Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Wednesday Hodgepodge, Coming on Thursday

So I might be a once-a-week poster these days, but at least I got the Wednesday Hodgepodge up on WEDNESDAY two weeks in a row! Yea me! (revision...so I started it on Wednesday but it's close, right?)

1. What reveals more about a woman - her refrigerator or her purse?

For most women, probably the purse. Take me for example. While my fridge is packed with pictures, drawings, and little notes, my purse really says a lot more about my life and who I am as an individual. I am pretty classy. I love classic patterns and styles. At the same time, I can't stand wasting money so owning tons of purses just isn't my thing. I have 4 purses...a small fancy one for ballgowns and special events, a cute black & white one given to me by my mother-in-law, a NorthFace satchel bag given to me by my sister-in-law, and the one I bought recently - my Miche purse. For those who aren't aware of Miche...they are pretty awesome. You buy the main purse and then get different shells to rotate as needed. I got three shells - a brown, a black/white, and a red. Who needs anything else? So I guess for me, practical is the best option and that really explains a lot about who I am.

2. When was the last time you went to the zoo? Where? What's your favorite zoo animal?



We took The Wee One to the OKC zoo last fall and it was the best zoo experience I have ever had. Usually we get to go to the zoo only in the summer months. When it is hot, the animals are tired and lazy. This time, the animals were moving all over the place. We saw just about every animal and they were all having fun. The snow leapords were really cool because they were young and so playful. We got to watch the gorrillas eat and they were awesome. I don't know if I have a favorite, but I do LOVE the zoo! FYI St. Louis has a free zoo and it is really, really a good one.

3. What social issue fires you up?
Can I just say several? Turst me, it's better for all concerned if I don't go into detail here.


4. Are you a coupon clipper?
I have tried over and over to be a clipper and just can't get it going. I clip and then almost always loose them...or I just forget to use them when I actually go to the store. I've gotten to a point where just don't clip any more.


5. What is one of your favorite souvenirs brought back from your travels?
When we went on our honeymoon, The Husband and I wanted to collect something from each place (we went on a tour of Europe - 8 countries (although we did stop at a truck stop in Belgium so that would be 9). Since we didn't have room for a lot of stuff, we decided I would collect dangle charms from each place. We have continued that collection, getting a charm from any trip that we take together, and I now have over 50 charms. It is just a small souvenir, but something that holds a lot of memories for us and something I will always treasure. (I have a journal that I keep with it telling what each charm represents).


6. Lemon meringue or key lime?
Niether!

7. What is the most beautiful word you know in any lanuguage?
Love


8. Insert your own random thought here.
I really don't have any interesting thoughts today. It's just nice to be able to relax and not doing anything at all for a day.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

WEDNESDAY Hodgepodge

This might be only the second time ever that I have actually made a Hodgepodge post on Wednesday. I feel all kinds of accomplished today. hahaha (For those interested in playing along go to From This Side of the Pond).

1. How many times in your life have you moved house?
I almost didn't include this one because the answer is so ridiculous. I honestly don't know if I can count that high. Let's see...between my birth and my 4th birthday, I lived in 3 different states and moved at least 7 times (housing to include a large 2-story farmhouse, 2 cabins without running water, and a tee-pee). From 4 to 18, I lived in 5 different homes and attended 12 different schools. In college I lived in the dorms. After college, before I got married I lived in 3 different rentals. Since I've been married, I have packed, moved, and unpacked our belongings 6 times and we are about to go for lucky number 7. Let me tell you, I am a pro at this moving thing!

2. What subject would you study if you had a year to devote to it?
This might sound crazy since I have just completed 12 years of higher education learning, but I actually would love to go back and take more classes. Of course, I would prefer to not have any assignments or major papers to write though. : ) I would actually love to audit some classes in history and government. I would also like to take some sewing classes and figure out what I'm really doing. I think I'm kind of over devoting any more years to studying, but I would love to continue learning just for fun.

3. What in this world breaks your heart?
Actually, there are a lot of things that break my heart in this world. It is not a perfect world as we all know. I think the one thing that hurts my heart this most is the lack of love and compassion we see so often. As my very young niece has said, "She's mean because she doesn't have Jesus in her heart." God and Jesus are LOVE and when we don't make them the focus of our lives, we do not act in the loving and compassionate ways we should. When you boil it down, most of the horrible acts we see everyday are due to a lack of love for our neighbors and that is just sad.

4. What is one item that symbolizes the times in which we live?
My students have to give an introduction speech and find things that they feel represent them. Based on those speeches, I gotta say either cell phones. As so many of them comment, it is a life-line. We use our cell phones as cameras, computers, date books, calculators, etc. It is amazing how much a little device can do now and I am constantly shocked at how so many people cannot seem to function without them. So far, we have purposely not upgraded to smartphones because we are already so distracted in our personal lives that we don't feel we need another one. We'll see how long this lasts. Although, we have been the people that had a 13inch TV (for our only TV) for the last 7 years because "it works so why spend the money to get a new one. Will it really improve our TV watching?" I think we are somewhat odd at times.

5. Share a favorite bumper sticker or t-shirt slogan.
Saw this on a shirt: Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful
And I've always loved the shirt with the gnome that says Say Hello to my Little Friend
Lastly, the one that my dear friend, The Husband, I want to make: eCarnie.com...Because Small Hands Need Love Too

6. How do you like your spaghetti?
I'm not crazy about spaghetti, but when I do eat it, I like it with a good marinara sauce and sausage. I love pasta, but spaghetti is not my favorite.

7. What is your one piece of advice you would give a recent, or soon-to-be graduate?
Don't stress out if you don't find your "perfect" job immediately. It's out there, but it might take some time to get to it. Plus you never know what will happen along the way. It's all in God's plan and although it is scary to be out in the "real world" you are loved and cared for by the Most High.

8. Insert your own random thought here...
I'm starting to think that metropolitan people are kind of whiny. We've been reading reviews on apartments in the Austin area and they are ALL bad. So we thought we'd look at places we'd lived in the past in other cities to get a base idea of the rating scales. Let me say, Canyon apartments are not top-of-the-line apartments, but when we looked, we noticed that even some of the worst in town had higher ratings than any of the places we've looked at in Austin. Then we looked at Fayetteville where we lived and saw the same whiny comments. We actually did live in those apartments and loved it. Therefore, we have concluded that people who live in cities have higher expectations of life. Come live in Goodwell for a while and then talk to me about your silly complaints. hahahaha