A Smurfing good time!

The Smurfs turn 50 years old this year! I recently acquired the first season of the Smurfs. Need I say more. And yet, I will say more.

Hopefully you hear the word “smurf” and magical images come to your mind of blue skinned creatures wearing only white leggings and white hats while dancing around their mushroom houses singing “la la la la la la la la la”

It has been years since these fantastic people were a part of my weekly Saturday morning routine, so watching them again as an adult I have made several observations about being “smurfed”.

In order to be a smurf you must

--Have everything you say, especially statements of exclamation incorporate the word smurf. “Someone smurfed all the food in the storage house” “Where the smurf did that potion go” “Everyone, smurf the best you can” “Have a smurfing good day”

--Your name should resemble one of the 7 deadly sins and it MUST define your personality and you can never veer from that personality unless someone casts a spell on you, or you are in league with Gargamel. (Vanity, Grouchy, Greedy, Hefty, Brainy)

--Always accept the big box/gift wrapped with a large bow from Jokey Smurf, despite the fact that every gift he’s ever given you has blown up in your face. (Which makes me wonder how he affords all the packaging, or even the illegal explosives that he uses. This might be a matter left to Papa Smurf to smurf into.)

--Brainy Smurf is not smart at all, but since it’s a children’s show they probably couldn’t have a name such as “Kiss Up to Papa Smurf, Smurf” hence they had to go with Brainy.

--The inside of your mushroom house will in no physical or logical way resemble the size and look of the outside of your mushroom house. Don’t question it, no one else does, just accept it.

--The size of a smurf can magically change throughout an episode, going from being as tall as Gargamel’s knee to being smaller than his shoe. That’s ok too.

I was also left with a couple of questions regarding the natures of Smurfs.

--All the members of the village, except one are male. Smurfette came along thanks to Gargamel’s crazy creations, and every smurf at some point falls in love with her, which makes me wonder why, with so many men, they don’t approach Gargamel to make even more Smurfettes?

--If Gargamel needs smurfs to make gold, yet he was able to create Smurfette, why not simple create smurfs to use to create gold?

Despite all these irregularities and strange observations I have loved having the smurfs in my home again, and I love that my kids love it to. I admit I’m just a big kid inside, and that ok too!

Check this out, I guess they announced they will be making Smurfs into a movie. That will be interesting!

Rejected

...again....




time to break out the chocolate and Sailor Moon

Spring has Sprung (I think)

I love spring time because of the flowers. Some of my favorite flowers grow at this time: tulips, irises, crocuses. My favorite scent in the world is blossoming lilacs in spring. Ever since I was a child I have dreamed of living in a castle with an enormous garden surrounding it. I longed for bubbling water fountains, laid stone creeks, wrought-iron benches, climbing roses, a maze made out of hedges. I would love to live in a time where hours were spent strolling through manicured gardens, gathering flowers in whicker baskets and wearing long, white, flowing dresses and large straw hats with trailing ribbons… sigh.

But I don’t live in those times (obviously, or I wouldn’t be blogging), but I still have done the best I could to capture that. When we landscaped our house I created a lot of flower beds in the front yard. I wanted flowers everywhere! The one thing I didn’t plan on was, where there are flowers there are also weeds. Yuck! I hate weeding, I hate planting, I hate all the work that comes from maintaining a garden, but I love the beauty of it. So this week I finally went out, gave my flowers some love, pulled up the weeds, put some fresh dirt down, mowed the lawn, pulled away the dead foliage and swept the path ways. Hated every second of the work, but I must admit I love my yard now. The tulips have come out, the trees look covered in popcorn, and my lilac bush is on the verge of blossoming. (I love, love, love the smell of lilacs in the spring, did I mention that already.)

So of course, I wake up this morning with a bitter cold breeze rushing through the air, and the rumors of snow over the weekend. My poor flowers. My poor lilac bush! Just when I was starting to believe in spring again, Mother Nature has to pull a cruel joke and bring winter back. Doesn’t she realize it’s almost May?? Perhaps Her and Father Time are having a disagreement, and all of the children are suffering because of it. Whatever the reason I hope to enjoy my flowers as much as I can for now, (and invite you to enjoy them too)

Spring Cleaning update—and why you wish Sabine was your best friend

Two solid days of cleaning have yielded a spotless bedroom, closet and bathroom, 4 large bags to the D.I. and seven, (yes, 7) big bags of garbage. (It’s a good thing it’s garbage day today!) Every nook and cranny in my bathroom/bedroom/closet is spotless. You could eat off my toilet…not that you would want to. But it is that clean. Every blind, every baseboard, ever inch of crown molding has been scrubbed. It feels awesome and open. I forgot how huge my closet is. It looks so fabulous I had to take pictures, (you know I'm a true blogger when I'm taking pics of my closet and toilet for my blog!)

don’t you love my expensive, custom-made, designer curtains? They look like bed sheets hanging in the window, but they're not....really

My clutter-free closet

My sparkling toilet

My gorgeous tub

My guck-free window sill

I’m so proud of myself, but then I realized, it took two days, and I hoped to do the whole house over spring break. Hmm, not going to happen. But hopefully I can at least get the upstairs done.

So, let me tell you about one of the many advantages of having a good friend named Sabine Berlin. Knowing my daunting task of wanting to deep clean my house she came over Monday and offered to help. Our kids entertained each other while she washed my blinds, and scrubbed, (literally) all the guck out of my window sill. (You know, that black guck that builds up over time). She washed windows, my toilet and floor boards. And if that wasn’t enough on Tuesday, she took my kids to her house so I could have some uninterrupted cleaning time. She didn’t have them for an hour, or even two. No, she kept them for SIX loooong hours. Then to top it all off, she is watching my kids for me over the weekend so that my husband and I can have a much needed night away. (I secretly hope she never moves, I don’t know what I’ll do when she does!)

Well, I don’t really have much time to blog, I still have two more bed rooms, another bathroom, a linen closet and hallway to go clean. In the meantime the rest of my house is falling apart. So if you happen to come over this week, just go up to my bedroom and ignore everything else. Thanks.

Purge

Do you ever have the urge to throw everything in your house away? I do. Right now. But where do I start. I want to just grab a garbage bag and start tossing, but I get so worried that I will throw away something that someday I will need. What if I regret the purge? That really holds me back. I need to overcome that fear and learn to de-clutter. Any advice? How do you let go of junk (both physical and mental)?

Sick, Sick, Sick, Sick, Sick

Here's a pic of the flu virus. Don't you love the little spikes, like it's going into battle.

What is up with this season, everyone is sick! This is what we have endured the past two months

-flu
-ear infections
-croop
-strep throat
-stomach bug
-good old fashioned colds
-a trip to the ER
-a surgery for tubes in my baby’s ears.

Is there no end? And the sad thing is I know I’m not the only one who is suffering one sickness after another in their family. I hope it ends soon. I really do. But until then I promise I haven’t gone inactive at church, I’m staying home for legitimate reason.

Bones and Narble, a call from Orson Scott Card, and a home refinance falling through

That sums up my April Fools Day, how about you? Every year Jason and I go to great lengths planning our April Fools Day joke on each other. We don’t breath a word about the day, hoping the other will forget, and without fail we pull some prank on each other every year. At first I was good about getting him, now he always knows and doesn’t trust a thing I tell him on that day. This year was no exception.

As many of you know I have sent in some of my writing to Orson Scott Card, and I’ve been waiting to hear back from him. Well I had this great idea to tell Jason that Scott actually called me because he loved my book so much and wanted to write a cover letter to TOR telling them what he thought. Maybe it was too far-fetched, or maybe Jason just doesn’t believe in my writing enough, but he saw straight through me. I thought it would work because I tested it on Sabine first.

She was ecstatic! She was so happy and so pleased for me I felt terribly guilty and quickly pulled the “April Fools” on her. Good thing we were on the phone or she might have hit me. But I was thrilled! I thought: if Sabine fell for it than Jason has to. No.

I call him up, “Guess who I just got off the phone with?”
“Who,” I can tell he’s busy and doesn’t really care.
“Orson Scott Card.”
“Right,” he says, “And he loved your book so much that he wants to publish it himself, no wait, he wants to put his name on it, no wait, I know, he just wanted to tell you that he doesn’t have time to read it, but he has time to call and play April Fools jokes.”
“Ha ha,” I tell him and pretend that I didn’t spend the last week concocting this April fools joke. “What’s your joke, that you got a huge contract for your business and that you can quiet your other jobs.”
“No, that would be lame,” he laughs. I hang up, feeling a little happy that Sabine was kind enough to allow me to fool her.

That morning I had explained April Fools to my daughter and we had fun saying things like, “I just bought you a hundred barbies. April fools! Oh no, your hair is turning blue, April fools.” By the afternoon I thought they had forgotten because we hadn’t said any dumb jokes for several hours. Well I had to run into Barnes and Nobel to grab a book, and as I did my four year old wanted to know the name of the store. I told her, “Barnes and Nobel.” “Bones and Narble?” She said bewildered. “That’s a really weird name.” I agreed and started walking in. Very solemnly she walks up to me and says, “Mom, I really wish your name was Bones and Narble.” I stared at her, surprised by her sincerity and said. “That would be fun, huh?” She grins at me, showing her dimple and says, “April Fools.” She totally got me, the little stinker!

Well, not even ten min after, I get a call from my husband. “I just sent you an email about our refi.” (We are refinancing to get out of an ARM) Since I’m driving I’m half listening and ask him what it’s about. “The deadline for our paperwork has expired and they’re not sure we can go through with it.”
“Yeah right. April Fools.” I wasn’t going to get caught.
“No I’m serious.” And he was. He was so serious! “I tried calling but no one was there.”
I rush home and check the email he sent me, and sure enough, the guy doing our loan sent an email saying he needed to speak with Jason.

My husband dragged it on all day. That night he comforted me, telling me things would probably be fine, it would just take a little longer, and that he would call the guy first thing in the morning. Then right as he was going to bed he softly says, “April Fools”

It took me about half an hour to accept that the whole thing was a joke. I was furious… Now I can’t stop laughing. It was hands down the best joke he has done. Apparently he had taken an old email from the man, forwarded it to himself and changed the message in the email. So it was official looking and everything. That’s what I get for marrying a smart man—I guess.

So what about you, did you get any good pranks done on you, or did you accomplish anything noteworthy? I would love to hear.

Oh, and leaving a bag of groceries in my shopping cart, and totally forgetting about them was not an April Fools joke. I really did that, and didn't even realize it for two days. Surprisingly, Maceys still had the groceries for me. Thank you Maceys!