Tag, I am it and you are next!!

I was tagged by my best friend Earth Muffin to do this "Weird Facts About Myself" meme and since I dropped the ball on the last meme she sent it is about time that I do one.

The Rules:

Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, choose 6 people to be tagged, list their names & why you tagged them. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re it!” & to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you, so since you’re not allowed to tag me back; let me know when you are done so I can go read YOUR weird/random/odd facts, habits and goals.

1. I am scared of heights, I am a fire-woman and I am scared shitless of heights. I cannot climb the ladder on the sliding board. I also get freaked out at the circus because I am afraid someone will fall. I cried during the bridge scene in Annie, because I was so scared for her, my mom actually got up from her seat in the theater and took me to the lobby during that scene.

2. I am a yeller. I yell at my kids and Mr. Anti-Hippie. I yell and cuss. I have a real potty mouth. I can honestly say I come by it naturally as Red Green (my dad) yells and cusses. When I was younger he would yell and cuss and it would scare the pants off of me, yet I yell and cuss too.

3. I leave used paper towels laying around my kitchen. If they have not wiped up blood, poop, snot, or barf I figure that when they dry I can reuse them, and I almost always do. I also reuse paper plates and plastic cups. You see, I buy those things at the store and they cost money and if it can be reused I will. I draw the line at dental floss and toilet paper, those are one use only products and can be thrown away after one use.

4. I love shoes and purses. When we moved I moved over 50 purses and tote bags. I have now narrowed that down to what ever will fit into my large tote bag. I also had to get rid of some shoes as my feet never went down to that pre-pregnancy size. Yeah I actually have bigger feet than I did last year, so many of my shoes went to the school nurse and the yard sale pile.

5. I am a freak about laundry. Towels need to be folded a certain way, and if they are not folded in half, then in half again, then into thirds (kinda like in the displays at Macy's) I will unfold them and refold them in the afore-mentioned manner. Socks get matched and then lay in the drawer, they never get tucked into one another, as that stretches the elastic. And T-shirts get folded like the display in Eddie Bauer or the Gap, the sides meet in the middle and then it is folded into thirds.

6. If I could eat from a cafeteria tray I would, I do not want my food to touch. I put rolls and bread on another plate, (probably a reused paper plate), I put dipping sauces into glass ramekins, and I take smaller portions so that no juices run into other things. My Great Grandmother, bless her soul, used to mix up her entire plate, and I know I am like her in many ways but I could never do that!!!

7. I hate hot dog buns and hamburger buns. Now when I have to eat fast-food or I am eating out I will eat a bun, but at home, my burgers get cut up and eaten with a fork, same goes for the hot dogs. I prefer Hebrew National hot dogs and they are so good with organic ketchup cut up into little pieces, yummy.

8. When I was 14 I tried to drive my dad's pick up truck to the mall to meet some friends, and I drove it off of our lane instead. Yeah never admitted this to anyone, but I was so in love with this guy that I was going to the mall no matter what. And guess who showed up at the same time the tow truck did? The parents. This was a dangerous stunt because if I would have gotten out on the other side of the truck, or even leaned over to the passenger side of the truck, it would have rolled down the hill, probably killing me.

9. I hate swimming in ponds or lakes. I am scared of what I cannot see, so swimming in a pond or a lake CREEPS me out. If I cannot see the bottom, then I am not swimming or even sticking my toes in. I am a great swimmer, but murky water is scary, what could be down there????

10. I hate it when someone is wearing sandals or flip flops and their toes are not painted or their nails look nasty. I hate feet, okay I wrote it. I love my feet, but looking at someone's nasty feet just does not make my day. Ladies and Gents if you are going to bare your feet, please make sure your toe nails are not long and gross, and if you are going to wear those shoes put some polish on your toes!!! I know that is so shallow of me, but if I have to look at them at least make them worth looking at.

Who do I tag?????

Charming and Delightful,
I tagged you because Earth Muffin did not tag you yet, and I think you probably feel the same way as I do about feet, and I would like to know your weird obsessions!!

Pump Room Confessions
I tagged you because I love your blog, and because I know you have some weird/random/odd facts, habits and goals. I also am running out of people to tag!!

So I need 4 more people to tag, so while I go find them please help me out!!

Love,
EBM

It is Planting Time

Well we finally had a nice weekend, weather wise and Earthy Birthy Mama FINALLY planted her garden and all of those flowers that have been sitting on her porch for the past few weeks. The weather here has been crazy, winter did not want to release her grip on the mid-west, so all of my gardening attempts had not happened. But, alas today Todd and Willie came and tilled up my vegetable garden and I planted all my flowers in my containers.
I love getting dirty, I have a greenish thumb and I get very excited this time of year when all the local stores have all their plants out for sale. I always plant the staples like geraniums, petunias, Dusty Miller, and snap dragons. I love Begonias, but the weather here is sometimes too hot for Begonias. In the vegetable garden I still need to pick up some sweet potato starts and some egg-plant, but my tomatoes are in, as are the peppers, lettuce, edible sweet peas, pumpkins, squash, and the zucchini. I also planted some container herbs for my porch as the landscaping here does not yet permit me to plant in the actual ground.
I did however find a use for all those flipping rocks, Mr. Anti- Hippie put up a fence around the garden and we put almost all the rocks around the bottom to keep out the rabbits. He also helped me put down a layer of newspaper covered with straw and grass clippings to keep the weeds down. I need to buy one of those big floppy hats like the old gals wear so that the sun stays off my face and neck.
All in all it was a pretty great weekend, I cleaned off my front porch and got all that planting completed. The homework on the other hand kind of got put to the side, hopefully I can tackle that tomorrow.

Pest, oh I mean Pets

Today was one of those days, one of those days that makes me wish I could win the lottery, so that I could stay home and so that I would be able to hire someone to take care of all those things that are necessary but that I dread doing. Now I am a strong capable woman, and work does not scare me. Nor am I one to think that domestic chores are gender specific, but......

When I got home today, a little later than usual, as I treated myself to a pedicure, I had and still have a ton of things to do before I can sit down and enjoy my newly painted toes. It has been raining here on the Illinois' Prairie and it is muddy outside, so taking care of our pets is quite a hassle right now. We used to have two inside dogs until one decided she would eat the one hundred year old wood work and then use the white carpet as a bathroom. So needless to say she is outside, and her pen is located very near a down spout, so her pen is full of mud and wet straw. So when I got home I had to feed her, and try not to get my toes too muddy, next came the **********(you fill in the word) Koi pond, yeah at my new house I no longer have a swimming pool, I have a Koi pond. A beautiful water feature, that needs attention EVERY DAY. You have to climb up another pile of rocks, and I am not kidding a pile of rocks to reach the first filter, that is for the water fall and then you have to clean the second filter and basket. Okay, I am not a wussy or anything, but algae ridden filters are not fun to clean, while once again I am trying not to ruin my TOES. This fish thing is a pain in my hemorrhoids. Finally I have to feed the lizard, actually if you talk to Mr. Anti-Hippie or Eddy it is a Leopard Gecko, (excuse me) and I have to get her out and hold her in one hand while I catch baby crickets in the other. Yeah and did I mention that I am doing all of this while trying to keep a 10 month old, out of the things she likes to play with like the VCR, dangerous outlets that are covered but they are on the floor, and stairs. Yeah real fun, so now I must go and uncork that bottle of Norton from the local winery and watch Grey's and LOST. So to all of you out there with pets, it could be worse!!

EBM

Open Letter to Parents

As some of you may know I work as a teaching assistant at an elementary school. I have performed various duties as an assistant that include but are not limited to, being a personal care aide for two students who were in wheel-chairs, being a classroom assistant in an elementary special education classroom, being an assistant in a junior high special education classroom, and finally this year I am an assistant in the district's at-risk pre- kindergarten program. This year has been quite an eye opening experience, as these are the students who quite possibly could be identified later in their school career as needing special education services.

Dear Parents,

As this year comes to a close I must admit that I do not understand what is going through your heads, you have become the parent of this child, yet you seem so selfish to me. First of all when you drop off your student at school please put some clothes on. If you got up in enough time to see that little so and so was dressed and ready for school could you please do the same. I really hate walking down the stairs to our classroom and seeing your undies peeking out from your pajama pants. Let your child know that you value them by getting dressed and running a comb through your hair. And when you pick them up THREE hours later at the end of the morning session, please make sure you are not dressed in the afore-mentioned attire. Please get a shower and get ready for the day while your pre-k kiddo is at school.
Secondly TALK to your kids, talk to them about anything, some of the speech delays that I am seeing this year are because a.) you let them have a bottle or a pacifier for too long and b.) you never talk to them or try to help them talk and speak appropriately. Tell them about the car ride to school, talk about the weather, talk about what you will be doing after school, tell them about your job or if you do not work; tell them about daddy's job or your current boy friend's job. Just talk to them.
Thirdly, dress them appropriately for the weather we experience here in the mid-west, for crying out loud, watch or listen to a weather report. Sometimes it will be warm and sunny when they arrive at school and when they leave it might be snowing, so dress them in layers. AND do not let them wear FLIP FLOPS to school. They have a hard time walking anyway, let's not make it more difficult, no matter how cute those shoes were at Old Navy.
Finally, let them explore and create in a supervised environment, most of the three and four year olds in one of my classes cannot use scissors and do not hold crayons let alone pencils the correct or "developmentally " correct way. Let them get dressed by themselves, or if you do not have the time to show them how to snap their pants or tie their shoes, send them in ELASTIC pants and in slip-on or velcro shoes.
Parents, I know raising children is a thank-less job, it takes long hours, patience, and love. I really love your kiddos and I want them to be the best that they can be, but please do your part. I can only do so much in the three hours that I see them each day during the school year.


LOVE,
E.B. Mama

My favorite time of the year

This next week is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love Spring, I also love Mother's Day. It is actually the only holiday that I celebrate. I do not want gifts on Mother's Day, maybe a meal or something. Last year when I was pregnant with Baby Gnat Mr. Anti-Hippie and I had the most romantic evening buying garden plants and planting my garden. In previous years Eddy and the Anti-Hippie have treated me to breakfast and showered me with gifts.I do not expect anything other than to sleep in and not be asked to do anything on that special day. When I was single and working as a waitress, I always hated working on Mother's Day it would bring out those people who only do nice things for their mothers on Mother's Day. I hated waiting on people who were so crabby and unappreciative, and those were always the people who did not tip very well anyway, so I never went too far out of my way with their service.
This is also my favorite time of year because I love planting flowers and my garden. This year with the grocery prices being so high, I am planning on a big garden. I am planning on tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, peppers, Banana and Green, pumpkins, water melon, various herbs, and lettuce.
I also secretly love this time of year because the school year is almost over, I love counting down the days until it is over, I like my job, but by this time of year I am ready to be finished.

ROCKS

Eddy Haskel is a collector, he collects bugs, hats, and rocks. When he was little he would bring me "beautiful" rocks and ask me, isn't this a beautiful rock? I would say yes and keep the rock, these first rocks were little, I eventually had enough rocks that I put a smallish lamp on a smallish plate and decorated the base with rocks. Well, then Eddy started collecting rocks that were too big for the lamp on the plate, and those rocks went in the landscaping and they actually looked okay.
When we moved a few weeks ago, I found rocks in almost every corner of the house, I found rocks under the couch, under my bed, under his bed, down stairs, in the kitchen, and even in a drawer in his bathroom.
I told Eddy that from now on all rocks must stay outside, well guess what? We moved into a house whose previous owner was a rock collector, yup my whole front yard, side yard, and back yard are full of rocks. The previous owner even took some rocks with him when they moved. Apparently when he started collecting rocks he would ask friends to bring back rocks when they went traveling afar.
I love rocks, but this is too much, there are rocks from Eddy and rocks from Jim the previous owner, I do not need anymore rocks, so if you come and visit, keep your car locked or I just might send some rocks home with you!!

I am a slacker because we moved

For all of those who have been waiting with baited breath, here is my first Blog in over a month. We moved, we packed up all of our shit and moved it to a new location. I am exhausted, I am tired of living out of boxes, and I am ready for the unpacking fairies to come and finish unpacking those last few boxes that I just threw stuff into so that it could be moved.
Actually, I love our new space, it is just that it does not seem like it is ours yet, although there are a few rooms that do. Eddy Haskel and Gnat were the first occupants to have a finished room. Gnat's room is purple shown above and Eddy's room is newt green and grasshopper green. Yup, those are actually the names of the colors, for those of you who do not know Eddy he is a total bug and reptile phreak!! So his room fits him to a T.

I am tired of wall paper, you know the kind that was the first wall paper that was ever invented, that they stuck to the wall with super glue? I hate wall paper, I love picking at it, and found it very therapeutic to pick at the walls, but I aint ever hanging that stuff in my house, wait until you see pictures of the decoupaged wall paper in my dining room.
Over my life time I have acquired several households plus the one that already existed when we moved in with Aaron a few years ago. So when we got ready to move we had more than enough stuff to fill our new house.