{this moment} - A Friday ritual

{this moment}

. . . . . . . .

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

A simple, special, extraordinary moment. 

A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments

 for all to find and see.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Woot! Award! Woot!

Hey! Lookie what Mommy D's Kitchen gave ME?!!  I am stunned.  I recently started reading her blog(s) through her Paranormal side.  Ghosts, ghoulies, unexplained things just intrigue me.  Anyway, she's an awesome read, a great new friend, and a Twitter bud par excellence.  You simply must find her on the web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

So here's the rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself that others may not know.

3. Pay it forward. Pass this award along to 15 bloggers whom you have recently discovered.

Everyone likes to talk about themselves, so you must know this is the EASY part...

1. I love Ghost Hunters. I Netflix all the disks of the show that I can and watch them on SYFY Rewind.  That's how I found Mommy D.

2. I hate mopping the floor more than I hate scrubbing the toilet.  True story: If I perceive that Hubbers is mad at me, I will hie my hiney to the restroom and clean until it shines.  Nothing like a clean potty.

3. I am a book-a-holic.  If I could keep every book I ever read, I would.  When we moved last year, I had to get rid of BOXES of books.   Just too much to move, too heavy, too much space, and no where to put them in our new house.

4. It's been almost a year since we moved and I just hung up some family photos for the first time two weeks ago.  I guess I've been so busy with homeschooling, kids, new house, and our home biz that I just didn't make time.

5. Uh. Now what.

6. I love my blog, even though I have neglected it pretty badly since Baby D was born.  I used to get comments on every post.  Now, I'm lucky to get one comment a week.  It is sad, but such is the way of life.

7. Here's the big one.  I just found out 1 week ago that we are expecting a new baby.  Yup, a new "Files Baby" will be making an appearance in January 2011, if all goes well.  Right now I'm about 8 weeks along.  Remember how things went with our baby angel Michael.  Pray for me, for baby7, and His gracious peace, please.

Now the HARD part.  15 bloggers I recently discovered.  I guess since Mommy D just found me, I can't find her again, huh?  I'm kind of combining my fav new blogs with some of my fav new Twitter pals.  So, here it goes:

1. Neat-o-rama
2. Cake Wrecks
3. Proverbs Wife
4. Raising Olives
5. Raising Arrows
6. Jeff Yeager
7. Karen Katherine
8. Hurried Homemaker
9. Crochet Spot
10. The Pioneer Woman
11. Weird Al Yankovic
12. Toxel
13. Wild Mother Arts
14. Chris Brady
15. Orrin Woodward

Ok, so those last two are personal leadership mentors for Hubbers and I - not really new reads, but way worth the while.

Thanks again, Mommy D!

My Name... Meme

My name is:

Sara

Meaning: Princess
Origin: Hebrew

Tag, YOU'RE it - open tagging going on here. You want to play along? Cool. Leave me a comment and you'll get some commentation from here!




(Thanks, Miles to Go...)

Geeze, I am POPULAR!

I've gotten tagged TWICE for the 8 Things Meme - Maria and Christine both think I'm cool and want to know MORE about me.


The Rules:

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

The Facts:

1. I don't care for any kind of gum that isn't mint. Not just any mint, it must be peppermint. Sometimes cinnamon is okay, but not often.

2. I've never used the peg type clothes pin, always the spring type. I bought a pack of the pegs at the dollar store and will attempt to use them this weekend. Perhaps this will cut down on the children dissecting them?

3. I enjoy a good historical fiction book. Lately I have been immersed in the dramas of the wives of Henry VIII of England. LOTS of good books about that: Philippa Gregory, Jean Plaidy, Antonia Fraser, Alison Weir are all great authors in this area.

4. I have patches in my yard where the grass will not grow because the dog runs on them so much. She is trained to pee in one spot in the backyard and follows the same path every time. She's a Whippet/Border Collie/Blue Heeler mix and can cross the yard in 3 seconds.

4a. A Whippet Border Collie mix is called a Lurcher. Who knew?

5. I'm too tired to cook tonight so we're having mac and cheese with ham and veggies thrown in. This dinner happens about once every two weeks. I'd like to take a nap, but when Hubbers gets home I need to go exercise. I will go to bed early tonight. OldestGirl won her baseball game today - 15 to 2!! - and that wore me out.

6. I'm a mean mom - I make my kids do summer school activities every weekday. They do workbooks called Summer Bridge to help them keep their skills up. They also have to read XX minutes every day. If they follow through for the specified amount of days, they get a reward of our choosing. This is as close to homeschooling as I'm willing to get.

7. I have 2 parakeets that aren't very tame right here by the computer. I like their sweet tweets and coos and when I can coax them up onto my fingers. I don't like when the girl bites me HARD!! so I'll let her go when she's sitting on my finger. She's not so bright. The girl is Hermione - bright yellow and green. The boy is Eragon - bright blue with black and white wings.

8. I made my first apron this last week - church ladies style! What do you think:


It's reversible. Blue is my favorite color, you know.

Bonus Freebie:

My sister-in-law wrote a great book. My best bud is writing a great book. I want to write a book. But I'm the only one with a blog. Enjoy!

The Follow Up:

My 8 tag buddies:

Life is Like a Lunchbox
And Miles to Go Before We Sleep
Suburban Oblivion
Bright Like the Son
Did I Say That Out Loud?
Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood
Teacher Mom Mad Woman
The Mother Load



(This post written on Tuesday, posted on Thursday, not all information is current)

7 Things You Never Knew You Wanted to Know

And maybe didn't know before? Or cared to know? Yeah, yeah, it's a meme. It's all Aimee's fault. Blame her for even more useless trivia about moi.

1. I like to watch Arthur even when the kids aren't home. Buster I'm not so crazy about, but Arthur ROCKS! I remember watching it over all the other TV channels available in the hospital after birthing one of my baby girls. I do the same with Veggie Tales. And that leads me to...

2. I don't watch TV other than the occasional movie borrowed from the library or rented, and PBS (see the Arthur comment). I'm just not into the stuff going on during "mainstream" prime viewing.

3. When I was 16, driving my first car, my mom and my evil stepfather (truth, not the good one I have now) went out of town for a few days and left me home to go to school and work. I was driving some friends home from school, just down the hill mind you, and I managed to run over something in the road. And rip off the oil pan.

Turns out that the "thing" in the road was a type of lift (like image only not folding and not so long) to raise the car up to work on the underside. When I went back later, it was gone and I couldn't prove it had ever been there.

Back to my oil pan - I was petrified that my parents would find out so I went to the house where I was staying with a friend of my mom and she helped me to get the car fixed before the parents came back and didn't say a word.

Yes, it was an expensive way to learn about road clearance...

4. I don't like wearing finger nail polish - it makes my fingers feel like they're suffocating. It's okay on my toes.

5. I can sew, quilt (a new skill!), crochet (Hubbers even wears my creations) and play cards, but I can't knit. One day I may learn. I also kick butt with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 on my PS2 and Pro Skater 3 on my Xbox. In real life, I'm scared stupid to move on my blades much outside.

6. I don't personally know anyone famous - not like Aimee and Steve from Blue's Clues. I don't think I've ever seen anyone famous up close, either. Not a major loss, but I do live in Idaho, like Demi and Ashton and Bruce. I have a very dear friend who is a married relation to John Heder (Napoleon Dynamite). Which was filmed in Preston, Idaho - my area of the world!!

7. I abhor spiders. Is there a stronger word than ABHOR? If so, it's the one I meant to use. But Hubbers is the bug man and is teaching our children such. So me and the spiders have a deal - no spiders where I can see them in the kitchen or bedroom and they live. Show your beady eyes in those 2 sacred places and you're squash city, spidey.

I've learned to tolerate the jumping spiders in the house - they're small, not poisonous, and they aren't Hobo Spiders which have a necrotic bite and love this area. It's the wolf spiders that eat Hobos, so they're okay to stay, too. As long as they abide by the treaty.

And Cat Faced spiders are cool 'cause their butts look like the triangular shape of a kitten's head. And they live in the lilac trees by my clothesline and eat the wasps. It's all good since they don't come inside.

Okay. I nominate JennaG, Suburban Oblivion and YOU gentle reader (yes, T, you too), to complete this meme task - 7 Odd or Unknown Things about you. I just shared some of my deepest, darkest secrets - how about some reciprocation? Comment on this here site and I'll visit YOUR secrets!

(PS - Don't forget that Postal Rates went up yesterday. SUCKS!)

Lazy Posting Tag

Thank you, dear Jennifer, for the TRAP on your blog that compels me to post this meme because I'm all anal like that... Actually, it's okay because what is a blog for, if not talking more and moremoremoremore about yourself?

Narcissists, UNITE!

So here's the thing from Jennifer:

1. Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (month and day only):

March 26 is the 85th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (86th in leap years). There are 280 days remaining.

2. List events that occurred on that day of interest to you:

• 1199 - Richard the Lionheart is fatally wounded by a crossbow bolt during a siege in France, he dies eleven days later. The marksman, a french noble named Pierre Basile, is executed.
• 1934 - Driving test introduced in the United Kingdom.
• 1942 - World War II: In Poland, Auschwitz receives its first female prisoners.
• 1945 - World War II: the third and final Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
• 1953 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
• 1976 - Queen Elizabeth II sent out the first royal email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment.
• 1982 - A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, DC.
• 1997 - Thirty-nine bodies found in the Heaven's Gate cult suicides
• 1999 - The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world.
  
• 1999 - A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man.
• 2000 - Presidential elections are held in Russia, and Vladimir Putin is elected President.

3. List a Few Birthdays:

1874 - Robert Frost, American poet (d. 1963)
1930 - Sandra Day O'Connor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
1931 - Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director
1934 - Alan Arkin, American actor
1938 - Anthony James Leggett, American physicist, Nobel laureate
1940 - James Caan, American actor
1940 - Nancy Pelosi, American politician
1941 - Richard Dawkins, British evolutionary biologist
1942 - Erica Jong, American author
1943 - Bob Woodward, American journalist
1944 - Diana Ross, American singer (Supremes)



4. List a death: (couldn't list just one)

1814 - Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, namesake of the guillotine (b. 1738)
1827 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (b. 1770)
1892 - Walt Whitman, American poet (b. 1819)
1923 - Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (b. 1844)


5. List a holiday or observance (if any):

• Independence Day - Bangladesh
• Zoroastrianism - Prophet Zoroaster's Birthday.
• Prince Kuhio Day in Hawaii

Liturgical feasts

Catholic:

• Saint Emmanuel (died 304)
• Saint Ludger
• Saint Larissa

Who knew such EXCITING things happened on the day of my birth, other than that momentous, heart stopping, death defying, AWESOME feat? Birth, that is.

You reading this?

TAG! You're IT! Leave me a comment and I'll visit YOUR happy day, too...

Marriage Meme

Because I'm the most interesting person ever on the block writing The Estrogen Files (and the only, but don't let that stop you) and I KNOW you just hang on my every post and can't WAIT to read about my wedding, here's this Marriage Meme.

1. Where/How did you meet?

Hubbers and I met in high school, working at the same fast food joint. Ahhh, true LUV!

2. How long have you known each other?

We were both juniors when we met, so... about 15 years.

3. How long after you met did you start dating?

A few years. But I thought him handsome right away.


4. How long did you date before you were engaged?

Jeez, hard questions! We started out as friends before we became more so it all blends together. More than a year?

5. How long was your engagement?

About a year.


6. How long have you been married?

It will be 11 years this summer. Year 7 was hard, emotionally and financially, but things are good now.


7. What is your anniversary?

We have two: 30 July 1996 and 7 October 1996. The first was a civil ceremony and the second was a Mass. Hubbers wanted a small wedding so we had our church ceremony on a Monday morning, 9am Mass. We invited everyone who would normally attend the Mass to also attend the ceremony and reception.


8. How many people came to your wedding reception?

I don't know. We invited 100 people to our wedding and the extra people we invited to the reception - I honestly don't know.

9. What kind of cake did you serve?

I worked at a bakery for a few years before we married, so I had the baker make us the most WONDERFUL cake! Chocolate with raspberry filling, white frosting, fresh flowers, 2? layers?

10. Where was your wedding?

St Thomas More Roman Catholic Church - Sandy, UT

11. What did you serve for your meal?

Mexican food from my favorite restaurant. Sadly, they went out of business and back to Mexico. Tamales, enchiladas, Spanish rice, all SORTS of good stuff! AND I managed to not get it on my dress...

12. How many people were in your bridal party?

Ummmm... 3 bridesmaids, 3 groomsmen, 2 ushers, 1 flower girl, 1 ring bearer boy

13. Are you still friends with them all?

Since most of them were family, or nearly so, the answer is YES. One of the little men in the wedding just graduated high school and is in college this year. Doesn't seem possible.

14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony?

No, I don't think so. I got misty the first few steps down the aisle and had to work hard not to cry.

15. Most special moment of your wedding day?

Taking our vows. The whole ceremony was special, wonderful. We had a FUN wedding.

16. Any funny moments?

Well, it WAS the era of the Macarena. 'Nuff said. No. You can't see the pictures.

And don't tell me you didn't dance when you clicked that link!


17. Any big disasters?

Yes. The priest came to us the day before the wedding claiming that all the paperwork with the diocese wasn't filled out and he couldn't marry us the next day. In TEARS, we went to my MIL and she fixed his wagon it by telling him he by darn WAS going to marry us because he had HAD said paperwork on his desk for at LEAST 6 months and it was HIS fault. In the end, Joan won and we were married. God bless her.

18. Where did you go on your honeymoon?

We spent 2 nights in a theme hotel (very nice, 2 different rooms) called The Anniversary Inn. Then we drove to the thriving metropolis (sarcasm there) of Pocatello, Idaho to visit with some friends of Hubbers that were unable to attend the wedding. I didn't care, since I got time off work and was able to be with my sweetie.

19. How long were you gone?

I was back to work the Monday after the wedding.

20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change?

Overall, it was a good wedding. I would have negotiated on the day, for a weekend night rather than a weekday morning. I would have liked to be closer to the person I am now, rather than the cowering, people pleasing little girl I (now) perceive myself being then. Also would have hired a professional photographer instead of my uncle who was almost professional. (No sarcasm there.) He did take nice photos and they were my wedding gift from him and his wife. I DID have formal shots taken BEFORE the wedding. (Gee, that's a LOT, isn't it?)

21. What side of the bed do you sleep on?

I sleep on the left side (when looking from the foot of the bed).

22. What size is your bed?

K-I-N-G, bay-bee! How else would we fit all the kids AND us in there on weekend mornings?

23. Greatest strength as a couple?

Our unity and commitment to each other and our marriage. Our faith and beliefs keep us strong. Praise be to God - otherwise we wouldn't have made it through year 7.

24. Greatest challenge as a couple?

To find time for us, to stay on track. Although this is getting easier as the kids get older.

25. Who literally pays the bills?

The accountant pays most, but I take care, via Internet bill pay, of the rest. I'm the one who logs everything into the computer checking account list.

26. What is your song?

What does that mean? One that we plagiarize and bastardize at every chance when singing to the kids, is Super Freak. That count?

27. What did you dance your first dance to?

Bryan Adams Everything I Do

28. Describe your wedding dress:

White satin, sequins, long train, pretty.

29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding?

Roses, lilies, daisies - I think. I'll have to find a picture. The whole thing has kind of just blended in my mind to something beautiful, hazy with the past.

30. Are your wedding bands engraved? What do they say?

No and yes. Mine isn't. Hubbers' is with the 2 dates of our weddings.

**********************

I've actually enjoyed this Meme because it allowed me to remember this time of my life with fondness and joy in the general mundane humdrum of daily life. Thanks to Aimee for tagging me!

My turn now. My favorite tag-ees have already done theirs so I get to try NEW people!! So I tag Our Seven QTPies, Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood, Teacher, Mom, Mad Woman, and One Woman's World - if they are up to it and haven't yet completed it. Sorry Stephanie, I just HAD to ask... I've seen your pictures, after all.