and the awards go to......

i'm very tired tonight. it has been a long week with this creature.

and too much staying up late for me. i will be in bed by 10:07. if i type it, it has to be true.

this being the first lonely friday night of this beastie's existence (and the first night i'm not typing with the background noise of zombie moans and guns firing-not that that has anything to do with this) i shall make this an evening of awards. put on your ball gowns girls.

the first award of the evening goes to michelle, for being my very first follower. for reasons far to neurotic, i refuse to keep a blogroll, and instead have a blog stuffed favorites section. michelle-i will love you forever.

the second award goes to .....monica. for saying Gid bless, and then correcting yourself. that made me giggle. God is the only word you will see me capitalize on this blog. but if for some reason i find myself typing the word "gid" (maybe in place of "get"all hill billy style) i will forever capitalize Gid as well. okay, not really. i don't think i could remember to do that. i have a hard enough time remembering tim's birthday.

the third award goes to ..... monica again. because she offered a solution to smelly fishy clothes, thus fulfilling part of my lazy fantasy that involves other people solving my problems. (this girl is going to be tough competition folks. better bring your gloves to this blog.)

and the final award of the evening goes to ..........erin!! because she was the first person to leave me a comment. ever. i think tim may have tried, using my name, or maybe i tried using my name, but i'm going to give erin credit.

thank you. thank you to everyone. maybe next week there will be prizes involved in the awards ceremony. i love how thepioneerwoman does prizes. these prizes will not be mixers or $500 dollar cowboy boots though. but, if you happen to be lucky enough to win one, will treasure it none the less.

shoot. it's already 10:11 and i haven't given you the picture of the day. well, without further delay. (ben's picture doesn't count for some reason.)

my sweet husband bribed me with cuties so that he could go out with previous-post mentioned boys. and i don't mean ben and max. although he did take them to dillons and drove them around in the coveted race car cart for an hour. he's good people. i had actually already given him "permission" to go, so these where really just him being sweet. please ignore the mess of toys in the background. if i could do it all night, surely you can overlook them for a few seconds.

****question to other blogger users. is there any way to get email notification of comments. heaven forbid i miss one on an old post. seriously folks, they're my candy. i hear typepad can do this. typepad seems oh so wonderful with the ability to reply directly to comments, but it also has a fee. and i'm cheap. so blogger it is.

do you really want in my head?

(because i feel pics are necessary, this one is "shhhhh. otter is sleeping." seriously, this is my life.)

so i've been figured out. it was actually my intention to see how long i could keep this thing under wraps. makes sense, right. post a blog on the WORLD wide interweb(said in my best nerd voice) that i don't want anyone to see.

my reasons for trying to hide out were ......

1. i didn't want other people to witness my angry rants or depressed wallowing. i wasn't sure who i wanted my audience to be. random strangers who stumble upon this or people i know. did i want this to be a blog highlighting our little family or did i want this to be general enough that when i hit the blog lottery and became famous, i would have interesting enough content to capture people's attention like these gals....amanda, ree, or amy . on a side note, just in case your thinking, "well, isn't she full of herself. thinking she'll become a widely read blog." it is only my desire for this very simple reason. i HATE trial and error. i want an audience that i can turn to and say, "does anyone know how to get a mystery fish smell out of your child's laundry?*" and then i will get a hundred comments explaining other peoples' successes and mistakes so i end up with the perfect solution the first time, every time. impossible-yes. but a lazy gal can dream, right?

*the smell was coming from his omega 3 capsules that he chews. now it's no longer a mystery, but i still haven't figured out how to get it out completely. and i really hate fish smell.

2. i didn't want witnesses to my insanity. i think if you just read all of the above, you see my point.

3. i didn't (and still don't know) if i would keep it up. i really dislike when people start blogs and don't update them. don't feel bad if you have started one and don't maintain it. it means you have a life. but i don't have a life and when i 'm sitting at home on a friday night checking to see if other people have updated their blogs and realize, nope, they're actually living their lives, i'm more annoyed at myself for not doing something interesting than annoyed at you for not updating. make sense? no. good.

but at least for now, this is what i've figured out. my audience is me. (and tim- that's why i was sucking up to him. grin.) i need to be entertained, and this is my attempt at doing so. if i happen to entertain you as well, please leave a comment. i gobble them up like tim gobbles mike and ike's (or anything else with sugar for that matter). if you're STILL reading, the insanity must have sucked you in. sorry. i tried to warn you, i think. and i don't know if i'll keep this up, but here's to today.

if nothing else, this little three day jaunt has given me an appreciation for the truly beautiful, interesting, entertaining blogs that i enjoy. it's a LOT more work than i thought.

the best (for me).

i don't do bests or favorites because i don't like to make definite statements. no favorite food. no favie movie, book, or even child, now that max has joined ben on the dark side. but i can easily say tim is my best AND favorite husband. (although sometimes, as whiny as i am, i might say something different. sorry t. you know how painfully whiny i can be.)

when i allowed ben to bake in the sun resulting in a terrible sunburn, tim didn't repeatedly scold me, making me feel more terrible than i already did. oh the guilt i've had. or when ben referenced the emperor's new groove during dinner and i told tim i let ben watch it because it was either get a nap or give ben away, he simply said, "i'm glad you got a nap. i'll never judge you letting him watch t.v."

tim is so blessedly laid back that when i have gotten absolutely nothing done in a day and he comes in the door, he asks if i want subway for dinner instead of being annoyed i didn't cook. then when i beat myself up for everything i have failed to do, he says, "hey, you kept the boys alive. that's something."

i highlight these things because i whine about tim a lot. so maybe he has let the grass get so tall that my dear brother mowed it with his tractor. not a lawn tractor mind you. a real tractor. with a bush hog attached. and maybe he does like to go out with the boys a lot. A LOT. i won't digress to a discussion of his other wives. and maybe he lets ben watch a bit to much t.v. when he's in charge. the other day i came home to find ben eating his lunch at the table by himself, watching a little t.v. tim had brought downstairs and set up, so he could kill zombies in the family room, which ben is not allowed to watch. but hey, at least he respected my wishes and didn't let ben help him kill zombies.

but all in all, he's a pretty wonderful guy. and i've been told i'm not perfect either, so it all works out.

out of the frying pan

so here i am.(okay, actually that's not me, but i was experimenting with the picture and can't figure out how to take it off...so you get to see max after eating mullberries.)don't expect me to ever capitalize anything. and please don't judge me for poor grammar, misspelled words, punctuation or being a bad person. i am trying-sometimes. other times, i'm just lazy. wow, this is already therapeutic.

i've thought about starting this space for a bit, but avoided it because i prefer to just think about doing things and then never actually do them. and then there was the whole debate over the name. and oh, did i ever debate. after a jillion other name attempts, i settled on this, because it worked. it was odd-even names i had no attachment to, if they were already taken, i was heartbroken. there were tears. actually, quite the opposite. i don't cry. i just get mad. and belligerent.

so i'll see how this goes. either it will or it won't, but i'm tired of just thinking about it. so cheers to ACTION!!