June Cleaver Nirvana

This is what the inside of my fridge looks like:

Image borrowed from www.rinovelty.com


If you want something near the back of the fridge you need to decide how many moves it will take to get to that position. It is a serious game of strategy.



I am out shopping and will return later...

Happy Black Friday!

We visited Thanksgiving Square in Dallas this week. The photos are from our visit. The words are from their plaques.




The path of Life



is sometimes uphill.



What can help us?



Make us look up?



JUST one grateful thought



--that changes everything.

Hi honey, I'm home!

Notice anything different?

To the right?

To the left?

Up?

Down?

I know! I know! I am in love with my new place. It has the right balance between color and black and white, retro and today, perkiness and angst (OK, it might be a little light on the angst, but who needs a whole bunch of angst anyway?).

Can I just say that Nap Warden is the most patient, long-suffering, capable, level-headed, creative person I have worked with in a very long time.

And NICE. So NICE. Probably too NICE. She could write a giant essay...maybe even a book about what a pain I have been about this.

Here is my side of the story. I love my blog. I loved the way it looked but wanted to make a change. I wanted my blog to scream "HOLLY!".

Nap Warden did an amazing job. She designed a fabulous look that I ALMOST had her install last week. Then at the last minute I changed my mind...

And then started at square one again. She was so sweet that her obvious head banging and cursing in the general direction of Texas did not translate in her emails.

After another week of emails, scans, links and marker drawings, this is what we came up with.

I love it.

This is what a visual scream "HOLLY!" looks like (today).

Thank you Nap Warden. I will release you from any designer-client privilege to tell your tale of woe. You might even want to develop some sort of screening process to assure you never have another high-maintenance-like-Holly client.

We are She is not done. We have several more things that are being added:

-I will be all official at my very own .com address
-I will have Feedburner installed properly (unlike the unsuccessful attempts of my past)
-I will have email subscriptions available (mom)
-I am changing to Haloscan for comments so that I can more easily track you down
-and a few more things that hopefully will make things easier

Please hang in there while the kinks are worked out.

And go visit Nap Warden who will be very available in a few days. After me, you will be a breeze...

*Please, please act normal when you enter. DO NOT mention what went down here two days ago. I am going to carry on as if nothing happened. You know how Mondays can get...*
Happy Monday. You know what that means...(electronic drum roll from Rock Band creating oodles of points needed to unlock better songs)...POTLUCK! Yeah! Today I am contributing Herb Sliders featured on this week's menu plan at Blissfully Domestic. I am on my way to Target to get the supplies and if the kids all take 4 hour naps this afternoon I might be able to pull this off. The 4 hour time frame is in no way a reflection of the recipe author, it is more about user error. I love the IDEA of cooking, it is the EXOCUTION that worries me. The word "exocution" is a perfect fit in that sentence. So, if you are hungry now and need snacks there are a few leftover goldfi...shhhhhh.

There are several handwritten home made signs on posts (the kind that you would see for garage sale advertisement) at busy intersections nearby that read "2 Cool 4 Skool Home Daycare" followed by a phone number that is a cell number. Let me just make these bold statements: If you are selecting your child's daycare off of homemade signs sporting cell numbers at busy intersections, childcare may be the least of your problems. And to the "2 Cool" people...LOOK UP! There is a Kinkos right there! Go get a real sign!

This made me laugh very hard from Watch Me Christine. Which brings up the fancy new widget I am displaying to the right. It is my top ten most favoite recent posts and it is updated minutely regularly. Most these things are very, very funny because really, who can't use a good chuckle? So if you are bored and looking for a laugh, I have done all the work for you and searched out the most current giggles off my reader.

Speaking of work, my blogroll is currently under construction because it was the blogroll I designed when I had one non-relative reader. Please be distracted by the fancy new widget!

Thanks to Frog Ponds Rock for this sweet bouquet. I love visiting her site for the scenery. It is like a mini vacation.I would like to pass it on to everyone who made a comment on this post. I nearly fainted dead away...47 people! Thank you soooooo much. You have no idea how cool that is (Ok, some of you know how cool that is on a regular basis, but not me). And, if you go comment now to put me over 50 there is a bouquet of flowers in it for ya (is that too greedy?) So here I am again exceeding my blog spending limit, but no one carted me off to blogjail last time...can I say repeat offender? Someone should really write a manual so I know the rules.

WAHHH. WAHHH. Sniffle, sniffle, slurp. WAHHH. You know when WAHHH the WAHHH phone WAHHH rings and WAHHH Sniffle, sniffle, slurp WAHHH it is WAHHHH someone WAHHHH you need WAHHHH to WAHHHH tell WAHHHH something WAHHHH sniffle, sniffle, slurp WAHHHH but you WAHHHH can't get WAHHHH WAHHHH WAHHHH it sniffle, sniffle, slurp out WAHHHH WAHHHH WAHHHH not WAHHHH even WAHHHHH sniffle, slurp, sniffle one WAHHHH WAHHHH WAHHH word WAHHHH WAHHHH over sniffle, sniffle WAHHHH the WAHHHH WAHHHH crying, WAHHHHH sniffle, slurp, sniffle, WAHHHH not WAHHHH even during WAHHHH WAHHHH the WAHHHHH WAHHHHHH baby's WAHHHHH noisy WAHHHHHH inhales? WAHHHH WAHHHH WAHHHH yep WAHHHHH WAHHHH that WAHHHHH is WAHHHHHH WAHHHHH WAHHHHH how my WAHHHH WAHHHH WAHHHH sniffle, sniffle, slurp WAHHH morning WAHHHHH WAHHHH is WAHHHHH WAHHHH going WAHHHHH WAHHHHHH sniffle, sniffle, slurp WAHHHHH How WAHHHHH WAHHHH are WAHHH WAHHH you? WAHHHHH WAHHHHH sniffle Thanks WAHHHHHHH WAHHHHH for WAHHHHHH stopping WAHHHH WAHHHHH by. Sniffle, sniffle....

Today I am contributing cherry frosted pop-tarts gently toasted in honor of this historic time and place where Monday potlucks have its own badge. Thanks to the mad skillz of Nap Warden my little potluck looks a lot yummier. Check out her NW Designs for some really cool projects (please don't tell her that her prices are VERY reasonable until she is done with my very long to-do list).

Thanks to Burgh Baby's Mom for this fun valentine. I would like to pass it on to Jodi, M2B, HC, Jen and Fussy in honor of this new site--TODAY.

Last week I was in Williams-Sonoma and overheard this end of a cell phone conversation delivered by a very well dressed, very tall man: "It is just a matter of time until the word gets out and then Wal-Mart is going down". WHAT? You heard it first here... Wal-Mart is going down.

Dear Lunchables,
I don't buy you, but blog-Stedman sometimes does the shopping over which I have no control (deep cleansing breaths) so please take note that when you label every package inside with "Congratulations" you have won my 6 y/o who can read such things goes wild. It then takes 20 minutes to explain to him that a one month subscription to some online gaming site isn't really much of a prize. It is NOT NICE to parents. And what part of Nachos is real food?
Holly

I don't mean to be a complainer, but it is going to be 80 degrees today. Feb. 4? What happened to "in-between" temps?

Disclaimer: Blogger spell check is still not operating so please forgive my inability to spell correctly.

After watching a full day of PBSkids on Friday, I will have to say that pretty much everything on that channel is awful. The more recent crop of children's programming seems to find it necessary to "engage its audience" by asking them questions in the middle of the story. This is what it looks like at my house...
Perky TV animal shouts while looking in the camera "Hey, what is your favorite color?"
In my living room are 3 boys staring but stone silent.
Perky TV animal responds, "Oh! I LOOOOOOVE that color. You are such a good color picker"
In my living room are 3 boys staring but stone silent.
Perky TV animal sings, "Lets all do the rainbow dance! First you move your arms and legs..."
In my living room are 3 boys staring but stone silent.
Perky TV animal stops dancing to state, "Wow! You do the rainbow dance better then anyone I have ever seen! Good job, Friend!"
In my living room are 3 boys staring but stone silent.
ENOUGH. Stop trying to "Interact" with my children AT HOME THROUGH THE TV! Stop trying to "build up their self-esteem" with stupid affirmative statements after they have contributed NOTHING. And above all, TV CHARACTERS ARE NOT FRIENDS!
*Fade to black*

I want to thank the talent behind my new header. I started searching the web for ones I liked. I ran across two that I thought were pretty great and found that they were designed by the same person. She graciously agreed to take on my project--which you know me--turned into a PROJECT! So, thank you very much Wee Little Designs! Please check out her website for the coolest photocards. Thanks again!