Thursday Thirteen: Best Life Events

After # 1, these are in no particular order ...

1. The births of my children, seeing their faces for the first time.

2. Christmas 2008.

3. Christmas 1993.

4. Moving into my own apartment after separating from the ex-husband.

5. Being voted Unsung Hero at West.

6. Trip to Lake Tahoe.

7. Trip to Honduras.

8. Going out with Kelly and Hope to Heaven.

9. Marc Broussard concert.

10. The 'other' staff Christmas party at West in 2007.

11. Obama rally.

12. Snorkeling in Cancun.

13. Any and all Thanksgiving holidays spent with the family in Arkansas.

Thursday Thirteen: Movies I Want to See

1. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

2. The Dark Knight

3. Burn After Reading

4. Righteous Kill

5. Ghost Town

6. The Women

7. Sex and the City

8. How to Lose Friends & Alienate People

9. The Duchess

10. La Misma Luna

11. Into the Wild

12. No Country for Old Men

13. There Will be Blood

Thursday Thirteen: Memories from Early Childhood

1. Mom making my Cinderella birthday cake. age 2

2. Someone scrubbing my hands with stinky soap and putting a gown on me so I could see newborn Jennifer in the hospital. age 2

3. Dad singing me to sleep in the rocking chair. age 2

4. Tossing a balloon to my aunt over the shower curtain while I took a bath and she was babysitting. age 3

5. Making mud pies in the back yard with the kid that Mom babysat. He was so old, at least 5. age 3

6. Going on vacation with Grandma and Grandpa and being eaten up by mosquitoes. age 4

7. Wearing my favorite dress at least part of every day at Dover. It was red and covered with flowers. age 4

8. Watching Dad milk cows on the dairy and getting to feed bottles to the calves . age 5

9. Waiting for the kindergarten school bus by Granny and Paw Paw's honey suckle bush. age 5

10. Thinking that an 'E' should look like this: age 5

11. Lance being born and Dad telling Jennifer and me that he was a big baby; me thinking that meant he was already bigger than me. age 5

12. Playing dentist and pretending I had a loose tooth, only to realize I really did have my very first loose tooth. age 6

13. Trying to take my cat into the wading pool and getting the full benefit of his claws on my back as he scrambled away. age 6

And a bonus story because I can't leave it out --

A skunk spraying our front porch. While we were outside. With all the windows open. And box fans sitting on the window sills blowing into the house. age 6

Thursday Thirteen: To Do List

1. Cut the kids' hair. Both the boys need to be buzzed and Miriam's hair desperately needs a trim.

2. Take Solomon to the doctor. He swears that there is something "stuck to the thing that makes me be able to hear."

3. Wash the car. And vacuum it. And throw out the accumulated junk in it. And clean the fingerprints off the inside of the windows.

4. Stay on top of the laundry. I'm caught up and I want it to last as long as possible.

5. Call the apartment manager about the lights being out in the breezeway. Remember to tell them the kids' bathroom doorknob is jamming up.

6. Take the kids out for ice cream. They've worked hard this week and they deserve it.

7. Sweep and mop the kitchen floor.

8. Make lasagna to use up all the extra marinara I made this week.

9. Watch the season finale of 'Swingtown.' And hope that it comes back to CBS instead of going to HBO.

10. Plan an outdoor activity for this weekend. Biking? Kites? Hiking?

11. Play trains with Samuel. He asked me tonight while I was busy with something and then we both forgot about it later.

12. Catch up on my Sim families. I haven't played in almost 3 weeks. I'm a little ashamed to say this, but I miss playing dolls.

13. Unwind. The last two work weeks have knocked the wind out of me.

Thursday Thirteen: Pet Peeves

I've been testy lately. I attribute that to a hormone surge and the fact that we aren't adjusted to the routine of the school year yet. In an effort to get it all out of my system, I'm posting a list of thirteen pet peeves.

1. Mouth noises: breathing, chewing, smacking, even certain sneezes.

2. Talking with one's mouth full: this is technically a mouth noise but it's so entirely gross that I have to list it separately (plus, I work with a bunch of people who do this all. the. time.).

3. Parents that smile dumbly at me instead of helping me wrangle their child onto the exam table.

4. People that invade my personal space; seriously, the 18 inches surrounding me in all directions should not be entered unless we share DNA or you have been expressly invited.

5. DJs talking over each other or music. Yes, I know you get paid to talk, but you don't get paid by the word, so chill.

6. Laziness. Pure and simple. I hate it.

7. Waste. Another simple one.

8. Parents who get more worked up about their kid's shots than the kid does.

9. After care program workers who can't explain to me the payment rate for my children and why my statement reads that I have a $60 credit but insist that I have to fork over another check for $112 for next week.

10. Kindergarten homework instructions that take too long to decipher so I end up doing whatever I think the kindergartner needs to do for homework. Come on, it's kindergarten. Does he really need to know the subject, verb and object parts of a sentence yet?

11. Cashiers who act like it's a huge chore to load up my reusable shopping bags as opposed to their cheap, wasteful plastic bags.

12. Parents who think that everything their kid does is cute, including grabbing at expensive medical equipment, slamming drawers and ripping table paper to shreds.

13. Whining. Oh, how I hate whining.

Well now, that's that. I'll take a deep breath and sleep better now. I hope.

Thursday Thirteen: Stuff in My Shower

I was going to post this last night, but my internet connection was down. Poo. It's not much but here it is anyway.

1. Burt's Bees Rosemary shampoo

2. Burt's Bees Rosemary conditioner

3. Tub of baking soda for exfoliating and occasional hair washes

4. Pumice stone for serious exfoliating

5. Bottle of apple cider vinegar, water and lavender oil for occasional hair rinses

6. Razor

7. Bar of Ivory soap

8. Tube of oatmeal and avocado mask, rarely used

9. Kids' strawberry shampoo -- for when they bathe there and don't like the other options

10. Bottle of baby shampoo for face washing

11. Washcloth drying from last night's shower

12. Wall hanging rack to hold it all -- only it holds about half of everything

13. 32-ounce cup for rinsing children's heads

Thursday Thirteen: Reasons to Smile This Week

1. The kids have wanted to sleep with me every night since they came home.

2. One of the doctors brought a "That Was Easy" button to work today. He told me to drop something and ask him to pick it up. I dropped my pen and he picked it up, pushed the button in his lab coat pocket and laughed hysterically.

3. The little girl that yelled "I just farted on the doctor's chair!"

4. The other little girl that swore up and down that there was nothing wrong with her stomach. Or her ears. Or her eyes. Or her throat. Or anything else.

5. The boy that looked at me after I put on his band-aid and said, with utmost sincerity, "I'll take care of this because it's a boo-boo."

6. Samuel saying "I'm sleepy. Can we go somewhere else fun now?" as we were headed home.

7. The thrilled "Mommy!" (complete with neck-breaking hugs) I get when I pick up the kids every day after work.

8. Solomon offering to let Samuel play the new video game first even though he was dying to play. I didn't even prompt him to do it.

9. The picture Miriam drew for me yesterday just because she missed me while I was at work.

10. Thanks to a community organization, all the kids' school supplies are packed up and ready to go in two weeks. Dang it! Make that one week!

11. Brownies.

12. The long, slow, soaking rain yesterday and today's much cooler temperatures.

13. My new guaranteed 3-day weekends every week.

Thursday Thirteen: Things I Did in the Last Week

1. Decorated my patio with plants, mini-lanterns and an outdoor carpet. I love sitting out there now.

2. Worked on some more scrap booking. This is going to be a never-ending project but I really like it.

3. Had a needle stick at work. I still can't believe it actually happened.

4. Had blood drawn for tests after the needle stick. I have to go back in 6 months for the follow up blood work.

5. Saw 4 rainbows. Really, 4.

6. Ate half of a chocolate mousse cheesecake and I still want more.

7. Failed at playing the Sims 2. My Sim is an aged penniless peon. The game actually said that to me.

8. Taught myself how to use a big drill.

9. Opened a new savings account.

10. Rode the Light Rail downtown and back. There are some interesting people using public transportation.

11. Got a new haircut. I'm still playing with it and trying to figure out what to do with it.

12. Got completely soaked in a 5 minute thunderstorm. I wish it had lasted longer.

13. Had an amazing dinner at Carraba’s. It’s my new favorite restaurant. The sangria is really, really good.

Thursday Thirteen: the Internet

I forgot. Oops. So I'm pretending today is Thursday.

Thirteen things I like about the internet:

1. I can find out anything I want to know. And even some things I didn't want to know.

2. I can (and do) talk with people all over the world.

3. Myspace and Facebook have let me catch up with old friends that I otherwise wouldn't know anything about now.

4. Blogging.

5. Online banking.

6. Google Maps.

7. Picture hosting, slide shows, photo editing.

8. Sites like Post Secret, Overheard in New York and I Can Haz Cheezburger that make me laugh until my stomach hurts.

9. Yellow Pages. They're so much easier than the real Yellow Pages.

10. Requesting library books in my pajamas.

11. My kids can play pretty cool games and watch videos of their favorite shows.

12. Online classes. I definitely prefer real classrooms to virtual ones, but without virtual ones I couldn't have gone back to school.

13. Office webisodes.