Tagged

So Irish Coffeehouse has tagged me with the following rules:



So here are my seven random facts, in no particular order:

1. I graduated in the top ten in my high school class. (I know, boooorrrring!)

2. I had an appendectomy when I was 19 weeks pregnant with my first baby.

3. I love Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers, Garth Brooks, and the Barenaked Ladies.

4. I made it to the Ohio State finals in high school track on the 3200m relay team.

5. I dropped out of accounting in college when I decided I no longer wanted to be a business major and was getting a C in the class. I was a religion major for one semester before I decided on elementary education.

6. My husband and I love going to Wisconsin for a weekend away from the kids. We've stayed in bed and breakfasts in Racine and Stoughton.

7. Every year right before Thanksgiving, our family orders four kringles from O&H Danish Bakery in Racine, Wisconsin. (We discovered them while at the B&B in #6). We eat one for Thanksgiving, one for Christmas, and the other two whenever we want. (They freeze great!) Our usual order is two almond, one cream cheese, and one cherry cheese.

I'm going to tag Alison.

Dinner

This is what we ate for dinner tonight. It probably doesn't look all that remarkable to all of you, but to me it was everything.

I've been married for 13 years now, and I do all the cooking. I make lots of different meals, and keep everyone fed pretty well. But the one thing I had never made was a chicken. Now, I've made countless boneless skinless chicken breasts over the years, even adapting multiple recipes calling for whole chickens or chicken thighs or drumsticks or whatever it may be to boneless skinless chicken breasts. But I've never made real, bone-in chicken.

Till now. Tonight I made this chicken and everyone loved it! I did cheat a bit and buy a chicken already cut up into it's pieces. But other than that, I did it all myself. And not only did hubby like it, but all three kids (!) enjoyed it as well. Now that's something!

Here's the recipe, if you're interested:

Garlic Roasted Chicken

3-4 lb chicken, cut up into pieces
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
garlic salt
Italian seasoning
pepper

In a large bowl, toss chicken with lemon juice and olive oil until well coated. Place in a 13 x 9 inch pan and sprinkle with garlic salt, Italian seasoning, and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Simple, fast, and delicious. You can't beat that!

Fun Monday - What's In Your Closet?

Cassie over at RDH Mom would like to know the following:

I want to see the inside of your closet!! I want to see if your closet is as messy as mine!!! You can't organize it before you take the picture!!

So, I followed the rules closely this week and will take you on a tour of my (walk in) closet.


Here's the look from outside the door. I have to share with my husband. I get the left side, he gets the right side.



These are my clothes. I don't care which way they hang and sometimes my winter clothes mingle with my summer clothes, though I try to keep them separate, mainly so they'll be easier to find when I want them.


These are my shoes on the floor. I try to use the shoe organizer, but I have too many shoes. So they get paired up on the floor.


These are more shoes, only they are in their boxes. These are mainly my nicer shoes that don't get worn as often.


This is one of the messier parts of my closet. On the shelf at the far end of my closet. Clothes that I don't have any other space for get folded up and put up here. But I'm lazy, so after I wear them, sometimes they get loosely folded and flung back up on top of the pile.


These are my crafts and other assorted junk I have collected. I used to do a lot of cross stitching and that basket holds most of my cross stitching stuff. I keep thinking I'll do it again someday.


Shhhhhhh! Don't tell my kids, but this is where some of their gifts are hidden. Obviously they are not very good lookers and finders or I couldn't do this!


Finally, these are clothes for my daughters and a few baby gifts. Sometimes I buy a gift when I see it and love it, and save it for the right person. And when I buy something at the end of the season for one of my daughters, I have to put it in my closet, otherwise they will want to wear it immediately and bug me to no end until they do. In my closet it is basically out of sight out of mind.

Well, that's my closet. Now, go check out everyone else's closets!

Fun Monday Host

Cassie, over at RDH Mom will be hosting the next Fun Monday. Head on over to sign up!

Hosting Responsibilities

Anyone interested in hosting next week's Fun Monday? Please leave me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible!

Fun Monday - Sports Allegiances

I grew up and live in a family of sports fans. Every Sunday was devoted to football in the fall, and we followed the 1990 Cincinnati Reds go wire to wire. I was a three sport letterman in high school and went to sports camps in the summer and played slow pitch softball since I was in second grade. I love sports. So here are my teams, the ones I'm devoted to and would never forsake for another.



1. Ohio State Buckeyes football. Even though I now reside in Illinois, I am an Ohio girl, born and bred. My whole family lives and breathes Ohio State football. My sister and brother-in-law went to the 2003 Fiesta Bowl when the Buckeyes won the National Championship over Miami. We all love Jim Tressel and criticize anyone who doesn't wear scarlet and gray on game day. The marching band is The Best Damn Band in the Land and dotting the "i" in script Ohio rocks! Go Buckeyes!

2. The Cleveland Browns. I am forever disheartened and yet compelled to return year after year and root for the lovable, Super Bowl-less, Browns. I love the brown and orange jerseys (I wear mine many Sundays of the season), I love the Dawg pound, and I love Bernie Kosar. My hope springs eternal that one day they will get out of the playoffs and into the Super Bowl. One day.






The teams I hate:

1. Michigan. Need I say more? Really.

2. I used to hate the Denver Broncos (curse you John Elway!) because of all the years they dashed my beloved Browns hopes of a Super Bowl appearance. But I no longer have hatred for the Broncos. That is now reserved for the Baltimore Ravens, who stole my Browns out from under us and left the city of Cleveland without a team for almost four years. Luckily, the people of Cleveland would not allow this to happen to any other city and took an expansion team in 1999 over a relocated team. And because of Art Modell and the Baltimore Ravens, I can NEVER root for them to win.

That's about it!

Now, go check out everyone else's allegiances or share your own!

Players:

1. Tanya
2. Judysteapot
3. Hootin' Anni
4. Rayne
5. Gattina
6. Ali
7. Grace
8. Storyteller
9. HulaGirlAtHeart
10. Chrisb
11. jsi
12. Swampangel65
13. karmyn r
14. Alison
15. Jan
16. Swampy
17. {i}post
18. debs
19. sauntering soul
20. robocop
21. beedancer
22. margaret
23. tiggerlane
24. Mommywizdom
25. kitten
26.

Fun Monday - Sign Ups!

Fun Monday sign ups are done here!

The topic: Sports. More specifically, the sports team that you are rabid about. Maybe you love the Dallas Cowboys. Maybe you never miss a Cincinnati Reds game. Perhaps you follow every goal of the Fighting Illini Water Polo team. Or maybe nobody can tear you away from a Manchester United game. I want to hear about whatever sports team(s) that make you cry tears of joy when they win and tears of sorrow when they lose.

And on the flip side, I also want to hear about the teams you love to hate and why you hate them so much. You know what I mean. Like when you meet a new friend who is really cool and fun, and then you find out they root for your most hated rival team and you actually consider for a moment that you can't be friends anymore. Those teams.

That's it. And if you don't like any sports at all, I don't know what to say to you. Tell us something else you are impassioned about.

If you would like to sign up, leave me a comment with the link to your blog and I will get you signed up. Then come back Monday and make some new friends, maybe a few enemies, and get to know your fellow Fun Monday participants just a little bit better!

Fun Monday Participants

Having some trouble with Blogger, so leave a comment in the above post, and I'll list all players in this post.
Players:

1. Tanya
2. Judysteapot
3. Hootin' Anni
4. Rayne
5. Gattina
6. Ali
7. Grace
8. Storyteller
9. HulaGirlAtHeart
10. Chrisb
11. jsi
12. Swampangel65
13. karmyn r
14. Alison
15. Jan
16. Swampy
17. {i}post
18. debs
19. sauntering soul
20. robocop
21. beedancer
22. margaret
23. tiggerlane
24.

We Grow Them Big Here In Illinois

I took Zoe in for her preschool physical yesterday. It should have been taken care of this summer, but I'm a bit of a procrastinator. I wasn't worried about anything with her, but was interested in getting her dimensions, etc.

Well, let me tell you, she came in at a whopping 97th percentile in height, and 86th percentile in weight. I knew she was a big girl, but this definitely confirmed it. She actually is thinning out, because last year she was 95th percentile in both categories, if I recall correctly. I guess when both your mom and dad are 5'11", you probably aren't going to be a petite little thing.

Fun Monday

Well, I've been away from Fun Monday for quite some time now, but I'm back! Our hostess, Rayne, over at Crunchy Bits gives us the following assignment:

Almost everyone I know keeps things that others would consider junk. Twist ties, used wrapping paper, etc. What thing or things do you hang on to, and why?
Or, if you are one of those super organized and practical people and don't hang on to things like that, do you have a collection that you would like to share with us?

I had to think awhile for this one. After all, everything I keep is important, right? But as the week went by, I came up with a few things that I keep that probably drive my neatnik husband crazy, but I do have my reasons!



1. I have a plastic box filled with pantyhose and tights. I no longer wear them in the warmer months, but I will occasionally wear them in the many cold months we have here in Illinois. I have a hard time getting rid of any of them unless they are terribly holey (yes, I keep some with holes, depending on the location of the hole(s).) I even keep colors that I will probably never wear, because there may be that one time that burgundy tights are necessary and I would kick myself for throwing them out for no good reason other than the fact that they are burgundy colored.



2. I keep almost all sizes of scraps from stamping and scrapbooking. This is just one of the folders filled with pieces of cardstock and designer paper pieces. I have at least two more.



3. This empty perfume bottle. I got it (full, of course) when I was a little girl and we went to Wales on vacation. My parents bought it for me because of the name on the bottle, "Welsh Heather" I still can smell it a little bit if I sniff the top of the bottle.



4. I keep these pop tabs for a neighbor girl who is collecting them for the Ronald McDonald house. As soon as the baggy gets decently full, I give them to her and start a new baggy for them.

Well, those are a few of the things I keep around my house. Go check out everyone else's junk stuff!

Politics

I have tried to keep my blog fairly apolitical, though I am not shy to admit my political leanings. However, I just have to speak up with what I am hearing and seeing on TV in the last day or two.

Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska for two years, was chosen as John McCain's running mate. I had personally never heard of her before the announcement. So I started investigating and listening. She has done a lot in her time as a public servant. Besides being the first woman governor in Alaska for the last two years, she served two terms as mayor of Wasilla, as well as two terms on the city council of Wasilla. She obviously has had a lot of experience running local and state governments.

Now, many of the media pundits, as well as the Democratic party, are arguing that she has very little leadership experience. I understand why they are doing this. The Republicans have been pushing the lack of experience of Barack Obama since he clinched the Dem nomination. Turnabout is fair play, right?

Except it doesn't work. Obama truly has done little when it comes to leadership. He was elected to the Senate against a non-Illinois competitor. He hasn't even served one full term. He did serve eight years in the Illinois Senate.

But the appalling thing that I have heard from the media (at least two sources yesterday) was that he has led a campaign of some hundreds of staffers. Are they kidding? He has led a campaign? So has Sarah Palin, when she sought to get elected as mayor and governor. Running a campaign with staffers who want to get you elected is not comparable to running a city or state with a multitude of citizens who may or may not agree with you leadership decisions. I really had to laugh, because anyone who thinks that simply running a campaign full of staffers who obviously agree with their candidate (otherwise why would they work on someone's campaign?) gives you the leadership skills it takes to become president is simply ludicrous.

Palin has actual credentials. Look at her resume.

The second opinion that angered me as I watched TV last night came during Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show." I flipped over to this show remembering how much fun I've had in the past watching it during election years. Newt Gingrich did a good job of pushing back Stewart's obvious leftist leanings. I also know it is Jon Stewart's job to push and rile. But then Stewart brought up Palin's oldest daughter's unplanned pregnancy. He said it was fair game because, according to Stewart, Palin announced that her daughter had made her choice, and it is to marry the baby's father and keep the child. Stewart then proceeded to say that as a father of a daughter, he finds it hypocritical that Palin wants her daughter to have a choice, but if elected with John McCain, they would get into office and take that "choice" away from his family and all other families.

Now, I didn't actually see Palin's announcement about her daughter. So I don't know if "choice" is the word she used. If it is, perhaps she should have said it was her daughter's decision. Because as we all know, pro abortion groups have co-opted the word "choice" to only mean one thing, abortion. Her daughter may never have even been considering abortion. Her choice may have been between keeping the baby and giving it up for adoption. But Stewart took it to mean that she chose not to have an abortion. Knowing how Sarah and Todd Palin feel about abortion, and teaching this to their children, her daughter was probably never even considering abortion. I find it very condescending and twisted that Stewart brought this up during his show with Gingrich and further that he assumed Bristol Palin was even considering abortion. Contrary to what many people think today, not every girl or woman who makes a mistake with an unplanned pregnancy considers abortion.

Sarah Palin is a breath of fresh air, as far as I'm concerned. And the fact that John McCain chose her for his running mate only makes me more impressed with him.

There. If you didn't know I was a Republican before this, you certainly do now.