I don't think I've ever done a meme. I saw this one on another blog and it looked like fun. Something to get my mind off of the Ag's loss.

Directions: You bold all the things that you’ve done (after copying and pasting). Play along if you want to! I know it's long...

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain (does it count if I "climbed" in a car?)
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree (with my husband in CA, a HUGE sequoia)
10. Bungee jumped (only once and never again!)
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten tipsy on champagne (it can't go to waste on New Year's when everyone else is asleep!)
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment (Um, Charla? Do you remember that one time in Subway?)
27. Had a food fight (at Pine Cove on a work weekend)
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two harddrives for your computer (well, we have an extra hard drive that we use for both of our computers, and I think that counts)
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had/Have amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales (this summer on the side of a highway in CA)
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe (I don't think backpacking is my thing...)
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing (in the Rec at A&M)
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cds
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke (with my gals Erica and Tiffany - 'cause we don't want no scrubs)
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business (lemonade stand?)
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites (Tikal, Guatemala)
70. Taken a martial arts class (once or twice at Knollwood Country Club, I was very young and not at all into yelling and fake kicking)
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight (I don't even know what this is)
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice (we wanted to ride the gondolas at Venice in Vegas, but it was ridiculously pricey)
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the snake river
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason (well, not on a holiday/birthday/date or anything, and it was from my parent's - first day of teaching)
84. Performed on stage (middle school choir, very professional)
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music (I've recorded myself singing on tape...and so has my sister...and the evidence is in my parent's outbuilding)
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date (my husband!)
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone (not actually, but I'm with Will in my mind every time he goes...)
92. Buried one/both of your parents (Grandparents are hard enough)
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently (in my dreams I'm fluent in Spanish)
95. Performed in a Rocky Horror Picture Show
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge (well, we drove over it very slowly)
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking (pretty much every morning...Thank God for Spirit 66 on Sirius)
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray (only at SeaWorld)
110. Broken someone’s heart (I hope not)
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone (nose)
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild (yep, but I didn't do the gathering)
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery (sinuses, twice...brutal)
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept 30 hours in a 48 hour time frame (only after that major surgery)
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi (all the time)
128. Had your picture in the newspaper (a couple of times, as a kid - dressed as a witch in a pumpkin patch, and at school while we were tele-conferencing with a teacher's husband who was in Iraq)
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read “The Iliad”
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions (haven't had any, yet)
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language (in Haiti)
139. Been elected to public office (5th Grade Class President - Go Pumas!)
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream (in many, many ways)
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care (I didn't do the putting, but I watched...Grandma Trudy)
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair (highlights?)
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Here's what's going on with us....

I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies - definitely a taste of fall. I'll post the recipe later. They weren't a sweet cookie, more like a bread or muffin, and were best straight from the oven (before they got soggy). I even stuck them back in the oven about 3 days after I made them to crisp them up - delicious.

Dixie eats outside, Maddie eats inside. Maddie is not quite the hog that Dixie is, so sometimes she doesn't finish her food. Dixie has taken to stalking Maddie's unfinished food, and looking rather pathetic in the process. However, she doesn't eat it! She's a good girl.

We got BOO-ED! I now have all of my supplies, so the boo-ing will commence when Will gets home.

Yesterday, my kids "buried" Dead Words. It was a blast! They gave creative eulogies, were very dramatic, and came up with some excellent replacement words to use in their writing. It was the first time I felt at home teaching here - one of the first days I scrapped our "Bed-in-a-Bag" curriculum (thanks, Leslie, for the term!) and did a lesson I was comfortable with, and one that I know the kids would both enjoy and learn from. I'm settling in.


More on the teaching thing - I'm constantly fighting battles here. I want to do what is best for my kids, but it's not what has always been done. Using our reading books, with packaged spelling lists, vocab words, workbooks, and a schedule with the whole week laid out is the norm. To me, this is crap. It doesn't follow our state standards, it doesn't integrate writing, it allows for NO creativity on my part or on the kids' part. The stories are boring. The worksheets are basic. So I'm scrapping it. I came with five file boxes of authentic, teacher-created and proven curriculum written by some of the best teachers I've ever known. So, DUH, I'm using it! Bring on the backlash.

It was clear last night. This is from the Wal-Mart parking lot. See, I could get a good shot - I drove around the whole parking lot until I found a place that I could get Rainier without the surrounding buildings in the way. It wasn't too hard seeing as how the parking lot was nearly empty, what with Wal-Mart and liberals being like oil and water.

Just outside of my neighborhood. Gorgeous night.

And finally, a fall sunset (view from my driveway). Could not be more beautiful. And Will missed it...which is the main reason why I took these pictures. He has missed every nice day we've had in the past month (all three...).

I woke up this morning to clouds and promises of rain by noon. However, yesterday's weather will do a lot to keep my spirits up until the next day we see the sun. Maybe less than a week this time? We'll see. Until then, I'm enjoying warmed-up Kona coffee (I couldn't resist making it yesterday morning). I'm blogging when I'm normally at work, because I just can't bring myself to get there as early as I normally do. I still have an hour until I have to be there. I'd rather spend that time with you. Here's to Hump Day - hope it's a happy one for you!

Will had to go to Hawaii last weekend for work, and I had to stay home. To combat the unfairness of the situation, he was to bring me Kona coffee. I have been saving it all week (I didn't even open the bag to have a whiff) - I just didn't want to gulp it down on my way to work, or sneak sips of it in between answering the same questions a million times and collecting lunch money. So here I sit, enjoying it to the fullest, and wondering if he could go back every month to bring me some of the delicious beans straight from the source. The perfect weekend brew. Mmmmm...

Oh, and they go well with four-day-old Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, about which I will post sometime later.

Please don't rat me out about the Yankee...especially to my husband!

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English 15% Upper Midwestern 10% Dixie 5% Yankee 0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Do you think I'll end up with a headache if I drink wine with my dinner of beer bread and garlic dip?


A couple of weeks ago, my friend Rhonda and I went to a Tastefully Simple party. I had never been before, but Rhonda had and she convinced me to go. She knew what was up - the consultant made all kinds of things for us to sample, like a buffet that we passed around. The beer bread was unreal (so were the cheese balls, soups, dips...but I digress). So tonight for "dinner," Rhonda and I are getting together. I'm brining the wine and a mini-loaf of beer bread, and she's making the garlic dip (also from the party). This is what happens when the husbands are away...

Mesmerized...

I think this is where I'll be this weekend. I'm more than ready for it.

Finally updated the linkage! I love all the new bloggers (or not so new...apparently I'm a little late to catch on). However, reading about the lives of all of my old friends makes me feel so, so far away. I mean, I am far away, but I feel far removed, too. And sad...Happy for everyone, and their babies, and football games, and kids doing great things - but I want to kiss those babies, go to those football games, and see those kids doing great things, you know? So, kiss your babies for me, cheer on those Ags, and keep posting about your kiddos. Some days I really need it, you know? It's like therapy...but free, and I can have a glass of wine and sit on my own couch.

It's snowing in the mountains, just an hour or so away. It's raining here, and has been for a week. They're calling for thunderstorms this evening, which would only be our second thunderstorm to see (hear?) here. It's not common. Oh, and they said hail is possible. It seems like we've skipped right over fall here and catapulted into winter in WA. It's really no wonder coffee is a bazillion dollar business here.