Saturday, December 13, 2008

Got Tagged - Wanted to Share

I've been tagged, so here we go! Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 16 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.
1. My husband and I met online in an AOL chatroom in 1995 and we've been on the local news as part of a program about couples who met online.

2. My paternal grandfather was born in Poland, came to the U.S. with his mother when he was 2 years old and had his own business.

3. My grandmother was one of 9 children (and the oldest of 7 girls) and used her older brother's birth certificate to get a job in a thread factory before she was really old enough to be working. That is why her employment history is in the name of Francis but her name was really Katherine. My daughter is named after her. My mother's name is Frances.

4. My first job was in the wonderful world of fast food - would you like fries with that? While in college I did manual labor in a chemical manufacturing plant for two summers and hated every hot, stinky second of it but loved the paychecks.

5. My father has one sister, my mother has one sister, and I have one sister.

6. I've been an avid reader ever since I could read at all and read all of the books in the Nancy Drew Mystery series - up to the point when I stopped reading them so just over 50. I found the first one in my grandmother's attic and was hooked from that point on.

7. When I was growing up my family vacationed at the New Jersey shore (southern, i.e. Cape May, Avalon, Stone Harbor)

8. I've been collecting Christmas ornaments since I was around 10 or 11. Our Christmas tree doesn't go up until right before Christmas, no earlier than a week before and it stays up until Jan 6 (Epiphany), even though the folks here in the South (ha ha, in Washington DC) put their trees up at Thanksgiving and take them down the day after Christmas.

9. My favorite meal is Thanksgiving dinner and I really enjoy my own cooking when I do Thanksgiving.

10. I went to Catholic school for 12 years and have remained a devout Catholic, very thankful that I had the benefit of the religious education baked right into my everyday schooling.

11. I love the smell of Pink Pearl erasers, old-time Coppertone suntan lotion, bayberry candles, and my kids.

12. I've been friends with the same group of five women online for over ten years and we're in touch with one another almost daily. I've only met one of them in person.

13. I drink my coffee black.

14. I like buying craft supplies for scrapbooking, crocheting, embroidery, painting - just as much as I like using them.

15. I have ADD and can't stand when things are really chaotic and there isn't a plan or rationale for doing something - when there's no plan or rationale I would rather just sit and read a book than chase my tail or otherwise waste time.

16. I don't have a hidden agenda - what you see is what you get.

I'm off to meet a friend who beaded some bracelets for me to give as Christmas gifts. She has a son with health issues and uses her jewelry proceeds to put toward extras for his care - like taking a swim with dolphins one year. She's a fellow scrapbooker so another reason to patronize her business vs. giving my dough to a store with a 200% markup, right?

I'm off!






Thursday, December 11, 2008

Husband's Performance Review

DH and I get really uneasy around review time because we're not the type to kiss corporate ass nor hold our tongues in matters when we feel the right thing isn't being done - for the client - not for ourselves. So our good reputations and work product aside (I mean RESULTS) sometimes we feel we're merely tolerated as necessary evils in the organization so when review time comes along we KNOW we're not going to get the highest ratings....and today is DH's performance review so created my own review of his performance as husband and father and sent him the following:
Name: Jeff Clarke
Position: Husband and Father
Time in Position: 10 Years

Category Rating

Snuggliness 1
Keeping your looks 1
Dependability 1
Provide for family 1
Can fix anything 1
Reassurance/Security Quotient 1
Fun Dad 1
Devotion to kids 1
Bad Habits to a Minimum 1
Partnering 1

Overall Awesome Rating 1

Performance Notes: You are appreciated by your family because you are always there for us to take care of things and provide reassurance (by your readiness to say “do not fret my pet” anytime necessary) and stay calm in emergencies. You are especially loved by your children because you spend most of your time taking care of them and making sure they are having fun. You are loved by all of us including the critters for being wonderful awesome you.

Scale: 1 = Super Outstanding; No one else comes close

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Holiday Preparations

I have so much to do at home to get ready for the holiday – things I need to do, things I want to do, etc. and I just pass out once I put the kids to bed. My neighbors have their lights up outside their houses and I have my 3 hanging pots with dead geraniums still hanging on my front porch from the summer…Priorities, right? Oh, but I did replace the missing lightbulbs from the front porch so it’s reeeeeaaal nice and bright and you can really see the nice brown leaves up there!
LOL I really need to do something about that – maybe tonight on my way in I’ll just take the little suckers down!