Did you know? And an update on the kiddos

Hello all! As many of you know, I love useless information and have all sorts of crazy facts running around in my head. This is also why the Science Channel and Animal Planet are my 2 favorite channels, the shows on there are just chock full of interesting stuff. I'm thinking it's probably a good thing that I don't have the History Channel or we would all be in trouble. Anyway, I've been sucked into the black hole of How It's Made/ How They Do It shows along with Survivorman and Against the Elements. I do learn some really interesting stuff. Do I think that I could survive in the wilderness like Les Stroud on Survivorman? Only if the wilderness has a Holiday Inn.

However, it's fascinating to watch as Les survives for a week by himself with no food, no crew, no nothing! He would be a handy guy to have around if I ever got up the gumption to go hiking in the Canadian wilderness (which we all know would NEVER happen). I have learned that having a fire is the most important thing about surviving and that I can carry a fire from place to place by placing an ember in some tinder and rolling it in bark. Then, when I get to my destination, unroll and blow on the ember a little bit, instant fire!

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to share with y'all a few interesting pieces of information that I've found out lately and have been rattling around in my head.

Did you know that glass is not classified as a solid? It's actually a super cooled liquid! Don't ask me why it's classified as that, I don't know, something about the molecules not being stable.

Did you know that a slushy machine keeps the slushy stuff at 27 degrees? It doesn't freeze because the sugar molecules in the slushy mix get in the way of the water molecules bonding to form ice. Thus, slushy. Isn't that the neatest thing?

Did you know that the bowhead whale has the largest mouth in the animal kingdom? Did you know that the huge mountain range in the ocean dwarfs mountain ranges on land put together?

Fascinating stuff! Anyway, a quick update on the kiddos as well. Kiersten has been nominated to go to Europe by her science teacher. Yes, you read correctly, EUROPE!!! Don't know if she'll be picked or if she is, if she will go-that's a bit expensive and far away. Jared has a serious entrepreneurial (I think I spelled that correctly) streak. He and a friend of his are drawing comic books to sell to their classmates. They're about 4 uncommon superheros (Super Grandpa, some lightening guy, a cow lady and somebody else I can't remember off the top of my head). The cow lady has a "sonic moo" which incapacitates evil foes. Funny! My kids are great and I am blessed to be their mom.

That's about it for this week. Peace and love y'all!

Can you speak Southern?

When I married my DH, little did I know that I was in for constant ribbing about my southern accent. You see, Mike comes from a long line of Westerners (on his dad's side) with a solitary Southern belle as his mom. Thus, the crazy western accent ended up being his accent. People are constantly amazed that we genteel southern belles can draw out a relatively simple one syllable word (take for instance jail) and turn it into a multi-syllable word that might go on for a few seconds (say it as I write it: Jayyyyy-ellll).

So, for all of y'all that don't speak Southern, I'm writing just a few entries for the Southern dictionary, so here goes------

y'all- noun, a group of people. As in: I love y'all. Also can be "all y'all" which means a bigger group of people. As in I love all y'all.

yonder-noun, over there. As in: I'm going over yonder.

fixin'-noun or verb. Noun usage: I like fried chicken with fixin's. Used in this context (which confused Mike greatly upon first hearing it) it means side dishes like mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, rice, whatever. Verb usage: I'm fixin' to get up. Used in this context means getting ready to do something.

cut-verb. Oh silly girl you say I know what cut means! Oh ho!!! Cut in Southern means turn on, i.e. cut on the light. Also can be used in the phrase "cut that out" which means stop doing that or you're going to get hurt.

Bless her/his/their heart(s)-I've explained this to my cousin and western sister Stephanie that you can say whatever about whomever and all is forgiven if you say "bless her heart" right after it. An example from long ago, the following statement was actually heard by myself at some time in the distant past (I'm typing like it sounds): I cain't beleeeeve she's waring wite shoos after Labor Daaay. Don't she no any bedderrrr? Bless her heart.

Bar-B-Q-This term is still a source of endless bickering after 11 years of marriage. To me, BBQ is what you eat, depending on where you're from it could be mustard, ketchup or vinegar based and it's usually on ribs. When Mike says Bar-B-Q, he means that thing that is outside of our house that you cook on, commonly called a grill.

crick-To me, a crick is something in your neck whenever you sleep wrong. To my wonderful DH, a crick is a trickling stream of water that you can fish in (I call that a creek).

I know that there are all sorts of little Southern words and phrases that I'm forgetting, but there's only so much room and time. The longer that Mike has lived down here, his western accent has faded and he's taking on a bit of a Southern accent (or so his family says-I can't tell).

It's funny that my accent gets worse when I'm tired (pronounced t-eye-ered) or have been at my granny's or with Crystal. Other than that, what accent are you talking about?

Peace and love y'all!

Me v. The Jeans

Dear Reader,
I have been looking for the perfect pair of jeans for some time now and have decided that they don't exist. After Sally chewed a hole in my favorite relaxed fit jeans, I had to go find another pair to go with my "going out" jeans. After searching long and hard, I thought I had found the perfect pair of Levi's. Sure, they were too long and if you tugged real hard they might just slide down, but who cares? So I bought two and washed one pair to try them out. Well, they're still too long (I was hoping I would grow a few inches but no) which doesn't bother me, but they're still just a tad loose. So, after much debate with myself, I'm going to take the second pair back.

My friend at work were discussing this the other day at lunch. There is no such thing as the perfect pair of jeans anymore, especially if you don't want to pay triple digits for denim. I'm partial to Levi's myself (let's face it, they just make my butt look better) but will wear whatever I can find. How many pairs did I try on and make Mike and Jared sit through? At least 10 to find one pair that didn't really fit (but made my butt look cute) and by that time both of them had started looking a little harassed and Jared was making let's go noises.

So, to vent- here is my list of gripes having to do with denim

-everything is too freaking long. We are not all 5'8". In fact the average American woman is quite a bit shorter. If it's a "regular" or "medium" length, make them just a few inches longer than the national height average, that's fine. The ones that I bought-almost 3 inches too long and you can't hem those! What do you do? Don't tell me to buy short length, doesn't work because my legs are actually too long and I have a normal length torso. I just happen to be vertically challenged.

-why can't jeans come in half sizes? I'm too big for this size but then the next size falls off. Or how about this sizing: Size I'm feeling cute and tiny today. Size I'm feeling pretty normal today. Size I'm feeling big as a dadgum elephant but these better make my butt look good. I think that would be wonderful!

-If I wanted to look like I had been rolling around a mechanic's greasy floor, that's what I would do. I also don't want my jeans to look dirty. Again, If I wanted jeans with brown stuff on them, I would roll in the dirt. How about faded enough to look cool but not dirty and especially not that whole dark dark blue and stiff that we all know and love from the first days of school when our parents still bought our clothes.

-Do not expect me to pay $50 or more for ripped up jeans that are "recycled". Recycled from whom? If I wanted ripped jeans, I would artfully rip them myself. But again, why am I going to pay $50 for something I'm going to tear up?

-The rise thing. I'm a mid-rise girl myself which means I like my jeans to sit just a little low. Not "hello look at my butt crack if I bend over" low, a classy low where everything stays where it should and there's no threat of being arrested for indecent exposure.

I am not a teenager any longer, I'll be 35 in about a week. I just want a pair of jeans that looks cool (not hoochie momma cool), is not too expensive, will actually fit right and makes my butt look great. Is that too much to ask?

If you have found the perfect pair of jeans, please let me know!

Peace and love y'all (and happy shopping)!