Great Morning

It a rare occasion at our house to have a pleasant morning. Our mornings are usually fill with tears over taking off jammies, going potty, putting on clothes, choosing socks, doing hair, and brushing teeth. By the time we get downstairs, most of BG's fight has been spent and she is pretty happy. But oh, how I dread waking her in the morning.

Today was a welcome change. She is happy and pleasant, willing, and cooperative. We only had to pick new socks once and she brushed her teeth all by herself while I did her hair. We got out the door on time and there was no fighting.

In an effort to encourage this behavior, I praised her the whole time about what a good girl she was being. I fully intend to tell Daddy tonight so he can praise her too. Aaaaahhhhhhh..... Why can't all mornings be like this?

Writers Workshop - Who You Hurt

These week Mama Kat has some great prompts. I choose number 2.
-Tell about a time you hurt somebody that still bothers you to this day.

It was 8th grade. I was awkward and trying to fit in. I was trying to be cool but wasn't. I wanted to be accepted.

In a gossipy conversation with I can't even remember who, I called another girl a name. A bad name. I called her a s-l-u-t. Word got back to her about it and she confronted me. This was a "popular" girl who also hung out with the "gangster" guys. The conversation went something like this.

Her: You calling me a slut?!
Me: Yay, I did.
Her: I'm NOT a slut. Do you even know what a slut is?
Me: I've never looked it up in the dictionary. (At the time I thought this was clever, because I indeed had not, but I didn't really know what it meant, other than it was derogatory. I was hoping this would look better than admitting my unintelligence.)
Her: Well, I'm not one! Don't you dare call me that again.

The friction between this girl and I grew other the next few months and she started spreading rumors that she was going to beat me up. I was scared. I did the only thing a sweet, naive girl could do - I called her at home and apologized. I think I caught her off guard but she accepted my apology and the rumors stopped. We never became friends.

Why do I still feel bad about this? It was over 10 years ago. Maybe because it's the closest I ever came to a fight. Maybe because I was really scared of her and her friends. I'm not sure, but looking back, it was stupid and I do feel bad for calling her names.

Go visit Mama Kat to get the prompts or read other's stories.

Star Commenter

My lovely friend bestowed an amazing award on me a while ago. Thanks Annike!
I have a few people to thank for this award.

First off, I'd like to thank all of you great bloggers who write things worthy of commenting. I'd like to thank my employer for not providing sufficient work to keep me off the blogs all day long. And I'd like to thank my parents for giving me genes that lead to a brain incapable of sitting still for longer than 2 minutes without getting bored. All of these have been major contributor into my receiving this award.

I see the flashing red light now so I'll step off the stage.

Not Me Monday

I did NOT eat a whole roll of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies the day our 12 boxes arrived. I did NOT eat more after I got home that same day. My husband did NOT complain when he couldn't find the stash after I put it in the freezer. I am NOT keeping track of how many boxes we have already eaten.

I did NOT spill wood stain on the deck while giving my shelves a second coat over the weekend.

I did NOT stay up really late with my girlfriend scrapbooking Saturday night. This did NOT lead to me skipping church to sleep in.

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Happily Gaining Weight

My 12 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies have arrived! Aaaahhhhhh.....

Don't bother me. I'm eating cookies.

Office Elements

I have been working on decorating my office. I have several elements purchased that just need to be put together. I thought I'd give you a sneak peek of some of them. So, in no particular order....

Looks fun right? JM cringed when he saw my latest buy - the curtains. I think his exact word were "The 70s called. They want their curtains back." I admit that they are a bit 70s-esk, but I really like them. I wanted pops of orange and this may turn out to be more orange than I bargained for. We'll find out if/when they ever get hung. I got them for a great deal at a model home estate sale and couldn't pass them up - even if they are a little loud.

Apparently..

Wood stain stains other things too. Like porcelain sinks.

I bought two bare wood shelves several weeks ago and have been waiting for it to get warm enough to stain them. Saturday was the day! I was so excited and stained them a beautiful dark brown. They are going to go in my office.

After working, I took the brush to the bathroom to rinse it out. I rinsed as much of the stain out as I could then started washing the sink. But the brown sludgy stuff wouldn't budge. Uh oh. JM has specifically asked me not to get stain on anything other than my shelves (like he had anything to worry about?!). I quickly shut the bathroom door and told JM I needed to run to Home Depot to get some paint thinner to clean my brush.

When I got to the Depot, found the paint thinner, and asked the paint people if it would remove oil-based wood stain from my sink. I got a lot of "oohhh, that's not good" and "if it doesn't ruin the finish on your sink" kind of comments. Great. I bought it and went home.

On the way home I was pondering how I was going to get the sticky, brown stain from off my hands. I may be home improvement challenged, but I know better than to put paint thinner on skin. I fell back to my mom's tried and true advice. If it's oil based (grease, etc) dish soap will take it out. I then got to wondering if dish soap would work for my hands, would it work on the sink too?

I got home, grabbed the dish soap and ran upstairs (whew, JM hadn't left the basement). Wouldn't you know it? The dish soap worked on the sink! I had to scrub a bit, but not too bad. And the little bit that I couldn't get off? A tiny bit of paint thinner did the trick.

I am now one home improvement project smarted with nothing ruined to show for it. Hurray!