Seven Things

I was tagged by my SIL Rebecca (her blog is private, otherwise I would have linked).

Seven things I can do:
1. Find a good deal.
2. Create a meal out of random ingredients in my cupboard/fridge.
3. Tell when American Idol contestants are off pitch.
4. Laugh at myself. And my husband.
5. Parallel park.
6. Sightread well enough to play most hymns on the piano.
7. Find my way without asking for directions. (It may take a little longer, but I eventually get wherever I want to go!)



Seven things I can NOT do:
1. Enjoy baking.
2. Roll my r's.
3. Kill an animal. (I can do bugs, but I hate it.)
4. Keep my car clean.
5. Stop my backseat-driving tendencies.
6. Live without air-conditioning.
7. Be a morning person.


Seven things I say the most:
1. Hoo-da-lolly!
2. I Wuv Woo. (Click here for the story)
3. Feel free to come out when you're acting sweet.
4. I can't hear you through all that whining.
5. Okie Dokie Hokie Pokey.
6. If you can hear me clap two times.
7. Oh man!



Seven goals I have:
1. Keep up my exercise routine.
2. Achieve our financial goals.
3. Improve as a piano teacher.
4. Remember all my primary meetings!
5. Listen more, advise less.
6. Attend temple more.
7. Get over phone anxiety.



Seven reasons I fell in love with my spouse:
1. Spirituality--I met him on his mission and was so impressed with his faith, dedication, and obedience.
2. Kindness--he is so nice to everyone he meets. Not judgemental.
3. Didn't play games--he came right out and said what he was feeling.
4. Cutie Patooty.
5. Open-minded and spontaneous--he's up for just about any challenge or adventure.
6. So good with kids.
7. Treated his mom and Grandmas with respect--I knew if he did that, then he would be that way with me and teach our sons to be that way, too.



Seven thing I love to eat:
1. Hawaiian food: teriyaki chicken, rice, macaroni salad
2. Cafe Rio Pork Salad
3. Twix candy bar
4. Avacado in any form
5. Cilantro on anything
6. Chocolate chip cookies
7. TCBY white chocolate mousse flavor



Seven people I tag:
1.You
2. You
3. You
4. You
5. You
6. You
7. You

Favorite Things Right Now

1. Texas in February. LOVE IT! Sunshine, low 80's, breezes, NICE!

2. A Brand New Year. My cousin Sara has talked about it on her blog, but I cannot listen to it or watch it enough. It is so positive, it just makes me so happy! Especially the song Say Yes. I cry EVERY TIME I watch it, and I smile and dance every time I listen to it. You can download it for free, so we just put it on Tyler's MP3 player, and I LOVE that he loves it. Some of the words in the chorus:

"If you feel like all you say is "no," don't let go,
'cause we will reap exactly what we sow,
and when we say no, then we say
Yes, yes, yes to happiness
and we say yes to freedom
and yes to hope
and yes to every thing good that we know.
Because we're tryin' hard to do what's right
means we're gonna have that much more fun tonight.
We only wanna be our best,
so we say YES!"

3. YNAB Pro. (YNAB stands for You Need A Budget) My blogging friend Emily has blogged about it from time to time, and we finally checked it out, and it's definitely worth every penny! (You can get a 10% discount code if you Google it) Anyway, it's this awesome software that is better than any I've seen. Everything I've ever hated about other budgeting software is taken care of with this. But it's not just software, it's a methodology that is totally compatible with Dave Ramsey's money philosophy. Anyway, in this tight economy, we decided it's finally time to do a better job with our money, and it's so liberating and exciting!

4. Tyler:

• He's doing such a good job trying new foods now. He used to gag just looking at other foods, and would only eat a handful of different foods. So we decided he needs to try something new every night before dinner. Usually just one bite. He had to go a couple of nights with no dinner because he wouldn't try something (so hard to do!!!!) but he's really getting over his phobias, and trying new foods every day now.
• The other day when we asked him to clean his room, rather than cry and protest like normal, he just sweetly said, "Any help would be greatly appreciated!" What?! Where did that come from? So cute! Of course we couldn't say no to that.
• There's a country song that goes something like this," No one else on earth could ever love me--no one could love me like you." And it keeps repeating the line No one else on earth. Every time it comes on the radio, he asks, How can there be no one else on earth? There are lots of people on earth, Mommy! She's so silly saying there's no one else on earth!" I just think it's cute.

5. Brad: We've been married almost ten years, and I just realized something: If my toothbrush is not a "girl" color, like pink, purple, or yellow, then it is in danger of being used by him! How many times have I unknowingly brushed my teeth with his germs on my toothbrush?!? It just doesn't seem to bother him, and he says he gets confused when we have similar colors, or if I have a boy color. So funny to me!

6. Pandora. You can go to this site and choose artists you like and they will make a "station" out of similar sounds and artists. It's all based on this in-depth analysis called the music genome project, where they disect different elements of the songs. It's pretty accurate!

7. Amazing Race. Love this show, even in its 14th season. This one's challenges and racers are especially good, I think. The cheese challenge had us rolling on the floor! Especially when Luke, the first deaf contestant (he's awesome!) fell down the hill! Enjoy:

Flat Emma

Have you heard of the book, Flat Stanley? It's where a boy gets smashed flat and realizes that now he can go anywhere in the mail. Apparently it has become a favorite Social Studies assignment among elementary school teachers. I remember the first time I heard about it was when my nephew Reed had to send Flat Stanley somewhere. That was when my parents lived in Africa, so that was pretty cool! Well, the parents no longer live in Ghana, so I guess Texas was second place when my niece Emma had to do the assignment. But we treated Flat Emma pretty well! Here were our adventures:

We took her to see the Texas State Capitol. Following the trend to make everything a little bigger and better in Texas, the Capitol was built to be 15 feet higher than the national one in Washington, D.C.

Back in San Antonio, our first stop was El Mercado, or the Mexican Marketplace. Flat Emma jumped right in and grabbed a little instrument to join in with the Mexican band playing.

Next we took the trolley to the other side of Downtown. She was a little nervous to be without a seatbelt.

We are the "Alamo City," so of course we had to take her here. She was very respectful during the tour. Not even a peep.

Lastly was the Paseo del Rio, or Riverwalk. She almost fell in, but we caught her. Phew! That would've been a little bit embarrassing, jumping in to save a paper doll!

Hopefully next time some real people will come to S.A. We'd love to take you on the same tour!

This is Really Cool!

I don't know why I'm so fixated by this new thing I found on Pinching Your Pennies.

"YourFonts.com is a FREE online font generator that allows you to create your own TrueType fonts within a couple of minutes.

Your own handwriting turned into your very own font for free
Optionally include your signature
You'll have your very own font within 15 minutes
Make as many fonts as you like
Use your fonts on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
Personalize your digital scrapbook pages
Make your own "family handwriting history"
Use your fonts in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and every program that you own

There is another site out there that you can do this on but it costs money and here is a free alternative. You download the pdf and print it out and fill it out with your handwriting. You then upload it back to the site and it will create a font that you can use on your computer based on your handwriting."

Here's a sample of my font:




I absolutely love it! I keep writing nonsense just to see my very own font! It's like I'm immortal in a way. Like, I could die tomorrow (knock on wood!) but whomever had this font could still write in my writing!

So go do this and email me yours, so I can have your writing forever! I promise I won't forge anything.

Reluctant 25 Things

I wasn't going to do the whole "25 Things" thing that's been going around on Facebook, mainly because everybody's doing it, and I hate to do something that everybody's doing (I still have never seen ET or Titanic)! But I have no other ideas for a post, so here goes...(although I'm only posting it here, not Facebook, so I'm still kind of a rebel!)

1. I like feeling cold. I love the feeling of cold sheets when I get into bed. Brad is the complete opposite. That is why he has a twin-size electric blanket on his side.

2. I have always and always will hate mustard.

3. I would rather scrub a toilet than empty the dishwasher.

4. I love Texas, but I just don't think it's pretty like Oregon and Utah. I miss my Sunday drives into the mountains.

5. Texas Natives will NOT listen to that last comment. They will fight it tooth and nail, saying that there is nowhere prettier than Texas.

6. I like to try and get Brad to say stuff that he doesn't want to say. Like, he hates it when couples talk baby talk to each other, so I often say, "I wuv woo," just to bug him, and he'll say "I love you, too." But I keep saying "I wuv woo," until he breaks down and says, "I wuv woo, too." Sweet victory!

7. Brad will deny everything in that last comment. Except that I like to bug him. He'll agree with that!

8. I had NOTHING to do with the Christmas tree falling over in the front room when I was five. I was simply sitting at the table, eating my clam chowder, and it fell. End of story!

9. I did, however, have EVERYTHING to do with shaving my eyebrows in the third grade, even though I denied it.

10. I am not a very good play partner for Tyler. By the time I'm done playing, all the bad guys have made up and are having hot cocoa and toast in the castle. Nobody kills or fights, everybody gets along. Not very masculine.

11. I really like doubles tennis, and think Brad and I make a good partnership. If anyone would like to play sometime, call us up!

12. I have phone anxiety. I always feel like a dork on the phone. I am bad at thinking of things to say.

13. I LOVE Neil Diamond.

14. I always have to know what direction I'm facing. San Antonio has humbled me in this regard, because there is no grid; very few streets are straight North-South or East-West.

15. I am left-handed and proud of it, but am secretly glad that Tyler favors his right-hand. Too many things are harder for left-handers.

16. I LOVE to cook, but HATE to bake.

17. If I had to choose between a paper-supply store and a department store, 99 times out of 100 I would choose the paper-supply store.

18. On average, I am in the middle of about 5 books at a time. Yes, it does get confusing sometimes!

19. We have a name for the remote: Minnoe Pinnoe, Minnoe for short. "Hey, do you know where the minnoe is?" "Have you tried inside the couch cushion?"

20. Sometimes Tyler says things wrong, and we don't correct him, because it's so cute: "Mom, can we put some Smarshmallows in the hot chocolate?" "Mom, does this yogurt have any Chokes (chunks) in it?"

21. I cut my own hair. Sometimes it turns out well, other times I have to go in and get it fixed.

22. Now that I'm on Facebook, I don't think I'll feel the need to go to my high-school reunions. You get to see what people are up to, without all the social anxiety!

23. I am SOOOOO not a morning person.

24. I'd rather have last night's leftovers for breakfast than breakfast food. I could live without pancakes, waffles, cinnamon rolls, cereal, etc.

25. Shows I record on the DVR: Gilmore Girls, NBC Nightly News, Nightline, American Idol, Amazing Race, CBS Sunday Morning, The Office, House Hunters, Designed to Sell, Property Virgins, Throwdown w/ Bobby Flay, 30 minute meals, and our latest, Howie Do It.