The Threes of Me

Alright, so I've majorly slacked off once again. I have excuses though...school and colds. I'm trying to get back in the groove so here is a generic and easy post (taken from Facebook). Hopefully I'll get something original out some time this week...sigh...

The Threes of Me

Three Names I go by:
1. Mama
2. Hey you!
3. Carey

Three Jobs I Have Had in My Life:
1. Butt wiper
2. Booboo kisser
3. Hygiene consultant

Oh, wait...those were just today. Here are my more broad answers:
1. Media Supervisor
2. Restaurant Cashier
3. Gift Wrapper

Three Places I Have Lived:
1. Monterey, CA
2. Fairfax, VA
3. Newport, RI

Three Favorite Drinks:
1. Coke Zero
2. Arnold Palmer
3. Water

Three TV Shows That I Watch:
1. The Gilmore Girls (in ABC Family reruns)
2. The Amazing Race
3. Everything on Noggin

Three Places I Have Been:
1. Morocco
2. Cook Islands
3. Vietnam

Three of My Favorite Foods:
1. Hummus with Pita Chips
2. Chopped Veggie Salad
3. Oatmeal Cookies with Mini Chocolate Chips

Three Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Meeting our daughter in China
2. Showing my kids the world
3. Growing old with Scott

The bloggity blog blog tag

So you are sitting in front of your computer wanting to post something...anything. But nothing comes to mind.

Have no fear! Carey at Life in the Carpool Lane is starting the easiest blog tag about blogging. Answer the following questions on your own site when you've got nothing better to blog about. In 10 easy answers you've got yourself a post! (Don't want to post on your site? Then feel free to answer a couple in my comments.)

1. Where are you blogging right now?
2. How many unpublished posts do you have in your 'draft' box?
3. Whose blog inspired you to start your own?
4. When do you usually publish your posts?
5. In your guesstimation, how many blogs do you read?
6. How long have you been blogging for?
7. Why did you start blogging?
8. Why do you keep blogging?
9. If you could only recommend one blog to a friend, which one would it be?
   
10. If the internet was "turned off" for one month, what you you do with all the time you used to spend blogging?
    

Looking forward to seeing everyone's answers so make sure you let me know if you've grabbed this.

Here are my answers:

1. Where are you blogging right now? On my bed (with my mini computer)
   
   
2. How many unpublished posts do you have in your 'draft' box? 25
   
   
3. Whose blog inspired you to start your own? Denise of There is Always Room for One More, I found her blog through reading others' adoption blogs and was immediately drawn to her family. I read all of her posts and then slowly started leaving comments. At some point, I thought, "well, if she (with 6 kids) can find time to do it, then so can I!"
   
   
4. When do you usually publish your posts? Usually 10ish at night
   
   
5. In your guesstimation, how many blogs do you read? 65
   
   
6. How long have you been blogging for? Since December 2008 so 6 months
   
   
7. Why did you start blogging? I've kept a journal off and on since college. So I knew how rewarding it could be to keep track of daily life as well as special occasions and milestones. I desperately wanted to journal about our growing family but could never find the time to sit down and write. I soon realized that blogging was easier for me because I could edit my work and save it to work on at other times. It allowed me more freedom than putting pen to paper.
   
   
8. Why do you keep blogging? I enjoy keeping a record of family events and daily life. But I also love the friendships that I've developed with other bloggers. And I was really surprised and touched by the comments from the earth week posts I did. It felt like I helped to open a couple of my friends' eyes which was a very cool experience.
   
   
9. If you could only recommend one blog to a friend, which one would it be? I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this question because its a hard one... I'd say There is Always Room for One More because without Denise's blog I might not have started this blog. However, if the friend were planning on adopting from China, I'd recommend China Adopt Talk because it has been an invaluable source of information and where I spent 99% of my time on the computer before I started blogging.
   
   
10. If the internet was "turned off" for one month, what you you do with all the time you used to spend blogging? Read? Exercise? It's hard to say because I'm often doing something else while I blog...watching TV, waiting for a pot of water to boil for dinner, blowdrying my hair, watching the boys in the tub, etc. So maybe I'd just be more in the moment...less trying to multi-task.
    

Feel free to grab this for yourself and pass it on!
Happy blogging!

Aren't I the gracious hostess?

You've heard me mention how blogged down I've felt lately. I don't think I'm really any busier than usual so I'm not sure why I'm getting so behind. But I'm so behind that I have tons of awards and tags coming out at the seams. I'm not exaggerating...I have 7 awards and 2 tags!

So here is the deal...it would take me forever to type out all of my friends that I am passing these on to and I've got to get to bed soon. So, please take what you want from the awards and tags below. What's mine, is yours. No, really. Please help yourself... (Am I lazy or a gracious hostess? You decide.)

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The Entertaining House's Jessica and A Sense of Humor is Essential's Martha both awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award.

Here are the rules:
1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

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Martha at A Sense of Humor is Essential also awarded me the Queen of Alll Things Awe-summm!!! Award.

In order to keep this crown, I have to list 7 Awe-Summm things about myself.

• I'm extremely efficiency driven.
• I take decent photos.
• I love my kids and husband with every fiber of my being.
• I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself in public for the kids.
• It only took me 2 weeks to write this post.
• I'm trying to do small things to help our planet for the sake of my kids.
  
• I was able to list 7 awesome things about myself really quickly (yea, right!)
  

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Veronica Lee of Of Mice and Ramen awarded me 4 unique awards.

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Christina at Rant-Rave-Roll passes on the Super Follower Award to me.

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Christina, of Rant-Rave-Roll, also tagged me with 6 Unimportant Things That Make Me Happy.

Here are the rules:
1. Mention the person who nominated you.
2. List six unimportant things that make you happy.
3. Tag six blogs, state the rules & notify them with a teeny comment on their blog.

Here are 6 unimportant things that make me happy:

• My bed
  
• Coke Zero
• Watching TV and my DVR
• Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars
• Sleeping in
• Driving with the windows down
  

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Enterainingmom, Jessica, of The Entertaining House passed on the '5 favorite things about summer tag' to me.

I realize that I have been a bit whiny about summer, specifically how to fill 90+ days with my wild boys. But I really do love summer...
Here is my list of five favorite things about summer:

• The smell of sunscreen on the warm bare skin of my boys
• Reading in the hammock Scott bought me
  
• I don't look weird wearing flip-flops (as opposed to the rest of the year, especially if it's raining)
  
• Seeing my boys play at the water park or in the sprinklers
  
• More daylight
  

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What a weight off my shoulders! Whew... I feel so much better. I just hope that I didn't forget any.

Tag! I'm it!

Last week I was tagged by Shasta at Crackers and Chaos and someone else...I'm so, so sorry but I forgot who. Since it was Earth Week and I couldn't find a way to make all my tag answers 'green' I saved it for this week.

This is a two parter.

Keeping it Real
Here are the rules:

• Take a picture of yourself right now
• No primping or preening, just snap the picture
• Load the picture on to your blog
• Tag some people to play
• NO CHEATING!

Okay people...brace yourself!

This is what I look like after putting two little whirling dervishes cuties to bed. (I typically enjoy an entire bottle glass of champagne after they are finally blissfully asleep!)
What if I told you, that instead of primping and preening, I tried to make myself look worse than normal. What if that's a lie. I guess you'll never know...

The second part is much more fun and not at all scary like above:
8 is Enough!

8 Things I am Looking Forward To
1. Logan being potty trained sometime before he goes to college (hopefully)
2. Camping with my parents and Scott and the boys in June
3. Naptime, naptime, naptime
4. Traveling internationally with the boys
5. Bedtime, bedtime, bedtime
6. Traveling internationally without the boys
7. Being able to sleep in (which means later than 8)
8. Moving to a different (read: nicer) house on a different (read: less busy) street

8 Things I Did Yesterday
1. Whispered "I love you" to the boys
2. Made cards from Jack and Logan's artwork
3. Complained about how tired I am
4. Kissed a boo-boo
5. Snuck a cookie when the boys weren't looking
6. Blogged
7. Wiped a snotty nose (with my hand and wiped it on my jeans)
8. Drank a bottle glass of champagne

8 Things I Wish I Could Do
1. Cook like my mom
2. Manage money like my dad
3. Fly (like a superhero or a pilot, either would do)
4. Remember things like an elephant
5. Play a guitar like my husband
6. Learn languages easily
7. Spend more time learning about photography
8. Throw a tantrum in a store and have everyone give me exactly what I want

8 Shows I Watch
1. The Amazing Race
2. Oprah (yeah, I said it!)
3. The Motherhood (needs some work but is entertaining)
4. Lost (I'm so confused but I keep watching)
5. Fringe
6. Curious George (PBS) (Notice that the header was 'shows I watch'...not 'shows I like')
7. Toot & Puddle (Noggin) (Same note as #6)
8. Imagination Movers (Disney) (Same note as #6)

Looking for a fun easy post. Then, tag! You're it!

100 Things About Me - Installment #6

Carrie, mom to two super cute kiddos, at Martin Manor Happenings tagged me. I'm supposed to list 7 things about myself and pass this tag on to 7 others.

There are some rules with this tag:
I need to link to the person that tagged me.
I need to share 7 things people may not know about me.
I need to tag 7 people to share 7 things and link to them.
I need to let them know they've been tagged.

Since I've been slowly working on my 100 things about me list and I'm a bit overdue, I thought I'd combine it with this tag. That means that I'll be sharing 10 things about me in the next section of this post...

And here are my 7 tagees, bloggers that I've started reading rather recently and would like to get to know better:

Wibeche at Beautiful Days
Kirsty at Just Us
Orah at Momma's Happy Hour
Tanya at Maya and Odessa
The Emery's
The Johnson 5 at The Johnson Family Tales!
Michelle at Truly Blessed

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I enjoy reading bloggers' 100-things-about-me posts. However, by the 32nd thing I usually have forgotten who's blog I'm reading. (Who am I kidding? By #11 I've forgotten!)
I thought it might be fun to try and write one but in the interest of anybody-who-might-actually-read-its sanity I was thoughtful enough to break up the list. In 10 easy installments you can learn everything you ever wanted to know, didn't want to know and could careless about regarding me.

I think it's customary to do this list as your 100th post. My 10th and last installment will be my 100th post (if I can remember).

Here is the sixth installment (#51-#60):
51. I have petted a rhino on the Kenyan savanna.

52. I was in labor for 65 hours with Jack.

53. Luckily, Logan's labor was much shorter.

54. I had laser eye surgery several years ago...

55. And can't imagine my life without it.

56. I don't like the taste of coffee...

57. Or beer.

58. I wish I had more time (and more agreeable subjects) to study photography.

59. I totaled a moped on the island of Naxos and luckily walked away without any major injuries.

60. I have a horrible memory.


If you are interesting in reading more:
Installment #1
Installment #2
Installment #3
Installment #4
Follow-up to questions from #3 and #4
Installment #5

I've been remiss...

Several weeks ago I received a award and was tagged. But with the craziness of Jack's birthday I was late in posting them and passing them on.

Denise, writer of my favorite blog, There is Always Room for One More, lovingly bestowed my blog with The Lovey Award.

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find friends and be friends.They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships will be propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly- written text into the body of their award."

I am so honored to receive this award. What better title to be awarded than friend. Since I have already given out this award once before, I decided to try something different when passing it on. One of the way bloggers become friends is through comments. Who doesn't love comment love? So I have decided to pass this award on to my top 8 commenters.

Drum roll, please...
And they are:

Alicia at More Than Words
Denise at There is Always Room for One More
Mimi at He & Me + 3
JD at Infinite Adventures at the Zoo (private blog)
Keri at Life of Logan
Kristen at A Family is Forever
Orah at Mamma's Happy Hour
Veronica Lee at Of Mice and Ramen

To those above, there is a chance that I've already given you this award once before. This time around I'm passing it to you because you are loyal commenters and as such, I feel like I've gotten to know you and develop friendships. Thank you for those friendships. (And I understand if you don't want to pass it on again, especially if you just did like Denise.)

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I also got tagged by Tanya at Maya and Odessa. To play, I'm supposed to list 6 weird things about myself (oh, where to begin?) and tag 6 other bloggers.

Another drum roll, please...
1. I'm a vegetarian who doesn't eat tomatoes or mushrooms.

2. I have to "get inside the map" to figure out where I'm going.

3. I kissed a Moroccan taxi cab driver.

4. When I used to have an office job, I kept a record of what I wore each day so not to duplicate within a week (because my memory is so bad).

5. I only wear lipstick when my mom is around.

6. I lived in an old monastery in Salzburg, Austria.

For the record, this list was compiled by my husband, Scott. (Which if you read my last post, explains #3...and the fact that it's false.)

Instead of passing this one to specific mama bloggers I'm leaving it up for grabs. I think a good number of you are pretty weird so don't let me down. If you want to play along, feel free and let me know so I can read up on all your weirdness.

What The...? Wednesday

Denise at There's Always Room For One More has made up her own daily themes this week. Today is What The...? Wednesday.

Here's by take on her theme:

Budget bunk beds?

After my description of Logan's favorite getup in another post, I got a couple requests for photos. This pic is a slight variation on the original.
And for the record, Logan doesn't actually use a pacifier; that's part of the costume
Who knew coffee sleeves could double as upper arm bands and bangle bracelets?
Butting heads? (And those are bubbles floating in the air...)
Thanks for letting me play along Denise!

It's official...I'm a bag lady!

Alicia at More Than Words had a cute tag/post that I thought I'd take advantage of. You are supposed to post about your purse. And since for the first time in nearly 4 years I'm actually carrying a purse and not at diaper bag, I was excited to actually show it off.

Here are the rules!
1) Post a picture of whatever bag you are carrying as of late. No, you cannot go up to your closet and pull out that cute little purse you used back before you had kids. I want to know what you carried today.

2) If there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, I’d love to hear it. (And you're supposed to say how much you paid for it, but I'm not sure that bit of info is all that interesting.)

3) Tag some chicks. And link back to this post so people know why the heck you’re showing everyone your diaper bag/non-diaper bag.

So here goes:

This is the purse I bought myself for Christmas. It's big enough to schlep some kid stuff but doesn't resemble a diaperbag (or at least I hope not). It' a nice durable canvas in a slightly olive color so it hides my kiddos' dirty grubby handprints dirt. And it's hard to tell from the photo but there is a large stitchwork design on the front so it has a bit of character. And to top it off it was 60% off which is key because I'm cheap.

Then I realized I wasn't being completely honest and should fess up. So I zoomed out with my camera to show you this:

This is the other bag I carry (in addition to the above purse) when I'm with the two little people who require tons of stuff kids. In this bag you will find several pairs of Logan's underwear and pants, extra socks and shoes, plastic bags (to carry peed on clothes), drinks and maybe a snack or two. And in fact, there is so little stuff in my actual purse, I've been know to take out my wallet and put in this canvas tote.

Then I realized I still wasn't be 100% truthful. So I zoomed out a bit more with my camera to show you this:

This is the third bag I sometimes carry. It's the overflow bag from bag #2 so it has sweatshirts, matchbox cars and who knows what else has fallen to the bottom.

And I swear, that's all the bags I carry!

If you are reading this and want to play along, consider yourself tagged!