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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Take Me Home Country Roads

(Journal Prompt: List 10 things that arouse a fond memory of the past.)

One of the biggest things that brings memories to my mind is music.  There are many songs that will instantly take me back in time.

*"I'll Be" by Edwin McCain.  Our song.  My first dance song.  When I hear it, I remember the first time that Lee told me, "I love you"

*"Free" by Zac Brown Band.  Jake's "best song".    When I hear this song, I think of my Jake singing.  I will always remember this as his first "best song".

*AC/DC music.  High School.  Angela Boitnott.  Cruising Williamson Road.  Carefree fun days.

*"Dirty Dancing" movie soundtrack.  High School.  Angela Tolley.  Sitting on top of the motor home.  Stalking the neighbor boy.  Silly string.

*"Take Me Home Country Roads" by John Denvar.  When I hear this song, I think of my grandparents, Freda/Clemmer Smith.  I remember singing this in their living room.  It is also recorded on tape.  :)

*"Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down.  My sis.  Paula Layman.  Two boys we were babysitting.  Driving down Main St., Salem.  Singing at the tops of our lungs.  Fun times. (Cayman)

*"Brown-Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison.  When I hear this song, I think of my baby girl, Julz.  She is my brown-eyed girl. My beautiful, Julz.

*(incomplete at this time....too tired to think of other songs right now.)

Opposites Attract

Simple vs. Not simple


Good enough vs. Not good enough


Outside vs. Inside


Plain vs. Fancy


Real tree vs. Artificial tree


Truck vs. Car


Needs vs. Wants

Early bird vs. Night Owl



Glitter

(Journal Prompt: Are you a matte person or a shiny person? why?)

I am definitely a "shiny" person.  "Matte" is dull.  I don't want to be dull.  I love to be a little different from everyone else.  Not in a wild outlandish way, but just small ways.  A special piece of jewelry.  Glitter on my nails.  A fun color eyeshadow.  Funky hair.  Shimmer on my skin.  A fancy pen.  A pink notepad.  A fun font. Funky socks. Tattoos. Piercings.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

What's in a name? JAF

I have a coworker who is really into genealogy and recently we were talking about how the old german families had reasons for why they named their children certain names.  Such as the first born son was named after a certain family member, etc.  It got me to thinking about how these days people choose names for so many different reasons, not because it's always been done a certain way and this child has to be named after his maternal great, great grandfather.  


When I was younger I had some names picked out for when I had children.  Mostly names that I just "liked".  Nothing really special about them.  Well, I take that back, there was a boy name that I had picked out that was the name of my grandfather's brother that died at a young age.  And the name from a Titanic movie character.  Then there was a middle name I had thought of using that belonged to a child I loved very much from a past relationship (I was kind of like her stepmom).


When I became pregnant the first time we had discussed many different options.  I wanted to somehow connect my children to my stepson.  At first we had talked about using his middle name "Austin", but he didn't like the idea of us using his name.  So then I had thought of doing a rhyming name.  He is Joey, so Chloe or Zoey would have been cute girl names.  But, no other boy names really rhymed with Joey.  So we had to come up with a plan for if the baby was a boy.  So that is when I thought of using the same initials.  So then we had to narrow down all the choices for boy names that start with "J".  I also wanted it to be four letters like Joey (even though his name is really "Joseph", he goes by "Joey" and has always been "Joey" to me.)  So we finally decided on "Jake Alexander".  Next time we got pregnant we found out that we were having a girl.  We had a really hard time agreeing on a name for her.  Lee was on board with the JAF initials, but we weren't agreeing on the name.  Since we already had "Jo--" and "Ja--", I wanted to use either "Je--", "Ji--" or "Ju--".  Lee really liked "Jena" (pronounced Jenna), but I was afraid people wouldn't say it right.  I also wanted my baby girl to have a special, unusual name.  I liked the name Jewel, and one day came across the spelling "Julz" online and really liked it.  Lee had to really be talked into it, though he loves it now.  So Lee got to pick the middle name....so many great "A" names for girls.  So we ended up with "Julz Alaina".  If we ever have anymore kids....which I seriously doubt....if it was a girl, Lee would get his "Jena" and if it was a boy I'd pick "Jett".

Love and Hate?

Can you love someone and at that same time hate them?  can you love them for always, but hate behaviors and things they say and do?

Comments please.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

What not to do with your pumpkin....

So we got our pumpkins, the kids picked just the right ones....not the ones I would  have picked, lol.  Anyway, we opened them, scooped out the mess....yummy roasted seeds (my fav part).  


Then we put them on the dining room table on my fav placemats.  And then they sat and sat and sat for one week....then tonight I decided to move them.....omg, naaassstttyyyy....they were all soft and moldy and had leaked nastiness onto my beautiful placemats....ick!  Note to self:  next year when you get pumpkins you should actually carve them and then put them outside!