The mild-mannered English guy.

The Barefoot Foodie  shared this site yesterday and it made me LMAO. 'Cept I still have an plentiful ass, but you know what I mean.

http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/

Enjoy! :)

Wait. What?

I was "shopping" Craigslist this morning and clicked on an ad for a pickup truck. I love ads with lots of pictures--I want to see something before wasting my time going to look at it in person. I want to know that the pickup truck I buy is roomy enough to carry a kangaroo.  

Kangaroo not included. 

Oh hai. 

I might buy it just because of the commericals.

I love to laugh. I love stupid humor. It appeals to me. The other day, I came across this commercial online: 

Hilarious! It seems as if they have a whole bunch of other dumb humor commercials like it. A couple more of my favorites:

Which kind of reminds me of this in a really weird, unrelated way:

Have a drink on me.

I have an unhealthy obsession with portable drinking vessels. Containers in which to transport liquid with me both around the home and when out and about. I never want to be caught without something to drink. You never know when you'll need it. Even if you think you won't--"it's just a short trip across town" you say, when suddenly you vurp with nothing around to drink. Ew.

We aren't the type of people that grab a new glass each time we want a drink. We each have our own and that's what we continuously drink out of all day long. I have high standards for these particular vessels.

1. It must be insulated. No sweating allowed. I want it to keep my water cold for hours. I love cold water. I don't love drinking room temperature or warm water.

2. It must be non-porous, non-leaching and BPA free. In fact, I have said in times past that it must be stainless steel, but I did stray from that briefly. I really, really prefer stainless steel.

3. Since my quest for the perfect drinking container includes the other 3 members of my family, I prefer that they come in different colors or designs, to be able to tell them apart.

4. Non-spill and very portable. Ideally, I can throw it, upside-down if I desire, into a bag or cooler and not have it spill all over.

Years ago, I found what I considered the perfect beverage holder. Behold the Thermos Foogo:

The Foogo was a dream. It literally kept the ice in my cup frozen overnight. It was easy to use--simply flip the lid with your thumb and drink out of straw. I should note that I love drinking out of a straw! Since they came in so many different colors and designs, both of my kids got one as well. They are very portable and non-spill. This was our go-to container for a few years. But...at just 12 ounces, we found we were emptying them quite quickly. Not such a big deal at home, but on the go, I was looking for something bigger.

In the meantime, I'd strayed from my number 1 standard: Insulated. I went ahead and tried both the Sigg and the Klean Kanteen bottles. Two issues with these were the sweating and the fact that my water went to room temperature very quickly. The Kleen Kanteens do fit our bicycle water bottle holders very well, so I have kept these around.

Still in love with the Thermos bottles, I found they made larger ones. Hooray! For my youngest, his current Foogo (in an Incredible Hulk print) still worked well for him, but I upgraded to the Thermos Intak:

This one doesn't have a straw, but a spout. I'm ok with a spout. This is 18 oz. so a whole 6 oz. more than the Foogo. I have loved this water bottle for a couple of years now.

THEN...we bought a new refrigerator. One with one of those water and ice thingies in the door. I love the ease of it, but our Thermos bottles have a more narrow opening. One that is not conducive to using the in-door ice dispenser (and getting ice out of the actual bin inside of the freezer is a colossal pain in the ass). *sigh* So...I then decided that we will use the Thermos cups for on-the-go and we would try something different for at home. Enter the plastic (but BPA free!) tumbler with straw.

This was a pretty good choice for home use. It had a wide-mouth for easy ice filling, double-walled for some insulating properties, came in many colors, had a cover in case of accidental spills or dog hair gone awry... Though our tumblers were working well for us at home, I had gotten kind of lazy about the on-the-go vessels. I found that I rarely brought my Thermos bottle in from the van and then when it was time to go again, I didn't want to go out there to get it, wash it out, refill it, etc. I found myself grabbing bottled water more often than I used to and that doesn't fit any of my standards!

I'd been eyeing these Contigo Autoseal stainless travel "mugs" (I wouldn't consider them mugs...there's no handle) at Costco for a while now. They come in 2 packs in nifty colors and they are pretty cheap. I finally  purchased a 2 pack (they had a coupon, making them even cheaper). I liked it so much, I went back and got 2 more. Now we have 4 in all different colors. They are stainless, insulated, portable/non-spill, have a wide enough opening for easy ice filling...pretty much the perfect vessel! We have all decided we will use them at home and on-the-go, eliminating the need for 8 different cups/bottles hanging out around the kitchen. My only complaint so far is that they are only 16 oz. and I would prefer a little bigger, but I'm sure it will be just fine.

Mine is purple. 

Saying goodbye.

Goodbyes are so hard. I just dropped a friend off at the hotel she is staying at one more night before flying to Florida. One way. She is moving.

For the better part of the past 2 years, she has been one of my closest friends. She is the one I chat with on Facebook every morning, despite living less than 1/2 mile away from eachother. She is the one I spend twice a week with for homeschool group, any time we go "out with the girls", we go together. I can't drive past her street without peeking down it. She has been such a presence in my everyday life. I've never had a friend move away before. It sucks.

I am so blessed to have known her for the time I have. I will miss her so very much. I love her.

My brush with fame.

Last week, I picked up my teenager from his friend's house. I'm also friends with his friend's mom, so I went in to chat for a bit. There was a guy in her kitchen, eating apple pie and ice cream. I'm used to various people coming in and out of their house so it didn't faze me at all. I didn't want to ask "and who might you be?" because I figured that was a bit rude and it was none of my business. I deduced that he was their guitar teacher, though, and by the time he left, I had learned he was driving to Texas that day for a "gig"--he was obviously in a band.

After he left, my friend told the story of how they found this guy, which included "we found someone else but she had a waiting list and so she gave us the name of this guy" and "we really like him--he's pretty cool". But what she didn't include was "he's the guitar player in the band that sings a song that you hear frequently on the radio".

I learned 2 days later when my teenager told me. I think it's pretty dang cool.

Chuck Testa

This cracks me up!

Music to my ears.

My friend Stacy has 4 amazing daughters. Here is her 15 year old daughter, Taylor, in one of her many videos on youtube. Check them all out under TaylorBaylor96.

*goosebumps*

For the Thrill of It

Theme parks and thrill rides are at the top of my most favorite things to do. We are pretty fortunate to live a few miles from a pretty dang awesome theme park. I grew up going there. Rollercoasters are my favorites, but this is my current favorite ride:

It gets me every time. When I'm riding it, I say things like "Oh shit" and end up apologizing to the person next to me and explaining to them that I have Tourettes Syndrome*. 

We are heading back to Disney World in January and I'm absolutely giddy about this. This will be my 4th time there--2 as a child and 2 as an adult. Even though we were just there 4 years ago, Jacob wasn't quite gutsy enough for some of the thrill rides and Owen wasn't quite tall enough, much to his dismay (he came out of the womb ready to conquer these rides). I'm thrilled to get to experience the rides there with them this time.

Our plan is to travel around the country in the upcoming years and visiting the various theme parks. I think it's a great plan. There are a lot of great theme parks scattered across the United States. 

*I don't really have Tourettes Syndrome. *blush*

Owenisms.

My youngest child is Owen. He will be 9 in December. I've affectionately referred to him as my "challenge" in the past. My Jacob was such an easy-going kid. Owen challenged me in ways I didn't think possible.

Fortunately, my response to it was to lighten up; to pick and choose my battles wisely. I'm so thankful that I chose that route instead of trying hard to control him to be something he wasn't.

The part of his personality that made him a challenge as a toddler/preschooler has made him this amazing person to be around today. He lives life out loud. You never really have to wonder what he's thinking or feeling because you just know. If you don't know, he'll tell you. He's fearless and headstrong and just a cool guy.

Years ago, my mother and I coined the term "Owenisms". Oh how I wish I'd journaled them all along. I should have been a blogger then so I could look back on them and laugh my ass off all over again. I plan on randomly sharing my Owenisms here as I remember them or as he comes up with them.

One of the fun things about homeschooling him is to read some of the things he comes up with in his schoolwork. And what's great about it is that I can just take pictures of them and upload them to the internet to share with others. He'd be so pissed if he knew I was doing that. ;)

Second grade, age 8 Language Arts.

This is what I got to say goodnight to one night.

Hi Mom!

New girl.

Welcome to my new blog! :) I guess I'll start by introducing myself. I'm Rachel. I'm 35 years old, female, and an only child. I'm married to Bryant. We met in high school and have been together a mind-blowing 17 years now. We will be celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary in a little over a week.

We have 2 children--Jacob (almost 16) and Owen (almost 9). We (I) homeschool them. We are starting our 4th year of homeschooling. Bryant works full-time at a turf and forage seed company. I'm working as a server/bartender 3-4 nights/week. I love my job--it's fun and pays well. It's definitely not for everyone though. After being either unemployed or self employed for much of the past decade, it was a huge change to get used to working for someone else. I'm coming up on my 2 year anniversary and I'll be honest when I say that I'm actually still trying to get used to working outside the home.

This isn't my first blog. I wasn't a very good blogger. I mean...my writing was fine, I think. It was the content, or lack thereof. I didn't feel like there was anything noteworthy in my life to write about. But there is and I really want to blog. I want to chronicle my life and my kids' lives, however mundane it may feel at the time. I want to look back on it in the future and giggle or cry or whatever one does when reading their "journal" years later. So...let the blogging begin. :)