Tell about five accomplishments the past week...

hmmmm.....
1. I did all my returns. I have a terrible habit of purchasing something and then needing to return it only to have it sit in a bag on my bedroom floor for weeks... maybe months! I managed to return all the stuff that's been piling up the last month or so... and have set myself a "rule" for not purchasing anything new if I currently have an return waiting to be made.

2. I replaced my cell phone... twice. My phone has been not holding a charge for quite some time and lately a couple of the buttons wouldn't work everytime. Very annoying. Almost as annoying as a trip to the Verizon store would prove to be. My first trip wasn't too bad... I purchased a very cute little Razor with a blue tooth thingy so I can be one of those annoying people walking through Wal Mart "talking to themselves"... LOL... but the battery life was really bad needing to be charged after just a couple of hours of talk time. So.... off I go to the Verizon store again where I was one of four customers that morning. One of four. One of just four measly little customers in a store with 18 employees standing around doing nothing. I'm not kidding. I counted. After being made to wait for someone to "be available", the sales girl was as unhelpful as a person could be without being down right obnoxious. She actually told me, when I said I wanted to return the Razor because of the short battery life that "well, you should have known that". Not "they should have told you that"... uh-uh... I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT! I am sad to say I didn't maintain the best attitude although I did manage to not treat her rude... I just told the hubs that he'd have to finish the phone purchase because I was going to wait in the car. Menopausal women should probably not visit Verizon stores! I swear... if it wouldn't have meant changing my husband and sons phones I would have left and gone to Cingular even if it'd cost me twice as much! Anyway... I bought another phone and we'll see if it's any better.

3. Took my car to the shop for some warrantied repair work that needs to be done, but wasn't a HAVE TO. Things like that are hard to do for some reason.

4. Had a really wonderful lunch date with my 8 year old after their American Education Week activity. :)

5. And, lastly, my most proud accomplishment.... I cleaned the junk drawer in my kitchen out! I hate this chore because it never stays done and involves lots and lots of decisions about throwing stuff away and finding homes for stuff that shouldn't have been put there in the first place. But it sure feels good to open it up to get a stamp or a pen or something and actually be able to find it!

Want to know your future?

If you could, would you want to know your future? No, I don't think I would want to know my future, except in the most general terms... for instance I like feeling assured that God has a plan for eternity for me and regardless of how this life on earth is, there is something better ahead. But knowing the day-to-day future of every little aspect of my life would be overwhelming. Assuming you couldn't change things I think it would be a bit discouraging... why try if you can't make things better (the good things and the bad things coming), just coast on through. And if you could affect the future I think it would be such a tremendous weight on a person they'd crumble. Afterall, your future really impacts so many other futures, doesn't it? O

The Book I'm Reading Right Now is Teaching Me...

absolutely nothing! I'm currently reading The Ambler Warning which is a rather poorly written but fairly entertaing spy-political intrique novel. But it has no redeeming qualities other than that it is entertaining enough to keep me from feeling annoyed when I'm sitting in a parking lot waiting to chauffeuer my kids from this activity or that! The last book I read that "taught" me something was The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards which was not only a fun read, but dealt with how a lie impacts people's lives over the years. I don't know if "taught" is what it really did as I already "knew" this but it did cause me to think.

What would you do if you rescued someone....

and discovered he was the richest man in the world and he offered to either buy you land and build a house or fix up the house your in now?

Well... lucky for me there is one empty lot left in my neighborhood!! Because my kids would hate moving away from their friends and our neighbors are much like family so.. I think I'd buy the empty lot across the street. It's huge and backs up to the woods... rumor is it needs some fancy, dancy septic system because it won't properly "perk" and that is why no one has bought it... but what do I care about the cost, I just saved the life of the richest man in the world!! I really wouldn't build a huge, huge house.... nothing overly fancy, not a lot of fru-fru either. I'd like to have four bedrooms (one for each kid, a guest bedroom and a master suite... a real master suite with a large bathroom and huge closets and an area to have a couple of cozy chairs and a fireplace... ok, now I'm getting fancy, aren't I?) And I'd have a larger kitchen with room for people to gather since that's where everyone ends up anyway... lots of wood, rich warm colors, tile backsplash, brand new appliances. I'd have a family room and a small living room/dining room (we'd never use it, but what the heck?) and I'd have a sunroom since Michigan winters are long and dreary... a heated sunroom where I could sit in my jacuzzi and watch the kids play in the snow (there I go... getting fancy again). I'd have a finished basement with seperate areas for teens and younger kids... lots of room for electronics and large screen tv. And of course, I'd have my very own computer room... no wait, I'd have computers in every room so I could sit and play where ever I desired.. yep, that's the thing!! LOL!! What happened to "nothing to fancy?" Actually.... the only thing I'd do is buy the lot across the street and turn it into a neighborhood park with a swimming pool for everyone and a baseball diamond. I like my house pretty well as it is... and I certainly don't need more space to clean! Although that sunroom would be pretty nice.....

How fun is this!!??

This week's Item Of The Week at dsp is a template to make these little snack bag holders. It's just $.99 for the template, several papers and elements (not the ones I used, these are by Rene Bross, Pretty Pumpkin page kit). Anyway... the template is very easy to use and the results are really quite good, even first try. This is one I made (my first attempt). I can see lots of uses for this (birthday parties, school parties, etc.) Boy... the fun a person can have for $1.00!!!

Do You Find It Easier to Be Yourself in Online Communities?

An interesting question... and while I'd answer "yes" to it, I still wouldn't say I am really "myself" online either. It is kind of hard to be yourself with just the written word, for me anyway. I don't write all the well I don't think so I find it hard to really express what I mean.

What would you do if you were Queen For a Day?

If I could be Queen for the Day..... hmmmm.... I don't think I'd actually want to be Queen of the World, Continent, Country, Kingdom... not even a small city. Too much responsiblity for me! But if I could live like a queen for the day around here... well... it would start off by adjusting the start time for school so my kids and I could sleep in and then leisurely get ready and they'd go off to school around, oh, 10:00. And they wouldn't go by bus... no, a limo would pick them up at the front door so I could give them a quick kiss and a wave from the warmth of my own foyer! Then I tell the maid and cook about their duties for the day and I'd go off to soak in my hot tub before getting ready for a leisurely of whatever struck my fancy... perhaps a day shopping with an unlimited pre-paid Visa, or a day of scrapbooking on my brandnew computer with my unlimited prepaid account at dsp and unlimited memory on my harddrive, or a day having lunch with friends, or a day with my husband... who has retired because he now has an unlimited prepaid Visa too! That is actually what I'd do if I were Queen.... I'd grant him a knighthood complete with an income producing estate and servants to do his bidding so he could stay home and be with me! :)

(The layout is made with products from October's Club Digital by the DSP designers and Lauren Bavin's Pretty As A Princess page kit also available from dsp.)