Memorial Day Weekend

Larry worked on Saturday and Sunday so I had a lot of time to myself. On Saturday I added Olivia to this T-shirt to go along with the book for my friend's daughter's first birthday party. Here's how it turned out.


Kamiko and Lysle both served their missions in Korea so they throw a tradition Korean party for their kids' first birthdays. Here's Rori in her Korean outfit.

They set four things in front of the child and the one the child chooses is supposed to be an indicator for the future: a string for long life, a pen for education, fruit for health, and a gold coin for riches. Kamiko was proud because Rori went straight for the money.

We went to a big breakfast that our ward threw. After breakfast Larry got soaked . . .

By our friend Heather.

We also went to a barbecue at our friend Amy and John's but Larry had the camera and the only thing that he took a picture of was this frog. I think he lost camera privledges (Or maybe he did it on purpose because he wanted to lose camera duty).

100 Things (61-80)

I'm still working on my 100 things. I'm really running out of things to put on this list so I'm only adding 20 today. I'll tell you about my weekend later when I can download the pictures.


61. I think honey and maple syrup are so gross. I can’t stand the taste or texture of either of them!
62. I love Target. I love to have time just to wander there, but I’m not as obsessed as this person http://slavetotarget.blogspot.com/
63. I have gone to Lois Lowry and Linda Sue Park book signings.
64. I really want to go to two performances that I know of in Columbus this coming year; Broadway’s touring production of Wicked and Ballet Met’s Whodunit? Ballet.
65. I’ve never mowed the lawn.
66. I was born three weeks late so my mom was pregnant with me for ten months!
67. Larry and I are trying to pick a place to vacation the last week of June. We’re thinking maybe Lake Tahoe because we can stay at my grandparents’ cabin for free. Any other ideas?
68. Heather and I were talking about Hitchcock and I’m thinking we need to have a Hitchcock themed Halloween party this year. We could assign each person coming to dress up as a character from one of his movies so they would have to watch the movie ahead of time. Then we could make up our own version of the game Scene It just using Hitchcock clips. I think I need to keep brainstorming.
69. I have a BA in English and a MA in Children’s Literature, but the education that got me into my career was a multimedia class I took my junior year of high school.
70. Larry and I named our cars and almost always refer to them by name. My car, the Rodeo, is Ted and his car, the Elantra, is Petey.
71. I didn’t pick out my engagement ring. Larry did it completely on his own and surprised me, and I love it.
72. Since I’ve lived in Ohio, Larry and I have gone on road trips to Chicago, Louisville, Mammoth Caves, Toledo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Boston, Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Nauvoo because we’re trying to see as much of the Midwest and East Coast and we can while we’re out here (Larry has also been to New York City and Philadelphia). We’re still hoping to make it to New York together and check out Nashville too. Maybe we’ll also make it up to Michigan this summer after their Ikea opens.
73. I’m really looking forward to the Pumpkin Show in Circleville this year because it’s the 100th! We cannot miss that!
74. In kindergarten I played a ladybug in our class play about Smokey the Bear and my one and only line was, “We’ll get the rocks!”
75. All of my grandparents are still alive and they’re awesome.
76. I have so many books that I sometimes buy duplicates without realizing it.
77. My sisters and I think Stephanie Ford sounds like a power 80’s name. Someone with that name should be an important Business Woman or an 80’s supermodel with big hair.
78. The title of my blog, Simply Radiant, is something two of my friends, Mary Ann Cameron and Jason Tyau and I always used to say.
79. When my friend Melinda and I used to get hit on by boys we used to give them the fake names Emmy and Di (short for Emerald and Diamond, because we are such gems of course!) We still call each other Emmy and Di to this day.
80. I hate the name Stephanie and when I told my mom that, she told me she’s never liked it either, and she thought that I should change it. She wanted to name me Felicity, but my dad wouldn’t let her.

Tidbits

Kelly and I finally went on a letterboxing adventure. Here's Kelly with her first letterbox find ever!

And here she is posing next to an archway at the Park of Roses (We won't mention how many other arches we checked out before we found the right one for the letterboxing clues we were following). The park was already beginning to smell like roses so I can't wait to go back in a few weeks when the roses are in full bloom.

This week I also had the chance to meet up with some old coworkers for lunch. I'm sad that I only took one picture because it's totally blurry. My new company is really small and I miss having so many good friends around. For four years I spent more time with these women than I spent with Larry, and while it was fun to get together and catch up, it also reminded me of how much I miss seeing them every day.

Then on Friday my office closed at noon so I got to go out to lunch with these crazy people!

Larry is on call for most of the weekend so I hope you have more exciting plans for the holiday weekend than we do.

100 Things (31-60)

I had a hard time coming up with 30 more semi-interesting things about myself without just listing a bunch of things I like and dislike or telling you things that you would already know from the rest of the blog. I don't know if I'm ever going to make it to 100. Anyway, here are the next thirty. They're not formatted very well because I had a hard time with the way blogger numbers things. Sorry!

31. I don’t have cable TV.
32. My first real job was working in my mom’s quilting and gift shop.
33. I mocked my dad and little sister for loving the movie Danny Deckchair, but then I watched it and it is actually pretty good.
34. My little sister just got a puppy and I tried so hard to convince her to name it John Stamos so she could copy her favorite Andy Milanokis skit and run around saying things like, “Help. Help, my John Stamos is stuck in a tree!” but she refused and said her husband wanted to name it Bob. Then I tried to get her to give it another celebrity name like Lorelai on the Gilmore Girls named her dog Paul Anka, but she was not interested in naming it Bob Villa or Bob Saget (Which was quite a slap in the face to Bob Saget because Marissa has even made T-shirts that said “Bob Saget Loves me!”)
35. I go overboard decorating for holidays. I get it from my mom who gets it from her mom.
36. I wish all of my friends and family members had Amazon wish lists. It makes gift giving so much easier!
37. I love getting good mail (not junk mail or bills). Every day when I get home from work the first thing I do is check the mailbox.
38. I have a hard time throwing away magazines after I’ve read them.
39. My middle name is Lynne. In college a boy I was dating asked one of my best friends how to spell my name so he could have something engraved and when I got it he left the “e” off of Lynne and he got mad at my friend who said that it was a stupid way to spell Lynne so after that my new nickname was Lynnie because my roommates all agreed that’s how it should be pronounced.
40. I’m a certified Notary.
41. My first word was read.
42. I originally wanted to name this blog Creative Sparks, but the name was already taken.
43. My maiden name is Borup. It’s pretty unusual so if you know anyone else with that last name, they’ve got to be related to me.
44. French toast is one of the very few foods that I make well.
45. I played lacrosse in high school and college and haven’t picked up a stick since because I have no one to play with, and I would feel a little bad teaching Larry to play with one of my girls’ sticks.
46. I have only watched one R-rated movie, Schindler’s List on an eighth grade field trip.
47. The smell, sight, or sound of throw-up makes me throw up so one day when we have kids Larry is doomed to cleaning up after sick kids on his own.
48. I can’t stand country music (except some Dixie Chicks songs, which Larry would tell you makes me a hypocrite).
49. When I was in the fourth grade my sisters both signed up for gymnastics, and I decided to take sewing lessons instead. I got my first sewing machine a year later.
50. I am not a morning person. I have always been difficult to wake up, and I shower at night so I can stay in bed until the last possible minute.
51. Before Larry and I became really serious I thought that I never ever wanted to get married, and it took me awhile to get over it. It’s a good thing he’s so patient.
52. I love being in a children’s literature book club for adults, but I’m unsure of how things are going to go with so many of my favorite club members moving this summer.
53. I love watching old musicals.
54. I don’t get brain freeze when I drink or eat really cold things.
55. I can only wink one eye.
56. I have no desire to ever go to a high school reunion. Surviving Timpview was hard enough, why would a voluntarily go back? I keep in touch with most of the people that I care about from high school anyway (except my friend Sarah Hanka that I’ve been trying to track down. Does anyone know how to get U of U alumni information?)
57. I would rather be cold than hot. Humidity and I are not friends!
58. I don’t know how to change a tire.
59. I took a backpacking class in college, and I got poison ivy on a three day trip, and I found out that I’m so allergic to it that if left untreated it would eventually cause my death.
60. Even though I have never written a book, I am a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and illustrators (SCBWI).

The rest of our weekend

The rest of our weekend was good. Larry had overnight call on Friday so I ran some errands Saturday and he came home around 12:30 and slept through most of the afternoon. Then we spent some time trying to attack the mess that is our house. We have been very busy and you can tell by the condition of things around here. We needed some serious organizational help so we headed to The Container Store.
(And oh yes, that is a cool pink individual cupcake container in Larry's hand for my new cupcake obsession). We have yet to implement all of the new organizational stuff that we bought. That's probably not a good sign that we're ready to turn over a new leaf.

Our friends the McFaddens had us over after church on Sunday for dinner and games. I really wish they weren't they weren't moving next month. We are going to miss them!

Then last night (I know Monday is not really part of my weekend, but I don't want to start a separate post) our friend's Donny and Jessica brought over dinner so we could celebrate their bid on a home three houses down from us being accepted. We walked over to their house to get a picture so here they are.

Don't they just look like they will be stupendous neighbors? I can't wait for them to move in!

100 Things (1-30)

So I was planning to mimic my friend Laura by posting 100 things about myself, but it looks like I only have time to list 30 things so you can look forward to the rest later. I just little whateve came to mind so you're going to think I'm a little crazy so maybe this list is better in smaller proportions anyway. Here's what I have so far:

1. I have lived in Santa Monica, CA; Arcata, CA (very Northern); Logan, UT; Clemson, SC; Cookeville, TN; Washington, DC; Orem, UT; Provo, UT; Laie, HI; and Columbus, Ohio.
2. I was an exchange student for a summer in Kawasaki, Japan
3. I studied abroad in London
4. Larry and I will live in Columbus for 7 years (and even longer if he does his fellowship here) that means the longest I will have lived anywhere will be Columbus. I think I’m officially an Ohioan.
5. When I was little used to love troll dolls. I had tons of them and I built very intricate houses for them.
6. My favorite movie is Sense and Sensibility
7. I collect leaf plates and Mr. Potato heads and I really want the new Artoo Potatoo Potato head
8. I’m afraid of ducks and geese. They totally freak me out. If you look into their eyes you can clearly see that they are planning world domination!
9. I own Punky Brewster seasons one and two on DVD.
10. I have never owned a cell phone.
11. I hate garden gnomes and am tragically married to someone who would love to have a yard full on them.
12. I would love to be a writer or a children’s literature professor.
13. I want to travel to Italy, Australia, and Alaska
14. I am so excited for Gail Carson Levine’s new book Fairest, Stephenie Meyer’s new book New Moon, and Shannon Hale’s new book River Secrets to come out this fall.
15. I am truly awful at calling people back.
16. I’m really tempted to order the first season of the Adventures of Pete and Pete on Amazon because I want to know if it’s really as bizarre and entertaining as I remember it.
17. I want to have poppies in my yard but I’ve tried to plant them three times and I keep killing them. What am I doing wrong?
18. It just takes fifteen minutes outside for me to become totally sunburned.
19. I designed some cute graduation party invitations for a friend today.
20. In ninth grade I really wanted to be a fashion designer and I made a dress out of men’s ties.
21. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus by Mo Willems is my favorite picture book. In graduate school I wrote a paper comparing it to another of my favorites, The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone.
22. I’m in the middle of reading The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency (yes, it’s true; sometimes I read books that were actually written for adults).
23. I just set a goal to try to be better about writing Thank You notes so you might be getting one in the mail soon. I love collecting stationary; I’m just not very good at using it.
24. I don’t check email on the weekends.
25. From the ages of about five to seven, every time I wished on a star I wished to have one of each kind of My Little Pony.
26. I am going to be expanding my book club horizon and I am going to host a grown-up book club in October. I think we will be reading Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle because it’s oh so lovely.
27. I don’t think that very many people regularly read this blog.
28. It doesn’t take much to make me cry.
29. I am self-conscious about all of the pictures I take because my dad and my sister are amazing photographers.
30. I am excited to go on a letterboxing adventure with my friend Kelly on Wednesday.

Whistle Factory

Larry and I rarely have a weekday off together so we decided to take advantage go on one of the factory tours Larry's been wanting to go on. We decided to check out the American Whistle Corporation. On the way there Larry said that he hoped to meet the Willy Wonka of whistles, he had no idea how accurate that description would be. Here he is folks.


At first I wanted to roll my eyes because he sounded exactly like a game show host. He was extremely proud of the whistles they make and I learned more about whistles than I ever wanted to know. Whistle Wonka said that they, "Make the official Girl Scout whistles, and more importantly (because they are so much better) they make whistles for the Boy Scouts." Of course all of the boys in the elementary school class that we toured with cheered and all he said was, "Hey, sometimes the truth hurts folks," and he turned and walked on. Later in the tour someone asked why do they package the whistles so the packages are so hard to open? and his reply was, "The truth is at that point they already paid for them so I don't care."

We got to hear about a gold whistle the Home Shopping Network will be selling with a rose imprint on it and a fake diamond.

And of course every person on the tour got their very own whistle at the end of the tour.

A Happy Surprise

Today is intern cut day at OSU so Larry has the day off. The bad news is that Larry was scheduled to be on over-night call today so he still has to go in to work tonight so I still wasn't going to see him today. The good news is that my boss just told me that no one else was going to be in the office this afternoon so I can take the afternoon off! I'm heading home to see Larry. I'll update you on our adventures later!

Nielson TV Ratings

Larry and I were selected for the Nielson TV Ratings survey. We were both happy to volunteer to let Nielson know that there are people who do not like most of the trashy stuff on TV. The request came at the perfect time because I was already trying to watch less junk on TV. They sent us a notebook and asked us to track everything that we watched from May 10th - 16th. We would have been happy to do it for free but they pay you $15. The weird part was they sent us $15 cash along with the notebook so we were paid before we ever did anything. And who sends cash in the mail anyway?

Anyway, I found that when I have to report what I watch on TV, I'm a lot better about limiting watch I watch, especially when what I watch might affect what is shown on TV. It made me wish that I always had to report to someone about what I watch on TV because I would watch a lot less and get a lot more done. On the opposite hand it made me care a lot more about watching my favorite shows because I wanted Nielson to know I was watching them so I sat watch a Gilmore Girls rerun I probably would have skipped and Larry was sure he didn't miss Scrubs. So what are the shows you wouldn't miss and the shows you would probably cut out if you had to report to Nielson TV Ratings abotu what you watch on TV?

A new Obsession in the works?

A scrapbooking editor had these links to cupcake bakeries and blogs on her blog

Cupcake Bakeries:
Crumbs
Sprinkles
Cupcake Royale
Little Cupcake Bakeshop
Sugar Sweet Sunshine
Saint Cupcake

Cupcake blogs:
Chockylit
All cupcakes all the time

My favorite was this one:
52 Cupcakes
This woman set a goal to try making a different kind of cupcake every week for a whole year and she shares her recipes and other fun cupcake info. It totally sounds like a random goal that I would set, doesn't it?

Now I admit that I am not known for my baking skills, but these are so fun. I really feel inspired by them. Now I just need some cute cake plates to stack up to make my own cupcake towers. Anyone know where I can find some?

Act of service for Tuesday

My mom asked me to create a flyer for her company's golf tournament yesterday. While this flyer may not exactly appear to be thrilling, I can't tell you how nice it was to work on something that was not related to commercial real estate! Plus even though she says I don't, I owed her a favor since she's been visiting Grandpa Ford in the hospital every day and she worked our family connections to get him a spot at Orem Nursing and Rehab.

Thanks mom!

The Rest of Our Weekend

Larry's best friend from med school, Ben, was supposed to spend Friday night at our house so we could meet his fiance, Alex, but they missed their flight (Ben said who knew they wanted you to get to the airport at least 30 minutes before your flight). That left me with a free morning so while Larry rounded at the hospital, I went to the Scholastic Warehouse booksale with my friend Amber.


I got back just in time for Alex and Ben's arrival and we were able to visit with them for a littel while (but I forgot to take a picture!). Candice's family arrived right as Ben and Alex left. We went out to lunch and shopped a little with them and then Larry and I volunteered to baby-sit while they shopped a little more.



The find of the day was this jacket from Target that Larry has been eyeing. It was on clearance so I had to pick it up for him and Candice got one for Mark too. I think they look particularly nice with the sock monkey pajama bottoms.

What's Up Doc?

I haven't downloaded my pictures from this weekend, but I have pictures from Friday night from my friend Heather.

Heather and Rick had two other couples over for a What's Up Doc? Party. I wasn't sure what the night would entail, but knowing Rick and Heather I knew it would be creative and fun. They provided each of us with part of a costume for one of the characters Larrabee (Larry), Judy (Me), Howard (John) , Eunice (Amy), Hugh Simon (Rick), and Judge Maxwell (Heather).

I'm not sure where to begin to describe the evening so I'll borrow Heather's description:
We watched some of our favorite scenes in the movie and played games relating to each scene. Pictured below are some of the funnier moments, including the "Eunice dragging Badge-Lady competition" and "Cutting flour away from the igneous tambula rock" We celebrated at the end with "hhhot fudge sundaes" compliments of our fantastic friends.

We had so much fun, but Larry and I learned that we need to brush up on our What's Up Doc? trivia before we have a rematch with the Halls!

Old Pictures

We have big plans for the weekend, but I don't have much to mention about the rest of the week so here are some old pictures that we just developed.

Halloween (hey, I told you these are old) Larry is making a scared face because he's Icabod Crane/The Headless Horseman and I'm not sure what kind of face I'm making.

This is what Larry actually wore the to hospital on Halloween (He has scrubs on under that jacket). He wore the mustache all day and some nurses actually asked him it was real.

Thanksgiving at our house. We are all holding up little turkey finger puppets with our names on them that I made as place markers.

And this is us visiting the Ohio Caverns back in February.

Have a great weekend!

Book Reviews

I started posting my book reviews on my Children's Literature Book Club blog knowing that if any of you are interested in reading them, you can always check over there. You can get there by following this link or using the link to my book club in the column on the right. Ijust posted a new review today and a few last week.

You'll notice that it seems like I read and review things in spurts. The truth is that I'm reading all the time, but I don't review the books the I read for book club because most of the time they are books that I've already read, and the book club members are going to hear my opinion on them anyway. You can always check on the book club site to see what they are reading, and they are always good books because the host has already read books for their topic and selected their favorites to share.

This month we are focusing on multicultural books. I've already read Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary Schmidt and Day of Tears by Julius Lester and I highly recommend them both (although instead of rereading Lizzie Bright, I thought I would listen to the book on tape version and so far I don't really enjoy the reader). I've heard great things about Anna's other picks for this month too.

Traditions! Traditions!

As you can probably tell from the blog, I've been thinking about family traditions. Larry and I have adopted a few of our own family traditions. We just started buying Pajama pants for each of our visitors from out of town. I started trying something new for each year of my age. We held our first annual snowflake cutting contest earlier this year (we ate a dinner of all white food, a great idea from Cat who also provided the meal, and the prize winners got some warm article of clothing like a hat or scarf).


Since I've been paying attention I've heard about some other really cool family traditions that I would like to adopt. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Every New Year's Eve my friend Rachel's family writes predictions for what will happen to each member of the family in the next year (John will propose to his girlfriend, Jane will get her first kiss, etc.) They each keep their predictions a secret. They seal them in a jar and wait to open and read them on the next New Year to see who was correct.
• At a park here in Columbus they hold a moonlight/flashlight Easter egg hunt for older kids. That would bring back some of the fun of the Easter egg hunt once kids are past believing in the Easter Bunny.
• On the last day of school, my parent's neighbor's family skips dinner and celebrates with a banana split night.
• Candice has started making a cd of her kids' favorite songs each year and keeps all of the cdÂ’s together for them in an album. It's kind of like the soundtrack to their lives.
• On birthdays another family is visited by the fairy of the age the birthday boy/girl is turning. IE if a child is turning five, the five fairy visits and leaves five $1 bills, five tubs of playdough, five cookies, and five pieces of sidewalk chalk.
• Growing up my family held an annual Family Home Evening award ceremony. Everyone dresses up and each child receives a few awards for things they did very well that year and one award for something they need to work on. Each child gets to give a thank you speech after each award. Ie, One child might get an award for showing a lot of improvement in school that year and the same child might also win the award for being the hardest to get out of bed in the morning (not that it ever happened to me or anything . . .)

I think they're all such fun, original ideas. It makes we wonder what other amazing family traditions I'm missing out on. If you can think of any to share, I'd love to hear them.

Stringham time

We decided spur of the moment to head down to Athens on Saturday afternoon to see Mark's last play at Ohio University. We had a little time to spend with the boys before the play. Grant showed off his new reading skills.

Then Grant gave me a lesson on how to play his V-Smile.

Then we headed to Ohio University to see the insect play. I wanted to try to sneak a picture, but the director sat directly behind us so I couldn't. Instead, here's a picture before hand of Candice and Larry pretending they are watching the play.


After the first scene a screen was raised to reveal seats on the stage and we moved to sit up there. There were two intermissions so here's another picture of Candice and Larry pretending to watch the play from our new viewpoint.

Candice wouldn't even let me sneak a picture of the curtain call so I didn't manage to get a picture of Mark as a nerdy man trying to catch butterflies or Mark as Mr. Cricket or Mark as a jogger who discovers a dead man.

We celebrated by bequeathing Mark with the traditional Taco John’s burrito bouquet (Oh yes, Taco JOHN’S, not Taco Juan’s. You probably won’t be surprised that their specialty is a burrito with tater-tots inside).

A Ferocious Monster

Because you deserve something a little more cheerful today, I give you Grantasaurus Rex.

Perspective

Several times in my life I have seen lonely seniors in resting homes who are never visited by their families. Most of them are so grateful for even a moment of your time, and I know I have thought several times what selfish families they must have to never visit them. Now we have become one of those families. We love Grandpa Ford, but we cannot be in Utah to take care of him right now. Grandpa Ford has been very sick, but I think he suffers the most from loneliness.

Now not seeing Larry two days at a time, doesn’t seem so bad because at least I know that he’s coming home.

I have more to look forward to than weekly or even daily phone calls. I have a husband who makes me lunch almost everyday, I have a sister who will call me to talk about the Gilmore Girls, I have friends who will listen to me talk about books for hour and hours, I have you out there reading this blog, and I have an amazing adopted family in town that are always inviting us over for fun events. Tomorrow will bring something new. So will the next month, and the next year. My life will be changed by my interaction with others and they will changed by me too. I have so much to look forward to, so much to experience.

It’s so sad to think of Granpda Ford sitting day in and day out in his empty house, living the same day over and over again. For the first time in my life, I find myself wishing that someone I know would die. Because even though I love him, that is what he wants.

Delivery

I got home yesterday to find a package waiting for me with this inside.

Sometime last week Larry emailed me out of the blue with a $50 Amazon gift certificate that he received for filling out a really extensive survey. He said it was mine to use on anything I wanted and I better start shopping (which was especially nice because he has a wish list on Amazon a mile long so he certainly could have used it himself).

I was excited to find a cheap copy of the whole collection of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater. I watched them all over and over again with my sisters when we were little. We loved to act them out ourselves and we spent ages arguing over who got to be which character.

When it finally arrived it was like a little slice of my childhood on my doorstep. Thank you Larry! Now I can't wait for the other things that I ordered to arrive!

Texas Ranch House

Is anyone out there as obsessed with The PBS History House shows as much as I am? I liked Colonial House and I loved Frontier House so I was excited to watch the latest series Texas Ranch House. The idea behind the show is that a group of people volunteer to live for 2 1/2 months as the people during a historical time period lived.

Texas Ranch House is set in 1867. Many ranches in Texas were abandoned during the civil war and wild longhorn thrived so after the war families hired cowboys and set out to make their fortune. How often have we heard people say things like, "I couldn't have survived back then," or, "I would have loved to live back then when things were so simple." This shows gives people a chance to experience what life really would have been like.

I think the most interesting part of the show is when people start to struggle with the social constraints of their new roles. Previews show that the woman who was hired as the "Woman of all work" thought she would be doing more than just house work, when she gets to the ranch she settles into her designated role, but she gets sick of it and decides she wants to be a cowgirl. I'm not sure how they're going to deal with that. They have a lot of consultants who try to make the show historically accurate, and they throw in unexpected events that might have happened (like at the end of the last episode Native Americans took all of the horses while the ranchers were sleeping).

Anyway, I know I'm a nerd for admitting that I love this show, and I probably bored my friend Katherine to death with it last night since most of the drama is just getting started, but I can't help it; I love this show! Come on, it's reality TV minus all of the trash and it's actually educational. How can you go wrong?

Oh, did I mention that I was supposed to watch less TV this week? My friend Alicia keeps a list of a few of her favorite TV shows and that is all that she allows herself to watch. I think I need to adopt her method because I waste so much time in front of the TV watching junk I don't even care about, but I just zone out and sit there. I could be so much more productive if I would just stick to a few favorite shows. But hello, Texas Ranch House is on every night this week so I guess I'll have to start next week instead. I think I might need to order one of these stick-on quotes to keep myself inspired (Wonderful Graffiti is one of my favorite Web sites, They have such cool decorating ideas).