"Middle children have remarkable diplomatic skills."

-The Secret Power of Middle Children, by Catherine Salmon

Thursday, February 26, 2009

100's Day

Pammy-I'm not sure I can think of 100!

1. I love to laugh
2. Especially when it's wildly inappropriate
3. Something about it being inappropriate makes it funnier
4. I cannot swim
5. I don't care to learn to swim
6. I miss my dad more than I ever thought I would
7. I miss my mom, but that's just a given
8. I've had a crush on Tim Russert (I know, he's dead now)
9. I've also had a crush on Walter Cronkite
10. He's not dead yet
11. I'm usually an easy going person
12. People who are mean to their kids in public tip my applecart!
13. I have no problem telling people who are mean to their kids, what I think.
14. there is nothing like the smell of a freshly bathed baby.
15. and a newborns breath...I could suck the smell right out of 'em.
16. I liked being pregnant.
17. White chocolate/raspberry yogurt is my favorite
18. I hate to clean up cat barf
19. I love to watch the rain
20. I love the way it smells after it rains
21. I love the smell when the furnace kicks on for the first time in the fall
22. I know...it's the smell of dirt!
23. I fell in love with the children in So. Africa....
24. .....when a photographer friend showed me her pictures of them that she took.
25. My children bring me my greatest joy
26. My children bring me my greatest heartache
27. I love my job
28. I love the little old farmers who come to the mailbox to talk to me
29. Every time I have a headache I'm sure it's a brain tumor
30. I have fears that are more irrational than that
31. ...when I walk with my hands in my pockets I'm afraid I'll trip and not be able to get my hands out of my pockets fast enough to catch myself, and I'll fall on my face and possibly break my nose, or knock out my front teeth.
32. I rarely walk with my hands in my pockets
33. I love babies
34. my mother use to say "there are no ugly babies"
35. I've seen some ugly babies.
36. My hairdresser, Janika, says there are no ugly women. Just lazy ones.
37. I think I have A.D.D.
38. I had to go to the vice-principals office in the 9th grade for changing the recipe on the blackboard in the home ec. class, and causing the class to ruin their brownies.
39. The vice-principal tried to reprimand me, but all he could do was laugh
40. I like dessert
41. I don't really like meat
42. I'm not weird about not eating meat, I'd just rather eat dessert if given the choice
43. I don't like killing things
44. A pigeon killed himself on my windshield the other morning while I was driving to work.
45. I want to go to Africa
46. I wish I was skinny
47. but I like to eat
48. see #40
49. I'm not opposed to trying any fad diet
50. I have no friends who don't make me laugh
51. I use to hate my nose
52. I came to terms with the nose I have when I was in jr. high, and one of my young women leaders who had the most ghastly hook-nose told me she liked her nose
53. I like my nose..thank you Sister V.
54. Nothing is as good as sitting down to Sunday dinner that someone else has cooked
55. I miss Christmas at Grandma Barker's house
56. I miss Grandpa Barker
57. I've never won the lottery
58. I don't play the lottery
59. I don't mind being alone
60. My comfort food is oatmeal
61. I think I have the most intelligent grandchildren who ever lived
62. I like good teeth
63. People who choose to not take care of their teeth gross me out
64. If you take a drink of my bottled water, it's yours...keep it.
65. I like to drive
66. I like to be driven
67. If I had to choose between having dinner for breakfast or breakfast for dinner, I choose breakfast for dinner.
68. I like to be kissed.
69. And hugged.
70. I'm totally a morning person
71. There are people I think about all the time but I don't pick up the phone to call them
72. I'm a terrible procrastinator
73. I'd rather be early to a meeting than walk in late
74. I remember people from my first grade class
75. I saw a guy on face book that was in my first grade class, and he looked the same, only bigger.
76. I love having overnighters with my sisters.
77. I like a good secret keeper
78. I am one because I generally can't remember them
79. I'm a loyal friend
80. I was for prop. 8 (go ahead and flog me)
81. I love H.G.T.V., but I don't have it
82. I have a testimony of the gospel
83. I need to bear my testimony more often.
84. I tend to be a rule breaker
85. I have musical turrets

86. Sometimes at work I belt out the word in the middle of a song

87. It use to scare my co-workers, but now they do it too.
88. There is safety in numbers
89. I quit hula lessons when I was 5 because I didn't want to be in the recital
90. I wanted a Barbie when I turned 5
91. When I turned 5, I got a new mu mu and some sparkly slippers (flip flops)
92. No Barbie-ever.
93. When my only daughter was 5 I got her Barbie and all kinds of accessories for her
94. My only daughter didn't like playing with Barbies
95. I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane last summer

96. I hate heights
97. I was afraid I would snap my tandem jump instructor like a twig.(he was 6'2" and 90 lbs. at the most)
98. the best three moments of my life was each time I held one of my babies for the first time
99. If Mrs. Stone (my 1st grade teacher) was still alive, I'd tell her thank you for teaching me to read. It's a skill I use every day.
100. I'm the luckiest girl alive, because I have people who care about me. Thanks for reading.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Personal Epiphany of the Sleep Deprived

Someone posted to me recently that "sometimes in life we don't always get everything we want". I totally concur! In fact I would go so far as to say that many times in life we don't get what we want....we get something better! Even when we think we know just exactly what is the greatest achievement, the grandest prize, the most perfect _________ (fill in noun here) I wonder if occasionally we (and by 'we' I mean me ) think "I'll take this now because something better might not come along." You know, the old 'bird in the hand' thing. We cannot see the whole picture from our vantage point. It's impossible. (Unless we are having an out of body experience.) Aahhh, but there is someone else who can see the whole picture. And even when I pout because things didn't work out as I had planned...they work out, and sometimes for the better. If I'm patient enough I get more than I asked for. Funny how that goes. In other words, thank you for not giving me what I asked for. Now if I could just learn this lesson...I wouldn't have to keep learning this lesson.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Found an Agent, Ate some Cheesecake, Laughed Our Guts Out!


Today my sisters and I went down to Provo to check on dad's house and choose a real estate agent. We've decided it's time to list his condo. Monday, DeeDee and I will go down and sign with the agent we chose today, and go through the house with him. I think it would be a great place for someone to rent to college students. I've been told I haven't sold his house yet (it's been 8 months since dad died) because I don't want to acknowledge he's gone. I spoke at his funeral, so I think I've acknowledged he is indeed gone. However, I haven't taken him out of my cell phone yet...even though his phone line was disconnected two day's after his death. I miss him. It was fun to be with my sisters today. We always laugh when we're together. We ate a late lunch at LL something or other Hawaiian food. I ordered pork, rice, and garlic shrimp. Thinking the garlic shrimp was the edible little crustations in a garlic sauce....oh heck no! The shrimp was not shelled...and what I thought was Couscous was actually minced garlic!! EwEwEw!!! nasty! I don't think I'll be rid of the reek for days! But we stopped at Cheesecake Factory for dessert, and that made it all good! Then we stopped at Target to pick up a few things. While we were there I challenged Debbie and DeeDee to pick out a swimsuit they wouldn't be caught dead in, and we had to go try them on. Oh holy cow! It was hilarity in my dressing room! DeeDee described hers as smacking a can of Pillsbury roll dough on the counter and seeing the dough pop out of the seams! I'm not sure what Debbie looked like, she wouldn't come out of her dressing room! I do have a new appreciation for the women in the S.I. swimsuit edition...but I bet they don't laugh with their sisters in the dressing room at their local Target! My advice to them... eat cheesecake before your next swimsuit photo shoot!