to radio personalities. Oh well, I had fun doing the voice.

What I want to hear from you is this: what songs did you request over and over and over?

Uh-oh!

I think my dishwasher is teetering on the edge. It's one of those that is supposed to run super quiet. It's running anything but quiet. At least if it goes out, I don't have to take my dishes to an outside facility to get cleaned. Washing by hand is do-able. Don't misunderstand me though. I *will* complain about it.

You may resume your normal activities. But if you would, hug your dishwasher. Would you? For me? If hugging seems a little strange, just blow it a kiss.

My Poll

Bobby,

I know you are the hater of fabric softener. Now come on. You know you love the smell of Gain. Admit it. It doesn't make you gay if you like fabric softener. Nobody will think less of you.

Love,

Your fabric softener loving, Gain using, clean smelling, laundry fanatic sister.

Teeth Brushing

Have you ever thought you were pretty good at it? I consider myself to be somewhat of a professional. When I go to the dentist I *never* have cavities and they only have to do a limited amount of that wretched scraping. So how is it that occasionally the toothbrush still slips and in one fell swoop it slides across my gums? It seems like such a rookie mistake. But when it's happening, I'm powerless to stop it. My carelessness gets the better of me. It hurts for a minute or two. But nothing like the blister it *always* manages to produce. Always.

I hate those blisters.

This happened to me last week. I just forgot to tell you about it. I guess I was ashamed to admit it. You know, me being so good at brushing my teeth and all. Do I have to join a group now? Some kind of anon group? Are there others like me? Some that mess up when they brush, too? How do you mess up? Does the floss get you? Oh, I know, you gag when you brush your tongue. So does my Dad. How do we go about finding said meetings? Let me know when you find out. I'll bring my Dad with me.

Hi, my name is B and I have issues with my toothbrush.

My Husband ROCKS!!!!

He R.O.C.K.S. I tell you. I mentioned to him, a few weeks ago, that I'd like a new laptop. Mine is kind of old and seriously, it was time for an upgrade. I expected him to tell me something snarky like "well then, you better start saving your money then." But he didn't. He agreed. Plus, I think he was tired of me downloading fonts and stuff that just slow his pc down. It was time to get me back onto my own.

So what did he walk in with this afternoon? That's right baby! A new laptop. And I loved it even more when he told me that he spent more than he planned to. Huh? What? That's my man. Getting me the best of the best. It's BAD!!!! You name it, I can do it on this bad boy. I'm in love.

But alas, poor Husband. Mommy's been running fever today and couldn't thank him properly. Not even a hug or a kiss. Boo!!!!! I'll make it up to him. You can take that statement to the bank!

Time for some rest. I have to care for the urchins alone tomorrow and I still don't feel so hot. Actually, I'm hot with fever. I don't feel good. Blech....

Later.

(Husband, you really are the best. I *heart* you.)

Movie Review Time

I'll keep this short becasue it's WAY past my bedtime.

The movie: Disturbia. Wow. Just wow! An edge of your seat kind of thriller movie. I love those. I watched it with Husband tonight. We both really liked it. We also agreed that Angie would NOT want to watch it with us. That's okay, Ang. But my review on this one: A minus. If you like the genre of the thrillers, then put this one on your list of movies to see. I will finish by saying that I was not at all disappointed in this movie. Good movie!

ool Time!

No that isn't a typo in my title. I stole it from this sign:

How stinkin' funny is that? An old joke but still funny. I didn't see it until we were leaving.

The kids and I had a GREAT time today. It wasn't horrible like I anticipated. I was so worried about taking them. Not worried really about them. Worried more about my being able to handle them both. In water. In public. Without yelling. It worked out great. So well that I'm certain we'll go back next week. I know - - wow!

I was quite amused with the redneck entertainment. And there was plenty of that. For example:

• The lady chainsmoking - yes, they allow smoking at this swimming pool. Where children are. This woman lit one right up after another. I lost count.
• Chainsmoker's kid - he had a rat tail. Remember those? I didn't think kids did those anymore. He had one. I nearly laughed out loud. Oh wait, I did laugh out loud.
• Obese woman in bikini - I know I'm not a swimsuit model by any standards. At all. But I'm also not fool enough to wear a bikini top either. My eyes. My eyes!
• Lifeguard from junior high - I mean I remember him from when *I* was in junior high. I think I went to junior high with him. I don't remember his name. I didn't hang out with him or anything. But he would have been the type to hang out at this pool many, many moons ago. Maybe his folks own the pool. Who knows?

I'll leave you with my favorite two photos from the day. Peace.

Ahhhhhh......

The refreshing satisfaction of a Diet Coke w/Splenda. I'm having my first one of the day right now. As I swallow my first few sips, I feel the stress of my morning begin to slip away. Ahhhhh... Time to reload the fridge though. Just one left in the drawer and my standard reserve hidden in the back of the fridge. I'll shuffle that one into the drawer and put a new one in his place. For the sake of freshness. Of course.

I was nearly in trouble though. I was almost out. I would consider myself to have been on DEFCON 4. I still had six DC/S left. But no 12 packs. I get nervous when I don't have any unopened 12 packs left. It had to be remedied whilst I had no children with me. So, Sunday night, I went to Wal-Mart.

That opened up the usual can of worms.

I've just determined that the crazies are just drawn to that establishment. What got me were the hillbillies in line in front of me. I guess they were rookies at the whole "getting your film processed at Wal-Mart" (which, by the way, I don't recommend when in a pinch). They waited until after they paid at the cash register to look at their pictures. Not the register at the photo counter. One of the registers at the front of the store. The checker was already bagging my stuff and I couldn't move my cart forward. I nearly did though. I kept inching it more and more. What I *wanted* to do was give it a good shove and tell them that their turn was over and get out to their hillbilly truck to look at the pics. But I didn't. Instead, I gave the look that my mom swears is going to get me killed someday.

They moved along and I finished up. I was nice and helped the checker put the stuff in my cart. I settled up (under $100 - yay me) and I got the heck out of there. As I was headed out of the door, I noticed that Hillbilly Mom was headed back into the store with a drumstick in her hand. I guess they got out to the truck and tore into that fried chicken. I can only imagine what she bit in to. I only regret not hearing what she found and how she went about describing it. I'd had enough though, so I continued on and used my imagination. It was enough for me just thinking about this family getting out to their car and ripping that bag of Wal-Mart chicken open. I'm sure the smell was more than they could take. They must have been looking forward to that chicken all day. Good times.

Speaking of good times - - in some sort of stupor, I agreed yesterday to take Thing 1 and Thing 2 to a public swimming pool this afternoon. A play date. Why, why, why do I get myself into these messes? Neither of my kids can swim. Am I on crack? Could be. It could also be that it is something to do and I've got a little cabin fever. I hope the boys like it. I can only *imagine* the material I'll have for you after this adventure!

The Running of the Bulls

Oh.My.Gosh.

Need I expound on this topic? If you have a desire to do this, let me know. I'll be glad to chase you up and down Knickerbocker with a pair of bull's horns. I'll even let you wear my mp3 player and I'll load it with some Spanish music for the ambiance. It'll save you the money of an international plane ticket and then you'll have the luxury of American hospitals when you have a horn stuck in your rear end.

This is where you are on your own. Dummy.

I have one word for people that do this. Fools.

It is cruel. (Do you see why the bulls are so mad? Hello... They have had spears shot in their rear ends. They are bleeding. I'd be mad, too. I'd be out for some human blood, too.) I hate it. So, if it is on the list of things for you to do before you die, please don't share it with me. I will lose any respect I *might* have had for you. I don't find it brave at all. Just plain stupid.

Any more questions?

Just so you don't think I'm crazy...

Read this story. I can't make this crap up. I can't even begin to imagine what I would have done. Something to do with a big, green brick I'm sure...

You see now why I'm afraid of these things?

Happy Saturday, Peeps!

Just taking a little breather. I noticed that a few of you stalk my blog pretty regularly. So, since I haven't posted since Thursday, I thought I'd put a little something up. I've had some church obligations today and have been busy. I'm about to head back up there. Hostess stuff. And now, I have a tiny headache. Ugh. I'll live. It's no migraine. I can take something for it, but it makes me a little sleepy and I'm already a little tired.

Oh, I do have some funny Thing One stuff I can post later. That'll bring you back. Now if I can just remember to post it. I need to ground myself from the computer again and get some freakin' sleep.

If you have our family site, check it out. I put some new pictures on there.

Later.

Late for the Party

But I'm there!

That's right. The laundry party. I'm telling you. The best thing that ever happened to me was my washer breaking. I sit here today a changed woman. I'm serious. Laundry doesn't backlog anymore. I do a load every day. I dry it instantly and fold it as soon as the dryer stops. For real. I keep the washer and dryer *cleaned* off and that serves as my work space. I pull those clothes, towels, whatever - right out of that dryer and fold it as I go. If it needs hanging, I have hangers there and I hang them up. Why I never did this before I'll never know. It has simplified my life in so many ways.

For one - - ironing. Practically a thing of the past. Still necessary at times. But not nearly as often. Also, it's made me nicer. I actually turn Husband's shirts right side out. And I don't get angry about it. Huh. Who would have thought? Three - I don't have to go searching for something clean for me or my family to wear. Not once have I had to "retrieve" something from the hamper and "justified" that it really wasn't that dirty.

The downside - we don't have enough hangers around here anymore. Husband has decided to start hanging his t-shirts up like I do. So, we need more. A simple Wal-Mart remedy. But I didn't make it by there today while Thing 1 and Thing 2 were in school. (My new names for them. Thank you, Dr. Seuss.) I do not take Thing 1 and Thing 2 to Wal-Mart at the same time. That is pure insanity. But I digress. I'll talk about my renaming them in another post. Not trying to be disrespectful. It's humor, okay? I love my kids.

Well, I think we've had enough fun for one day. I've got stuff to do and it's late. As usual.

Peace.

Out of my dark phase...

...for now. Plus I needed to stretch. I like this look better. I think. What do *you* think? So much for a makeover. I guess that would explain having the same haircut since high school. (I did grow it out in college. But the a/c broke on my car and it was hot outside. I was in a bad mood and the *boy* I had grown it out for had dumped me. So I "dumped" the hair that day.) It's all good. I ended up with the *man* of my dreams.

Carry on.

Blog This - July 9th

I don't know if anyone is even doing this. But just in case, here goes...

The topic for this week is: A pet peeve.

I'm going to stray a little from some of my regulars today. You know. Littering. Smacking gum. Stuff like that. Today, I'm going to go off on credit card marketing. Why? Because of their new ploy. This...



That's right. Bubble wrap. Do you think you can just tear up a pre-approved credit card application? One of the hundreds you get every week? Think again. They've added the bubble wrap to the insides. And unless you are the Incredible Hulk or real souped up on your Flinstone vitamins, you ain't gettin' through that.

I'm already unhappy that I have to spend *my* valuable time destroying the documents inside. God forbid some loser goes through my trash (and there is a man who goes down our alley to collect "valuables") and decides to fill one of these forms out for me. So they must be destroyed.

For a while, I would use their envelopes and send their disclosure statements back to them. Because that cost them some postage. But then I quit, because there were just too many. And I figured that little 'ole me just wasn't making a big enough dent in their postage budget. But now, it's on. I want to fold that little bubble thing in half, after I've blown my nose in it, and stuff that in an envelope and mail that to them. Too bad it doesn't go to the head of the marketing department. Some poor minimum wage guy would get it. Oh well, it seemed like a good idea. And I bet they're all laughing at us. They're sitting in their plush corporate offices lauging at how they got us. We'll see about that, Capital One. We'll see...

Maybe I should just lobby for an "opt out" on mailing lists like we have "do not call" lists. Hmmm...

Good Catnap

You *know* it's a good little catnap when you wake up with a little drool runnin' down your chin. Oh yeah.

K, Can't Find You!

It's like playing Where's Waldo! Your old e-mail address doesn't work. I thought you fell off the face of the earth until today. Go to our family website, http://www.brayfamily.us/, and leave us a comment with your e-mail addy in it in the guest book. (It's not published. Only Husband and I see it.) I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for your comment earlier.

Too gone for too long

Thank you Randy Travis for my title.

Wow, lots to say. I'll try to keep it brief. If you get bored, feel free to drop off. It won't hurt my feelings. Plus I'll probably never know anyway.

Let me explain the reason for my absence. My sweet grandfather passed away on Friday, the 29th. He'd been ill with pneumonia and took a turn for the worse during Thursday night. I got the call Friday morning that I might want to get up to the hospital. I made it there and was able to visit with him a little more before he went to sleep. They began to control his pain and with that, he gradually faded away. But before he passed away, I got one last smile out of him. It was absolutely beautiful. As the day progressed, his physical state worsened. As the end neared, I walked over by his bed, sat down, held his hand and just talked to him. I cried, yet felt such incredible peace as he took his final breath. I wasn't scared for him. I know that he is rejoicing with the angels in Heaven right now. He has seen the face of our Saviour. How cool is that? I could go on and on about GrandDaddy. He was simply awesome. He loved me, he loved my family. He was just an awesome man who served his country and his God. Big shoes to fill there! He will be missed. Of that, I am certain.

Have I ever told you guys about my scrapbook weekends from hell? You know those wretched Salado trips. Talk about the wrong combination of women. There are a few of them that when you combine them they totally take me back to high school. It's insane. After my last trip with them, I swore off of that group. And I'm glad I did. I heard they got back together this year. And they found a new lapdog to take my place. I feel for her. I just don't understand people's need to be so cruel. I learned my lesson though. I don't miss that kind of crap. I like to crop with people I enjoy being around. I don't have to play junior high games.

Let's see, what else. Oh, I'm working on losing weight. I have to lose 10 pounds by 7/28/07. If I have, my brother will give me $1/lb. Dad said he'd match it. I'm doing it to get healthy. The money would be a perk! The minimum is ten pounds to be lost. I can do it. No problem. But I'm not helping myself out much by watching Paula Dean cooking deep fried cheesecake in chocolate sauce, now am I. Wow, that looks yummy.

Sleep meds are working. I'm wavering. Peace.