Writer’s Workshop – What I hate about you

I’m going with Prompt #1.

10 Reasons why you’re better off without him….or her….or it.

1. You don’t love me the way that I love you.
2. You’re empty inside.
3. The good moments we spend together are fleeting at best.
4. You look good on the outside, but looks are deceiving.
5. You take more than you give.
6. You’re never around. You think once a year you can sweep me off my feet, but I require more than that.
7. I can’t afford you!  Good grief, you burn through my money in the blink of an eye.
8. After we’re together, I feel bad about myself.
9. You don’t care about making me feel bad, either. You just sit there and mock me, relentlessly.
10. You’re not loyal.  You cozy up with women all over the place and I’m supposed to just take it.

Wow.  I was planning on writing about someone something else entirely, but when I got going something else entirely just poured out.  I’m guessing some of you can relate.

photo credit: this is a thing

Die, Girl Scout Cookies. 

I need you dead and gone.

I literally ate 3 thin mints while on the treadmill today. 

My judgement has been compromised.

And I am ’supposedly’ training for a half-marathon and participating in not one, but two fitness challenges as well.

Not. Looking. Good.

But my frozen Samoas only come around once a year, so how can I say no to that?

Clearly, I cannot.

And this, my friends, is the tale of why I will never again wear a 2-piece bathing suit.  Because I have the willpower of a…dang.  What’s the rest of that sentence?  A person with no willpower?

I’ll have to have a cookie while I think about that for a minute.

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Don’t be obnoxious

This week is a blogging theme, and we’re supposed to share our best blogging tips.  As I write this there are 163 people already linked up, and though I haven’t read them all, I’m guessing many contain the same tips.  Very good tips, mind you.  I, too, feel that you should use Wordpress, be a good commenter, and focus on keywords if you want to build a bloggy empire.  But I’m thinking you don’t need to hear that dittoed a 164th time. 

So instead I’m going to share with you a very un-PC tip.

Don’t be obnoxious.

Sounds simple, right?  It’s not.  Most obnoxious people are so self-involved they haven’t even noticed they are being obnoxious.  Don’t be one of them.

Yes, it’s your blog, but please don’t make it all about you.

It’s not that we don’t like hearing your family stories – we all like to share them from time to time.  It’s just that when the content is all deeply personal, we can’t always relate.  If you want your blog to be successful, you need to have a conversation with your readers, not just a platform to shout from.  Work hard to balance what you are passionate about with what matters to your readers.  You may be the president of your child’s PTO, but if you always write about Jefferson Elementary then you’ll lose me.  Write about the challenges of fostering parent involvement in schools, and readers worldwide will be able to relate.

This is a common problem I’ve observed among ‘big’ bloggers.  It’s all about them.  They are so busy writing to amuse themselves, they forget about their followers.  Sometimes it seems as if they’ve completely lost touch with reality, and view themselves as a celeb whose lunch selection, playground activities, and personal philosophy on skin care are absolutely intriguing to the world at large.

I actually follow several well-known bloggers that fall into this category and they bug the heck out of me.

[Um, then why are you following them?]

Glad you asked.  I check in with them from time to time to remind myself what I do not want to be.  I follow them on Twitter so I have a concrete example in front of me, reminding me of my goals.

Don’t tweet only to make myself look good.

Don’t tweet like a stand-up comedian trying out a new routine.

Don’t tweet every mundane detail of my mommy life like it’s fascinating.  It isn’t.

It does not foster a connection with your readers.  It doesn’t make you seem cool or smart or funny.  It just makes you seems self-absorbed and, well, obnoxious.

Don’t do it.

*If you’d like to read more Blogging tips that are possibly less bossy than mine, hop over to We Are THAT Family.

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Wordful Wednesday – Lilly Wussell

My little Lilly Pie turned 3 a couple of weeks ago, and I didn’t blog about it yet.  Shame on me, I know.

Anyway, Catie is in preschool 3 hours a day now so I have had more time to spend with Lilly all alone, and it’s been amazing watching her grow and develop into such a unique little person.  She’s so spunky and funny and smart, and just a delightful little girl.  And she entertains herself exceedingly well, which is a quality any mother will tell you is a blessing beyond measure.

Her given name is Lillian Russell (after my great-grandmother, my great-grandfather, and my father – not the actress) but she prefers to talk about Lilly Wussell and Pappap Wussell.  They are very good buddies.

Last spring when we went to Disney she got sick.  Very sick.  Barfed in line at Toy Story Mania – barfed pretty much everywhere actually.  Among other things.  She was so sick, in fact, that she was hospitalized the day we returned home.  Poor dolly. 

But when she first got sick, I packed her up and left the park to take her back to the resort to rest.  She had other ideas though; as soon as we got back to the Polynesian she felt strongly that we needed to eat.  I guess having an empty stomach and all…  So my girlie and I hit the Kona Cafe, and had a lovely little lunch together.  Which as you might guess, didn’t stay down for long.  But it was good while it lasted.

And in that brief interlude, between episodes of vomiting, she turned on the charm as she always does.  I sat laughing and in awe of her, wondering where the sick little girl I’d seen an hour ago had vanished to, and hoping that she’d stay well.  And I couldn’t resist snapping this picture, which in retrospect is not only a cute memory, but the the very essence of Lilly.

Adorable - check.  Ornery grin - check.  Food nearby - check.  Mommy’s heart in her hand - check.

Love you, Silly Lilly.  Thanks for completing me.

*This post is part of the Wordful Wednesday carnival.  If you have a moment, swing by and check out more pictures with a story over at Seven Clown Circus.

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Makeover Monday: the kids bathroom

We left off upstairs, with the only room left (that got a makeover, at least) being the kids’ bathroom.  Of course this would be more interesting had I remembered to take before pictures, but I’m just not that kind of girl.  What I do have is a picture of the junk I took out of the room, all piled up and ready to go to Craigslist.  That’s almost as good right?

So yeah, it was a fish theme.  The builder had painted the room sage green.  A lovely color, but oddly formal in a kids bathroom and it didn’t at all match the fish stuff.  And the fish stuff was really on my nerves.  I bought it all years ago and saved it in a Rubbermaid tub forever, because I just knew that I would decorate my children’s bathroom in fish one day.  I know you’re not surprised that when they came along, I was already over the fish.  But of course I couldn’t admit that, so I had to use them for a little while first.  You know, just to be polite and all.

So I knew I wanted their bathroom to be something else, I just didn’t know what that else was exactly.  And how it came to be is rather odd, really.

In doing all of these makeovers I cleaned out a lot of junk, and I just can’t bear to throw anything away.  I know someone could use this stuff, right?!?!  Enter Freecycle, a truly beautiful concept.  I listed tons of the kids clothes, toys, baby gear, furniture, and even our old treadmill, and then people came to my house and took it away!  I know, I know, we could get a tax deduction for donating it to charity, and often I do just that, but sometimes (and especially with the big stuff) it’s nice to just have someone come and take it all away so I don’t have to deal.  That is not without value of its own, my friends.  So one day as I listed Lilly’s baby gear someone else posted that they had tried 3 times to get the perfect shade of aqua/teal/turquoise paint and the shade was never quite right, so they were giving away the ‘imperfect’ gallons.  ‘What the heck?’ I figured – I didn’t have a vision in mind anyway, so I picked up a gallon of surprise! paint and a vision started to take shape.

The end result?

(Waiting for the return of beautiful black-and-white pictures of the girls to go in the frames.)

I think it’s sort of girly-chic.  I like that it’s feminine in a more sophisticated way, and I feel that it will last them for years since it doesn’t have a ‘little girl’ look.  I couldn’t be more pleased with the way this room turned out.  I think it’s actually my favorite makeover so far!  Which is a good thing, since it was also one of the most expensive.  I bought all new towels, carpets, etc. I bought all of the fabric to embellish said towels, and I made the shower curtain and the valance myself.  I painted it all and replaced the light fixtures myself, and I spent hours on the embroidery and embellishments.  I love the way it came together, but it really does not reflect the amount of time spent on it.  I’d sort of like to hang little tags on everything so it’s fully appreciated.  ‘30 minute handtowel’ or ‘4 and a 1/2 hour shower curtain’  But I digress.

So there you have it, the grand tour of my kids’ living space.  I’m not making any promises about what you’ll see next week, because I’m really not sure just yet.  It will be a surprise for all of us.

Play along?

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Makeover Monday – Lilly’s room

Finally, the saga continues.  We’re still upstairs in solid kid territory and Lilly’s room was next to get a facelift.  It was painted a nice golden camel color which I really like in our living room, but not so much in the kids rooms – it looked so dull and dreary.  You might recall that I had already done one lovely lime green room, and as luck would have it there was a whole gallon of paint left over (huge shout-out to Wal-Mart for their one-coat coverage paint which actually does cover in one coat!)  So guess what color Lilly got?

I timed her new paint job to coincide with the switchover from nursery to big girl-room, so it was very easy to pull out the crib, changing table, etc and paint in an empty room.  Definitely made the project go faster (which is awesome since I do these things all by myself) and felt like a more dramatic change.  I also replaced the basic light fixture in her room with a ceiling fan.  I know they aren’t the most attractive things in the world, but they are functional, and I’m a practical kinda gal.

If you knew me 20-odd years ago, then you have probably seen this daybed before!  It used to be back satin (wow – what a look) and fit in perfectly with my Chicago Bulls themed room.  When I moved out my mom recovered the bed with this tone-on-tone stripe.  Looks pretty good for its age, doesn’t it?  I like it because it sits nice and high so there’s plenty of storage underneath.  Though we’ve actually kept it empty because it’s a pretty cool place to play, too.

The bounce and spin zebra has been re-homed now as well.  See that huge Mickey over there?  He’s sitting in a high chair that belonged to my great-grandfather when he was a baby.  How cool is that?  I only regret not taking a picture of each of the girls in it when they were still small enough to fit.  I’m terrible about remembering things like that.

I really hate these ugly stuffed animal nets.  My kids don’t even like stuffed animals and never, ever play with them.  Unfortunately though, people keep on giving them to us, and I feel rude immediately chucking them.  I think there must be a polite waiting period before you get rid of a gift, right?

And this is the room entrance/closet door.  As you can tell from the pictures, it’s still not done.  The problem is that I can’t figure out what to hang on those bare walls!  I can’t find anything that matches the bedding nicely, so I’d love to hear your suggestions!  My sister offered to paint a mural while she was here this summer but I felt bad having her do that on her vacation.  I now wish I hadn’t been so polite.

That’s it for this edition of Makeover Monday.  Stop by next week for the girly chic makeover I did on the kids’ bathroom.  I think it might be my favorite new room upstairs!

And of course, if you’d like to play along I’d love to see what you’ve been up to!

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Makeover Monday – Kids Bedrooms, part 1

Welcome back to Makeover Monday!  I know you’re excited, right?

This week I’m showing off the older girls’ bedroom.  Some of you might remember that Annie and Catie actually prefer to share a bedroom.  Weird, right?  Anyway, the room was painted a lovely shade for a master bedroom, but not such a lovely shade for a little girls room.  It needed an overhaul, and I decided to do this while they were away so that it was a total surprise to them when they got home. 

Well, not a total surprise since they had picked the paint colors.  But they didn’t know when I was going to do it, or what all I was going to do.  And it was a very nice surprise I think!

This bedroom is actually quite large with a  H-U-G-E walk-in closet (bigger than the one in our MBR!) and it has a great layout for sharing, as there is a very large dormer in the back of the room that makes a second, semi-private area.  We bought Annie a loft bed with storage underneath and put her in the alcove area:

I also painted a picket fence and grass in that area, opposite the bed.  The flowers are little Wallies stickers (from Dollar Tree no less!) and the ladybug, bumblebee, butterfly, and dragonfly on the wall are wooden cutouts that Annie and I had painted one day.

Her bedding is also new, and appropriately enough it was named Annie’s Country Patch!  Unfortunately I couldn’t find the matching valance (still can’t!) so if you’re ever at TJ Maxx and see it please snag one for me – I’d be ever so grateful to reimburse you for the trouble.  If you read about my giveaway a few weeks ago you may have also seen the personalized name pillows that I made the girls which coordinate with their new quilts.

On the other side of the room is Catie’s bed.  Hers isn’t a loft but it does have great storage drawers underneath – 3 of them, the entire depth of the bed, and all three are stuffed to the brim with dress up clothes!

You can’t see her bedding quite as well but it’s called Fancy Frocks and it’s little dresses that are adorable and perfectly suited to my little fashionista.

In the front of the house this room also has a small dormer which we thought was a perfect spot to build in a desk:

The kids loved that as well, since they then got their own computer.  And mommy loves not having to negotiate screen time!

The wall you are seeing above has also been transformed, even since the initial makeover.  The mirror on a stand has found a new home and I mounted one on the wall behind their door instead.  I also relocated that bookcase above to Annie’s side of the room.

The reason?  Their ever-growing assortment of American Girl dolls was taking over the house!  I love these dolls also, but if you’ve ever purchased one you know what the price tag is and I’m not willing to leave that much money laying around for the puppy to chew.  We needed a safe spot and I wanted it to be beautiful to showcase their collection.  The solution I came up with is this:

The top shelf holds trophies, dance awards, soccer medals, etc.  I put a dowel rod underneath the bottom shelf so they could hang some of the doll dresses there.  I think it looks cute, but we need more hangers as most of the clothes are still in the drawers underneath Annie’s bed.  We also need more doll stands, as the brood has expanded!

So there you have it – our all-new girls room!  It’s for a younger girl and I know it won’t last for ages, but frankly we don’t intend to be in this house for ages either, and I think it will suit them as long as we plan to be here.  Surely at some point they’ll see the merit in separate bedrooms, right?

That’s it for this week!  Mr. Linky is ready and waiting if you’d like to play along (and I hope you do!)  Next week I think I’ll continue my kids room tour and show you Lilly’s new room.  I need some wall ideas there so I’ll be picking your brains…

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Sincerely FRO me to you: Men in Wigs

I was blessed with a  wonderful grandfather.  He was a kind, loving, fun man who meant the world to me.  He had the best sense of humor ever.  Seriously, ever.  He was always joking, always having fun.  Pap loved to tease people.

When I graduated high school he gave me this picture:

Along with a note that read:

To Heather on her graduation day – when you pick a man, please do at least this good.

Don’t ask me why he was wearing a wig.  I have no clue, other than that’s just the sort of thing he did.  I have pictures of him at our wedding reception with faux nose rings.  He was always up to something.

So on the eve of our wedding, my husband and I gave this to Pap:

To Pap on my wedding day – I hope I did.

It’s been 5 and a half years since Pap died, and I still ache inside whenever I think of him.  My daughters may not get to know him here on earth, but I’m so thankful I have stories (and pictures!) like this that capture the essence of him, so they can know who he was. 

Love you Pap, and miss you every day.

For more FRO stories (or to share your own!), check out the party over at the Glamorous Life Association:

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Things I learned this week

This carnival has been eye opening for me.  I love to read what others have learned, but it also makes me feel a bit dense.  Sometimes I can’t come up with anything I have learned.  Most of the time what I can come up with is completely trivial.  I’m afraid my brain is rotting. 

Nonetheless, I won’t pretend to be deeper than I really am, so here’s what I’ve learned this week.

1) Always insist that your children use the potty just one more time before you leave the house.  Don’t let them tell you they just did.  If you didn’t see it happen, it doesn’t count.

2) Always keep a potty seat in the car.  You never know when you’ll be out somewhere with no potty nearby and a child who did not heed your instructions to use the potty before you left the house.  You don’t want to be scrambling around trying to find an empty takeout cup stuffed underneath a car seat.  Trust me.

3) Always leave the house 15 minutes early, in case you get 2 miles down the road and you have to turn around and go back to get a forgotten sippy cup.  Or lovey.  Or for someone to use the potty.

4) Be sure to keep a change of clothes in the car, including shoes, for all of your children.  The fact that they have been potty trained for 4 years means nothing.  Sometimes you just get so into what you’re doing that you forget to go to the potty.  Or so I’ve been told.  While cleaning pee out of a certain someone’s shoes.

5) And finally, do a bottom check before you leave the house.  Especially if there are skirts involved.  Because showing up to a very large, crowded event and being told 20 minutes into the program that someone forgot to put on underpants is really not a great feeling.

If you’d like to read what others have learned this week (and no promises here, but possibly some are more profound than mine), then please hop over to Musings of a Housewife to read the rest of the entries this week.

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What I learned this week

No great stories to share, just a few random tidbits.

-This week, I learned that I cannot say no to Girl Scout cookies. But as soon as the Samoas in my freezer are gone, I am cookie-free once again. I promise. Let’s just hope they run out after cookie sales are over. At $3.50 a box for 15 cookies, they are bad for the wallet and the butt.

-I learned that I can still roller skate pretty darn well, even though it’s been 20+ years since that was attempted. In fact, I had so much fun that I’d like to make it a regular part of my schedule. For the kids’ sake, of course.

-I learned that I love Sudoku. Annie got a Nintendo DS for her birthday, and the Brain Age game is a lot of fun! Unfortunately my brain seems to be older than me (currently 44), but the creepy cartoon head assures me that with daily training that will improve.

-I learned that Annie is pre-engaged. To her good buddy Chase, apparently. So far I approve. He’s absolutely adorable, very polite, a christian, very nice parents, and he has never pulled his green light. What more could a girl ask for?

-Finally, I learned that there are a few words that I will simply never be able to spell correctly. ‘Apparently’ is one of them. grrrrrr.

That’s all I’ve got. If you’d like to share what you’ve learned, or read what others have learned this week, click the logo above to head over to Musings of a Housewife. Thanks to Jo-Lynne for hosting!

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Musical Monday

Feeling introspective today. And very humble.

Also annoyed that I can’t ever get the embeds to work – sorry folks. Just remember to turn off the music player before you follow the link!

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