Freaky Friday

Thus far, I have been accused of having a rather mean sense of humor, being unable to stop laughing at things that are, at best, disturbing, been accused of liking math when I was young (well, I will fess up to liking algebra now)...and all of this by my nicest daughter.  I dread what will happen to me when I venture upstairs.

Forgot to mention yesterday that I also got an electric shock when I was up on my roof, cleaning out the gutters.  I'm just glad I didn't topple off.

Gotta sluice off the twins and take them to the doctor's, then come back and come up with 7 costumes for a party tonight.  My favorite for myself was sort of looked down upon so I will now be wearing a sari.  B-O-R-I-N-G.

Here's a quiz by Melanie.  Y'all be good now!

Subject: Mobile cell phone quiz
Your mission :Get your phone out...and if you already had your phone within arms length - you are tagged.

01. What color is it?
Black.  And grey.  Yeppers.

02. Who is the first person that comes up under the letter M?
Mark & Sherri D.

03. Who is the last person you called?
Um, yeah, well, this is a little embarrassing.  I called the house phone, upstairs, because Abby and Rachel were not doing their schoolwork.  I am downstairs, helping Sarah with her algebra and wasn't going to go up there for a while so I thought I'd remind them that their hineys were on the line.

04. Who was your last missed call from?
Probably Friend Husband

05. Who is the 2nd person who comes up under A?
Amy

06. Who is speed dial #2?
Friend Husband's cell phone

07. Who is the 3rd person who comes up under J?
Janet's cell

08. Who was your last received call from?
Friend Husband

09. Who is speed dial #3?
Home

10. What is your background?
Kind of a rose and tannish sort of picture that looks frilly and woody but is (obviously) abstract.

11. How many text messages are currently in your Inbox?
None.

12. Who is speed dial #1?
It's preset to be the number for voice mail.

13. What does the 5th message in your Inbox say?
I don't have one.

14. Who is the first person that comes up under B?
Barb (the piano teacher)

15. Who was your last text message from?
We don't have text enabled.  We're Luddites that way.

16. Name every person you have text messages from:
See # 15

17. Who do you have the most received calls from?
Friend Husband

19. What does the 6th message in your Outbox say?
See # 15

20. Who is the first person in your phone book?
Amber (my sil)

21. Who is the last name in your Phonebook?
Watsons

22. Do you have a camera phone?
Nope, see # 15, re the Luddite thing.

23. Who is the last person under G?
Gloria

24. What does the first text message in your inbox say?
See # 15

25. Where do you usually carry your phone ?
In my front pocket, if I have a pocket.  I won't share where I store it if I am pocketless for it would inspire more abuse from my daughters.

Oh, and now my previously kind daughter is asking me if I know how to do the math that I'm advising her on.  Yeah, that would be the math that I got right and she got wrong.  I'm outta here.

Tagged

Waaaay back at the end of September, Janet tagged me for this "unspectacular things about me" entry. And I'm just now getting to it. Two weeks? Sounds about right for me these days. So here we go, 6 unspectacular things about me.

Here are six unspectacular things about me:

1. I can only have self-discipline about one or two things at a time. Everything else has to coast.

2. I always thought I'd be a "career woman", not a housewife. I never even conceived of "homemaker" as a career.

3. I love deeply and passionately but if you do something to make me distrust you, it's very hard for me to get back to the vicinity of where it was before the breach.

4. I would like to learn to speak Swedish.

5. When I was in high school, I thought that reading all of the classics in literature would make me a well-educated person. I started collecting them then. I've read a lot of them but I've since given up the notion that it makes me well-educated.

6. I like old-fashioned things and have endeavored to learn old-fashioned skills, like canning, rug-braiding, knitting, quilting, sewing, etc. I would love to learn to play the dulcimer.

I tag Cherylyn, Cousin Monica, Barb, Allison, Sarah, and whomever else wants to do this. While I am thankful for my regular readers, since I haven't been blogging (or commenting) regularly, I feel weird about tagging a bunch of people.

Meme terms & conditions:

1. link the person who tagged you
2. mention the rules on your blog
3. list 6 unspectacular things about you
4. tag 6 other bloggers

I am sick. And a tag. And no Thursday Thirteen :-(

Well, I got to see part of the lunar eclipse yesterday, before totally collapsing. Bummer that this illness had to bonk me over the head last night. Oh well.

I don't know exactly what's wrong. I think it might just be a sinus infection now, but it really had me going last night. Friend Husband (who is not 100% himself) stayed home from his job to do mine so I can get some rest. He and 80% of the children are at the store right now with probably 100% of our little town. Yep, more white death on the way tonight. Lovely.

Oh, and we have no heat in the house. Did I mention that? No? Well, it's true. We're having to wrap up the fish tanks in blankets to retain their heat and the bowls are now residing on my heating pad, so hopefully they'll stay alive until we get more oil in our oil tank. We overestimated the amount of oil in there by 1 day. They're supposed to come fill it today so hopefully we'll be ok for the storm tonight.

Thanks for the helpful boy comments and suggestions. Sounds like I need to make him burn off energy quite often and be more lightly punitive more often. We'll give it a whirl. He was "better" yesterday and Daddy is wearing him out today so he should be fine. (He so loves his Daddy!)

Lori (the other one, not me) tagged me with this:

Here are the Rules:

You must post the rules before you give your answers. You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, post a new blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details).

Ample. 'Nuff said.

Nutty.

Neat-o (this one from Friend Husband, my brain is really fried)

(How many thousands of "Lori Ann's" were there in the 60's? Yeesh.)

Ok, I'm tagging Daughter Sarah, Daughter Rachel, and Cousin Monica. How's that for nepotism? Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to saunter off to bed. Maybe I'll find my brain there. It seems to be AWOL.

Monday Memories and a tag

Lori tagged me (sounds like I've got a split personality and am running around tagging myself) for this...

1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.

2. Post these rules on your blog.

3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself

4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

Seven random or weird things about me, in the style of Monday Memories:

1.  I have been depressed pretty much all of my life.  The last 3 or 4 years have been unusually bad, though.  I am thankful that it seems to be abating thanks to prayer, meditation, mediation, and medication. 

2.  I have double-jointed knees and fingers (but not thumbs or elbows).  I can touch my pinky fingers to the backs of my hands.

3.  When I was in high school, I wanted to be a high school lit teacher.  One of my high school lit teachers dissuaded me from doing that and I decided that I wanted to be a psychologist.

4.  I can knit and tat but crocheting is beyond me.

5.  I find it quite difficult to do anything mindless without a book to accompany me.  When I have to brush my hair (which is quite the task, given how long and thick it is), I read while I do it.  I have to fight myself not to read while I'm drying off after a shower and getting dressed.

6.  I minored in Middle Eastern Studies because I wanted to study Israeli military history.  It never occurred to me that I could just read stuff and educate myself.

7.  I love history and studies of different cultures.

Well, I guess this turned out to be less of a "Monday Memories" thing.  I was thinking about the answers last night as I was nodding off and of course, didn't write them down.

I tag whoever wishes to do this (sorry, cop-out, I know, but a lot of people resent tags) and especially Sarah and Shawn, if she isn't too offended by doing tags.

Tagged!

I love being tagged! I guess I didn't exactly get tagged but I did tell Robyn that she could ask me some interview questions and I'd answer them. So here goes:

1. Are there more adoptions in your future? Well, I don't know. I rather doubt it, but I didn't think I'd be adopting ever, so I won't say no completely.

2. What is the weirdest thing you've done that you'll admit to? Well, here's the first one I can think of. You know how you park really far away because there are no close spaces and then when you are nearing the place where you want to be, there's one open, right up front? I will run to it, fling my arms wide, and say, "Hurry, hurry, go get the car!" So far, it embarrasses the biggest girls quite satisfactorily and it always makes Friend Husband smile.

3. What is the Sisters of the Traveling Skirts all about? Beats me! I know it's a bunch of fun gals from our brotherhood so I joined it when I moved over to this blog. I don't know anything about it other than that. I guess it's just another blogring.

4. Is your calendar always on the correct day/month? Yes and no. My monthly calendar (aka, "Mommy's brain") is always on the correct month. The daily calendar which is in my kitchen window is usually on the correct day but that's because Sarah usually rips off the old day for me.

5. What is your favorite book you read as a child? I loved and read the entire Little House series over and over and over. I still know large parts of it by heart. I so wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. (I even dreamed about it last night, after writing this blog...)

6. What place outside the United States would you like to visit and why? Well, I've long desired to live in Israel for a period of time, visiting and getting to know the tenor of the place as well as just feeling like a part of the crowd. My minor in college was Middle Eastern Studies with a specialization in Israeli military history and Judaism and there are so many places I'd love to see.

Nowadays I think it might be neat to visit the village in Ethiopia where the twins were born and see how their family lived. If I could meet up with people who knew their birth family, all the better. I feel a big hole for them there and also for us. Who do they look like? What talents did their parents and grandparents have? What stories did they pass down that didn't make it to the twins? So much potential there, both for joy and for sadness.

7. What is your favorite way of spending time with your family? Well, I like it when we're all outside doing our thing but within sight of each other. I'm probably gardening or knitting, the twins are playing with their toys or running around, Rachel's riding her bike or climbing the tree, Abby's "thinking", Sarah's reading and Doug is just sitting there, looking at everyone. I also like it when we're all in the same room reading or listening to Doug read aloud. I even like it when we're watching old dvd's together because it doesn't happen too often.

8. What two things could you not do when you were a child, but you can do now? I assume this means other than driving and working crowd control on my children and the neighborhood children. Let's see: I'm a really good cook and I can do a lot of crafts that I couldn't do when I was a child. I taught myself to embroider and cross-stitch when I was young but I didn't quilt, tat, or knit.

Now its your turn to play if you wish!

Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." I will respond by asking you five, six, ten or a dozen (why be limited?) questions. I get to pick the questions, and I will message you with them and these directions. Just update your blog with the answers to the questions and include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five or however many questions.