Random little tidbits...

The new Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooker of the Year (SOY) has a little contest on her blog. You have to tell something random about yourself, so I thought I would do that here. HMMmm...

1. My first and only job (besides working on the farm and babysitting) was at a tire shop where I worked from the age of 15 til I had my first child at 20. My dad worked at the same tire shop 20 years before that. And no, I didn't toss around tires a la Guido in Cars, I worked in the Accounts Receivable office.

2. I am named after my grandma, and we had the EXACT same name (until I got married, obviously) but it is not "Annie". I've always been "Annie" to everyone, except to my dad, who calls me "Rosie" and my friend Susan, who calls me "Rosie" because she thought it was funny that my dad called me that. (How's that for random rambling?)

3. I could eat chips and salsa every day. I usually don't, but I could!

4. After all of those lists of names to give my six (yes, I wanted six) children I was going to have, I still had a hard time naming my four kids. And I used none of the names I thought I loved! My kids should have been named things like "River" "Sapphire" "Willow" and "Taggert". But we all grow up sometime.

5. Baby number 3 actually came home from the hospital with no name, the hospital called three days later and still no name, finally we named him a very difficult, took tons of thought name:
Joseph Andrew after his Nonno and Daddy. Duh.

6. There is no other flavor better than a sour cream and onion chip eaten at the same time as an M&M. Glorious.

7. I like Birkenstocks. I know, Susan, you are so ashamed.

8. I was on the FFA Dairy Cattle Judging Team in high school, and we made fun of the kids on the Ornamental Horticulture team. What is our family business now? Landscaping. Karma, it comes and bites you in the butt when you least expect it.

9. I can fall asleep in 30 seconds flat. 2 seconds if I'm really tired. Drives Andy crazy as he's flipping and flopping, or trying to have a conversation with me.

10. I use my foot to flush the toilet in public bathrooms. When we stayed with my MIL Barbara this summer, after a day of travelling and lots of public bathrooms, Mario went potty at Nonni's house, pulled his pants up, then tried to flush with his foot. After cracking up, I explained to him that at Nonni's house it's OK to use his hand. I guess kids do pay attention to what we do!

OK, some of you come out of cyberspace here and give me some randomness about you, something I may not know already. Even you, Dad.

We eat our eggs and bacon with pasta!

OK, maybe not all the time, but tonight we had this for dinner

which is a take on Rachel Ray's Spaghetti Carbonara.

She makes hers with Pancetta, but all I had was turkey bacon (the poor man's pancetta). Yum-O!

This was sitting outside the back door last night.

Isn't he lovely? This is a cicada. I made the comment to Andy that it must be a HE since his colors are more flashy than the other cicadas I've seen. After reading about them I found out that only the males make the noise. (Typical!) He doesn't look very big, but he must have been about 3 inches long. The noise around here has been positively deafening from these little buggers! We have a lot of trees in our yard, and they love to roost in them to serenade us.

If you would like to hear what noise they make, this lady has recorded them, but she talks the whole time, too. Her talking is actually more annoying than the cicadas.

Did any of you watch Survivor last night? I'm so out of touch with what is going on in the world that I didn't even know it started last night, but Andy let it slip when he called me on his way home. This is pretty much my only TV indulgence. I'm not one of those crazy buff-creating fans, but I like the competitiveness (and short duration) of the show. I had a couple issues with this show, which were brought up in this article, also. If you know you are going to be on SURVIVOR, dress the part!!! PLEASE!! Heels? Dresses? No BRA? Give me a break. And as ripped as some of these guys are, I don't want to see them in their boxer briefs! OK, maybe I do, but don't tell Andy! Or you ladies in just your bras (those who remembered to wear them). Unfortunately, the show is on at 7:00 here, BEFORE bedtime for the animals in the zoo. Between the scantily clad contestants and the commercials for "How I Met Your Mother" where Doogie Howser asks a girl, "Do you want to have sex?" I was about ready to shut the TV off for good. Gone are the days when we can watch Survivor with the kids. But then again, maybe we never could, what with Richard Hatch running around NaKed and all. I guess I'll tape it next week.

Guess who turned 6 yesterday?

Joseph is the dragon and his buddy Carson is the knight in this picture from pre-school last year. Aren't they just so cute?

We spent the day together as a family, tooling around Independence, MO and Liberty, MO, taking in the church sights that Andy works on every week. The Independence visitor's center was totally redone this last year and was very interactive. The kids loved it!

Next was a picnic lunch at the park in Liberty, which is a very cute town, and visiting the Liberty Jail. We watched the very touching new movie about the life of Joseph Smith while we were there.

We capped off the night with dinner at Applebee's with an Oreo cookie milkshake for the birthday boy. When the waiters started clapping and walking through the restaurant I looked at Joseph and said, "What do you think that's all about?" His eyes were so big, and he replied,"I don't know!"

Dinner at Grammie's tonight was chicken enchiladas. His cousin Ephraim made him this sign to wear. Notice how he spelled birthday? And the smudge of chocolate cake at the side of his mouth?

Happy birthday, my sweet boy!

Summer to Fall in zero to 24 hours flat and wedding bells.

Blustery and rainy with a 70 degree high today. It's a far cry from 85 and humid yesterday! I hope winter doesn't come too fast, Andy needs to keep mowing as long as he can!

We're getting ready for Family Home Evening and waiting for Daddy to get home. Natalia and I made cupcake cones. Remember those? Yummy! I tried to take a picture, but the batteries are dead. Oops! Our cupcake cones will have little Cool Whip hats on them.

Sis #4 Monie is coming home from Nauvoo for a visit tonight. We had a big surprise when her boyfriend Kyle called my dad late Friday night to ask his permission to marry her! Whoa! Their "place" they like to hang out at is the park area across from the Nauvoo Temple, and he asked her there with a ring pop. Isn't that cute? Mom thinks we need to have ring pops at the reception. The date is set for December 22. This will be one busy Christmas!

Oh, Habits, where are you?

The one thing I've been great at this week? A big zip-i-dee-do-da-zippo! Well, maybe I wasn't that bad, but so much room for improvement! The weather is getting a little cooler, so my exercising might get a little better.

Scriptures and lessons - habit

Chores for kids - needs work

Scriptures and prayer with family - needs work

Paperwork - needs overhaul

Thanks, Lazy Organizer for keeping this in my head, though!