Tri Beta

Beta Beta Beta! 

Say it with me..

Beta Beta Beta! 

Yeppers!

She is now a member of the honors Biology society at her university.

Freshmen year.

She was inducted last night.

We could not be more proud.

Way to go Squirrel.

Love you honey and miss you so much.

<3 Mom and Dad

Please...Give Me Sumthin' and You Win a Prize!

This is a pretty basket, right?

It is one of those Longabergers I was talking about the other day.

It has both the plastic and cloth liners inside the basket.

This baby rocks!

 Yeah. But, still....it has TEN sections....

And I ask myself....

What to do, what to do?

It is about 1.5 ft x 1 ft.

[Read: HUGE in the "Storage Land of Life"]

Each section holds about 3 cups of sumthin'.

And it is the sumthin' I am having a problem with because this is the one basket I am not selling or gifting - but I want to DO sumthin' with it.

There's a theme here gang. 
Try to deal with it.
 Or, please, just tolerate me. 
Either works. 
::wink::

Do I serve food in it? Do I store stuff in it?  What?

Ideas.
Please.
Ideas would be good.
Great even.

So ... Tadpoles - I need your best idea of what to do with this dang thing.

Please comment with what you think would be the greatest purpose of this useless wonderful heirloom piece.

The person with the suggestion that works the best for us will win their own Longaberger basket from my stash.

This isn't a comment and random pick entry - you have to be creative and come up with SUMTHIN'. Bonus points if you make us laugh. :)

Knock my socks off Tadpoles.
I need the ingenuity that y'all give me everyday - you can solve this.

*One suggestion per person.

Who Knew It Only Took Law and Order: SVU to Parent Your Child?

Evidently not I.

A bit of history if you will indulge me.
[Please do, otherwise you will be walking down a blind alley. hee]

Our little collegiate who wanted to venture to Oklahoma for an internship has now changed her mind and decided that perhaps an internship in Pennsylvania will be better. [And before anyone - NMM - accuses me of trying to change her mind, I did not. She realized OK was a bit far for even her.]

Soooo - University of Penn comes up and she informs us that she will be attending this internship and will be taking the Greyhound bus to get there and back.

Excuse me?  Did you say you were taking the Greyhound young lady?  ::finger in the ear wiggling::

Uh, no.

Tadpoles if you read that link or, well...if you have EVER been on a freakin' Greyhound bus you realize why we told her no. Nope. Uh-uh and pretty much absolutely not, over-my-dead-body-there-will-be-no-discussion-missy. End.of.story.

We told her we would happily drive her to Pennsylvania or buy her a ticket on a plane, but the bus was not an option.  Mom's been there, done that and nearly lost her t-shirt. NO.

She threw the "I am 18 years old and can do what I want card" at us.

Then her Noni [Grandmother] tossed in her two cents and those pennies hit the wall [and stuck] with a resounding "NO."

Still - Squirrel held fast and firm.

Until today.

Thank goodness she has a crush on this man:

Chrisopher Meloni
aka: Detective Elliot Stabler
Law & Order: SVU
Courtesy of the Busy Bee

As my daughter watches the show religiously she did so today and the 4:00 episode resulted in this phone call [and yes, since I am a fan too, I was watching it ]:

::ring ring::

Mom:  "Hello honey."

Squirrel:  "OMG MOM I AM NEVER RIDING GREYHOUND. EVER. EVER. EVER."

Mom:  ::laughing:: "Wait. What. Are you watching SVU because I just saw that scene too."

[Then the heavens parted, the angels sang and I thanked the gods of cable because she said:]

Squirrel:  "Yes Mom. OMG - the PEDOPHILE got on the bus after being released from prison and he sat with the little girl that was Wallene's age! MOM, MOM, MOM! MOMMMMMMMMM!"

Mom: [trying not to sound too happy] "Oh, okay.  We'll take you to Pennsylvania. No worries."

Squirrel: ::sigh of relief::  "Thanks Mom."

SVU = 1 Greyhound = 0

Thank you Detective Stabler.

[I am still giggling. YAY!]

I Am Not Blogging Today Nah-Nah!

Because the ever wonderful Slightly Cranky Waitress has given me a guest spot on her fabulous blog.

Go visit - she is one of my oldest/youngest* Tadpoles and a great read.

Pooldad and I are off to look at [yet] more houses.

Wish us luck and have a great Saturday gang!



*been reading eachother for years/she is a young'un :)

Can You Please Stop Dying and/or Downsizing?

'Cause my house is running out of room.

I am not a hoarder, but lately I am starting to feel as tho' I am.  Everytime I manage to purge a full house of stuff someone else passes away or decides to move and give all their stuff to us.

The past 8 years have gone like this:

My father passed away in 2003 and we were gifted with a shed full of tools, golf clubs, golf balls and various knick knacks. All of this has come in handy and we use them.

My mother moved in 2004 and we were blessed with furniture, pictures, kitchen ware and more knick knacks.  

Okay, THAT was a lot of stuff.

We were granted a breather for a few years. 

We found time to organize, donate, sell and gift the stuff we were given.

It was nice. 

For a while.

Then my beloved in laws downsized in the summer of 2010 and the mother load showed up at our house.  It took us six weeks to find a place for all of it. It was insane, but these are my husband's childhood memories so they stay.

One month later my Mom was gone and my sister scared me when she sent me a list of everything we were supposed to retrieve from Mom's South Carolina home.

Don't get me wrong - the stuff is nice. Really nice.  But they aren't my collections and most of it doesn't hold much sentimental value to me.  Am I awful for being that way?  These are things that she collected later in life that I wasn't really around - so I can't point at it and say "Remember when......."

 

I know I could keep it for the kids and some people have suggested it, but they have no attachment to the stuff either.  And I don't want to have to keep moving all of it or storing it until the kids are settled.

Sounds like ebay and Craigslist are in my future.

Longaberger anyone?

Questions, questions, questions

Okay, I have 3.

First, can anyone explain how in the span of a mere 3 hours, while I was napping, I went from 83 followers to 121 followers?  Tadpoles, you guys know me - I don't really pay attention to numbers or followers or blog hits - I don't bribe people to follow me or come around - and it's not that I don't love you all, but I write this blog for our family and to keep in touch with you guys.

So a jump like that has me scratching my head.  Was there some kind of tour bus that stopped by here yesterday I don't know about? Some school field trip that I didn't get the memo to?

I wouldn't have even noticed that it passed 100, but Pooldad has been teasing me that I would hit 100 before June.  I just shook my head. Nuh-uh, wasn't happening.  I have no idea where 38 new Tadpoles came from in such a short period of time.  Thrilled, of course, but just a little perplexed. [And no, I am not a "blog of note" thank goodness.]  Anyway - welcome to everyone and thanks for hanging out in the pond with us.

Second, what is it with portion size?  Here's my problem.  Pooldad bought 72 oz of chicken quarters the other day [legs/thighs]. Once we cut them up we had 8 pieces weighing in a 9 oz. each.  It looked like I was frying ostrich parts - they were huge.  A healthy serving of protein is 6 oz. so if the family was to eat their average of two pieces they would be eating the equivalent 3 servings each!  We were all pretty much full after one monster piece, but if you normally eat 2 pieces, as most us do [I mean, it IS fried chicken], is it any wonder weight gain is a problem in this country?  Where are these mutant chickens coming from and why do they have to breed them so large? Really makes me wish we could raise our own.

Finally, let's talk about perplexing.  As in, Chris Brown does not make sense to me.  If you don't know who he is - he is a 21 year old singer who was arrested for beating his girlfriend, Rhianna, a few years back. And when I say he beat her, he really beat her. Restraining order type beating.  Well, he was on "Good Morning America" yesterday and he didn't like the interviewer's questions regarding his ex-girlfriend. He kept insisting he was just there to promote his new album.  Okay, fair - I can respect that and he wasn't rude to the host and he did perform.  It was when the show was over and he went into his dressing room that he let his true colors show. He picked up a chair and broke out a plate glass window, showering the sidewalk and pedestrians below with broken glass.  Class act, eh?  What I want to know is what do people see in him?  Why is this type of mentality accepted and even applauded?  He keeps getting record deals and tours and people are buying his albums.  It is just like Charlie Sheen - who got away with beating and threatening his wife, but kept his [$2 million per episode] job until he went way over the edge.  I think someone needs to step up and get the young man some help because obviously the court ordered anger management classes didn't take.

How's that for being all over the place this morning?  Just some things that were on my mind and I thought you guys might want to share your thoughts.

Happy Hump day gang. Let's make it the best one we can. :)

Wowser - 60 Is Looking Great....

....on Kirstie Alley.

I was absolutely stunned to discover, while watching "Dancing With the Stars", that Ms. Alley is 60 years old.

I do realize that there is make up and a stylist involved, but c'mon.
We should all look this good at 60!
I couldn't believe her birthday was really January 12, 1951.

I have always enjoyed her work - she was great on "Cheers"  and although the pool is a little shallow this season on DWTS - I will continue to watch to cheer on her and Ralph M. [The real "Karate Kid"].

Yes, yes...I know. It's DWTS!

But, in my defense, I have very few guilty pleasures and our family loves watching this show.

Think of it as a bonding moment. :D

Have a fabulous Tuesday Tadpoles.