Some call them neuroses...I like to call them quirks.

It's a 6 Random things/quirks tag, and Juli tagged me, so here are the rules:

1- Post the rules on your blog
2- List 6 random things about yourself.
3- Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
4- Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
5- Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

I think I have done one of these within the last few months, but I'm so weird (quirky) that I can do it again without batting an eyelash.

1. I use military time/24 hour clock to the point that I don't realize I'm doing it, and if someone tells me something starts at, say, 7:00 pm, I honestly have to think about it. I also slip ten code and police-radio talk into my everyday speech without notice. If you ask me how Mason is, and I answer he's "alpha condition" or something to that effect, just tell me to quit speaking dispatch. It's an occupational hazard and I'm sorry I do it; but I would be more sorry if I got caught being unprofessional at work!

2. Like Juli, I am always late. My husband is almost obsessively 15 minutes early for everything; if (all right, WHEN) I'm running late, I get to listen to him for that whole 15 minutes, complaining about being late. We were pulling up somewhere on the hour one time and I said "Wow, we're actually on time," and he seriously pointed out to me that the clock had turned to whatever-oh-one, so we were late. *sigh* He tells me we need to be somewhere 15-30 minutes earlier than we actually do so that I can get myself out of the house on time. I know part of it is short-changing myself by trying to do "just this one quick thing" or forgetting to factor in the time it takes to actually get settled in the car. I've also recently discovered that no two clocks in my house say the same time; this might not be a problem if they were all set ahead, but they are not. They are set by the "God clock", which is the automated one at dispatch.

3. I am notorious for my inability to complete a task. I can multi-task with the best of them (another occupational hazard), but when it comes to actually completing something it doesn't happen. This does apply to all sorts of things. I have molding sitting in the garage that I was going to use to make mock picture frames for Mason's room. When he was a baby. I have taken some embroidery from my mother-in-law to help her out. I'm betting I find it sometime after #2 is born unless she's there to prod me along. I don't think it's actual disorganization, it's just distraction.

Here is a typical morning at home to give you an idea of how challenging something like housework can be for me: make my bed, go downstairs; start the dryer to unwrinkle the clothes we moved over last night; start a pot of coffee for Alan. Hear Mason upstairs. Go upstairs (without taking any clothes), get Mason up and change him/beg him to try using the toilet, come back down. Realize that I forgot to bring down the next load of clothes for the laundry. Run upstairs to get it, forget what I was after, notice that something is out of place. Put it back in our bedroom. Notice I forgot to put the sham pillows on the bed while I made it. Put the pillows on the bed. Find the mismatched socks in a basket under said pillows and dump them out on the bed. Hear Alan calling from downstairs that I was going to come down so we could make breakfast. Forget about the socks, go downstairs and cook breakfast. Re-load the dishwasher with breakfast dishes, realize I need to sweep, go into the laundry room to get the broom. The clothes in the dryer are now re-wrinkled, so start the dryer again and walk out without the broom... and you get the idea. By the end of the day, the laundry may or may not be folded, the floor probably hasn't been swept, and Alan is still trying to figure out what I did all day. I'm right there with him-- I couldn't tell you. Other than the fact that Mason is fed, as clean as a three year old can be, and dressed.


4. Also like Juli, I am not a morning person. Part of it, I think, is that working nights for a couple of years really messed up my sleep cycle. Even now, at six months pregnant, I usually can't fall asleep before around midnight. Mason goes to bed at about 2100 and we wake up between 0900-0930. It is almost impossible for us to get out of the house before 1100.

5. I tend to fixate on things. I get a specific picture in my head and it's really difficult to change. Usually it's something like clothing (a certain shirt I want or something like that), but I've done it with stuff as large as Mason's room. This new little girl's room is proving to be no exception, so it's a good thing I've found stuff I like already. But it's not uncommon for me to go store to store looking for the right white eyelet shirt or grey skirt--and totally not find it.

6. I can sing like a boy. When I was in madrigals in high school, I could comfortably sing along with the baritones at least 90% of the time.

Well, with that, I tag: Heather, Ali, Jill, Joey, and anyone else who wants to participate since I think I tagged the other four or five people I follow last time...

Tag: Six Compulsions

So, Shani tagged me. If I tag you at the end, thank her for this. I left you the link to her blog so you can do exactly that. I'm sure she won't mind some snark. Her post about Halloween sucking made me happy. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way! (And Shani, just for your peace of mind-- this is the first year Mason will be going trick-or-treating. He's wearing the same monkey costume I bought last year. I'm that cheap and I hate Halloween, but it's only fair that he gets candy for wearing his "monkey sweats". I'm screwed next year when I try to come up with a clearance costume again, because my luck falls on the side that says it won't be the right size or won't get here in time, and I refuse to pay full price for a holiday I think is pointless. I hope Amber doesn't disown me for saying any of this.)

Anyway, this tag is simply to list six of my "OCD tendancies". I had a bank customer once who's daughter was diagnosed with OCD, and he said he disliked how people used the term for their compulsions because, at the age of seven, OCD was actually taking over her life. So because I try not to use that term, I changed it. This may be #6 if I can't think of something else.



1. As I have previously posted, if I am under a blanket, it must be arranged just so. I cannot have the end with a tag by my face. I literally can't sleep with it that way. I also can't rest comfortably if it is improperly folded or if the edge isn't pulled up under my chin.



2. My husband's eyebrows must stay groomed. I literally will not look at him if he's messed them up just to mess with me.



3. Stuff has to be straight. By stuff, I mean pictures, both on the wall or placed on a table or our dresser; Alan usually doesn't need a level when he hangs something. I will make sure it is straight. The kitchen table legs must to line up with the lines on our linoleum. I had a specific place for everything down to the paperclip holder on my desk at the bank. Even paper left on my desk had to be stacked and placed perpendicular to everything else. If the stack wasn't tidy, I would have to fix it. Staples must be placed in the corner, long side to the short side of the page. The paper stack must be perfectly neat before I staple it. (I was no good with office work, and have learned to let most of this go since now there's virtually no chance I will sit at the same desk two shifts in a row). Towels must be folded corner to corner. This continues with virtually everything in my life. Don't laugh at me when you get your Christmas card. I make them, and don't even get me started on how they have to line up when I fold them... honestly, I could go on for at least another paragraph this size. I'm neurotic.



4. Doors that are supposed to be shut must be shut. Part of this is mom mode, but if you want me to kill you, leave a cabinet open after you get a glass out of it. I'm not joking.



5. As I have also posted before, I must put items away as I'm finished with them when I'm cooking. This is at its worst when I'm baking. By the time the cookies are ready to be shaped, every ingredient is put back in the cupboard or fridge. Afterward, see #4. By the time the cookies are baked, the dishes I used are washed. This also goes for the beginning of the cooking process. I will totally bleach down my kitchen before I cook something, especially treats for someone else. Unfortunately, this high degree of motivation does not necessarily apply to the rest of my house or the other instances I'm in the kitchen.



6. I LOVE Ziploc bags. (Jill, my Lia Sophia lady, has talked me out of using them as a jewelry box.) I use them for open baking products, open cheese, basically anything in the fridge that has been opened and replaced for multiple uses, everything we ever pack (even to go camping), etc. This could actually be expanded to include almost all bags. I usually don't wrap gifts, I purchase a bag (and heaven help me if the tissue paper isn't straight, see #3). And can I tell you how much I am loving the 'go green' bags from the grocery store? They are currently holding anything in my house from retired sippy cups to the items I take to work to the tulips I so desperately need to plant before the first real freeze.



So, I tag any of my fellow weirdos who are willing to participate. I haven't had great success with naming specific names in tags, so I'm not going to willingly obligate anyone else to it. Except maybe Nicol. You're it!

High School Tag

1. Did you date someone from your school?
Umm... I went on a few dates but I wouldn't say I dated anyone. The boys I knew in high school were idiots. (Some of them still are!)

2. What kind of car did you drive?
A 1986 Chevy Cavalier. It started out blue and ended up white after what we'll refer to as some "learning moments in traffic". My car kicked ASH. (Because the license plate was ut/919ASH and we were all nerds.)

3. What was the most embarrassing moment of HS?
Would have to be the time, in Madrigals, they made me walk all sexy-like right in front during a performance. I nearly ate it on some AV cords during the packed-house concert and don't worry, my proud parents have it on video tape to this day. I'm sure if this doesn't suffice, I could come up with a few hundred others. Sliding off Martin's silk shirt during rehearsal when I was supposed to jump on him piggy-back style was embarrasing. And also kind of painful because I landed flat on my butt.

4. Were you a party animal?
I had a group of friends I always hung out with, but I wouldn't have called us partiers. Or animals for the most part.

5. Were you considered a flirt?
Yes, and I don't know why. My idea of a good time was when one of the idiot boys got locked out of the car on Halloween and we drove off without him. This was before cell phones, people.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
All of them. I played flute in wind ensemble (which meant we got to play with the full orchestra), choir and madrigals. (Speaking of wind ensemble-- Hi, Melissa!)

7. Were you a nerd? No need for the past tense. I still am a nerd.

8. Were you on any varsity teams?
Not as a player, but I lettered in varsity soccer by being a team manager (I also learned how to kick a ball like a boy, can name various flavors of Gatorade by taste, and have taken soccer stats in my concert choir dress.)

9. Did you get suspended/expelled?
No, but I did get a friendly little chat from the ex-Merchant Marine Vice Principal for being late during a lockout.

10. Can you still sing the fight song?
Why yes I can. Alan and I will sing our competing fight songs loudly to this day if we are provoked. He went to Bingham and I went to Taylorsville. Not exactly rivals at much besides baseball because Bingham was annoyingly good at just about everything. I'd like it noted we killed them at the state Madrigal competition....

We are the Warriors and we're the best! We'll hold our colors high. (That line might be wrong!) Just look at all the things we've done, and all the victories we have won... our school is #1 we say with pride! We are always above the rest! And that is the reason why... we'll fight for the gold and win for the blue, we're the Warriors of Taylorsville High! Double U-A-Double R- I- O-R-S! Double U-A-Double R-I-O-R-S!

Did I mention I was required to be in the pep band, too? We also played "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon. Have fun singing that for the rest of the day. But really, ask Janae about it. She was the cheerleader.

11. Who were your favorite teachers?
Ms. Cluny (AP American History), and although I gave her a hard time, Mrs. Tarrant (also known as Mrs. "T", the choir teacher).

12. Where did you sit during lunch?
In the Commons Area where Josh would drag Juli around by the foot. Also, it's sadly now filled in. It's a travesty to future generations of Warriors. Oh, and I spent a fair amount of my lunch periods in Melissa's car on our way to Burger King for the .99 cent Whoppers.

13. School mascot?
In case I haven't sufficiently covered it, we were the Warriors.

14. Did you go to homecoming, and with who?
I went the year after graduation with Martin, who had been my Madrigal partner.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Why?

16. What do you remember most about graduation?
Thinking repeatedly that a) I wish the choir wasn't performing so I wouldn't have to walk, b) Alaina really shouldn't have used hand puppets in her speech, and c) I'm so glad this is over with.

17. Where did you go senior skip day?
Oh...you mean that wasn't my entire senior year?

18. Were you in any clubs?
Several. I can dig out the yearbook if you're really interested, because I can't remember. Half of my high school experience was during that stupid non curricular clubs ban across Utah, so there was that. After that ban was lifted, the school just exploded with new clubs. My brain is too cluttered now to remember what I got suckered into joining up with.

19. Have you gained some weight since then?
Haven't we all?

20. Who was your prom date?
I didn't have one. I was always the friend who helped boys ask out the girls they liked.

21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion?
I think Amber will force me to, so it doesn't matter what I'm planning. :)

22. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself?
Grin and bear it. This too shall pass.

I tag Amber and Melissa!

Tripping Down Memory Lane

I got this from my friend Nicol's blog, much like where I get everything else I post. I also saw it on Bethany's blog and left her a memory. Play along if you'd like, but please be nice!



-As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you have of Alan, Jann, or Mason (or Rio and Samson, we can all play!). It doesn't matter if you knew us a little or a lot, anything you can remember!


-Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory, I'll assume that you are playing the game and I will come to your blog and leave a memory about you. If you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory as one of my comments.

Photo Tag

So thanks to Nicol and her tag, I'm posting pictures of my house right after we got back from camping. Why couldn't I wait until the next morning to check on the blog?

This photo tag includes the following items, and says no touch ups should be done before the photo is taken. Enjoy!


Dream Vacation
This is from our trip to Maui, Hawaii in 2005. There are so many pictures of the places we went, but I settled for this one. It's the view from our hotel room (a cheesy little tradition that I have when we go on vacation), and I would love to go back there more than words can say.

Self-Portrait


No one mentioned how hard it is to take a picture of yourself. This isn't the best quality, but I really don't know what else to do. Plus, I look like a dork. At least I'm a clean dork because it's after the post-camping shower!

What are the kids doing?

What he'll most likely be doing for days straight with as hard as he played!

Our closet

Our closet is organized chaos. Because Alan is always changing clothes to go to work or to come home from work and return that night, the shelf in the middle is what we like to call a "staging area". Oh, and if anyone is in the market for a barely-used helicopter flight helmet, let me know. The one in the top right hand corner should eventually be for sale.

Laundry Room

Remarkably clean considering the volume that will pass through in the next couple of days. I guess it's fortunate for me (less embarrassing anyway) that our laundry room is tiny, and the only entry from the garage. Thus, we keep our dirty clothes far away and transport them so as not to block entry.

The Bathroom

It's true, I'm posting another picture of the purple bathroom on my here, but this is also for a tag (I think Nicol started the first one, too) and this really is the bathroom we use most frequently. Because it's too tiny to turn around, you get a limited view of it.

The Fridge

Fuller than normal, but not by much!

The Sink Alan and I are both so uptight about the kitchen being clean that the first thing we unpacked was camp dishes. The second thing we did was to wash all those dishes and put them away. There are only a couple of glasses and some breakfast dishes in the sink from this morning.

Favorite Room

This is our bedroom. It's messier than normal because a lot of stuff got shoved off to the side last night so we could go to bed, but I really do make my bed every morning. I love our bedroom because of the ceiling fan (only sorta included in the picture) keeping it comfortable in the afternoon when the sun is on the west side of our house (where all the large windows are), and the large bed where Mason and I can sit and read stories when the rest of the house is too hot and I'm too cheap to crank up the AC.

Favorite Shoes

This is not a very flattering picture of them (I swear, they aren't that dirty!), but these are my girly shoes from this spring. I can't wear flip flops to work, which are my second favorite pair of shoes, so these have been getting me through the summer quite nicely.

Nicol passed this tag on to five, so I will tag Joey, Becca, Laura, Jill, and Carolee. Have fun, ladies!

"I say no bed"... and Meme- Five Things And What They Say About Me

Today, I'm grateful for sassiness. Especially at nap time. *sigh*



So I came up with five things and what they say about me a lot faster than I thought I would. The snow outside really dampened my desire to do anything outside my own house. I don't even have the blinds open so I can see outside. That's how much I hate the snow.

Five Things #1

This is the curio table in my living room. Since we got married, I've been gradually building items to decorate my house, especially living room, with. My original goal was to have something for each season, plus Christmas. I've ended up with a strange mixture of holiday and seasonal tabletop decor, but I make it work. The catch is, a little boy takes over your entire life. Half of the living room I tried to painstakingly decorate and make cute has been taken over by his race track. That's fine, as he loves his race track so much, but there is still this one table I can call my own. He doesn't play with the stuff on it by some miracle.

So I take the time, every couple of months or so, to make this one little spot of the house mine. My husband doesn't care, because I know something like this is WAY girlier than his interest level. But it feels like a place I can make my own statement. I can make the colors as bright as I want. I can put out flowers. I can be a girl in this house full of boys.

Five Things #2

These are the bookshelves in our loft. When we were first looking at the model home, it had bookshelves installed here. Being too cheap to pay the builder's (ridiculous) cost for them, we just purchased bookshelves to fill in the area ourselves. I remember looking at them after we got them all put together and thinking they looked so big and empty. We filled them with pictures and various knick knacks to help cover up the fact that we didn't have very many books. Well, we have also budgeted an insane amount of money for books. Whenever we have the money, they seem to be our luxury item of choice. As a function of distance, we didn't go to the library very often because it was not close to us. So we purchased the books we wanted to read. Now we have quite the impressive collection of books, so much so that our pictures and knick knacks are being pushed out of the way.

This speaks of our (my) love of reading as much as it speaks of my disorganization. My husband desperately wishes for a return to the days when the books were categorized. I have yet to bring myself to tackle that job.

Five Things #3

This is my keyboard. When I was in ninth grade, I expressed my long-harbored desire to play the piano. I already played flute (which is sitting just below the guitar on the box of music, but I couldn't fit it in the picture), so learning to read music wasn't the big stretch. Buying a piano was a big stretch. It's a large financial investment and I'm not notorious for sticking with things. So the compromise for that Christmas was my mom bought me this keyboard. I have spent hours playing on this thing. The guitar is an addition made by my husband when we both decided we wanted to play. These things have all taken the backburner as life has gotten out of control, but they sit there and occasionally I get a few minutes to play and it is equally relaxing and frustrating because it's not quite like riding a bike and makes me wish I could spend more time playing. Nothing is better when you're angry than pounding out a violent song on the piano! Samson whines or howls when I play my flute, and that is fun in its own way.

For now mostly, I just sing songs to Mason when no one else is paying attention. We sing lullabies at night but we sing quite a bit more during the day. Music is a huge part of my life, and hopefully I'm making it a huge part of his, too, because I don't think there is a better outlet and way to express thoughts and feelings.

Five Things #4

This is what I like to call "The Wall of Vanity". It has our wedding pictures and a framed copy of our wedding invitation. We haven't hung anything else on this wall, but I can see it someday full of pictures of Mason and our friends and family. These photographs and the memories they hold, are very dear to me. I like to remember the places we've gone or the people we love. More often than not (the picture above being a rare case), the curio table across from this wall has several framed family pictures. Mason is, naturally, my favorite subject. But our families are very central to our lives, and for me in a lot of ways, our wedding was really the beginning.

Five Things #5

Last but not least, this picture might seem kind of odd. This is our downstairs bathroom. A bathroom is not necessarily how I want people to remember me. But the color is. The color is bold and vibrant, and not traditional. It's kind of my example of the times when I am unique. I am capable of being bold and vibrant. I am often untraditional. Kind of like the plates in the bathroom or the synthetic flowers in the plate holder.

On a good day, I can be creative and spontaneous. I will admit, the spontanaeity of the bathroom was sparked by my husband, as he had it all ready to go one day when I got home from work, but the qualities it represents are things I have shown hints of and qualities in myself that I want to develop and embrace.

Well, Jill and Joey, you are the only two bloggers I know of at the moment besides Nicol (who invited me to do this). How about it? Can you find five things around the house that symbolize who you are and join this meme?