It's Not You...It's Meme

Heather, from A Mama's Blog tagged me, 12 years ago, for a Meme. I've been busy...and am just now getting around to it.

But wait. I started to think about it and I realized I've done this one. Back in December. When I had even fewer readers than I do now! Like, NONE! Or so I assume because It got NO comments. So, click on over and check it out. You just might learn a thing or two about me. And believe me, I'm interesting.

In other news, playgroup was a smashing success. Dylan even solidified his leading man status when he confirmed his love for his girlfriend M. The boy's got good taste, cause she's DAMN cute. And when she left he blew her a kiss. And then she hugged him and, after a little encouragement, he hugged her back and did a little squeeze and lift action. Like when he's a football player in high school and after the game his cute little cheerleader girlfriend comes up to him and gives him a hug and he picks her up clear off the ground while hugging her. Like that, except that they're three and he wasn't dirty & sweaty and she's not a cheerleader. Or his girlfriend. Am I getting ahead of myself here?

Also, if you're going to have a bunch of 2-3 year old-ish kids around, I HIGHLY recommend investing in a slushie maker. Mine is the Slushie Express from Target. It kept those kiddos happy, quiet and, more importantly, OUTSIDE for quite a while. The mom who's hosting next week asked if I'd bring it to her house.

On a completely unrelated topic...

If you've been wondering about Baby Emily, here's a snippet of the most recent update from her Care Pages site:
(She had emergency brain surgery a few weeks ago due to a sudden increase in the size of the tumor.)
***
We are out of the ICU and happy to be back up on the 9th floor. Emily continues to get stronger every day but she has a tough battle. Her white blood cell counts have been at or around zero for a couple of days but are now officially on the rise. She is dealing with agitation from the surgery and a pretty severe case of mucositus from the chemotherapy. She is also beginning to lose her hair. Emily had another seizure last night and temporarily lost motion in her right hand in what can be called Todd's Paralysis, which is the weakness of the part of the body affected by the seizure. She has now fully regained motion in her right arm and the CT scan she had last night came back clean. It appears as though her brain is still going through some settling and the seizures are just one symptom. We are managing the seizures with Kepra and Adivan but hope that they will stop once her brain settles.
***
There is an ongoing effort to raise money for the family. In addition to direct donations, you can also order an Emily Bracelet, here's the info for that:

The bracelets are solid green (Emily’s favorite color!) and say Emily Faith Hope Love with tiny hearts between each word. They are adult size (not youth size). The bracelets are $5.00 each, but any donations above this amount certainly are welcome! ALL proceeds - 100% - will go into the Emily Anne Mandell Fund at Bank of America. Checks should be made to Alan Levin.

To order your own, please send a SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED envelope to:

Alan Levin
6319 Mayfield Lane
Warrenton, VA 20187

The bracelets weigh 2 ounces each, so please figure the weight when calculating how much postage to put on the envelope.
***

SO! I suppose that's it for now. If you haven't signed up for AllMediocre, what in the hell are you waiting for? It's free! It's fun! Plus, we're going to be getting a mention on The Bloggess' Good Mom/Bad Mom blog! SO...get yourself signed up before that happens so you can be in on the action! Now! Go!

Linky Love Thursday, Is it?

Apparently, the waning (or is it waxing) moon has brought with it some luck and linky love.

Right after I hit publish on my last post, I went over to Autobiography of My Feet, who also has a link to me on her site! And, she's also just posted some beautiful pictures of the lovely New York City.

Go see them! Now! Go! And then come back because I was tagged for a Meme by Vintage Thirty about 6 years ago and I'm finally doing it.

The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
5. Leave a comment on their blogs so that they know they have been tagged

So, here we go.

1) I played softball, and I was pretty good, when I was younger. I might have played in high school & college if my ass-hat of a coach hadn't threatened to hit his daughter in front of me. I got up in his face and pretty much told him off. I was 15 or 16. He was the coach for the Varsity Softball team. That effectively ended my softball playing career. But it was worth it.

2) I had very few friends my senior year of High School. We moved from New York to Sacramento the summer between junior & senior year. I knew no one and did not really fit in. It was pathetic, especially considering the fact that

3) I was a home coming princess and Junior Prom princess at my high school in New York. I had friends. People liked me. I liked people. It was nothing like my senior year.

4) I used to throw up for no reason. At least not any reason any Doctor could come up with. It started in college and continued for a while after I graduated. I'd wake up in the middle of the night and spend the next 8 hours on the bathroom floor. No rhyme or reason to it. It sucked.

5) I have a minor heart thingy (condition sounds much too serious). Premature Ventricular Contractions. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, it feels like my heart skips a beat. And I can FEEL it. It's really strange. And has caused much anxiety when applying for new Health Insurance. It has not, at this point, precluded me from getting new health insurance.

6) I have never received a speeding ticket. I've never even been pulled over. And I've certainly deserved it a time or two. In fact, the other day, I was in the lead of 3 cars and we passed a motorcycle cop. He came out, lights on, so we all pulled over. He waved me and the car behind me on and kept the third car in line. It was a minivan.

7) I MUST have a cup of coffee the moment I get out of bed in the morning. It's the first thing I do every day. Even if there is a child who needs to be fetched from his crib. He must wait until I make my cup of coffee and take a sip. There's no getting around it.

*Instead of tagging 7 more people, I'm just going to encourage you to look to the right (at my blogroll) and visit some of those sites. Enjoy!

A Photo Essay of My Life

I totally copied this from Vintage Thirty, who copied it from Lulu. The rules, to quote Tootsie Farklepants, who was quoting Lulu, "for this meme are (and to quote Lulu herself): "to answer the questions below using only pictures found online (only the first page of results)." Got it?

1) The age you will be at your next Birthday. As Dylan would say, It's a BIG one!

2) A place you'd like to visit. MMMMM....food & wine...mmmmmm

3) Your favorite place. Never get to go. sigh...weep4)Your favorite object. Without it, where would the G-Wine Posse be?

5) Your favorite food. All the food groups. Kinda.

6) Your favorite animal. Have I mentioned this before?

7) Your favorite color. Really. Just look at my carpet.

8) The city in which you were born. Or so I'm told.

9) The town in which you live. Excuse me while I go get a BIG glass of wine...

10) The name of your pet.

11) The first name of your love. He'll be so proud.

12) Your nickname/screen name. WTF?

13) Your middle name. Again, WTF?

14) Your last name. Holy Hell, it's DJ!

15) A bad habit of yours.

16) Your first job. AWESOMEness.

17) Your dream job. But not with him.

18) Your current job. I AM hot!


19) A picture you find hilarious. Poor dog.

20) Something that inspires you. Hell YES WE CAN!

Now, get busy to do this yourself. It's fun! And TIME CONSUMING. Excuse me while I go feed my child. I think he'd appreciate it.

The Week In Review & A MeMe or Two...Oh Yeah and A LOT of photos

Okay, really just one MeMe, tagged by two people, June Cleaver Nirvana and Motherscribe. Thanks ladies. No really, thanks.

Here are the rules of the meme: Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you’ve written.

But there is a catch:
Link 1 must be about family.
Link 2 must be about friends.
Link 3 must be about yourself, who you are… what you’re all about.
Link 4 must be about something you love.
Link 5 can be anything you choose.

So, here we go.
Link 1, Family- Here's this one. And this goes along with it. Oh, yeah, and this one too.
Link 2, Friends- Here you go. A post about "Friends". Oh, you meant friends, as in people you hang out with, go out to lunch with and invite to parties? I thought you meant the TV show. And this post isnt' really ABOUT "Friends", but it does contain a few well placed quotes/references to/from the show.
Link 3, Me, Me, Me- Things About Me You Didn't Know You Wanted To Know, or something like that.
Link 4, Something I LOVE- I COULD link to something about my children, my husband, or my pets, but I choose this. I love it. I really do. REALLY. You will too, I promise.
Link 5, My Choice- So now I'll talk about my kids. Well one in particular. This is just funny to me. I hope you think so too.

Now, moving on to my week in review, mostly with pictures, because I've been working on this damn post for, like, 5 hours and I've gotten nowhere. Gak!

Because this sums up my feelings perfectly, and saves me the time of typing it all out. Please replace any reference to Texas with California or TX with CA or Texans with Californians. Got it? Good.

My new favorite words:
Spazzazoid
Horridity

Because I had a "FREAK OUT" earlier this week and because I'd like to close the book on the subject with a positive note. JCK of Motherscribe wrote this post about Heath Ledger. It's how he should be remembered.

Now to the pictures:

Do you like See Food?

He east squash now!

Cooking Lasagna, Baking Cake & Drinking Wine

Lasagna simmering...

The finished product...

Proof that Tahoe thinks he's a human baby.

Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Cake.

It really is the best ever.

What my sink looked like after all my cooking...

What it looked like later that same night...

Dylan's akward nap position...

Zach's Beer Belly...

Oh, and the lasagna? It was good, for plain ole' lasagna. BUT, and don't tell Pioneer Woman, it wasn't as good as my favorite lasagna ever. But for that, you'll just have to wait until Friday when it will be the featured recipe. And yes, it does involve cooking skills, to a degree. There's chopping, browning, slicing, shredding, a whole lot of special ingredients, a whole lot of prep time, but, oh, is it worth it in the long run. Trust me. It's special. And, my sister can cook it, which means you can too. I mean you. And you.