I... I'm a Dancer! It's who I am... what I do!!!

*Yes, Rick and Sheri, that blog title is totally for your amusement.*

So my little one starts beginner dance classes today.  There's a local studio that comes TO HER DAYCARE during the day and teaches lessons.  She is ECSTATIC!!!

(And I must confess, I'm pretty excited myself.  I mean, look how gorgeous she looks in her "ballet dress" - as she calls it.)

 *Twirling*

 *"Doing a Ballerina"*

*With her bag full of ballet and tap shoes and a change of clothes for after dance class.  She was SO PROUD of her bag and insisted on carrying it around the whole morning.*

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Yes is not an appropriate answer!!!

I was watching the Today Show this morning and they were doing a story on senior citizens getting plastic surgery.  They interviewed this one 75-year-old lady who was having a breast lift and implants so she could look on the outside how she felt on the inside. 


Weird.  I know. 


But that's actually NOT what this blog is about.  After the video montage, they went to the interview in-studio where some reporter I've never laid eyes on *** asked a plastic surgeon something to the effect of, "Do you think it's because of A or more an effect of B?"  (He used real reasons that I blocked from my memory, apparently.)


Do you want to know what the surgeon answered?  (If you don't already know, then you didn't read the blog title well.)


He said, "Yeah, it is."


Ummmm..... Dude, "Yes" is NOT an appropriate question to an either/or question!!!  And I can't tell you how many times a week I have to tell someone that. 


Do you want chicken or pork chops for dinner?...... Yes.


Would you rather watch Olivia or Mickey?..... Yes.


I know sometimes I answer an either/or question with "yes" as a joke because I want BOTH things or because I have no idea which is the right answer.  But when someone genuinely feels they've answered your question appropriately, I can't help but wonder if *please don't die of shock here* as a society, we're so used to multitasking (and so inept at doing it) that we only half hear most of what is said to us... that those people only heard one half of the either/or question and their real answer was, "Sure, whatever" or as I fear most of the time when I get "yes" to an either/or, "Yes, whatever I can say that will make you stop talking and interrupting the other thing I'm doing."  *tee-hee*


*le sigh*


Do YOU ever get the feeling that someone's not REALLY listening to you OR do you feel totally heard all of the time in your life?


Yes.


Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie


***Anyone else noticed that since Meredith left the Today Show, there's been so much shuffling around of anchors (and Matt's been kind of in and out), that some days, I can't name a single person on set?  And almost everyday there's someone that I've never laid eyes on?  And I don't mean Al, Natalie, or Ann - I know them.  There's all these OTHER people on everyday doing almost everything!! It's very troubling to me.  Just sayin'.

Bad Days are Relative

Monday:

I went to the neurologist (for worsening Carpal Tunnel) where they tapped, electrocuted, and stabbed... I mean "poked" (the origin of the bruises) me into misery.  I also discovered I had a low-grade fever (which stayed until Wednesday afternoon).  All of that equals someone who wants to take some meds, crawl in the bed, and sleep the rest of the day away from pure puniness instead of going back to work, which is what I had to do.

Tuesday:

Tuesday night, my husband entered the house after a late-night meeting and said, "Want to see something creepy?!?"

My instant reaction?  "Ummmm..... NO.  I mean, is it that huge Harry Potter-worthy spider we saw last month?  'Cause definitely NO!"

"No, it's not the spider.... and I don't THINK it's a cockroach." (This is my one real phobia.)

"Then definitely NOOOOOO."

"I said I DON'T THINK it's a roach."

"If you have to question that it's a roach, I am not interested... especially barefooted in the dark."

But he drug me along and we walked to the driveway where he showed me this little whole with a pile of dirt beside it.  (It got re-covered before I took the pic.)  He insisted I continue watching it as he stomped the ground all around it.  *awesome*

Then suddenly, the dirt started moving with dirt from inside the hole coming out of the hole on the head of... you guessed it.... a cockroach.  Or if it wasn't a cockroach, it was cockroach-tangential. 

YUCK!!!!!  He killed them, then sprayed the hole with bug spray, then recovered it.  It's remained covered... so far.

Friday:

I came downstairs.  I fixed the coffee exactly the same as every other morning.  I walked the 3-year-old to the potty like every other day.  I continued getting the little one dressed like every other morning.  Then I heard the hubs say, "OOOOOOH, NOOOOOOOO."  And immediately, I knew. 

But then, I found THIS:

And I died laughing!!!

Love, Shipoopies, and a little perspective,

Leslie

Breakfast, anyone?

I've always had problems with breakfast.  "Why?" you ask.  Well, I'm not really an egg eater.  I sometimes tolerate an egg over-easy (and occassionally sort of enjoy one), but I pretty much don't like eggs done any other way.  I don't even like the breakfast casseroles that are mostly egg.  And then you try to eat HEALTHY (aka go on Weight Watchers, which I am trying to get myself in the habit of again), and you lose the only redeemable part of an egg - the yolk.  I mean, without the yellow, you've taken what was only slightly pallatable and turned it into metallic-tasting rubber.  BLECH!

Now, I DO love breakfast meats.  Bacon and Sausage? Seriously, YUMMO!!!  But, if I eat those first thing in the morning, well, let's just say I'd better not have anything important planned before lunch.  My stomach does NOT find them to be a pleasant way to start the day.

But to succeed on a diet (and to survive my workdays), I have to eat breakfast.  It's not an option.  And protein bars are high in points, high in carbs, and I'm starving again in an hour.

Then I found THIS idea in a Parenting magazine.  It is my personal breakfast heaven..  It's yummy, has enough cheese to cover the taste of egg whites, is full of my favorite veggies, keeps me full for hours on end, AND can be made ahead of time and heated up in mere seconds in the morning.  This, my friends, is a WIN!

So you start with finely chopped veggies of your choice.  I use zucchini, onion, celery, red bell pepper and tomatoes.  (For the hubs, I use turkey bacon and green bell pepper.  Really anything you like works here. If you use meat, make sure it's fully-cooked before step 2.)  Sautee them until they are tender.  (I use a tiny smidge of EVOO.)

Spray a 12-muffin pan with non-stick spray and divide your sauteed veggies evenly amongst the muffin cups.  Then take a 12 oz. container of egg whites or egg alternative OR about 11 real eggs, beat them, salt and pepper them, and divide them evenly amongst the muffin cups (on top of your veggies).

Put a little cheese (I use 2% colby jack) on top of each.  The recipe calls for shredded.  I was out, so I just broke cheese slices into 4 parts and put them on top.  It was PERFECTION.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min.  You can eat them immediately OR refrigerate them (or even individually wrap in Saran Wrap and freeze them).  If you make them ahead, it takes about 15 seconds in the microwave OR put them on foil in the oven at around 450 degrees for 5 or 10 minutes.

You've got yourself a healthy, low calorie, high protein (and low WWpoints - 1 point per muffin) breakfast that's quick, easy, and DELICIOUS - even for your non-egg eaters. :)

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Wordless Wednesdays - Sleeping Beauty

I just uploaded all the pics from my phone to my computer, so I was sort of flipping through them when I noticed a pattern. :)

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Makes So Much More Sense

As most of you probably know, I'm pretty fond of music.  I love to sing.  I love to dance.  I like classical, choral, oldies, jazz, bluegrass, country, pop, and occassionally even hip-hop.  If there's no music playing for long enough, I'll start singing something without even realizing it.  (Just ask my scrapbooking lady.  I think I pretty well drive her NUTS at crops singing without realizing it. haha)

You know that show, "Don't Forget the Lyrics"?  Well, I didn't forget them.  I'm a lyrics girl.  I can't tell you the chords being used (like the Hubs), who sang it, what year it debuted, or its "B side" (like my Diddy), but if you want to know what they're saying, I can tell you... at least I can tell you what I've always thought they were saying.  Generally, I'm right on with lyrics, but occassionally I find a song where I was way off.  (Remember this post?)

This all brings me to my new car (I'll really have to do an "I haven't blogged in ages" catch-up soon) and its 3 months of satellite radio. I'm officially addicted to satellite radio.  I love the station options, but more importantly, I love being able to hit the "info" button and find out the name of the song and who is singing it.  You'd be amazed how many songs you know with titles you'd NEVER recognize. 

For instance, do YOU know the name of this song?



It's called "De-Do-Do-Do, De-Da-Da-Da".  I mean, it's probably what I'd call it if I were trying to get someone to know what song I was referencing ("You know, that song that goes, "De-do-do-do, de-da-da-da."), but I figured it had some ACTUAL title.  Nope.

But I discovered last week that I had the words (and meaning) of a song completely wrong.  I saw the name of the song and went, "Oh, well that makes MUCH more sense!!!"  Do you know this song?



It's title is "Dawn (Go Away)". I ALWAYS, my whole life, thought it was saying, "Don't Go Away" which always bothered me because in the chorus, to me, it went, "Don't go away!  Please go away!"  (Dude, make up your mind!) And I always thought it was about some guy who couldn't make up his mind if he wanted this girl or not.  (And at the beginning when it says, "They call her Dawn,"  I always thought it was saying, "They call her doll." I just thought it was affectionate and one of the reasons he was wrestling with his decision - stay or go away.)

I think most people get addicted to satellite radio because of the very specific stations, but for me, it's that "info" button.  Now when I'm listening to the plain old radio, I'm constantly pressing "info" and getting irritated that it won't work. ;)

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie