Finish These 5 meme

Finish These Five

Rules:
Each player answers the questions themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answers.

The Five-
Ten years ago… I was a lot busier! I had a daughter in college, 3 school aged kids, and a three year old (for a total of 5 kids, y'know).

Five things on today’s “to do” list… plant some of my bargains! (I got a 'Little Kim' lilac in a 5 gallon container for ... you guessed it... $5!!!! yahoo!!! oh,, make dinner (popeye noodles and mashed potatoes, total comfort food), help the 12 year old paint her walls, fold laundry, and... did I mention I have plants to plant???

Five Snacks I enjoy… dark chocolate, pie, turtle ice cream, umm... did I say Dove dark chocolate?? those are so good, they are worth 3, I think.
Five Things I would do if I was a millionaire…build a new house, get a maid and a gardener, pay tithing, give some to my kids and set up college funds for g'kids, get a spa!

Five Places I have lived… Ohio (Arcanum!, Columbus, Bryan), Kentucky (Morehead), Florida (Orlando), Utah (Provo, Orem, Ogden), Washington state (Bremerton).

I’m tagging…
Jean at Sleeping Late on Saturday

Barbara at Motherof8

Kathy at Mimi's Garden

Lynne at Lynne's Somewhat Invented Life

Needled Mom at Needled Mom

Mememememememememe

It's a good thing I love my daughter(s), this is for you SassyOne - I am doing a meme here, and I am such a boring soul that it is embarrassing to haul thru these questions about DH and me, but here goes:

How long have you been together? 32 years, this March
How long did you date? 5 months
How old is he? 2 years younger than me, and he never lets me forget it!
Who eats more? Unless it's chocolate, that would be DH
Who said "I love you" first? don't remember, ??
Who is taller? DH, he is nine inches taller than me. I am short.
Who is smarter? drat it all, he is, and he's a quick thinker, too!
Who does the laundry? Me.
Who does the dishes? Me.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Depends on who gets up on the 'wrong' side, I guess. He sleeps next to the clock radio, I sleep closer to the bathroom.
Who pays the bills? He earns the money, I write the checks.
Who mows the lawn? Maybe we'll just let that moose graze. J/k, DH usually does it if we don't have a child available to do it.
Who cooks dinner? My job, which I enjoy most days.
Who is more stubborn? I think this is one area where we are evenly matched! (You can tell a German, you just can't tell him/her much)
Who kissed who first? ? can't remember that either.
Who asked who out? Ok, technically, I asked him out to a girl ask guy dance, but that was after he told me (and every other girl he knew) that he was 'available' for the Preference dance.
Who proposed? He did.
Who is more sensitive? He would say I am, I would say we are evenly matched here, too.
Who has more friends? Ya, me.
Who has more siblings? Hard to say, I have a brother, a sister and a step-sister, he has a brother and a sister, two half-siblings, and a few other assorted siblings-by-marriage. I guess that means he does.

So, if you want to do a meme (this wasn't too bad, really), let me know in the comments! DH, feel free to rebut if you wish.

Christmas hoopla, Show and Tell

Edge tagged me for this. I've decided blogging is good for my family, because I can reminisce and tell stories to my heart's content, without boring them to death. I am also double tasking today, and have my first Show and Tell. You can see Anita's Show and Tell at There's No Place Like Home.
Here's the rules: List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

1. Having a ‘white’ Christmas is important to me. I really hate winter (I think it is the duration, changing winter to just one month would be fine with me), but snow on the ground makes it feel like Christmas.
2. I ‘believed’ in Santa (and the Easter Bunny) long past the time most kids give that up. It added a lot of magic to the holiday for me.
3. I got up one Christmas and slept under the Christmas tree (Santa had come by then), but my brother and sis and I were old enough (teenagers!) that I knew they’d all be mad if I came and woke them up, so I waited under the tree.
4. One of our family traditions has been to negotiate a wake-up time for Christmas (and I’ll get in the first proposal: 9:00 a.m.!! ) with the children. After that is agreed to, the children have to come wake us up by singing Christmas carols (hey, maybe they should be bringing us breakfast in bed!!). DH and I are usually awake, and snuggling and anticipating the day before the kids come in (don’t tell them) and we make quite a protest about getting up, and tell them to go back to bed. One year, we reset their alarm clocks. That didn’t work, though.

5. Another tradition is to head to the grocery store on Christmas Eve, so the children can pick out a sugary ‘Christmas cereal’. This started when we only bought the ‘healthy’ cold cereals, with less sugar in them, so anything at all was a big treat. They had to agree on one box, so they had to work that out between them. One year I videotaped them: I remember the oldest (Edge!) doing a bit of eye rolling (she was too sophisticated for this), and little alliances being made amongst the four of them (the youngest hadn’t been born yet). Now it is something that everyone has pretty much outgrown (everyone is an adult except for the youngest, who is 12), but she thinks this tradition is really fun, so whoever is around goes with her, and pretty much just lets her have her way. (No wonder she likes it).

6. A more traditional tradition we observe is to sing Silent Night in German on Christmas Eve. (It’s not all about cereal, y’know!) We act out the Christmas story from Luke 2, with Dad reading the story. We use simple costumes, and I love this part of the holidays, and then finish with Silent Night. My husband’s family is mostly from Germany, as is mine.

7. I was in 4-H as a child, and my grandmother was our club’s leader. She helped teach me to sew, and one year for Christmas (she made something for each of her 13 grandchildren every Christmas), she gave me a few yards of fabric, because she hadn’t finished sewing for all of us yet. I was ok with the gift, and flattered that she thought I could sew well enough to make something, but mom thought it was a pretty bad gift.

8. The 12 year old has major ‘gimmie-gimme’ syndrome this year, apparently. She says she doesn’t get enough gifts. All right, everyone; all together-Roll Eyes!

9. Baking is usually a fun part of the holidays for me. This year I found out my baking powder died. I guess I don’t bake much anymore. I’ll try and post a fave recipe later. So far this year we’ve made ginger cookies (when I discovered the baking powder problem), and 7 layer cookies, with a chocolate-crusted with red and white chips variation, chocolate dipped pretzels, and a super easy, yummy toffee I got from MsGreenThumbJean.

10. Twelve hooplas?????? Couldn’t we have gone with a shorter hoopla??? Oh, well, one of my favorite Christmas songs is Oh, Holy Night.
11. This ornament belonged to my great-grandparents, Charles and Josie Bruner. They had a large family of 11 children, and I loved going to their home for Christmas, and getting together with all my 'Bruner' cousins. I'm glad to have this little keepsake to remember them.

12. One great Christmas memory was the Christmas of 1995. My oldest was home from her first semester of college; the baby was two months old. Our youngest fell asleep mid-morning, through the hoopla of opening gifts.

Merry Christmas to all! I am tagging the 12 year old, Hailey, Jean at MsGreen"thumb"Jean, Kylee at MyLittleAcre, my old friend Jean. Maybe some others. Oh, and if you haven't had a chance to "Elf Yourself" yet, go do it!

Ok, so who can I tag? 8 things meme

1- Like Gail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago , who tagged me, I am a middle child too, and the bossiest of the three of us, and got into the most trouble as a small child, just ask my little sis!

2-I am a leftie, and have 3 of my 5 children who are also lefties. And my sis. And my uncle, but no one else in the family is a leftie.

3-I love to sew, and I’ve sewn for myself through high school and my married life. I was in 4-H as a child, and really do enjoy the creativity of sewing. The sad thing is, I’m not that good at it, for the amount of experience that I have.

4-Because I love gardening, I took the master gardener class last year. I learned a lot, mostly about what I don’t know, and how much more I have to learn.

5-I love genealogy and old pictures. Here is a wonderful picture of the Horner family, the father(James McGordon Horner)is a Civil War veteran. My great-grandmother is the young woman on the far left.



6-I collect recipes – in a pile. I have some unreasonable hope that I will use them all, or organize them or something. Hard to let go of this particular pile o’clutter.


7-I didn’t go to kindergarten. Our family lived on a farm, and our school district charge for kindergarten, so my older brother nor I went.

8-I am the founding member of a defunct rock band called ‘the Renegade Moms of Funk’ –actually, we’ve never had a rehearsal..
This is how ‘the band’ came about – I was tired of listening to the loud music my son had on the car radio, so I decided to tease him about the music, and a group called the Renegade Band (I think) of Funk were yelling away at the time, so I told him I was starting my own group. He is a good sport, and is our manager, still today.

A nod to Gail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago, who tagged me!
I am tagging
Edge at Mothering on the Edge
Sassy at The Sassy Lime
Chigiy at Gardener's Anonymous Zoey at
Perennial Passion
Sara at Farming Friends
Kim at A Study in Contrasts
When tagged, you must list the person who tagged you, post the rules and list 8 or so people at the end of the post.

7/7/07

In honor of the date, I am borrowing this idea from Kylee over at http://ourlittleacre.blogspot.com/, who borrowed it from Carol at May Dreams Garden.

Seven things about me:
1. I’m left-handed. So is my sister, and three of my five children.

2. I was the most outspoken and even bossiest of my siblings, I am sorry to say.

3. I am not a fan of soda. I could probably go the rest of my life and never drink soda again. When I have pizza, I wash it down with a big glass of milk, which is way better.

4. I can’t take too much violence in movies- more than I used to, though. I guess I get too involved in the story – my family has heard me say ‘I can’t stand it!’ at about a million movies (starting with the original Star Wars)

5. Even though I don’t like too much violence or suspense, I am a big plot junkie. That is one reason I love Star Trek (yeah, I know, it’s not a good plot, but it does have an on-going story and a plot). I used to read my kids’ Beverly Cleary books, or, more recently, the Barbara Parks series (y’know, Junie B. Jones) for a quick plot fix. Pathetic, I know.

6. Probably my least favorite colors are purple and orange. (well, I can’t stand the old lady color combo of purple and red together, either, but that is a different story). I really don’t like orange. It was one of my school colors, along with black, and I remember wearing orange on our spirit days in high school and thinking I looked awful in it. I do, however, love peach, coral, salmon, etc.

7. I believe in Smart Mouth Purgatory- a non-doctrinal place where I am sure I’ll end up, probably with a few friends, as a consequence of my, well, smart mouth.

There’s my 7, I am tagging Sassy, Edge, Jean, and anybody else who wants to play along.