On a quest to be my best.

Vox Hunt: Oh Canada!

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:35:25 -0400

In honor of Canada Day, show us your favorite Canadian.
My cousin Maurice is definitely my favorite Canadian. He's absolutely insane....that's why I love him!

Crazy Canadian Cousin Mau

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Vox Hunt: Photo Thursday

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:44:44 -0400

Show us the very last picture you took. No cheating!

That would be from my cell phone. My daughter playing outside.

Jasmine

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My Summer Challenge

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:09:59 -0400

Over the past few weeks I've been milling over what activities I can do with the kids since school is out. Our situation is a bit unique compared to most of my friends and family. We have our 2 1/2(Jasmine) year old and a 13 year old(Ashli). The gap in their ages limits what we can do that they can BOTH enjoy.

Ashli will be visiting Canada in a few weeks, but we still have some time to occupy until that happens. I can visit the park every weekend(when it's not raining, of course) and that'll be more than enough for her.

Jasmine is quite happy visiting the park every single day, sliding down the slide millions of times, running, and jumping. For Ashli, the park has more or less "lost it's magic". She'd prefer to shop all day. Not only do we not have the resources to do this, but the frustration this would cause Jasmine(and in turn, ME) is unbearable. The idea of having to stop after every other store to go to the bathroom is really unnerving.

Thus far, here's what I've devised and exhausted:

Movies: We've seen Kung Fu Panda. This worked well because they both enjoyed it and these kind of movies are made for kids from 1 to 100. Hopefully there will be more of these kid friendly movies for us this summer.

Butterfly World: This is a nice little place to take any child to. Jasmine and Ashli both are "girly-girls" so they love butterflies! It's not only a fun experience, but they should both really enjoy it. I'll save this for next weekend.

Flamingo Gardens: Another nature park that they're bound to enjoy.

Waterparks: There are a few of these close by and hopefully we don't get rained out. All waterparks in Florida close when it begins thunder because of the lightning. The only issue I can see here is little Divas and their hairdos being messed up.

Hopefully the summer is successful and I find more to do that meshes well with both age groups.

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Funny Meme- courtesy of grumblebunny

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:36:31 -0400

I've never done a meme before, but I saw one over at thegrumblebunny's and thought it was too funny to pass up the opportunity:

COUNTRY WESTERN SINGER NAME: (mother & father’s middle name)

Allene Steven(s)

NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother’s dad, father’s dad)

Cecil Ivory

STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)

Carti

DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)

Jade Chameleon

SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)

LaShaun Queens(yes, my middle name is hideous)

SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)

THE Lavender Coffee

FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)

Tiar

ROCK STAR NAME: (current companion critters' name, current street name)

Charli 94th Ave

STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne/aroma, fav candy)

Goddess M&M

PORN NAME: (1st pet, 1st Car)

Duchess Integra

AMERICAN GLADIATOR NAME: (model name of your current car)

GS 300

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QotD: Lessons from Dad

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:07:46 -0400

What lesson did your father teach you that still helps you in life?

Well....I'm lucky enough to have 2 people in my life that I call Dad. My biological father, Greg, whom we've had our ups and downs over the years....and my Stepfather, Teddy, whom I absolutely adore.

From Greg, the one thing he would say to me since I was a little girl was "Don't be like your mother, or marry a man like your father". As crazy as it may sound.....this was one of the most important things anyone could have told me. I love my mother dearly and think she's one of the most wonderful people in the world-but there are ways that we handle things and I feel that I'm just better at it(so much so that SHE even says it).

Then from Teddy, he taught me that "angry can't last forever", simply to forgive. Greg and I never really "got along" but Teddy was always there....ALWAYS. When my mother and I fought, he was there. He'd talk and simply say...."Are you going to be mad forever? You know angry can't last for the rest of your life." It would make me think, but it's something that when I get angry now, I can almost hear him saying it.

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Sometimes, just sometimes, I need quiet

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:19:15 -0400

I would say that I'm a very social person. I enjoy talking a bit more than most people do. (Un)fortunately, my 2 1/2 year old has this same trait. After the day I had yesterday, I just wanted a little quiet. I went home, prepped dinner(leftover lasagna) for my little one then put on my PJ's. I laid in my bed and read a book(something that I haven't done uninterrupted in over 2 years now-I'll tell you about that another time). As I started reading, my Baby Cakes, aka Jasmine comes into the room covered in lasagna and tells me that she needs to wash her hands.

So....we wash hands and the quiet ends there.....

"My hands were dirty, mommy.....now they're all clean.....mommy look how clean my hands are.......mommy do you see my hands......they're not dirty anymore....I washed them mommy.....look there's no more sauce on my hands...."

All of that said in about 30 seconds, while I simply nod and say, "Yes, I see".

I returned to reading my book then after about 20 minutes....here comes Baby Cakes! "Mommy, my name is Jasmine.....You say my name is Baby Cakes.....that's funny......daddy says I'm Jazzy Wazzy.....he's so silly...I'm just Jasmine.....that's my name.....your name is Tiffani.....I say mommy......"

After this exchange of names Baby Cakes sits on the edge of my bed singing at the VERY top of her lungs to a song that she has instantly made up. The words were something like:

My mommy's name is Tiffani, and she's my mommy, she's Tiffani, and she's my mommy, and Tiffani is my mommy, I love my mommy, my mommy Tiffani, I love my Tiffani

When the song was over I told her how beautiful it was and continued to read my book. It was then I realized that it had been about an hour and I'd read only 2 pages and this wanting peace and quiet just wasn't going to work out well.

This was a night that I had to sacrifice my need for quiet to satisfy my daughter's need to talk(and BOY did she ever talk). We talked for about an hour about The Backyardigans and the concert that we'll soon be going to, horses, Wonder Pets, Little Einsteins, a baby chimp, a zebra, and about how a baby cello and the chimp miss their mommies and various other "topics". When Jasmine decided she was all talked out, she said, "Ok Mommy, you read your book now, I'm going to play in my room"......and that's EXACTLY what she did.

As all parents know......sometimes you have to overlook your needs and wants for your children. When you need peace and quiet you'll eventually get it(they all have to go to sleep sometime!).

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Today....it's just one of those days....

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:47:12 -0400

Today is one of those days that I've decided, it's just hard to be a girl. There's way too much to understand or make sense of like....

...how I can be too full to eat a bite of lasagna, but hungrily consume a box of Oreos or cacao reserve chocolates
...how I can be too sleepy to move, but not too tired to stay awake until the wee hours of the night reading a book or watching television
...why it's necessary to feel like your insides feel the way spaghetti being twisted on a fork must feel
...why I'm hot, then cold, then hot again, then cold again
...that while I'm experiencing insane versions of hot and cold I feel the need to consume hot and cold drinks to accommodate my mood and never manage to finish drinking either one
...why is it I feel a bit disgruntled with people around me even though I have no reason to
...why my only real thought is how terribly I'd like to put on my sweats, lay in bed and not move
...why I need to try on every pair of jeans I own before I decide to wear the ones that I tried on first
....why none of my T-shirts fit the way they usually do

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QotD: The Meanest Teacher

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:56:02 -0400

Who was the meanest teacher you had in school?

By far the meanest teacher I had was Mrs. Gay. The woman was pure evil! She gave me a detention for talking in class once because I sneezed. Then wrote out this long drawn out thing saying that I was a rude and disrespectful student and should be expelled. With something like this ALL of my other teachers would have to sign off on it, and they couldn't place the behavior she described with me. On top of that I NEVER got in trouble. Not so much as being late to school and I was generally very quiet(back then). We had a conference with my mother and all of my teachers and she finally just said that she did it because she didn't care too much for me. I was transferred out of her class and she retired that year.

It didn't help that she'd been teaching longer than most of the other teachers at the school have even been alive. As a matter of fact, she not only taught one of my teachers(whom we all considered to be old since she had children our age), but she also taught this woman's mother. She was probably just so mean and evil because she was teaching for too long and the kids made quite a bit of fun of her. She was very old, overweight, wore a very obvious wig, and still had a dated way of wearing her makeup(ie blazing blue eyeshadow, rouge, and BRIGHT red lipstick on top of a very dark complexion).

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QotD: XYZPDQ

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:45:29 -0400

Are there any people you would not tell if they had food in their teeth or if their zipper were down? Why or why not?
Submitted by Charms.

Yeah, they are the people I call "The Droids" Models TS and CF more specifically. As to the reason why.....they creep me out a bit and they're so robotic I don't think they have a program in them that allows them to fix it.

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QotD: The Oldest Book on the Shelf

nobody@vox.com(GottaGetGoing) — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:19:25 -0400

What's the oldest book you own?
Submitted by Lies.

Well, there are 2 books that I still have as part of my collection, and have passed on to my little one:

Gregory The Terrible Eater and American Rabbit and The Case of the Missing Moose:

American Rabbit

Both books were given to me as gifts on my 5th Birthday. Books that I absolutely TREASURED. So much so that they are still pretty much in their original condition.

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