I Remember Biting...

...into Silly Putty.  Am I the only one that did this?  This prompt was probably referring to food or another human, but I have a distinct memory of pressing Silly Putty into the Sunday Comics (Family Circle specifically) to make a "copy" of the comic.  Then, just like the commercial said to do, I would stretch it out to distort the faces - oohh - the fun we had in the 70's.  But then here's the dysfunctional, Julie-twisted perspective to Silly Putty: "I wonder if I bite it if it will taste like gum?..."  And the answer would be, no - just squeaky, chewy stuff that tasted like how my Barbie doll smelled. Just another day in the life...

Silver Lining:
If "Too much agreement kills a chat,"  I will never have to worry about running out of things to chat about with my husband - too much agreement is not a problem in this house.

What Do You Love About Reading?

I love what happens when I read... the rest of the world goes away for a moment and I am injected into someone else's world.  I like my world just fine, but my world can get monotonous at times. I love holding paperback books.  I love the anticipation of starting a book that I just might love and be able to tell others about.  I love talking about books with other people.

Then there's reading to my kids.  When I was teaching Kindergarten, my absolute favorite thing to do was to read to the class.  I had a captive audience - and if some of the audience was a little unfocused, I had ways of getting them back - like saying, "AND THEN - now you won't want to miss this part..." - and they were all right back with me again... well most of them.

So now that I get to read to my own children every day - I get to use different voices and make those stories come alive.  I LOVE that my five year old wants me to reread Fantastic Mr. Fox to her before the movie comes out in November - she would "like to have her memory refreshed."  What's not to like about reading?

Silver Lining: If I don't like what I'm reading, it's a good way to have some day-dreaming time with no one suspecting a thing.

It was nice knowing you all...

... so I was dancing in the kitchen on the hardwood floors to a little "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting"- and I slipped.  Here's the deal, I was holding a thermometer that I was going to take up to the bathroom... and maybe using for a wee little microphone.  Yeah - a little glass, a little mercury - it's been a good life...

Silver Lining: Dave isn't home to know about the mercury spill... shhhh...

Write about your favorite experience with ketchup...

Oh - this is rich.  Surprisingly, many things to write on this subject:

• My sister having some sort of altercation with the ketchup pump at McDonald's circa 1984 - wearing her brand new "Stadium" coat from Siefert's right before getting dropped off at CCD.  The coat took on the battle bravely, but lost miserably.  My sister at the oh-so-happy age of 16 was not oh so happy.
• A strange run in with a man named Charlie who planted trees for my uncle - ate and loved ketchup only sandwiches.
• My children's affinity for ketchup on... oh, yes - ANYTHING!
• When I spilled ketchup on my favorite Raggedy Ann and Andy t-shirt on the first day of our drive to Florida in 1975.  Turns out, my mom forgot to pack me another shirt - just dresses and rompers.  So guess who is wearing a ketchup stain on the Dumbo ride? And while hugging Mickey?  With Cinderella? Yes that would be me - an oversized 4 year old pretending to Mary Poppins for a week - and all of this was captured in photos - thank goodness.

Silver Lining: The invention of Shout, Spray and Wash, Tide to Go, and Oxy Clean - all in travel sizes!

Writing muscles?

So it says here in my little book that in order to keep my "writing muscles flexed" I should play word games and puzzles - such as cryptograms and crosswords.  Here's the funny thing - I so don't get cryptograms (never have), and I just learned that crosswords maybe aren't my thing either.
I was given a New York Times Crosswords book by my rather wordy sister not so long ago.  I started at the beginning - and even though it was a bit challenging, I was ready to take it on - I was up for it!  Feeling pretty good about myself and my intelligence, I worked through the first 40 puzzles over a time period of about one month.  Not bad, huh?  As I was flipping to the 41st puzzle, I noticed that it no longer said MONDAY at the top - it now read TUESDAY.  Hmmm... this was odd - what's the deal on that?  No matter - I will carry on and move forward.  But this was a bit harder - I mean a lot harder - do I dare admit that I used the answer key to do almost the whole puzzle?  Well, this stopped my 1 - 2 puzzle a day habit with quite a jolt.  Maybe the next ones will be easier...
Turns out - like I'm sure the rest of the world already knows - is that the puzzles in the New York Times increase in difficulty with each passing day of the week - making the weekend puzzles the most challenging - and the Monday ones for ... uh... dummies.
I wonder if reading Face Book for a couple of hours a day will "flex" my writing muscles? 

Silver Lining: Many anti-aging skin products on sale now at Target!  Just in time for the big 4-0!

Super Sneaky Mom

So we have a couple of days off of school.  I decided to take the children to "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."  Being the health conscious mom, I thought we would take our own snacks.  So against the judgment of movie theater police world-wide... yes - we sneaked in our own snacks.  This made my children very nervous - probably because I told them we were smuggling and that they should zip their pockets close with their snacks smashed in them.  I thought that I had eased their minds enough to forget about it and before long, we were "3 in a row ready to go" for the previews.  Shortly after, I realize that Maya is slinking way far down into her seat with very watchful eyes.  Then she whispers to me, "Mom, are there video cameras in here?"  I reply in a whisper, "Only on Thursdays - we're safe."  She then slinks down even more and asks me if I can hear her munching.  "Are there sound cameras in here on Fridays?" she whispers back.
Maya is NOT a rule follower in any sense - however, the thought of "movie police" has sent her over the edge.

Silver Lining: No Movie Police on duty today.

If you could be a kid for 20 minutes...

I would run outside and make a snowman in October with less than a 1/2 inch of snow on the ground.  There was a time factor involved - notice Maya's carrot is jammed in backwards and the eyes have already fallen out. No matter.

Silver Lining: trace of snow = happy children