Catch Up Not to be Confused with Ketchup

Not to be confused with I’m still a dork!

So let’s pretend we’re at my favorite Mexican restaurant sharing chips and salsa, and queso because calories don’t count when you’re with friends (duh), and catching up because it’s been ages since we’ve “talked”.  Rest assured that in real life I’m not near this one sided and self absorbed.  I would actually let you talk too, I promise!

Just some high points from the past few weeks:

*I’m proud to announce that GI Joe and I watched season 1 and 2 of “Downton Abbey” just in time for this season 3 to start.  This feels like a huge marital  accomplishment because it takes perseverance and commitment to watch an entire television series.  He’s watched many a series via Netflix usually ones that involve gladiators and/or presidents and/or aliens but we’ve never watched one together (beginning of a series to the end of a series or current).  This was a first for us.  It helped that “Downton Abbey” is completely amazing and it only took a few episodes before we were both hopelessly addicted.  This is saying a lot since typically I don’t like British shows because I feel like they all sound so snooty and I miss half of what they’re saying because of their accents.  Then there’s the whole “olden days” factor.  Not a huge fan of that either because it’s hard for me to relate to a life with no flat iron.  But for some reason Downton Abbey has proven me wrong and I am completely smitten with it.   Everything about it is perfect from the fascinating storyline to the castle that is total eyecandy to the cast of characters that I find myself wondering about throughout the week AS IF THEY ARE REAL PEOPLE.  As it turns out sarcastic one liners said in a serious British accent from very unsuspecting characters are kind of hilarious.  Go here and read this , it’s like she’s in my head.  And GI Joe and I asking each other constantly  “have you done something jolly with your hair?” will never get old.   I love, love, LOVE this show and I never thought I would.   Confession: when I kept reading and hearing about it for the past 2 years, I thought it was pronounced Downtown Abbey (it’s not, it’s DownTON pronounced Downten) AND I thought it was about some girl named Abbey living it up in downtown London or some other big city across the pond (it’s not).  Yeah, I’m a dork.   Oh and P.S. while there were no flat irons in the 1920’s, I did see a curling iron in season 2 and my heart leapt with joy.  I could talk about this show for hours and want everyone I know to watch it so we can talk about it together!  So get on the Downton Train ASAP…not to be confused with the DOWNTOWN Train.

*My camera died last week during the boys’ last basketball games of the season and my children rejoiced.  Apparently, the average lifespan for that model is 4 years, I’ve had it for 3 ½ years but given the amount of pictures I’ve taken with it, millions I tell you MILLIONS, that’s probably more like 83 years in camera time. It has served me well so it was a sad day.  But this past weekend, knowing I would positively die (hello Marcia Brady) without a camera for one more second, GI Joe and I went shopping for a new one.  And somehow I ended up with a “big girl” camera that does fancy stuff and takes pictures that look professional.  I am so excited. I’ve been reading about and researching DSLRs forever and finally took the plunge.   I spent hours yesterday reading the manual (What?  Who am I?  That’s not how I roll!) and took  8378 pictures of Moose and Dexter while they were napping because they were excellent practice subjects.  They didn’t complain once about the number of pictures I was taking!  Here’s my favorite of Dexter.  Blade is going to use this as his Valentine’s cards for his class, with a little bag of Hershey Kisses…”Pugs and Kisses.”  Ha ha. We can’t help ourselves.

*Car key drama…again.  If you’re married to me, you know that pretty much every time I leave the house I go thru this “I can’t find my keys” routine.  It’s not annoying at all.  Usually they’re at the bottom of my dimly lit purse but sometimes they are in random places or lost forever (I blame the children).  Saturday morning the kids and I were trying to go to town but I couldn’t find my keys.   I spent about 30 minutes looking for them all over the house, my purse, the yard, everywhere, and was sure they had suffered the same fate as the set of keys I lost ON MY WAY TO THE CAR IN COSTCO PARKING LOT just a few short months ago…yes, that happened, I have no idea.  The good news is they weren’t lost forever!  The bad news is I found them in the washing machine with only 12 minutes left on the cycle.  Oops.  My key fob is a little slow on the unlock these days.  Do you think the old rice trick will work on key fobs like it does on cell phones?  It’s worth a shot. 

*Raise your hand if you think the autocorrect feature on phones is the devil’s handiwork?  *raises BOTH hands*.  Friday night I was responding to a text from a Suck It Up Cupcakes customer, a person whom I’ve never met and who has never ordered from me before.  It’s kind of a blur due to the post traumatic stress syndrome, but all I remember is looking at the message after I hit send and seeing “C^CKSURE CUPCAKES”.  No, I’m not doing specialty naughty cupcakes for bachelorette parties that was supposed to say CHOCOLATE COCONUT CUPCAKES.  WTHeck phone?  I have so many questions! Why would my phone think that was an acceptable “correction” for chocolate coconut?  And where on earth did that word come from?  It’s not like it’s a commonly used word in my texting, I assure you it’s NOT, is it EVEN a real word?  I don’t think so.  I was so mortified.  I immediately text again and said *chocolate coconut cupcakes*.   The person didn’t respond, so I think it’s safe to say we’re done here.  The cupcake business was fun while it lasted but on the bright side, I’ll just take my business cards to the adult bookstores, I’m sure I’ll drum up some business there with my, ahem, “C*CKSURE CUPCAKES” Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes.  My dad the pastor is SO proud right now.  J  Dad, I swear it’s AUTOCORRECT’S fault, NOT MINE!

*My 5 year old nephew Micah gave me this mug for Christmas that he made and specifically told the lady at the pottery shop what to write on it. 

It makes me SO happy and my coffee tastes infinitely better out of it.  Every time I take a sip I can just hear his sweet little voice saying, “Howwy” because that’s how he’s always said it.  I had high hopes that on his graduation day he would introduce me to his friends and teachers saying, “And this is my FAVORITE aunt Howwy.”  What?  I don’t see a problem with that.  But I got some bad news today.  My sister tells me that Micah has been saying Holly all weekend, not HOWWY but Holly.  I’m going to the courthouse tomorrow to officially change my name to Howwy so that he is forced to say it that way for all eternity.  The rest of you can still call me Holly or Prairie Princess, or Her Ladyship (see: Downton Abbey), whichever. 

I’d be remiss if I didn’t show you the mug he gave GI Joe for Christmas too. 

He kind of thinks his Uncle GI Joe is the coolest.  The feeling is mutual.

 "When I grow up I want to be a soldier just like you"

*This Friday I took the day off in preparation of the perfect storm…..Blade’s birthday, the 14^th anniversary of when my mom died, and I have to take a llama to school for show and tell.  Yes, you read that right.  Pray for me, mostly because of the llama who knows no personal space boundaries.  And with 20 4^th graders, that should be SUPER fun!

Have a great week!  I'll report back on the llama show and tell, I'm sure it will be blog worthy.