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Monday, July 30, 2012

I just did something really dumb. Maybe it's more practical than dumb, but either way, what I did and didn't do could have and should have been different. I'm not bragging about my stupidity or looking for consoling words. I want to share my mistake so maybe next time I will do better.

I had the chance to give someone a ride and I didn't. I don't know her name, I only know her because she works the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant close to the funeral home where I work. So I don't really know her. She's always very nice to me and my boss and complimented my car once. Giving her a ride out of the heat would have been the thing to do had I not been too preoccupied talking on my cell phone to notice her until after I'd passed her. She even recognized my car and turned around to look after I went right past her. I thought about turning around and going back to get her, but as I debated with myself the distance between us grew.

What good are reading books about inspiring people, like Mother Teresa who dedicated her life to the poor and Nate Saint who was killed rather than save his life from someone who hadn't yet heard about Jesus, if I'm going to be too afraid to take a chance when I have it? I failed today.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

1 + 1 = 3

Coming Soon
to
Our Home
in
March 2013!


  I guess I spoke too soon when I declared myself not to be a "mommy blogger."  That white arrow is pointing to what looked like a little blinking bean on the tv monitor, what will probably make up the majority of my blog posts from here on out, I'm sure.  

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Uh, Thanks?

Monday, on a funeral, I had a man tell me that I had "a very unique voice." That I sounded "sweet and innocent, but a fireball, like 'I'll knock you out!'" Then he said he knew "another woman with a little girl voice."

**Update:  The man was not hitting on me, just trying to strike up a conversation with a stranger.  After he said it, he was probably just as embarrassed as I was, at least I hope he was.**

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Two More Failed Hippie Attempts

    I'm a self-professed try-it-all kitchen-experimenter.  My mom gets a kick out of hearing what I'm planning to cook up next.  Boots usually just rolls his eyes at me.  A lot All of my ideas come from other people I don't even know on the Internet.  I don't try things the first time I read about them, usually the tenth when it seems like "everybody is doing it" and having a fair amount of success.  I'm not everybody though and success is overrated.  Here are a few things I did while on blogsabbatical.

  Back in November I made my own toothpaste.  I gave five of the six jars away to my friends and family and the general consensus was it sucked (no offense, Marnie!)  The ingredients were expensive and hard to find, nobody liked the taste, and the process was a little too labor intensive.  Plus the jar I used vs. traditional tubes was no contest.  You needed a spoon to scoop the toothpaste out as my aunt pointed out the grossness of dipping your toothpaste in the jar day after day you were probably sure to catch something worse than cavities.  It's worth every penny you will spend on the high-dollar natural toothpaste, I promise.

  Not one to be easily deterred, I hippied onward.  I'd heard about washing your hair with baking soda and vinegar and figured this would be cheap and more easily accomplished.  Negative.  My hair was dry and crunchy, like hay, and since I need to look very clean for work everyday I couldn't wait for the transition period to pass.  I tried it for about two weeks before I gave up for fear of being talked about in the office.  It was cheap, yes!  It took some planning for mixing the ingredients and then storing them.  If I worked at home I'd definitely stick it out and try again.  Since then I've decided to do the next best thing- buy quality, natural products like Yes to Carrots shampoo and conditioner .  I'm really enjoying this although it is pricey.  The Environmental Working Group gives it a 2 which is pretty close to perfect.  I buy Yes to Carrots at Target so it is easily accessible for me, plus the bottles are #2 plastic which my nearby recycle bin accepts.

  The EWG has become a go-to website for me.  I like checking out the ratings on the things I use, but the hunt for safer products in my local stores isn't as much fun yet.  Currently, I'm cruising every sunblock aisle in every store I visit in search of Badger sunscreen.  No luck yet, but I hear Walgreens carries it.

  Next on the list, shortly after the hair fiasco, was when I tried the Oil Cleansing Method.  Much like the no-poo, I'd heard a lot about OCM in blog circles on the Internet.  I wouldn't call this a complete fail because I liked it.  Washing my face with oil did make my skin smooth and soft, but it did nothing to help my blemishes.  My aunt and cousin said I was a nut when I told them I cleaned my face with oil.  It does sound a little silly, but it makes sense to me.  It wasn't too terribly expensive because a little goes a long way or hard to mix up, although your kitchen does get a little greasy in the process.  I've got plenty of leftover castor oil if you're in the mood to try it.  (That stuff is hard to find!)

  One thing I'm pretty sure I'm not going to try is homemade deodorant.  I'm just not.  I've tried Tom's of Maine, but clearly it's for people who live in Maine! because it does not work in the Sweaty South.  I smell like a man!  --My uncle to be exact!  I may try Arm & Hammer next.

  What about you?  Do you try weird stuff?  Have any favorite natural products?

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

"I don't have Twitter. I don't twit."

--my boss

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Monday, July 9, 2012

This afternoon at the gas station I saw a girl jump in the window of her car like the boys on The Dukes of Hazzard. When she drove away I guessed it was because of that huge dent in her quarter panel and not because of welded doors. It's the little things, I tell ya...

Monday, July 2, 2012

Driveway Drama

  (The drama part comes from me, as in the thirty minutes I spent writing ONE paragraph to perfection only to delete it with the swipe of a fat finger!  The actual driveway process has gone pretty smoothly so far.  Proceed.)

  As evidenced by this super (not) awesome photo I took, our house has a one-car carport.  One car, not three cars plus a boat.  It doesn't take much to guess that this can be a little complicated since all four won't fit in one space and no matter how creative we line up on the driveway, somebody always has to move so somebody else can get out.  It just doesn't work. 

  So for nearly two years now we've been parking two vehicles outside the carport and one on the driveway outside the carport, but behind the boat (not pictured, it's in the backyard!)  This has worked fairly well, but it's a grass killer. 

  And see how close Boots' truck is parked to that flower bed on the passenger side?  There's a Hawthorne tree in that flower bed and that thing hurts!  I'm talking thorns big enough to make the thorniest rosebush green with envy if it wasn't already green.



  See, look!  Hawthorne is that big one as tall as the house.  It was waaaaay bigger and more humongous than this, but I've tried killing it (several times) by whacking all the limbs back as close as possible in hopes that it will just dry up and die.  No such luck.  If you want hardy and dangerous, Hawthorne is your man tree.


  After hem-hawing around for about 18 months, I've finally decided that it's time for Hawthorne to go.  So on the afternoon of a 100 degree day, Boots and I dug up and transplanted what flowers we did want (one rosebush, about fifty orange daylilies, and some things I don't even know) and ripped up what we didn't. 

  We're planning to cover this whole dirty area with crushed asphalt right on up to where the grass meets the concrete driveway.  There's just no point in having a flower bed that no one will see because a truck parks in front of it and these two bites of grass are more trouble than they're worth when it comes to dragging out the lawn mower and cutting them.  Neat and tidy from here on out is the game plan.

  (This might classify as a crime scene photo.  See the drag marks?)


  The flower bed was pretty much vamoose at this point other than that little swatch of ivy.


  And my pitiful garden (too much shade) may make itself useful now.


  I watered these suckers every day for three days and then I forgot.  Maybe they'll make it, but probably not.  I have a black thumb.  If they live, they may be moved again to another (better) location.

  So ends Day One of the Driveway Drama.


Day Two (four days later, still 100 degrees) was a bulldozer in our yard leveling off the driveway so it will be nice and smooth for the crushed asphalt.


  The driveway will come together in stages and include a big roller to help pack the crushed asphalt down tightly.  


You can't even tell there was once a flower bed there.  The bricks look so tidy now without all that junk  overgrown mess Hawthorne covering them up.  It should look pretty nice after we get it all done.