me | The Zimmer Zoo

Holy Awkward

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Nancy

Literally.

The minister from our former church paid us a visit last night. And when I say last night, I mean he showed up at the door at 8:45. Unannounced. Uhm…really? And he stayed for about a half hour.

The thing is…he doesn’t know that he’s our former minister. (Read about my struggle and my peace.) We haven’t been to his church in two weeks. (We actually didn’t go to church yesterday because I was feeling really crappy and Logan has/had? Pink Eye.) He didn’t ask why we haven’t been at church. Church didn’t come up much, actually. As per typical, we heard a lot about how wonderful he is. (*sigh*) And honestly, as the last part of his visit dragged on, the voices in my head kept screaming “SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UUUUUP!!!!!!!!” (bad Nancy 😦 ) I guess that reinforced that we’re doing the right thing by going to another church.

The other awkward part of it all is that he brought toy cars for the kids. He’d been mentioning for a while that he had some – after Burke brought a bunch to church one day – and that he’d drop by to give one to Burke. He even set up a time with Mike to come by on a Monday (about a month or two ago) and then never showed up. I was THIS close to handing them back to him, but I totally didn’t want to get into it. Plus, if he HAD dropped by when he said he would – we wouldn’t have been looking for a new church at that point…right? I suppose we’ll just send a thank you card and leave it at that.

Do you think he’ll get the hint if we aren’t there next week? Or do you think we’ll get another visit? And if we get another visit do we let him know that we’re going to another church? Even if he doesn’t ask? Blah.

Filed under: me, venting | Tagged: awkward, church, uninvited visitors | 13 Comments »

Pay it Forward

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Nancy

I loved the book (MUCH better than the movie – but isn’t that how it always is? …except for maybe in the case of Shakespeare’s stuff LOL), so when I saw this on Debi’s blog – it jumped out at me.

I wish I lived my life by paying it forward a little more. I do what I can (less now than before the kids came along) – but I should really be doing more. My life has been very good so far, so it only makes sense to try to make others’ lives better… even if it’s a small gesture like playing along with a blog “pay it forward” thing.

Feel the same way? Then play along with me!

The rules are easy:

The first 3 people to post a comment on this entry will receive a gift from me sometime during the year. When and what are surprises to the winners!
Post about this on your blog & come back and leave your comment telling me you are Paying It Forward as well.

(So, ya. This does not mean if you would be the fourth to leave a comment that you shouldn’t play along! By all means, everyone – please, join in! Who knows, perhaps I’ll be feeling generous and choose a few more people to pay it forward to 🙂 )

Filed under: fun, me | Tagged: living well, pay it forward | 5 Comments »

Way Back When-esday

Posted on March 11, 2009 by Nancy

Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Go on over to see who else is playing – and join in too!

I got my scanner working! Now, it’s just time constraints that thwart the scanning of old pictures. 🙂

This week’s photos come from the ’70s. *grin*

Nancy's First Birthday

Holy COW look at all those patterns. Yikes! And yes, those were our kitchen cabinets…for a long, long time.

Nancy Playing on the Hay Escalator

I must have been about Logan’s age here. I have a *lot* of memories playing on this thing…higher up when I got a little older. Growing up on a farm provided lots of “playground equipment” LOL

Grandad, Grandma, and Nancy

This one always makes me smile. And you can see where the red hair comes from 🙂 My Grandmother was tickled to pieces when Maggie came along with her bright red hair.

(Hm. I’ve always spelled Grandad’s name that way. Apparently, it’s supposed to have another “d” – who knew.)

Filed under: me, WBW | Tagged: pictures from the 70s | 7 Comments »

I’m Going to Have a Good Time

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Nancy

All through my life I’ve had friends who are…shall we say…negative. I’m not saying that I’m all smiles and roses, but these people are extreme. For example, we’d be talking about an up-coming party or high school dance and the negative person would predict that it was going to suck and she wouldn’t have a good time.

Well…duh. If you go in with that attitude, of course it’s going to suck and of course you’re not going to have a good time. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Hmm. I suppose when they get old, they won’t be plagued with laugh lines…

My problem, though, is a bit different. I know when I finally get to the place, I’ll have a great time…it’s just getting myself motivated to GO that takes me a bit. I’m somewhat of a homebody – the total opposite of the social butterfly that I was in High School and College. So if I have an upcoming event – say a twin mom’s meeting – I have to really push myself to get out the door. My lazy butt would much rather – at that point in time – sit on the couch and read or watch TV in comfy clothes. As soon as I walk into the meeting though, I have a great time (creating lots of those laugh lines) – as I knew I would. So it’s worth getting up and going…and I know it is…I just wish it wasn’t always the internal struggle that it is.

Hmmm. Now that I’m thinking about it, I feel bad for women with no laugh lines. I’m fairly sure that mine indicate I’ve had a pretty good life so far.

Filed under: me | Tagged: home body, laugh lines, negativity | 6 Comments »

A to Z

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Nancy

We all know I love these alphabet memes (as evidenced by favorite TV shows, Movies, Books, Foods, and Potatoes).

This one’s a little different in that it’s not favorites, and because it’s taken from a FB note (again)…

A – Age: 34

B – Bed size: King

C – Chore you hate: Name a chore – I’m gonna hate it

D – Dad’s Name: Mike

E – Essential start your day it: COFFEE!!!

F – Favorite actor(s): Hugh Laurie, Zachary Levi

G – Gold or Silver: both

H – Height: 5’4

I – Instruments you play(ed): Clarinet, a little Piano, very little trumpet

J – Job title: Senior Technical Writer

K – Kid(s): 3

L – Living arrangements: with husband and kids

M – Mom’s name: Fran

N – Nicknames: Nance, Nan, mommy

O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: 9 days of hospital bed rest before the twins came…Birth of all 3 kids

P – Pet Peeve: having to repeat myself – especially to adults

Q – Quotes you like: “There are nice people everywhere, be one of them.”

R – Right or left handed: Right

S – Siblings: Older brother, older sister, 2 younger sisters, and a bunch of step-siblings

T – Time you wake up: as late as possible!!

V – Vegetable you dislike: beets, sweet potatoes

W – Ways you run late: distracted by kids

X – X-rays you’ve had: wrist

Y – Yummy food you make: Crock Pot Burger Soup

Z – Zodiac: Libra

Filed under: me | Tagged: alphabet favorites, meme | 4 Comments »

Update! Update! Read All About it!

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Nancy

I have various, totally unrelated updates about a bunch of things that I’ve written about before.

First…the squirrel is gone! We finally realized that he wasn’t really coming and going as we thought. When he was “gone” he was just up the chimney a bit out of our sight. Which means that the poor thing hadn’t eaten a thing since at least Monday. So we got a box and a stick and tried to shoo him out of the fire place. I think he had totally given up by that time (he went crazy a few hours before, but was just hunkered down in the corner by this time). Lucky for us, he was sluggish – cuz he didn’t quite make it into the box. He lumbered around the living room and into the kitchen before Mike cornered him in the bathroom. We set him free and he ran off, but I don’t know if it was too late by then. I hope he’s okay – and I hope he learned his lesson and will leave the chimney alone now! (I checked today, the cap on it is loose – we’ll have to fix that soon!!)

Second…My boss called me yesterday. Apparently he thought he’d already talked with me about the whole work-from-home thing. Uhm. no? He totally made it sound like this is a go!! *cartwheel* No one has any idea of timing…but the lease on the office is up in October, so something has to happen by then anyway. I’m so incredibly super excited it’s not even funny. And I will be so totally crushed if this falls through. I was checking out the telecommuter policy yesterday and apparently if my company asks you to work from home, they’ll provide a little bit of dough to get you started with “set up” stuff and then they’ll pay for the high-speed internet connection on top of a monthly stipend to off-set stuff like electricity and things. COOL!

Third…remember waaaay back in July when I wrote the post about being “famous” for our staycation? The reporter who interviewed me emailed to let me know that his book came out! There’s even a rumor that I’ll get a signed copy. Nice! 🙂 I looked through some of the pages online and it says that my twins are girls. Oops! Ah well – it’s still really cool.

Filed under: me | Tagged: squirrel, staycation, work from home | 6 Comments »

What…?

Posted on February 28, 2009 by Nancy

I woke up this morning feeling like my ear was stuffed with wet cotton balls. And any time anyone says anything, my ear rings. Ya. Fun stuff.

The wet cotton balls seemed to have gone away, but there’s still a resonating tone whenever someone talks (or screeches or makes any noise of any time). It’s about the same tone as the beeping of a truck backing up.

A Bloggie buddy mentioned nasal spray might help. Any other idea out there? This is really annoying!!

Filed under: me | Tagged: ear ringing | 3 Comments »

Rumors

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Nancy

You may remember my dilemma about pre-school for the kids next year…and how the heck I’m going to get them there since we decided on the more appropriate (for them) T, W, TH schedule.

Well…my problem may be solved. There are rumors going around that in an effort to save some money, my office is going to be asking a few people to work from home more often. Are you KIDDING me??? Sign me up. I have no problem taking my “lunch hour” to shuttle the kids to and from school. And the hour commute each way is killing me anyway!

Apparently, my name came up as #2 on the list. Keep your fingers crossed that this will actually happen!!

Filed under: me | Tagged: rumors, work from home | 8 Comments »

High Fidelity

Posted on February 19, 2009 by Nancy

One more from FB (If I write out the whole name, I get an alarming number of hits. Why are people searching on FB???)

Sorry (again) FB buddies!

Think of 15 albums that had such a profound effect on you. They changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years.

These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that, no matter what they were thought of musically, shaped your world.

When you finish, tag 15 others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you’re it!

In No Particular Order…

1. Free to Be – soundtrack
2. Stand By Me – soundtrack
3. Peter Gabriel – Shaking the Tree
4. Great Big Sea – Road Rage
5. Simon & Garfunkel – The Concert in Central Park
6. Tom Lehrer – That Was The Year That Was
7. Smothers Brothers – Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers
8. America – America’s Greatest Hits
9. Beatles – Abbey Road (Or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band)
10. Enya – Shepherd Moon (Or The Celts)
11. Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians – Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars
12. Sister Hazel – Fortress
13. Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
14. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
15. Genesis – Genesis (Or Invisible Touch)
16. Garth Brooks – In Pieces (or No Fences)

I know…I can’t count 😀

Filed under: me | Tagged: facebook notes, music, musical taste | 4 Comments »

Disney On Ice

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Nancy

We took Burke and Maggie to see Disney on Ice yesterday. (Logan got to stay with Aunt Cathy – Thanks Cathy!!)

We didn’t even tell them about it until the night before. (I’m already hearing “Are we going to the baseball game today?” Because they heard me talking about the Spinners game we’ll be heading to in the Spring.)

Since we knew they would have no idea how excited they should be about this, we got them all fired up about going on the train to get there. And they kind of got that they’d be seeing the Cars characters and Tinkerbell and others, but I think they equated it to seeing them on TV – not live and in person.

So off to the train we went.

Daddy and Burke on the Train

Maggie and Mommy on the Train

When we got there, we got in line to see the princess dresses on display. Maggie *loves* Cinderella, so we took her picture in front of the most coveted dress.

Maggie and Cinderella's Dress

And then, much to our pleasure, the real Cinderella showed up!

Cinderella - Way up Ahead

Unfortunately, by the time we got up there, Cinderella had to go. But Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) took over in her place.

The Zoo with Belle

(Maggie was playing shy girl because someone else took our picture.)

We stopped to get some snacks (and a beer for Mike) and headed off to look for our seats. You should have seen the “Oh thank God there’s beer here” looks Mike got from the other dads we passed. LOL

We found our seats and I hear “Is that Maggie?” from the row behind us. Turns out that one of their class mates was there too! I hadn’t met the mom, but I recognized the little girl. Her mom said that she recognized Maggie’s yellow bow. LOL I suppose it is hard to miss. And we did get quite a few compliments on it throughout the day.

Waiting for the show to start (I kind of had my camera at a strange angle on some of these…)

The show started!

Minnie and Mickey

Transfixed

Also Transfixed

Pretzel? What Pretzel?

And then the Cars came out! Oh man – Burke’s favorite part.

Especially when Lightnin’ McQueen came out.

McQueen!

It switched to The Little Mermaid, so Maggie got excited.

The Little Mermaid!

ut oh Ursula!

The Lion King was up next.

And Mike was tickled to see that Rafiki even had the monkey butt going on.

The kids were still transfixed.

I loved how they did the wildebeests. The skaters had one on each arm and one on their head to make it look like there was a pack of them. Pretty cool

Intermission brought playing with their new light-up toys and the Zamboni! As soon as the lights came up, Burke declared that he wanted to see it again. (Like I could rewind and push play LOL) Luckily, there was more coming.

Act 2 brought Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy back as the hosts.

And Burke sitting on Daddy’s lap.

Maggie was happy that it started again.

Tinkerbell was the final act. Burke got a little restless and had to go out and run around for a little bit. But it wasn’t long before they came back.