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The Anti-Hoarder

February 28, 2011

I assume you have watched the show Hoarders by now.  Anyone who has seen the show, usually says they go on extreme cleaning binges after watching it.
When watching the show Hoarders...the stories are almost always the same.  The problem seems to get worse over a period of time.  You will also notice that you never see a wife of a hockey player on the show.  Why?  Because we are never live in one place long enough to become hoarders!  In fact, I am waiting for the television show called
With a little over one month of the regular season, it is about this time I start becoming an anti-hoarder!  If it hasn't been used in the current hockey season, it is no longer needed.  I am looking forward to the cold and snow to disappear, so I can pack up the coats, boots, hats, gloves, etc...and put them in our storage unit for next year.  I start gathering the toys that my children have outgrown and prepare them for the donation bag.  McDonald's toys that have accumulated...gone!  I sort through drawers for clothes my children no longer wear and pass them on to younger children.  I pack winter clothes away...and donate items that I will no longer wear that have been hanging in my closet all season*.
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*I usually keep a few items I no longer fit into, because one day...I like to think I will be able to wear them again!
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Since we have TWICE purchased a home in our "hockey" city...and TWICE we have relocated after being in the home seven months...we currently rent a home while in our current city.  The home is partially furnished, so we have some furniture and personal items with us, while the rest of our belongings are in a storage unit.  I am always amazed how much crap stuff we accumulate each year.  If I were to keep everything...we would need an freight train to move all of our stuff.
Every April/May we pack up the things we won't need for the summer and store them....(we have yet to live in a home for a solid year).  We clean out all drawers, all cupboards, and closets .  We pack dishes, flatware, pots, pans, towels, sheets, etc for the next season.  We pack our cars with items we will need at the cottage, such as bikes, clothes, computers, etc....and head to our summer home. 

Upon arriving home...we have to unload the cars, unpack our items and clean up a house that has sat empty for 9 months.  About the time we feel settled, it is almost time to pack up and close the house for the next hockey season.  Come the end of August, I sort through items that were not used, clothes that were outgrown, and household items we no longer need.  I store the summer things, and pack up items for the winter.  We load our cars...and off we go.  

Moves per year = 2

13 homes in 12 cities in 14 years

14 years (multiplied) by 2 moves per year = 28 moves!  
28 MOVES IN 14 YEARS!!!
Talk about WASH, RINSE and REPEAT!!  

I am a little bit concerned that my daughter has become somewhat of a hoarder herself.  She has begun to "collect' everything...including:

and
Should I be worried?

Maybe there will be a show like this...

QUESTION...DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A HOARDER OR AN ANTI-HOARDER? 







 






May I have the envelope please....

February 26, 2011

In honor of the Oscars tonight...I thought I would do an award post...
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Today is the day I will finally sit down and thank those who have kindly passed on some blogger awards...if you look on my sidebar on the right, I proudly have displayed them in my TROPHY CASE.   If you click on each award, it will take you to the blog that so graciously gifted it upon me!
If you are familiar with these sweet little awards, there are always rules that come with accepting such gifts from others.  The most important rule is to give some blogging love back to the presenter.  Rule number two is to give some random facts about yourself.  Third, you must pass the award on to others.  Some ask you to pass it to five bloggers, while some suggest up to fifteen bloggers.  
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As much as I like the idea of following rules, I am going to have to bend them a little....but not too much.
For each award, I will let you know who gifted it...I will share a random thing about me...and I will pass it on to three new blogs.

Let's begin!

AWARD #1...

This cute little award is from Rockin' Mama
Don't let this award fool you...her site is not all cupcakes and cherries.  She is not what you would call a "family" blog, but let's face it, there are times I don't want to watch another cute family movie...I want to watch an grown-up film with adult content.  Rockin' Mama is a wife, a mother, and photographer that rocks tattoos while blogging about her life!  Check her out!








RANDOM THINGS...
  • I like my Diet Coke flat!  I have been known to have a bottle of Diet Coke in my car for many days, and I will still drink it!  I have even been known to do this during the summer, when the Diet Coke is warm hot.  My husband thinks this is extremely disgusting!


THE CHERRY ON TOP AWARD GOES TO...my favorite crafty sites!!




AWARD #2...
Party of Five sent this award to me.  I wonder if I should tell her I am really not that stylish, and am wearing sweats and a t-shirt as I type.  April has a great blog about her family and everyday life.  She loves The Dave Matthews Band, and takes great pictures of her children...stop in and say Hello!





Samantha's Day


RANDOM THINGS...
  • I rode in a cockpit of a commercial airplane from Chicago to San Francisco...it was part of my Flight Attendant training, and it was quite exciting.  Take-off and landing with the forward view is unbelievable...especially on such a large plane.  The whole time I sat there, I could picture myself reaching up and pressing random buttons...while wondering what would happen!  Probably best I didn't become a pilot!


THE STYLISH BLOGGER AWARD GOES TO...some great new finds!




AWARD # 3...

I received this award from Not About Cake!  Be sure to check out her other blog My Cakeology, they both are a great read.  The cakes she decorates are so amazing, and you can tell she really loves what she does!  The Not About Cake blog is geared more towards her daily life that doesn't involve cake.  She is funny and has a great since of humor.  Be sure to click below and have a good laugh!







RANDOM THINGS...
  • I use Diaper rash ointment on my lips everyday!  My preference right now is Beaudrouxs Butt Paste.  I have used it every day since I was seventeen years old.  I used to get horrible chapped lips, and it was suggested I try "butt paste" (my nickname for it).  If I were stranded on a deserted island, this would be my luxury item!  

THE LOL AWARD GOES TO...my favorite blogs that make me Laugh Out Loud (of course)!




AWARD #4...
Heartfelt Balance/Handmade Life was so kind to send this my way...If you want to read about a great love story, head over to this blog and read the story of how this blogger met her husband...talk about patience and destiny! Plus, her husband is able to build things around the house...I am so jealous!  Go ahead, check out her blog...I'll wait for you!





Samantha's Day


RANDOM THINGS...
  • I would eat sushi five days a week if I could.  I used to not eat it, but when I was pregnant with my son...I craved it more than anything.  I often would have my husband take me on Wednesday or Thursday...then I would go with a friend on the weekend while my husband had a game.  I would then tell my husband I had to go run errands, and I would sneak across town and eat sushi alone, hiding my growing belly under the table.  (For those of you concerned, my son turned out perfectly healthy!)
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THE VERSATILE AWARD GOES TO...bloggers that I admire for their outlook on life!

Last but not least, I received this big award the other day...Adult Awkwardness sent this to me...She claims she is an "Unpopular Girl in Womanhood", but I think she is pretty great.  Her blog is quite eclectic with a little bit of this and that...be sure to visit her and let her know she is not unpopular!






I will leave you with one last random item...

I am always getting my RIGHT and LEFT mixed up.  My husband will always second guess me when I am giving directions by saying..."Do you mean the real left, or your left?"  90% of the time I am wrong!  My sister and my daughter have the same problem, so I think it is genetic...

For those of you to have just been awarded these snazzy little gifts....I will let you choose how to pass them on.  You can choose whether or not to share some random things about yourself.  I will not assign a specific number of blogs to bestow these upon... Just do what works for you and have fun! 













My husband and I are not friends....

February 25, 2011

Yes, you read that correctly, I am not friends with my husband....on Facebook!
Normally when I mention this, I get a look of shock from people.  How could you not be friends with your husband on Facebook?  I never thought it was a bad thing, but I would say 9 out of 10 people think it is strange!  Maybe once I plead my case to you, you will get a better understanding of why I decided to ignore his "friend request".

CONSIDER YOURSELF SUMMONED TO BLOG JURY DUTY!

Ladies and Gentleman of the Jury...In the next few paragraphs, I will explain to you the reason my husband is not my friend on Facebook.  I am sure once you look at all of the evidence, you will find that your only option will be to find me innocent of the charges brought against me!

EXHIBIT A:  MY HUSBAND'S AGE. 

My husband is almost fifteen years older than I am...he was being drafted into the NHL the year an ATARI was placed under my Christmas tree when I was six! 
To say my husband is not the most computer-savvy person would be an under-statement.  He has definitely come a long way since he first logged onto the internet in 1999...and he will be the first to admit he is not up on the latest tech toys.  My husband did not join Facebook until last Spring!  He rarely even looks at his FB page, and so he doesn't even notice we are not friends...I think! 

EXHIBIT B:  HE'S (KIND OF) A PUBLIC FIGURE.

I still am a little weary about Facebook.  The fact that my husband is quite google-able (not sure if that is a word...yet!) makes me try to be careful of what is said.  I have mentioned before (here) that Hockey is like two-degrees-of-separation!  
I am always shocked when I see girls, who have husbands that work in hockey, saying things about the team or organization on their FB status!  You never know who is friends of friends of friends on Facebook!  Besides, this blog is airing enough of our laundry, and I try hard to keep it anonymous!

EXHIBIT C:  EX-BOYFRIENDS & EX-GIRLFRIENDS = JEALOUSY?

I am not going to lie...I have ex-boyfriends on my FB (which my husband is aware of) and I am sure he has some ex-girlfriends on his FB.  This is probably why most people assume we are not friends on FB. But for us that is not a big deal!!  There is no room for jealousy in our marriage.  We chose to marry each other after dating forever over five years...We combined our DNA (twice) and made two pretty fabulous kids together, and I have moved twelve times in fourteen years for him!  I don't need an accept button to prove my love!
I consider some of my ex-boyfriends...just that, friends.  I liked them enough to date them...but then it just didn't seem to work out, so we parted ways.  It doesn't mean that I am not interested in their well-being, current family-life, etc.  I assume my husband feels the same way about some of his ex-girlfriends!     
(Please remind me to tell the funny story of my husband and his ex-girlfriend that lives in the city we are currently in...that is a full post in itself!)

EXHIBIT D:  VIDEO EVIDENCE!

Proof that Facebook is not good for a relationship!






I REST MY CASE!!

Question..are you friends with your significant other on Facebook?









When Will I learn ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ?

February 22, 2011

Today is CLEANING OUT THE CLOSET on FTLOB...so I am reaching in the back of my "not-so-fond-memory" closet, and pulling out a little confession.  We are supposed to learn from our mistakes, but clearly I am a slow learner!




When I was in eighth grade, I decided one night to cut my hair!  I remember going into the bathroom, closing the door, and using my mother's scissors to "trim" my bangs.  With each snip, I could hear a voice inside of my head telling me this was a BAD idea!

I snipped from left to right, and evened them out from right to left...then left to right and right to left.  With each clip I watched my bangs get shorter and shorter...
...then just as quickly as I had thought of this stupid crazy dumb idiotic BRILLIANT idea, I was looking into the mirror with bangs about 3/4 of an inch long!  HOLY SH*T!!  What had I done?  Thankfully my mother was not home at the time.  I remember thinking that maybe they would grow before she got back in an hour!  Maybe she wouldn't notice!  Maybe lightening would strike me while I was in bed and I could say the burns caused the loss of hair!
My only option was to open the door and show my older sister what I had done, and hope she would be understanding...and help me figure something out!  I knew she was going to laugh, and I knew she was going to tease me...but I wondered if she would find it in her heart and help me fix this mess I had created.  Slowly, I opened the door and stood there in front of her...
After crying about how I was just trying to make them even, and they just kept getting shorter...My sister continued stopped laughing, and said she would try to help me fix it.  She went and found my mom's thinning-shears, and we went back into the crime scene bathroom.  To make a long and painful story short yet still painful...my sister decided the best thing would be to take the top half of my hair and bring it forward...cut new bangs and have them hide the short ones...this was a great idea, in theory. 
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That inner-voice once again started yelling speaking to me...
  1. Did my sister have any HAIRCUTTING EXPERIENCE!
  2. How was I going to keep the hair forward? 
  3. Is it really best to cut more hair when you have already cut too much hair?
I once again decided not to listen the inner-voice...I told it to be quiet and mind it's own business!

My sister began to sculpt my new hairstyle...she snipped here and there, she thinned here and there.  She snipped and thinned...thinned and snipped!  Finally, I was able to look in the mirror.  It was not bad at all!  Yes, I had a few more bangs than before, but they covered the previous mess quite well.  I didn't know how to thank my sister...she had truly saved me from eighth-grade-teasing-hell!  Nobody would notice anything was different from the previous week at school...
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Fast forward twenty-two years, and I once again am sporting bangs.  So you would think I would have remembered the story I just told you about, and I would take advantage of my salon's FREE BANG TRIMS (no appointment necessary!).  However, this morning I decided it would be a smart idea to trim my own bangs...
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I took my scissors and started snipping left to right, right to left, etc.  I had done it, I had evened..WAIT, that looks a little crooked...I will just snip a little on the left, there that's perfect!  WAIT, I missed a spot...just a little snip and...NO, a little on the right...maybe a little more on the left...I think that will do...just one more snip...and done!

Remember in the back of Glamour magazine the Dos and Don'ts segment?

Well...I think I have a new entry!


QUESTION...DO YOU CUT YOUR OWN HAIR OR YOUR FAMILY'S HAIR?