FLASHBACK 1976 *or possibly further*

 
REPEAT BECAUSE IT'S IMPORTANT:
"a very merry unbirthday to me...to you..."
i'm not sure when she started...my earliest memory of my grandma marge reading "alice in wonderland" to me was when i was 10. but we had just moved back after 4 years, so it's very possible she had been reading it to me before. she told me i reminded her of alice...i was easily distracted. 
FLASH FORWARD july 2004
grandma marge passed. we start going thru her scrapbook. we learn some very interesting things...she was on the ohio state homecoming court in 1938. what?! that's cool! she was a licensed pilot. what?!!!!!!!!!!! okay!! grandma!! how do you not mention these things to your granddaughter(s)??!! grandma lillie says it best "ladies never brag...and marge was a lady...". i picked up a copy of "alice in wonderland" soon after. i read it at least once a year (or did until i mis-placed my copy...time for a trip to the book store!! yay!! or better yet...someone can get me this louis vuitton edition from penguin publishing...thanks for bringing it to my attention paige!!!). it keeps her close to me.....
FLASH FORWARD today
today is "mad hatter day**"....today is a day that all the stuff we do everyday, that most people would consider sane (going to work, paying the bills, cleaning the house), is complete and utter madness...and all the stuff that makes us happy, that most people would consider madness (playing in the rain, singing at the top of our tone-deaf lungs, dancing with the devil in the pale moon light) would be deemed completely sane!! just for today...
so put on your favorite hat...and get out there and do something completely...sane!!

                                

 

a gallery of silly hats:

      

 

                          

                  

 

                         

 

                                   


**interesting factoid: in the illustrations, the hatter is always seen wearing a top hat with a slip reading "this style 10/6" (meaning that style hat cost 10 shilling sixpence)...so we here in america took it as a sign to act like the hatter on october 6...the english? yeah...they read the date backwards, which means they act like the hatter on june 10...since i like to write my dates backwards but am, in fact, american, i think i will act like a hatter on both dates...XD     

"dear dear diary...i wanna tell my secrets..."

FLASHBACK 2008

i sign up for facebook, even though my kids don't want me to be THAT mom. i immediately start updating my status. "i'm bored". "why am i up so early?". "i'm cold". ugh. really? is my life really that...boring? i need to spice it up a bit. so in comes the song lyrics and movie quotes. bored? "i thought i had mono for a whole year, once. turns out i was just really bored" (wayne's world). up to early? "i gotta get up eeeaarrllyyy in the mornin'...to find me another lover" (the gap band). cold? "cold? i'm freezing my royal rastafarian nay nays off" (cool runnings).

FLASH FORWARD today

i still use the occasional song lyric or movie quote, but i find it much more entertaining to put a fun spin on my real life: 

"dear old house in the middle of the woods,
why do you wait until Jamie Conover goes to the office before you start creaking and moaning? i'm pretty sure he's convinced it's my imagination or that i am completely insane, but you and i both know you're just mean. i would appreciate it if you would just hush. k?
thanks"

kind of a fun little diary.

today is "dear diary day". people have been keeping diaries, or journals, for simply ever. but, with our hectic lives, we find it difficult to do that much today. oh...but we do find time to send out a tweet or update our facebook statuses. guess what? that's just an electronic version of posting in a diary.

so here are a few words of advice from the self-proclaimed queen of facebook (i'm not really...or maybe i am...but i'm not...but...):

#1~update your status no more than 2 or 3 times, daily. any more than that and you fill up your friend's news feeds and that's kind of irritating. which brings me to:

#2~do you have a friend that is constantly updating their status, constantly complaining, or constantly posting pictures of peanut butter? confine them to a list. simply hover your cursor over their name, hover over "friends", and then uncheck "show in news feed". voila! now you only have to see their rantings when you go to their profile or the list you assigned them to.

#3~remember how i said "fun little diary"? let's keep it fun. your friends don't need to know what you had for dinner, how you prepared it and, then, how long it took to digest. we love you but we really don't need to know EVERYTHING! do not do that to us!

#4~don't post a cryptic status and then refuse to answer when your friends want to know what you're talking about. if you can't say it on facebook, it belongs in an ACTUAL diary, with an ACTUAL lock and key.

#5~don't be a debbie downer. an occasional complaint is fine. "my cat died today. i'm sad.". that is a legit complaint. an important journal entry. your friends want to know and offer sympathy. "life sucks", "i have a migraine", "i hate everybody". posted every single day. really? is your life that bad? probably not. if it is...maybe you should consider seeing a therapist. 

okay people. get out there and celebrate "dear diary day"! happy posting!!

                 

 

not so MANIC MONDAY

"i can't keep my hands out of the cookie jar..."

FLASHBACK january 23,2014

the bk and i  are killing some time. we stop by the parent's place. dad offers us cookies. mmmmm. i like cookies. these cookies are delicious! i leave with a bag full!!!

FLASH FORWARD yesterday

i want something sweet, but i don't want to spend all day, in the kitchen, making a mess. then, i remember dad's delicious cookies and how simple they are!! 20 minutes later, we have cookies!!

SUPER EASY AMAZING SPICE COOKIES

ingredients:

1 box spice cake mix
1 egg
1 stick butter (softened, not melted)
cream cheese icing (optional)

preheat oven to 350〫.  mix together cake mix, egg, and butter until dough forms. roll into balls (about an inch), flatten slightly. bake 8-10 minutes. frost while still warm. makes 24.

*my butter was not softened because i decided to make cookies last minute. i popped in microwave for about 10 seconds, until just soft.
**let icing set before storing in an air tight container.

ENJOY!!