links i love

I find that I'm spending less and less time on the internet these days and more and more time living life. Still, there are a few things I've found of note lately and I thought I'd share them here.  You may or may not be interested.

This is a local news story about one of the mentors from one of the Fleet Feet running groups. Inspiring and encouraging and certainly worth the time to watch.

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Did you know that you can make blood donation appointments online? You can find the closest blood drive or bloodmobile and schedule it easily through the Red Cross website.  There is a great need during the holiday season when people tend to get too busy to donate and I am looking forward to going again after having to take a year off because of our trip to Mexico last year.

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I've been using this site a lot in my classes at school lately. You can create a fake text message with it to show to people. It's a lot of fun and I can imagine using it at home for undercover Santa messages as well.

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I heard about this site through Julie and knew right away it would be wonderful.  UnRoll.Me finds all of the email subscriptions you have like Amazon emails or organization newsletters and then it recommends you condense them into one email. You can choose which ones you want condensed and which ones you want to leave as it. Of course, if you don't want to do that you can skip that step and just manage your subscriptions from one place. Love it!

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stories

It seems my children have been full of stories lately. I'm sorry to overload the blog with these types of posts but I am eager to get them down for memory's sake.

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"Mom, do you wanna know how to play the guitar? Here's a hint: you do Itsy Bitsy Spider Hands."

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As you know, last week was the 50th anniversary of the shooting of John F Kennedy. Julianna asked me as I was putting her to bed that night what I was doing when I heard the news that he was dead.  Innocent question, but it did give me a chuckle.

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Nanna started keeping Jane this week when my sister returned to work.  After the first day Josh asked me how cows got milk and why they made it and we talked all about mom's feeding their babies some milk, etc.  The part he really couldn't understand was how Nanna got milk for Jane's bottle. He thought it was milk from a cow and when I told him it wasn't because babies can't drink cow's milk he said, "Oh, I know it's milk from Nanna's boob."

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by the numbers (November edition)

miles run so far in November: 47
pace per mile of my fastest 5k ever (just the other night): 9:33
hours until we find out if my sister-in-law is having boy(s)/girl(s) twins: 3.5
days until Thanksgiving: 7
long runs left until my next race: 1
cupcakes I could eat right now if I had them: 3
days until I get to see Catching Fire: 4
dollars our vet was going to charge to spay Trixie: $252.69
minutes it took me to hang up and call a spay & neuter clinic: 0

What do your numbers look like today? What are you counting down to? Also, will you make me some cupcakes?

stories (Disney edition)

Look, Mom! Mickey Mouse is doing thumbs up and Minnie Mouse is doing Wolfpack hands!

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In the Haunted Mansion ride at Magic Kingdom we were worried that Josh was too frightened so we narrated parts of the ride to him. Mamaw was on one side of him and I was on the other. We'd say things like, "Look! That ghost is playing the piano!" or "Those ghosts are having a party!" Then my mother-in-law said, "Look at them dancing. I wish I could dance like that!" Josh told her, "Well, you have to be married to dance like that."

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Several times during the trip Josh asked, "How come every ride you ride at Disney World comes out in a shop?"

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After the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review, a dinner show at Fort Wilderness we asked Julianna if she liked it. Her reply? "Yep! The potatoes were so good! They tasted just like Carabbas!"

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On the way home a lady on the airplane asked Josh what his favorite ride was at Disney World. He answered, "The tea cups was my favorite until I hit my head."

overheard

Over the baby monitor I heard Josh knock on Julianna's door.
"I'm really sorry I hurt you. Will you be my friend now?"

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Student looking at the cuff bracelet I was wearing one day:
"What is Ms. Tucker trying to be, like Wonder Woman or something?"

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Josh was having trouble with all of the things he had to carry inside from the car one afternoon and Julianna just told him to put all of it in his baseball cap.  He thought it was a great idea but I heard him ask her how she knew to do that.  She began telling him that a hat could hold anything but water and then she clarified that a hat could hold anything except liquids.  I heard him tell her as we got out of the car, "Well, that's not true because I know something else a hat can't hold!" She said, "Oh yeah? What?" He answered, "It can't hold fire."

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"Jules, what makes you like Pokemon?"
"It's just a childhood memory for me."

surprise!

We woke up as usual on Saturday morning and after breakfast and lounging in PJs as usual we announced to the kids that they needed to get heir shoes on and we needed to get the Disney jar and count out the money because we were getting ready to leave for Disney World.  Both kids reaction was priceless.  Here is the video of their hilarious responses:

then and now: Disney edition

May 2009

November 2013