Memes/Hops

A meme, why not. It’s been a while and this is a once a year one, so… I thought I was over the meme thing, but oh well. Here goes…..

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before? Oh you’re gonna make me think huh? I’ll have to get back to you on this one…

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Nope and nope. I don’t do resolutions because, well I resolved not to a long time ago. Ha ha!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? YESH! My bestst friend gave birth to her FIRST baby, a beautiful little boy. The best part is she is 38 years old and was told she’d NEVER conceive many moons ago. Can you say miracle baby?!

4. Did anyone close to you die? Sadly, yes. A very very dear friend of mine died a few weeks ago after battling cancer. It’s still a hard pill to swallow…her not being here anymore; no visits, no phone calls, and not seeing her smiling face.

5. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? My sanity. If you find it, please return it.

6. What countries did you visit? Yeah right, like I even left the state much less the country. I can only wish…

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why: Hmmmm… not sure. Will get back to ya on that one too.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Does losing my sanity count? No? Fine. I lost 42 pounds, so far. That’s a MAJOR achievement for this southern food loving chick!

9. What was your biggest failure? Let’s not go there right now, k?

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Yes, I had a tooth pulled. I honestly thought that would end the toothache… had no idea it would ache even after the stupid thing was gone! (It doesn’t ache anymore though!! WOOHOO)

11. What was the best thing you bought? Chritmas presents… cuz they were for the loves of my life!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Oh oh oh I know this one! Just the other day I hadda do a little work in the office and my Lil Man was an absolute angel! I was so happy I took him to Sonic so he could get a “prize!”

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Yeah, have you read my previous post?

14. Where did most of your money go? HA! I have kids. ‘Nough said.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My new phone & carrier!!

16. What song will always remind you of 2011? I have no earthly idea…

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? A little of both

ii. thinner or fatter? THINNER! YEAH!
iii. richer or poorer?

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Spending time with my amazing friends.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Staying home and cleaning.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? Christmas is over, and I spent it with the family. Although I’ll be doing a Christmas thing this weekend with the Moms. Fun fun!

21. There was no #21. I don’t know why there was no 21. Cool beans!

22. Did you fall in love in 2011? Yes, I fell in love with my new phone. It’s so smmmaaarrrtttt!!! lol

23. How many one-night stands? One-night stand? What’s that? (Obviously the answer is nada.)

24. What was your favorite TV program? Sons of Anarchy, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural & The Big Bang Theory

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Hate is such a strong word. I’ll go with strongly dislike, and yes. I strongly dislike someone that I didn’t strongly dislike this time last year. Very strongly.

26. What was the best book you read? Hmmm… I read quite a few. I’d have to say the newest in the Blue Bloods series since I haven’t yet finished Inheritance yet.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Breaking Benjamin, Santcus Real, and I know there’s a few more I can’t think of right now. Man I need my Pandora.

28. What did you want and get? New cell service and phone. WOOT!

30. What was your favorite film of this year? Breaking Dawn Part 1 of course. Man I’m ready for Part 2.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I didn’t do a blamed thing. And I was 37. I’m still young. Really, I am.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Finding my sanity. Please help!

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? hahahahahahahahaha

34. What kept you sane? My Mom and three best friends Howard, Patti & Lee. And my kids too, though they also cause a bit on insanity on occasion.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Charlie Hunan. Oh yeah!!! (That’d be Jax Teller from SOA if you’re wondering… ooh lala!)

36. What political issue stirred you the most? I ignore politics and most politicians.

37. Who did you miss? My brother. I always miss my brother, especially when there are life changes or happy times or sad times or… yeah pretty much anything.

38. Who was the best new person you met? Gaynel, by far. She’s my Boo and I lubs her!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011: Sanity is over rated.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: “Don’t know what you got till it’s gone” and that’s in reference to my sanity… haha. Seriously, I have no idea.

And that brings me to the end. Halleluiah! (did I spell that right? Oh well…)

Haven’t done this in a while so I thought it’d be fun…

1. If you could have any talent and turn it into an occupation, what would it be?

Me? Talent? Surely you jest. Okay… any talent, turned occupation. *thinkingthinkingthinking* Honestly, I really didn’t have to think that hard. The answer is quite easy. If I could have any talent and turn it into an occupation it would be photography. And before you go telling me that photography isn’t a talent, let me say this… I think some people have a talent for it and some don’t. Some people have a natural eye for photography, which I’d call talent, and some just think they do. I’m in the latter group. lol Actually, I don’t think I have an eye or talent for it, but sure wish I did. And I sure wish I was better at it, and knew more about it, and could do it every single day and make a career out of it, so I could just go out a couple days a week or so and take pictures and bring in a nice chunky paycheck and… wow I needed to take a breath there.

Seriously though, I do wish I had a talent for photography and would absolutely love to make it an occupation. I love taking pictures of nature, mostly, but would really love to learn how to photography people, and I mean really photograph people… those photos you see that just take your breath away because they are.so.good. Maybe someday… or not. (Ideally… my dream would be to travel the world and photograph every place I put my feet down, especially third-world countries– so I could bring it home and show my friends and neighbors that it really IS a worldwide problem and it really IS our business to help out! Maybe THAT is something I can do someday.)

2. Would you rather have a house at the beach or a cabin in the woods?

A house at the beach, hands down… and a vacation cabin in the woods. lol What? You didn’t say I couldn’t choose both! I’m a sand and sun girl… I love the beach, LOVE the beach. I would love to have a house on the beach, and honestly that would be my idea of heaven on earth!

3. Is there any meaning or reasoning for the names you chose for your child/children?

Yes, all four of them. BUT, since I don’t use my children’s names here, I can’t tell you what they are. I can tell you this much:

My oldest son was named after my dad and his dad (their first names are the same), and his middle name came from the Bible.

My second son’s name came from the Bible also, and his middle name is the same as his dad’s.

My daughter’s first name is a compilation of several names– her daddy’s middle name, my grandmother’s middle name, my brother’s middle name– all the same name spelled the same way; and her grandmother’s first name (a nickname/short form of it that is); and her middle name is the same as my middle name (was not my choice, was her dad’s… he said it was only fair since I picked her first name, so we went with it).

And my youngest son… his first name is from the Bible and his middle name is my baby brother’s middle name; also, his nick name is a shortened form of his first name and my baby brother’s first name, although their first names are not the same. Confused yet?

All four of my kids are named after someone… but I also looked at the meanings of all their names before deciding on them. Ironically, their name meanings fit their personalities perfectly!

4. What is your guilty pleasure?

Ahhh… and that would be chocolate. Oooh sweet silky milk chocolate. I love it. I love it too much. I don’t eat it often, but when I do… I do it right!

5. Do you live in a house that is deep cleaned or straightened?

That depends on my mood (OCD)… when I deep clean, I deep clean. I mean deeeeeep… like vacuuming the ceiling deep. But the past few weeks, it’s just straightened. And it’s driving me nuts too!

So, I’m linking up this week… (please ONLY follow my blog if you LIKE my blog… I am linking to these hops to meet new bloggers and discover new blogs!!! I’d rather have quality instead of quantity!! No pressure… just enjoy!)

… and I am a material girl.

Not really.

I’ve been reading Mama’s Kat’s Writer’s Workshop (prompts) for a little while now; I’m just always a lurker and never a participant. Until now that is!

As I was reading this week’s prompts, I came to one that make me laugh out loud, literally. What prompt is it you ask? Well… this one:

If you had made a career out of whatever you were passionate about when you were ten…what would you be doing?

I literally laughed out loud because it brought back memories of a ten-year-old me. And at ten, I dreamed of growing up and becoming… Madonna. *cringe* Yes, I’m serious. I did. I was all about “The Material Girl” at the ripe old age of ten. I was a super passionate girl, who was super passionate about Miss Ciccone.  And if I’d made a career out of my ten-year old passion, I’d be Madonna right now.    She was cool and I wanted to be her.

I dressed like her, or as much like her as I could.  I wore more jelly bracelets than my arms would hold, along with a plethora of shiny silver slinky bracelets too.  And, actually, at one point I think I even wore an actual slinky as a bracelet.  Hey, in my own defense– I was only ten!

I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup yet, at age ten, so I’d slip into the girls’ bathroom at school and paint my face up with the ‘community’ makeup… I went in a little girl and walked out a clown.  But I was cool.  Because I was going to grow up and be Madonna.

I spent countless hours dancing around my bedroom, or the living room, or the front porch or back yard– depending on whether I was watching MTV or listening to 94QID (the local radio station– funny fact: caused widespread telephone outage in Southern Mississippi in 1985 with their $1000 song call in to win promo! True story!).  I often used hairbrushes as my microphone and sang right along with Borderline and Lucky Star and Holiday as if I were on that stage myself.

Imagine a ten-year old singing Like a Virgin and Papa Don’t Preach.  Oy.  I’d love to say only in the 80s but, well… yeah.

I wasn’t allowed double-pierced ears (until I actually tricked my dad into it, but that’s another story for another time) so I wore two pairs of fish-hook earrings in one ear.  I was so very cool.

I have a natural beauty mark (mole) close to where Madonna’s fake one resided, so didn’t have to go the black eyeliner route, but did anyway.  Because, well, mine just wasn’t dark enough.  I wonder if my Mom ever figured out what her eyeliner was being used for?  (Yeah, as if I was getting one over on Mom.  Riiiiight.)

I even had this super ugly neon pink lace head band thingy… and you better believe I used it.

I wore gloves every chance I got.  I wore long shorts underneath mini skirts.  I wore big necked shirts hanging off my shoulder (with tanks underneath).  And I thought I was cool.  I couldn’t bleach my hair or I’d have done that too.  I wore the biggest earrings my ten-year-old hands could get hold of; and every gaudy necklace I could find.  I was super cool.

Now that I look back on it, I can only hang my head in shame.  (Or laugh myself silly!)

Thankfully I grew out of it long before the Blond Ambition and Truth or Dare explosions. *shutters*  I don’t think I could have stomached wearing a conical bra.

1. If you could add one room to your house, what would it be? Does an entire house count? Okay, seriously (I really do want a whole new house) I’d have to go with a ‘greenhouse.’ A specific place just for all my plants… nothing but my plants… complete with sprinklers, heater, fan, a work table, the works. It never hurts to dream right?

2. How many pillows do you sleep with at night? Three. I kid you not. I have two for my head and a body pillow. I’m a cuddler, and though hubby likes to cuddle, it doesn’t last long because he tends to get hot. And of course, we still co-sleep so Little Man is also a cuddler, he’s my cuddle-bug. (Seriously, ask him and he’ll tell you, that’s his title!) Since Little Man usually plants himself right between his daddy and me, my body pillow serves as my big cuddle.

3. What is the best costume you’ve ever worn for Halloween? Wow. I have to go waaaaay back for this one… like all the way back to when I was a kid. I was probably 11 or 12, and I dressed up as a gypsy. I thought I looked cool. Even farther back, when I was about 5 or so, I had a Raggedy Ann doll that was made for me, and was bigger than me (taller anyway) and my mom dressed me in the dolls clothes. So I was Raggedy Ann for halloween. I actually think that was a pretty cool idea. My little brother was Raggedy Andy (same size doll, made by the same person) when he was a wee one. He was way cuter than me though.

4. If you could erase one item off the face of the earth, what would it be? Wow, this is a hard one. A very hard one. I don’t know that I can actually pick just one thing. I could make a list as long as my arm though… but since I have to pick just one, I’ll pick children’s pain. Now I’ll explain that… if I had the ability to change one thing it would be that no child would ever feel the pain of hunger or loneliness or abuse. It’s a tall order, I know, because this is a relentlessly cruel world. But, that’s where I’d start… on that list as long as my arm.

5. Where do you do your best thinking? When it’s quiet. I love to be alone in nature… outdoors… in the woods… for some reason. Maybe it’s that I want to be alone with the Lord, I don’t know. But I love it, and tend to do my best and clearest thinking when I’m alone in nature.

Okay then, that was fun! New, different, and fun! (Click on the image up there at the top to visit the hosting blog!)