Day Twenty Four - Where I Live

Day Twenty Four - Where I Live

I don't think you are suppose to put out there on the internet where you live. Here's what I will say...There is no place like home, and I'm not there.

The saying in the Army is "Home is where the Army sends us." I'm not buying it. Home to me has always meant Texas. Since I've moved away from Texas, I've learned that home really is "where the heart is." Home is where my people are, where I can be me and where I feel at home. Where I live now will feel a lot more like home in a few weeks. And until we make it back to our REAL home, we'll make the best of where we live.

A Website--Day Twenty Two Revisited

Likely my most visited website other than facebook and hotmail is www.google.com.

Seriously, need to know who sang that one song whose 4 words you can recall? Easy, google it! Found a giant pale green moth, want to know what it is? Google it!

Actor in some movie? Google it!

It's just so easy. I have no idea what we did before Google. Encyclopedia Britannica?

Day Twenty Two - A Website

Day Twenty Two - A Website

HA! In my excitement to find a good YouTube video, I skipped right over Day 22 and "a website". I thought finding a video would be tough. This could take for.ev.er! I'll be back tomorrow with one or a few...

Day Twenty Three - A Youtube Video

Day Twenty Three - A YouTube Video

Well, THAT's a lot of leeway! Just any ol YouTube Video? hhhmmm....lemme see...

OK, so I just spent WAY too much time fooling around looking at videos. I settled on this one because:

1. I love ONJ

2. I love this song

3. This is from a concert I had on VHS and watched about 238,385,751 times. :)

and, you got lucky. I was *this* close to putting XANADU!

Day Twenty One - A Recipe

Day Twenty One - A Recipe

I'm not much for cooking, but it isn't as though I don't try. It just isn't something I love to do, and with my husband's limited palate, I don't venture out to try a lot of things. But this is something he asks for specifically. It's not a whole meal, but when I say we're having tacos, he specifically asks, "can you make the season? It's way better than the packet!" :)

Day Twenty - A Hobby Of Yours

Day Twenty - A Hobby

I kind of think Day Nineteen and Day Twenty are somewhat interchangeable. Fantasy Football (yesterday's post) is a talent as well as a hobby. My hobby is scrapbooking, now digitally, and I think it is a talent as well. Here is a layout of which I am particularly fond from our Hawaii vacation scrapbook.

I love the pointing and little hotel pictures and the panoramic scene across the tops of two pages.

Day Nineteen - A Talent of Yours

I got to be in the "studio audience" of the Time Warner show "Fantasy Huddle"! They came to tape the show at Ft Riley today! It was fun!

Coincidentally, I think playing Fantasy Football is a talent, and I think I'm pretty good at it. Good enough to win this little beauty over 13 guys, twice in 10 years! :)

Day Eighteen - My Wedding

Day Eighteen - My Wedding.

How funny. I just watched our wedding video the other day. Maybe it was in the back of my mind because I had read ahead the topics of this daily posting deal. I don't know, but I really enjoyed watching it. For most of the standing there together I am trying not to cry and managing to have alternating looks of mad and scared to death.

The terribly sad part is that shortly after the pastor announces Mr. and Mrs. Barthamel (completely mispronouncing my new last name), the dvd starts sticking. There is no video of the reception. I need to get some cleaner and see if I can remedy the issue. If not, I will take it to a specialist. I really want to see the whole thing!

And I really wish we could do this about every five years. I don't even have to be the bride. Just to have all of our friends and family gathered would be so so great. I miss our people.

This is one of my favorite photos of the day.

Day Seventeen - An Art Piece

Wow...lost a little steam there. Continuing on...

My all time favorite piece of art is The Kiss by Auguste Rodin. I use to have a small replica when I was in my...20s? I think I found it at a thrift store. Might have had it in high school, not sure. Anyway, I love it. and it had some kind of animal print felt on the bottom which made it even cooler.

Probably my favorite part of Paris was the Rodin Museum (Musée Rodin). I like a lot of his work, The Thinker and LaDanaide. Not so much the Gates of Hell. It's kind of creepy.

But most especially The Kiss. Yes, it is my favorite piece of art.

Not to be confused with The Kiss, a painting by Gustav Klimt. I don't care for this.

Day Sixteen - A Song That Makes You Cry (or nearly)

Day Sixteen - A Song That Makes Me Cry (or nearly)

There are a couple that have been tough for me at different times in my life. Here they are and why:

I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe - Because I first heard it shortly before my dear friend Stacey passed away and it was playing when I got in the car to leave her funeral.

How Great Thou Art hymn - because it was played at my dad's parent's funerals and once at a church retreat. I had never heard it played by anyone at my church and had not heard it since the funerals when all of a sudden there it was at the church retreat. I completely broke down crying and had to leave the worship meeting.

I'm Already There by Lonestar - I was fine with this song for a long time. But one of the radio stations here (Ft Riley) plays it with voice overs of kids and wives saying stuff about their Soldier dad or husband being gone. It's just sad.

Don't Take The Girl by Tim McGraw

Well, this is depressing. That's enough of the sad songs! Sad songs say so much. --Elton John

Day Fifteen - Your Dream House

Day Fifteen - My Dream House...

I have a couple, and they are very different. I love a country cottage type house with a wraparound porch. I course I'd like it if i

t would magically stay always swept clean and the yard and bushes and flowers would be country like and would magically stay trimmed and cut back and pristine.

The second one might look somewhat familiar. This is the first house with the assy husband from Sleeping with the Enemy. I love its location on the beach, its contemporary style and its modern feel. I would also need this one to be magically always polished and with no stacks of stuff everywhere. And no seagull poop dotting the many decks and railings.

Day Fourteen - a NonFiction Book

As I've mentioned, I prefer nonfiction 9 times out of 10. I've recently read:

Bossypants by Tina Fey (hilarious)

A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugar (her kidnapping and years spent in captivity-horrifying)

Secrets in the Cellar by John Glatt (about the Austrian man who kept his daughter in the cellar and fathered 7 children with her--also horrifying)

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe (great, so far)

Stories is fantastic. I love it. It's ridiculous. And I have about a half a mind to launch an investigation into Rob Lowe's life to see if it is all really true. Seriously. Read it. After reading the horrifying ones, it is a nice getaway from those atrocities. At the same time, it really brings you to the hard realization that some people get amazing breaks (not that he didn't work hard or have his share of bad days) and ridiculous coincidences and chance meetings, while others live tragedies you could never imagine in a million years.

I'm not even a quarter of the way through the book, but I'm lovin' it so far. I bought it on the kindle. I suggest you buy the actual book. Because this would look nice on any bedside table. He's hot.

Day Thirteen - A Fictional Book

Well, hell. I was going to say The Poisonwood Bible, but I already put that for my favorite book. That's not cool asking so many book questions! (and a quick look ahead to tomorrow's topic informs me I'll be having to come up with YET ANOTHER title tomorrow!)

hhhmmmm...

As I mentioned when discussing literature the first time, there are several books on my "like" list, and I've been reading quite a bit this year. Not devouring books constantly, but at least reading one per month to discuss with the book club. Then, I take a look at the suggestions from Amazon based on my recent purchases and that usually yields another one or two I'm interested in, or I go off the recommendations of friends.

Here are some fictional books we've read:

Virgin of the Small Plains by Nancy Pickard

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

The Room by Emma Donaghue

There are more, but I can't remember the titles. That's why this post was held back a day because I was going to look into it. But I'm not. I really enjoyed Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. I would definitely recommend it to a friend. I'm recommending it to you! :)

Day Twelve - OCD

Day 12 - Something You Are OCD About

Uh...which thing? I'm not going to need to be on "OCD Project" or "Obsessed", reality shows about people with various obsessions and rituals. But there a couple things I am just a little bit Monica Geller about. I like to have things planned. I'm a little bit OCD about planning.

I also like to have things be tidy and symmetrical. As Monica says, "if it's not a right angle, it's a wrong angle!" Organized, I like things organized and labeled.

What I don't have that I wish I did was an OCD way about cleaning. I like for things to be clean, but I don't like to do the actual cleaning. There's just no fun in that!

Day Eleven - A Photo Of You Recently

Day Eleven - Me, recently.

I took this with the computer camera. I took a whole bunch of them as it was the day after the brigade ball and I REALLY liked my hair.

I also really like the light effect (some kind of soft focus super light thing) because it magically erases lines and wrinkles! :)

My one concern...I love this hair and if I go through with the plan to cut it, I won't be able to sport this style at Stephen's battalion ball in November!

Day Ten - A Photo Of You Taken Over 10 years Ago

When I first saw this I thought, "oh, a childhood photo." Turns out, I was already over 30 ten years ago! I don't care. I still like this picture and still plan to use it.

I found it in November after my Uncle Dale passed away when we were going through stacks of pictures at my Aunt Paulette's house.

This is so typical of my childhood summers. We are at the beach hanging out under the awning of my grandparents' little trailer. Good times.

Only one thing disturbs me about this photo. See those legs that go on forever? See how at 10 or 11 or however old I am here I already have a little hourglass waistline going? Yet I totally remember thinking I looked fat wearing this swimsuit.

What I wouldn't give now to have that much room on either side between me and the arms of the lawn chair.

Day Nine - A Photo You Took

I took this photo while trying to do that 365 day challenge. I got real tired of it real fast. My sis-in-law said this was a good photo. I tend to agree. :)

The second one I also took during that ill-fated project, and I think they sort of match. Same style. Restaurant, low light, relaxed feel.

Day Eight - A Photo That Makes You Angry/Sad

This is a tough one for me. Photos don't generally make me sad. Well, yeah, an image of a starving child or a seal being eaten by a shark (ala Shark Week!) or a sea bird covered in oil make make me angry or sad. But not photos I take.

Not ones of the husband I miss so much or of loved ones I've lost or people I miss. I choose to see those as pictures that make me happy because they give me a captured moment of happiness or good times. Even the one of him leaving on the bus makes me smile because he is smiling and we both have the "we can do this" face on.

A couple of months down the road I was sad, though, and I took a picture of it. So rather than a picture that makes me sad, here is one of me being sad. It was after hearing the much hated skype "end call" sound. I decided to crop all but the eyes. I don't know why. I just did.

Day Seven - A photo that makes you happy.

Rather than looking through photos to try to find THE ONE that made me happy, I just tried to think of one.

There were a lot of them that came to mind, I look at pictures a lot. I know what I've got, and it's hard to pick just one. And to be fair, most photos (well, at least ones that I am not complaining that I might look fat or have jacked up hair in) make me happy. I just love and always have loved pictures.

The minute I thought of this one, I went straight to it. It's not the only one that makes me happy.

But this one is special. It is one of the very best moments of the 14 months I had with this amazing young man as my son.

Day Six - Twenty of my Favorite Things

Day 6 - 20 of my favorite things – Believe it or not, this was kind of hard. I didn't want them to all be food! And I didn't want to name people or songs or movies or whatever. So I just thought of stuff I like. Here's what I came up with:

1. family

2. friends

3. country music

4. cake (buttercream icing! Not that whipped mess)

5. cheesecake

6. Texas

7. Flowers (Indian Blankets bluebonnets and Blue Hydrangeas. Not necessarily together)

8. jeans

9. pictures of feet (not gross ones, nice toes)

10. St Augustine grass

11. a pedicure

12. a massage

13. Polish Pottery

14. Skype

15. sunshine

16. girlfriend days

17. coffee from the Phillips 66 at ext 299 I-70

18. a kitty that fetches a bottlecap

19. a good hair day

20. redeployment!

These are a few of my favorite thiiiiiings!

Day Five - Your Favorite Quote

SO here we are, Day Five and the subject is my favorite quote. Well what's that suppose to mean? Am I suppose to get all philosophical and say something super thought provoking that I heard or read that someone said? hhhmmm.... I got nothin'. There are a couple things I have heard on my favorite TV show that have struck me as funny/true/deep. They are:

Scars remind us where we’ve been, they don’t have to dictate where we’re going. –Agent Rossi, Criminal Minds

Yeah, but you're not a man. Testosterone would follow a woman to Thailand. Bare foot. It’s just a fact. – Detective William LaMontagne Jr., Criminal Minds

And then there is one I saw not long ago that I really like:

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it. – Helen Keller

There are a million movie quotes that I love but I'd be here all night listing those. So I shall quote a very good book: "Good night, stars, good night air, good night noises everywhere. – Goodnight Moon

Day Four - Your Favorite Book

Favorite Book. Hmmm, that's a tough one. I really liked To Kill a Mockingbird in high school. In the 90s I pretty much just read magazines, and I read a LOT of them. A few years ago I started on the In Death series by JD Robb (Nora Roberts alter ego). In recent months I've enjoyed the Help, Bossypants, and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. OH, and let's not forget Sh*t My Dad Says! Seen the TV show? It is NOTHING compared to the book. Laugh outloud hilarious.

I'm a big fan of nonfiction and would normally choose a nonfiction over a fiction book. I like a good story. I like biographies and autobiographies like Bossypants, Garth Brooks's story, Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends (haven't read it yet, but it's on the Kindle); True Crime, like Fatal Vision (oh how I loved that book) and business stories like Starbucked, the Walmart Effect, Ben and Jerry's story, and foodcentric thrillers like Supersize Me, The Omnivore's Dilemma and Fast Food Nation.

I'm not really one for reading books over and over. But one book that is thicker than I'd usually read is one I've read more than once. It is the Poisonwood Bible, and I'll probably read it again.

Says Wikipedia:

The Poisonwood Bible (1998) by Barbara Kingsolver is a bestselling novel about a missionary family, the Prices, who in 1959 move from Georgia to the village of Kilanga in the Belgian Congo, close to the Kwilu River. (The nearest town, an impossibly long journey away, is Bulungu.) The Prices' story, which parallels their host country's tumultuous emergence into the post-colonial era, is narrated by the five women of the family: Orleanna, long-suffering wife of Baptist missionary Nathan Price, and their four daughters—Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May.

It is fantastic and I really really loved it. I know there are other books I have really enjoyed, but I would have to say that at first thought, this would be my favorite book.