Tales of a Shoebox Princess

Seriously, I'm at 1000. I should have dressed up to blog today. In honor of 1000 posts of meaningless drivel (except for that one week before Christmas 2009 when I blogged daily my thoughts about the Nativity), I'm going to do a ten things list. Ten things for no reason, about nothing in particular 1. I saw a craft idea for a family motto board. The craft itself is cute, but I cannot take the family motto idea seriously. I can't. My children wouldn't either. We all would ignore it and go on with our lives in whatever way we chose to live it, and when we got bored, we'd make fun of it and change the words around to mean stupid things. If I were forced at gunpoint to come up with a family motto, I think I would have to go with "Aspirate." Maybe I'll make a family motto board with that on it just for fun.  Heehee, I just thought of something: I hate those signs that say "Live, Laugh, Love" (no apology from me if you have one. I don't h

I'd offer points for people who could give me the reference for my post title, but I don't think any of you would get it without googling it. Here, I'll link to it. Singing the praises of pants I particularly like the line near the end: "Dolphins, one of the smartest mammals on earth. Do they wear pants? No, but they wish they did, that's how smart they are." Then there's another episode of MST3K where Pearl and Observer are in Roman times and they want to have a toga party, but the Romans don't get it. So Pearl comes up with the idea to have a pants party and they all dance around with pants pinned to their togas yelling "Pants party pants party!" but I can't find a clip of it on youtube so you'll just have to imagine it. SO on to pants. Pants. Pajama pants. Kate made some yesterday. First day home, and she's raiding my fabric stash. She found some fabric with planets on it but there wasn't enough to make both

We made a run for the MN/SD border this weekend. My office had their annual Christmas party this Friday and I wanted to be there. We brought Hayley and Matt along and they babysat the boss's kids while we went off and partied at Lunker's in Watertown. Bernice, Martha, Mavis, Gladys, Hazel, and Concepcion roosting on a wagon in the barn We decided to make a weekend of the trip and are staying with Mike and Jen at their chicken hotel. I love their chickens! Hayley and Matt liked them too. I don't have a picture of Hayley holding a chicken (well, I do on my phone, but Matt is using my phone to play Fruit Ninja so I can't access the picture at the moment), but I have one of Matt. Hayley took to chicken holding quite easily, but Matt needs a little practice. He's not afraid of the chickens, but he is a little flustered when the birds get to squawking. Matt and Bernice get to know each other. I like hanging out with the chickens and much as I hate to brag,

17 points if you can tell me where the post title came from. -2 points if you googled it to get the answer. Just because I'm about to complain does not mean that I want consolation. First of all, you don't know what I'm going to complain about yet, and second of all, I'm complaining in more of a I-wanna-blog-about-something-but-this-is-all-I-came-up-with kind of way. I'm going to complain about a facial feature. Because I once poked fun at myself in a very early blog post and people thought I was either depressed or they didn't like the tone I used to do it, I'm going to say early on that if you think I am hating on myself, keep your comments to yourself. Laugh at me if you will, complain about things you find annoying about your own physical appearance, etc, but I'll thank you not to assume that I need therapy and/or hugs. (I might need therapy, but not about my personal appearance)(as for the hugs, unless you're Jim or unless you have issued fo

It used to be that my husband could be taken at face value. What he thought, he said. And what he was going to do, he mentioned.  Or so I thought. He has carefully crafted this deception over the course of 23 years. He acted like he couldn't wait to give me presents that he had bought so he made me receive them early. He would let things slip so that I would guess surprises.  He pretended that he wasn't spontaneous and plan and plan and get my input on every detail for upcoming events.  But today, I have learned it was all a lie. He surprised me by bringing donuts to seminary for the whole class in honor of my birthday. And then when I went out to my van, he had left a bouquet of flowers on the driver's seat. And he knew that some ladies were going to come over and bring me lunch, and KEPT IT A SECRET. I had no idea. I'll never trust him again!  But in a good way.

I never posted a sampling of Paul's senior pictures. Would you care to see a few? Jen took these pictures WA-A-A-A-AY back in July when it was close to a million degrees outside. We were uncomfortably hot during the photo session, Paul most of all, because in a couple pictures I made him wear his heavy wool letter jacket. But now that is all a distant and faint memory, hardly worth recalling. For years, I've been worried about Paul's senior pictures. Paul has been notoriously difficult to photograph in a posed state. He has always looked stiff and unnatural and has strange looks on his face. But I should not have worried. He seems to have come to grips with photographic technology and can manage a handsome smile in the face of the lens.  And now, pictures of Paul. My favorite. He's for reals smiling.

Hey, I was just looking at my blog overview and noticed that I am closing in on 1000 posts. I'd better make my mille post a special one (or not). I would post pictures from last night's Honor Band concert, but Matt sits in the back of the band, is very short, and sits behind a very tall girl. So no pictures of him in the band. Mr H, one of the directors, mentioned that this is the 5th year of Honor Band, and I thought to myself that there has been an Evans in the Honor Band every year. First Paul, then Hayley, now Matt. I'll be a little sad when there is no Evans in the Honor Band. Matt has another concert tonight for his regular band. I'll try to get a picture of him fiddling with his trombone. Hayley has a pep band event, which I am not going to because I am going to the band concert. I probably wouldn't go to the pep band events anyway. And no, that does not make me a parent who does not care. It does make me a parent who does not care about the high school

It's just past 6 a.m. on a Saturday...and I've been awake for an hour. On a Saturday. Younger me would have said, "THIS IS SO NOT FAIR!!!" Mid-40s me says, "Meh, I had my sleep. I'm fine."  Besides, it's kind of fun to be up when no one else is. I can do what I want without worrying that I'm getting in the way or hovering or whatever. Yesterday was a busy day at work. I'm still not quite used to a desk job (even though the desk is in my sewing room) (and keep in mind the headline of this post). There are phone calls to be made and software program fields to be filled with data. Wednesday and Friday, I actually said to my husband, "I'm really busy at work." And I meant it. I really haven't ever experienced this before: sitting at my desk, doing something that needs to be done, and then suddenly I realize that two hours have passed while I've been sitting there, my brain buzzing along. I know many of you have a

Every so often, I'll drive by a chain fast food venue while hungry, and an argument will break out. Me: Mmm, fast food! I wanna stop and get some. Other Me: I don't. Me: But the food is so yummy! Other Me: It is not! The last ten times (at least!) we've stopped there have been incredibly disappointing, remember? We pulled out of the parking lot all the while kicking ourselves for having gone there because the food was gross.  We wasted our money buying it. Me isn't listening: Mmmm, french fries! With ketchup!  Come on, you know you love them. Other Me: Maybe the first three fries. After that, it's like eating cold, salty glue sticks. Me: How about the hamburgers then. You love a good hamburger! Other Me: Yes I do, but fast food hamburgers are not good hamburgers. Me: Soft bun, meat, chopped onions, ketchup--it's all there! Other Me: All there in the most depressing arrangement ever.  The sandwiches always come out squished, and the chopped onio