Pickin'

Last weekend I picked the Irishman up from work and dragged him to the local U-Pick Strawberry patch.

This particular place uses hydroponics.

(Side note: Does anyone from Houston remember the old Fiesta commercials? They used to sing, "Hydroponics at Fiesta." I think of it every time I hear the word. We actually went to the store a few times to see the veggies growing...but that was a long time ago...and is not really what I am writing about today!)

Anyway, they have rows and rows of berries. You grab a bucket and scissors and pick all you can afford want!

The Irishman does not care much for strawberries, but he posed for a few pictures picked a few for me.

I We picked about a pound and a half. I love Florida strawberries!

I also discovered they have green beans, so I picked some of those as well. I LOVE fresh green beans with Italian dressing. Yum!

Now if I could just talk him into going back...

Cruisin'

The Irishman and I are not spur of the moment people.

We research.

We debate.

We discuss.

More than once we have spent so long researching that we end up paying more as prices go up.

After weeks of researching flights, rental cars, hotels, and the like for a Spring Break road trip, we changed our minds.

Even with the generous offers of places to stay the week was looking rather expensive. We really wanted to go, but before food and gas our expenses were in the four digits.

This morning I sat to check my e-mail at 5:30am like I usually do. I had an e-mail from VacationsToGo, like I often do. There was a 6-day Royal Caribbean cruise that looked quite tempting during the same week as my Spring Break.

I woke the Irishman up to tell him about it. The Irishman is not a morning person.

Within 30 minutes we'd booked the cruise. Within 31 minutes we'd called Ireland to tell them about it.

That is SO not us. (Okay so maybe the calling Ireland part is...at least it wasn't 2:30am this time...) Also not us? We've decided to try the later dinner seating. (Okay so I've decided and the Irishman is going along with it...) The cruise stops at Belize, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. We've done those ports before, but honestly we are most wanting to just get away and relax.

I had to go to school and tell the others I was not presenting at the conference in Memphis for financial reasons. I felt a lot slightly guilty about it, but this IS a less expensive option.

And not too shabby either!

So, we are going on another cruise! I may or may not have started planning what I am going to wear. Or what books I plan to read on the trip. Or looked at the shore excursions...

A room with a view...

Last week I saw a challenge that made me think:

Here is your challenge for next week. Since it’s the first week, it’s going to be very, very simple. All I want you to do is pick up your camera and take a picture of something that you love. It can be a rock or your kitchen sink or your child’s toes, just capture it. Oh and since it’s supposed to be a challenge, try to do it WITHOUT your flash…

So, here it is:

I love the view from the guest room. I replaced the flowers in the box this weekend and was happy with the outcome. The blue between the flowers is clothes drying on the line...another thing that makes me smile. It doesn't take much!

This was my first time playing with the manual focus and different angles with my simple point and shoot camera. I'm learning.

For more You Capture challenges, visit "I Should be Folding Laundry."

Pancake Tuesday!

While my grandmother celebrated Mardi Gras tonight, it was PANCAKE TUESDAY at our house. We celebrated the last day before Lent begins with pancakes for dinner the Irish way!Meet the cook. 'Tis Himself! The picture is a little dark, but isn't he handsome? I think the glasses make him look a little like Rob Lowe. The West Wing fan in the picture is impressed with that!

He called his mother again this year to get the recipe. Irish pancakes are not like American pancakes. They are a bit more like crepes. Our Irish neighbor and friend Lyndsay came over to enjoy the pancakes with with lemon juice and sugar.

The video shows the best part of Pancake Tuesday...


Did you catch the flip? It has been 5 years (I think) and he hasn't dropped one yet.

Happy Pancake Tuesday

from the Irishman!

Road Trip?

The Irishman and I are looking into a road trip at the end of March/beginning of April. I am presenting at a conference April 1-2 in Memphis. We would like to start in Fayetteville, then drive to Little Rock, onto Memphis, and then end up in Missouri. My goal is to see as many friends as possible in a week. The Irishman wants to see the Clinton Museum and Graceland. It doesn't take much to make him happy!

We have to decide our plans by the end of this month...and we are running out of February. Due to budget issues, the school will pay for the conference fees, but I would have to provide my own transportation. It looks like we will be crunching numbers over the next few days...it may be cheaper to blow off the conference and go on a cruise.

Decisions, decisions...

Feeling the Love

The Irishman had to work on Saturday morning. Being as we share a car and Moses had a 10:30 appointment with Dr. Kristy, I dropped him off at 8:30 and went off to run errands.

My first stop was Target. I went in through the garden department. I looked at all the plants and wandered into the main store. I was almost to the home goods department when I realized that I had not seen a single shopper in the store. In fact, I walked through the garden department without seeing a single human being. All of the human beings I saw in the store were employees restocking shelves. At this point I managed to convince myself that they were not really open.

I quickly walked back through the garden department and looked at the sign on the door. They did open at 8am...it was just empty. By this point though there was an employee in the garden department so I nonchalantly walked out the garden center and into the main entrance of the store. That's me...playing it cool.

I'm glad I didn't give up on it all though. As it turns out, I had a very successful trip.

I filled two nice reusable bags with goodies for $15 and change. The Valentine's section was marked 75% off, so I walked by uninterested. Then I overheard an old lady who was asking her husband to price check every single item on the shelf noticed a crowd of all three people in the storeat the Valentine's goodies.

I hit the magical 90% off clearance. Things clear out fast once it moves from 75% to 90% off. We bought a $290 Christmas tree for $29 a few years back. There was nothing quite that grand this time, but I was impressed with my finds!

The heart shirts? The nieces in Ireland will enjoy those almost as much as I did at $0.40 each. (There are only two girls, but I figured for that price I could buy an extra in case I picked up the wrong size!) My new PJs cost $1.20. Fancy picture frame wrapped in a box? That would also be $1.20. Erasers for my students, M&Ms for the Irishman, stickers for $0.19 just because they were $0.19... I'm feeling the love!

Fat Cat

Tomorrow is the big day. Our fat cat Moses goes to the vet in the morning. The Irishman has to work in the morning so I have to take him by myself. Our friend and cat sitter stopped by the other day and said he'd put on weight. He snores. I am ready for the news.

As a kitten

Such a pretty cat!

There is just a little TOO much of him!

We love all of you Moses!

All Tied Up

The Irishman wore a new shirt to work today. He looked all snazzy. I like to admire his work attire as I drop him off at work each morning. It is one of the joys of having one car...I get to watch him run walk briskly across three lanes of traffic and past the driveway of a high school. You would think someone who had been hit by a car would be more paranoid concerned about crazy high school drivers morning traffic.

But I digress...

The Irishman wears a tie to work almost everyday. Over the last 4 years or so the Irishman has collected a lot of ties. We go through them from time to time.

But they seem to multiply.

Don't get me wrong, I quite like the look and enjoy picking out ties for him. We are pros at finding the best clearance rack finds. (Macy's 50% off clearance sale? I'm there!)

But there are ties EVERYWHERE!

(This is the only picture I could find of the Irishman wearing a tie for work. It is not a typical work tie, but 5am comes WAY too early so it will have to do!)

There is almost always a loose "get me out of here" tie removed and left in the car. I pulled the dirty towel out of his gym bag and a tie fell out of his shoe. I emptied his lunch bag to find two ties stuffed in there. There are three ties on the dining room table. There is one on the computer desk.

Where do they come from? He gets tired of my tie-raid puts them away each weekend, but by the end of the week there are more than 5 ties around the house. I am not sure how it is even possible!

My friend Lyndsay stopped by last week as I was complaining about the ties on the table. (I love the alliteration there by the way) Her husband is a golf pro and so she finds golf balls and tees all over the place...

And come to think of it Rafa steals plastic lids from bottles and leaves them all over the house...

So, this leads to the question...what do you find everywhere?

Shoe Porn

Last night the Irishman and I sat down to watch some TV when he got quite serious and told me that he had a confession. I stopped what I was doing and waited for the big revelation to come.

"I didn't want you to think that I'd changed teams or anything..."

"I was on the computer earlier..."

The Irishman bought a pair of sneakers from Sports Authority earlier in the day. Unfortunately they did not have the right combination of color and size for him. When he went to buy the shoes online, they wanted an extra $20 for his size. (I'm not sure how that works, but that is beside the point.)

"I was checking around for my shoes and thought I would check Dick's Sporting Goods..."

I would have done a quick Google search...the Irishman just added .com to the name.

Now he knows why they use the FULL name at www.dickssportinggoods.com.

My True Love, Part 3

The Irishman says all the best movies are in trilogies, so click here for part 1 or here for part 2.

Now, when we left off, the Irishman had just moved across the pond and set up the "lad pad" in Florida. After 2 years of "You've Got Mail" we finally lived in the same country city!

After looking that summer, the Irishman got a job working in the financial aid department at the same university where we worked at summer camp. His apartment was covered with Liverpool posters. It only was frantically cleaned when people were coming over. It was the "Lad Pad." It was good times.

That Christmas we both went home to our respective homes. It was our last Christmas before we got married and amazingly enough we both had a white Christmas. That doesn't sound like much until you consider it was the first white Christmas for either of us EVER.

Now, you do not move to another country for your sweetheart unless things are getting pretty serious. We'd talked about marriage a bit. We even had our own unofficial prenup agreement: The one of us who was NOT living in their native country would get to choose a) where we got married b) where we spend any Christmases c) the names of any children.

SIDE NOTE: The funny thing is that we both thought we would be in Ireland by now. Perhaps it is for the best that we have not had any luck in the children department yet. I am not sure that Star Wars or Liverpool Football Club is the best source for names...

Anyway, that year for his birthday, the Irishman asked for a trip to New York. I had slight suspicions about his intent unknowingly went along with his request. Just after dark on his birthday, we went to the top of the Empire State Building. As we looked over the lights of the city, the Irishman mumbled something like, "Oh flog it I'll never see these people again" and then got down on one knee.

He said that with him I would "Never Walk Alone." (Most of you are swooning at that. Those who know that this is a song affiliated with his favorite soccer team are rolling your eyes!) Needless to say, I said yes! We proceeded to call everyone we know and to buy an ornament for our Christmas tree. It is the first ornament on the tree each year. (We are cheesy like that!)

We took pictures all over the city for the rest of the weekend. I have not shown these pictures to anyone. Why? You see I was not the girl who had been planning her wedding her whole life. The first wedding I'd ever been to was Rachel's and I was a bridesmaid. I somehow had it in my head that you wore the ring on the right had until you got married. (I think I can hear you all laughing at me from here!)

Yep. I wore my new ring on the wrong hand all over New York. I hadn't planned on sharing that ever, but I needed a picture here. That and I've had a few years to get over it...

When we got back to Florida, we decided that with apartment leases, school schedules, family travel, and the like we needed to get married in July. That was 4 months away. The lady at church actually laughed at us when we said we wanted to get married there in four months. (Then I started to cry and she changed her tune...)

In the midst of planning a wedding in four months I got a phone call. The Irishman rode his bike to work every morning. On the morning of April 4, 2005 he was hit by a car while in a crosswalk in front of a McDonald's. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital and somehow only broke his shoulder. Thankfully my mom was in town to help plan the wedding and (as it turned out) take care of my fiance.

Thanks to some good friends though we lived through the broken bone and used the "golden shoulder" for a down payment on our house the next summer and successfully planned our wedding for July 16, 2005.

We were on a tight budget but very happy with the way our wedding turned out. It was perfect for us! There were a fair number of Irish that loved an excuse to travel across the pond were able to come. Our friend Denise Felice did our wedding pictures as her present to us.

We stopped off at the camp where we met to take pictures as well. Plunkett sang for us. Sue sang performed. It was a wonderful day that we've heard went on well after we left for our honeymoon!

So all in all, that is the very long-winded answer to "How did you meet?"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Purr-fect!

My True Love, Part 2

One of the first questions I often get when I go out with my husband is, "How did you two meet?" If you missed part one, you can click here to catch up.

The formal in Arkansas sounds sweet and wonderful, but I messed it all up. I'd met someone new right before the formal and thought the Irishman and I were better off just friends.

That was my story and I was sticking to it...even when the Irishman managed to have flowers and earrings for me when I picked him up from the hotel before the formal. This was most impressive because I was his chauffeur for the weekend. (It turns out he had talked my sister into picking up some flowers for him while they were at the baseball game where I was working.)

The low point of the weekend was on the drive back to the airport in Tulsa when I told the Irishman I thought of him more as a brother. Yep, I did. This would be why I DO NOT consider the formal to be our first date. There was a major debate about this at my wedding shower. Yeah, not one of my finer moments! I cringe even putting this in writing...

Thankfully, this was not the end of us!

The next summer we both returned to camp. The Irishman was in charge of making my schedule. Thankfully he saw a future in us even though I did not yet and he is a nice guy, so he did not abuse the situation. He didn't even think about it. Reading this today, he asked, "What did you think I would do?" Honestly, after my "I think of you more like a brother" comment, I'd have sent me to work in the snotty nose department preschool. The Irishman has more class than I do.

One weekend in June all the counselors were going to Ft. Lauderdale for the weekend. It was going to be a drinking weekend, and neither of us really felt like paying for hotel rooms so we could watch others get drunk going. We also did not feel like being the only ones left on campus, so I invited him to my Grandparents' house for the weekend.

In typical fashion Grandma Betty made a great meal. The Irishman and I then stayed up late watching taped episodes of ER. Right after bawling through watching the episode when Dr. Greene died, we kissed. We talked for a while I decided that I was a fool for the way I behaved when he flew across the pond to attend my sorority formal we would "give things a go." (This is also known as ER Day in our house. The day I forgot this summer...)

We also said that we would keep things quiet for a while. Yeah. Right. All of the admin staff knew by 10am on Monday morning that we were dating. About two weeks later I left camp early to start grad school. We talked on the phone every night and the Irishman came to visit me on his way back to Ireland.

This begins the "You've Got Mail" portion of our relationship. Seriously. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan? That was us. Except that we didn't get to run into each other around town and exchange insults. (If you haven't seen the movie I recommend it highly!)

We both looked forward to the time each night when we would log into AOL Instant Messenger. We would spend hours each night talking online. For years afterwards I swear could hear the little noise the computer makes when the other person has typed a message. Morgan's siblings do a really great impression of it...I guess after 2+ years of listening to that noise you get good at it!

I have no doubt that the teachers I did my student teaching with thought Morgan was a figment of my imagination. They all stared in disbelief looked shocked when I came back from Ireland after spring break with pictures of my Irishman. It was a great trip...although I was slightly terrified at the idea of traveling across the pond alone and staying with what turned out to be my future in-laws. I got along with his family right away though. (And I got to drink a Shamrock Shake during the St. Patrick's Day Parade!)

March 2003 in Cork, Ireland

We both went back to work at camp the following summer. We valued every minute of the summer. After that I moved to Florida and Morgan went to London for a year. He did a year-long program there to become a certified elementary teacher. I was teaching and rushing home each night to talk to Morgan online. I was living alone at the time and rushed home after school to chat for hours online. The Irishman was living with his sister June and staying up until all hours of the night driving his sister crazy with the little noise the computer makes when the other person has typed a message chatting online with me. We allowed ourselves weekly phone calls. I went to Ireland for a week after Christmas.

Spring Break 2004

London Daffodils

On spring break I went to London. The Irishman took me to see the sights. You would not believe the number of pictures I took on that trip! The normally very honest Irishman who still feels slightly guilty about not telling the truth told his teacher that he had a job interview in Ireland and then...

Paris Day Trip, Spring Break 2004

...took me to Paris for the day on the train instead. Very cool. I also learned on that trip that the Irishman can speak enough French to get by in the city. I had no idea. It was mega-romantic though. (I on the other hand speak NO French and had difficulty with a French bathroom, but that is another story...)

The next summer we decided that the "You've Got Mail" phase could not go on for much longer. We'd talked about each spending a year in the other's home country before getting married. Jobs didn't work out that way. Jobs still haven't worked out that way. They will in time though. We still plan to go to Ireland as soon as jobs and such work out. The Irishman is very Irish.

On my 25th birthday, the Irishman moved to Florida. (It was the best birthday present I've ever gotten!) He took out a loan to pay for a work visa and set up the "lad pad." We were finally living on the same side of the pond.

My True Love, Part 1

One of the first questions I often get when I go out with my husband is, "How did you two meet?" I guess it would be the fact that he is indeed Irish and I am obviously not. The accents give us away.

The answer? We met at summer camp.

Okay, so we were working at summer camp. It sounds better when you say it the other way though, doesn't it?

Our first picture together, Summer 2001

I'd had enough of the camp I'd worked at in Texas and wanted a change. I found a camp that was located on a college campus in the same city where my grandparents live. I'd been a program director at my old camp, but I made as much money/more money as a regular counselor at the new camp so I decided to go for it.

The Irishman met our boss at a job fair in Ireland. Sue is obsessed with all things Irish has since become a very good friend to us. She has also since admitted that she liked the Irishman's friend right away but wasn't so sure about the Irishman. Noel worked at camp one summer and the Irishman worked there five plus summers.

My first summer there the Irishman was my boss on the administrative team. I was actually dating someone else that summer. I had been with the "someone else" for about five years. (I also think a now happily married "someone else" may read my blog from time to time, so I'll leave it at that.)

The Irishman had traveled after working at camp each summer. He and his insanely large bag he always managed to fill with books old red backpack have seen more the the US than I have. When I needed someone to ride with me from Florida to Arkansas via Houston after my father and "someone else" both backed out, the Irishman volunteered for the road trip. We'd become friends over the summer, so I didn't mind the company. (There was supposed to be another counselor with us, but he got fired the last night of camp for something I refused to allow in my car.) The Irishman and I set off and took cheesy pictures at each "Welcome to" sign as we went on our way. Nothing happened, but we were asked in Louisiana if we were married.

Old photos I later scanned from our "Road Trip"

We kept in touch as friends over the next year via e-mails. He sent me great e-mails he'd been sending to his sisters in Australia to help keep them from being homesick. (That was the year he took a job as a postman...oh the stories of the yellow bike...) I broke things off with "someone else" the next November and the Irishman was a supportive friend via AOL Instant Messenger. I did not fully comprehend the time difference back then. He was staying up very late to speak with me. I loved typing talking to him. I looked forward to catching him online!

That sping, I needed a date for my sorority formal. I'd had a built in date for the previous 5 years. I was getting extremely worried about it. The Irishman stepped up. He flew across the pond for the formal. He spent a crazy amount of time and money many hours getting to Fayetteville, AR for a two day visit.

He says now he looks at that as an investment. I'm so glad that he did!

Not Me Monday

It's that time again!

I did not decide this morning that I was going to skip this NOT ME! MONDAY.

I did not change my mind now that I am sitting home alone listening to the cat snore.

I did not laugh when the Irishman told me last week that he was going to play on a basketball team with some guys from work.

I did not laugh out loud tonight when he pulled out a sleeveless basketball shirt that he has to wear to the game. I did not advise again playing a game before practicing with the team.

I did not have to bite my tongue when the Irishman put his sleeveless basketball shirt on over his Liverpool polo shirt. I did not think about sneaking a picture to post here.

I did not think, "Irishmen can't jump" as he put the shirt on.

I did not seriously consider having ice cream for dinner.

I did not try to use the fact that it is Blue Bell Ice Cream to justify having ice cream for dinner.

I did not only change my mind when the Irishman decided to cook dinner...with Blue Bell Ice Cream for dessert.

I shouldn't be grading papers.

I shouldn't be typing lesson plans.

I shouldn't be working on a presentation for a professional conference.

I shouldn't be working on my proposal for the committee at the school who gets to decide if they will pay for me to present at the aforementioned professional conference. (Darn budget cuts...)

I shouldn't be cleaning the house.

I shouldn't be finishing my posts for SWAK.

I did not intentionally overuse the word shouldn't because it was the very lame vocabulary word the textbook company chose for my class today.

I am not slightly panicked worried that the Irishman didn't call me to say that he got to the basketball game safely.

Not me.

Thank you to MckMama for hosting all the Not Me! Monday fun. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

My Weekend in Pictures

We finally made it to the movies. The Irishman picked Taken. It was pretty good for an action movie. Morgan described it as Die Hard with an Irish accent.

After the movie we stopped at the mall. The Irishman found a few shirts. I bought 2 pairs of jeans, a pair of pants, 2 shirts, and a cardigan for $110. I love a good sale!


After Mass and grocery shopping on Sunday, we went to the beach. We only live about 3 miles from the beach but we do not get there as often as we should!

I read my book.

The Irishman slept.

The birds watched.

On the way home we drove across four lanes of traffic stopped at a very scary rather dodgy grocery store that has been advertising Blue Bell Ice cream. This is the first time I've found Blue Bell Ice cream in Florida. Can you tell I am super excited about this? It IS the best ice cream in the country!

The Irishman has prepared roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and asparagus wrapped in ham. I love his Sunday dinners! He told me he used his not so secret mix on the chicken. He covered the bird in poultry seasoning and "Johnny Carrinos." That would be great, but what he used was Tony Chachere's. They sound the same, right? (Not that he said, "Put THAT in your blog" after the mix up or anything!)

I'm being called for dinner. Imagine the picture of the chicken inserted here. The hungry Irishman will thank you for doing that. Have a great week!

It's a Beautiful Day!

Yesterday I took my third graders on a field trip to a local nature center. It was the coldest day in 13 years here in South Florida, so we all bundled up.

Part of the trip involves walking along the beach for about a mile looking for "treasures." They often find exotic seeds from the Amazon that have drifted in the Gulf Stream and landed here.


We do this trip every February, but this one will stand out. It was such a beautiful day! (Apologises to those of you who will be singing U2 for the rest of the day...) I LOVE when the sky is so blue!

The weather was too cold for swimming (and all the reports on the news lately have been about shark migration so I wouldn't chance that now anyway) but I was really wishing I was there with the Irishman and a good book and not 35 screaming children.

Can you guess what I plan to do this weekend? Happy Friday!

Pray for Leighton!

I have been following Leighton and the Harper family since I heard about the situation from some of my sorority sisters. (I knew Laine in college.) Here are the last two updates from the CaringBridge site this morning:

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2009
10:50 PM, CST
Thank you Jesus!!! Leighton has a heart on the way!!!!!!!!!!We are not sure where it is coming from or how long it will take to get here but it is on its way!!!Please keep us in your prayers for the next 24 hours. We will be taking calls during the wait, but may not answer during the surgery. We will be updating every hour.WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2009
02:40 AM, CST
Surgery is at approx 7am.
Jake will be our surgeon and he has gone to harvest the heart. We think they will take Leighton back to the OR around 6am. We don't know where the heart is from and they usually will not tell us. Gary and Rhonda are headed here from Georgia. Rich just got in, poor guy left this morning and had to come back tonight. Beth, Whitney, Kort, Sky and Erin are all heading here in the morning nice and early. My dad is in Texas, so even if he left now he would not make it before surgery was out. I know he and all of his brothers are praying for us. I know we will have tons of friends and family here at the hospital tomorrow and welcome anyone who wants to just come sit with use while we wait... Thank you Lord for our special gift from a special angel.

Please keep them in your prayers!

UPDATE: It sounds like things went well! Here is what Laine had to say:

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2009 AT 11:34 AM, CST
It has been a whirlwind of emotions the past 3 days. Now its is the calm after the storm. Leighton is still doing great today. He is so pink and his numbers look great. Still a bit swollen but that will reduce in time. His chest tubes are still in because he is still draining a bit, but they may start to disappear today a few at a time. He is on volume support on the vent so he is doing some of the breathing on his own. Rich and Gary went in earlier and he started to open his eyes a little. I went in with Rhonda right after that, and he seemed to try to open them and moved his arm around a little. The nurse reassured me that he is not in any pain, just waking up a little bit. He is such a sweet baby, even with all of his tubes. I thought he would look a little more intimidating this time around, but I think it is so much easier then last surgery. I know what everything is for now, so I am more at peace.

Sad News

I got a text message from my brother at school today. It was short and went something like this:

Megan and I lost the baby. Can you let everyone know I do not feel like talking and do not have e-mail addresses.

I had just been talking with my mom and grandmother about how excited Jason was about all of this. The pregnancy had not been planned and she was not very far along, but it is a major disappointment none the less.

My brother knows that I am usually quite good at spreading news to friends and family, but this is one time I am regretting my position. I cannot imagine how hard this must be for them.

Please keep them in your prayers!

I Blame the NyQuil

In order to fully appreciate the following story, you need a little background information:

1) I caught a cold from my students. The AC at school as been broken for the last two days. Translated: I left school yesterday feeling miserable and dreaming of NyQuil and an early night.

2) We use the TV in our bedroom as an alarm clock. The news comes on a 5am to wake me up. I watch the weather and then get up.

3) The Irishman does not know how to set the alarm on the TV. I've thought about teaching him to do it, but I figure he'd just forget to do it anyway then we would have to worry about which one of us set the alarm.

4) I did indeed take the aforementioned NyQuil and went to bed early last night. The Irishman was working on a proposal and I have no idea what time he came to bed. I was out by then.

5) The clock in our bedroom is one of those great clocks that automatically sets itself. We love it, but one of the little sections of the digital numbers is broken. As a result we have no way of knowing if the last digit in the time is a 1 or a 7. (Well okay I'll confess...the Irishman and I have both been known to stare at the clock until it changes to know the difference)

SO...I'm starting to think that this story sounded more interesting to a stuffy me under the influence of cold medicine the TV came on this morning and I was exhausted. I was trying to stay awake for the weather. I saw the first part of the weather and then dosed so I decided to stay in bed until the weather came on again. (Not that I would ever do that two times in a morning!)

Rafa saw that I was sort of awake and sat on my chest demanding attention. That helped me stay away for another part of the weather report. I was SO tired that I could not stay awake. I was getting worried that I would oversleep.

My half-awake, somewhat troubled eyes looked at the clock and saw 1:26. I somehow convinced myself in my very sleepy and NyQuil induced state that it was the FIRST number on the clock that was broken. That would make it 7:26. I am supposed to be at work at 7:30.

From here I had an entire conversation in my very sleepy and NyQuil-filled head...it is still pretty dark out...but it was raining when I went to bed...I am feeling warm - blanket must go...the Irishman doesn't seem bothered by the time...surely he would get up...he could sleep on rocks though, nothing would bother him...but the morning news is on...did they just say news at 11?...I thought it was 1?...

At this point I decided to check the cell phone. Sure enough it was 1:28. In the morning. I was watching the 1AM replay of the 10pm news.

The remote was under my pillow and the Irishman figured I'd set the sleep timer so it would go off. I was in a NyQuil coma deep sleep so I did not even notice the TV was on until then.

Regardless, in my very sleepy and NyQuil induced state I was thrilled to get to go back to bed. And for the record...the Irishman slept through the whole thing.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! 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.

I am NOT choosing to write this instead of doing my usual morning load of laundry before work. That would mean I am starting the week running late on a Monday morning. I am NEVER late to work. Not me!

I DID NOT stay in my PJs all day on Saturday. Even if I did, I would NOT have announced my intentions on Twitter and Facebook the night before. That would be silly!

I DID NOT expect my brother's "something to tell me" to be that he was engaged. I DID NOT scream in shock when I hung up the phone on Saturday after instead learning he and his girlfriend are having a baby. I WAS NOT surprised to find out that she is 6 weeks along.

I DID NOT call my mom, sister, and grandmother to go discuss the news with them. It was just the usual weekly call...that just HAPPENED to be after my brother called with "something to tell me."

I WAS NOT secretly thrilled to see that he had posted the news as his Facebook status so I did not have to keep it a secret. I am VERY GOOD at secrets. I DID NOT hint at the news in a past post, NOT ME!

I AM NOT thrilled to have my morning computer time back. (Not that I didn't love having you here Plunkett!) Although I DID NOT get Google Reader to work on my phone last week. Then I would be able to read blogs while waiting at Carrabbas with the Irishmen. I WOULD NEVER do that. I CERTAINLY WOULDN'T read on my phone on my lunch break. That would be silly.

I DID NOT have a student announce that his father was having surgery this week. I DID NOT almost giggle like a little girl when he came up and whispered to me that the surgery was "so that he would not have any more babies."

The two most common topics on this post ARE NOT Facebook and babies...if you've read my posts from last week you'll understand this one...I'm NOT too lazy to link back...

I DID NOT fall asleep during the 3rd quarter of the game last night. I sat up and graded all 7 sets of papers as I watched. You must have me confused with the person who fizzled out after 2 sets of papers and watched from bed slept through the rest.

I DID NOT eat half a loaf of homemade Whole Wheat Honey Banana yesterday. I am CERTAINLY NOT looking forward to finishing it off this morning for breakfast.

What did you NOT do this week?

Photo Fun

My last post was a little too whiny for my taste not quite up to par, so I thought I would lighten things up a little. I got this from Rachel.

1. go to your 4th folder where you store your photos.
Check. That was easy enough. I started in the Screen saver folder. That is where we keep the decent photos. I have folders in folders in folders. I could use to reorganize, but that is for another time. As luck would have it folder #4 is called "Australia."

2. select the 4th photo (no exceptions).
We had two sub folders...Barrier Reed pictures and LA pictures. I decided to take picture #4 and ignore the folders. I am guessing I would be posting a picture of fish otherwise.

3. post the picture with an explanation and link it back to your tagger.

This is a photo of South Bank in Brisbane, Australia. I LOVED the flowers here. Every once in a while I make this the desktop background. We spent a fair bit of our time in Brisbane in South Bank.

4. tag 4 people to do the same.
I think I'll go Rachel's route and invite anyone who hasn't participated yet. Any takers? Shannon? Michelle? Heather? Anyone?