We've moved!

Yep, it's official now. Not Quite What I Had Planned has jumped ship and gone here.

I hope you'll mosey on over and join me.

PS. And if you've been kind enough to add me to your links over the years, or recently, or at any time in history, please make note of the new address and update your blogroll .... I don't want to lose any of you! www dot notquitewhatihadplanned dot com

Thanks!

*Maybe* Elvis has left the building???

"AGH! Can you post the entire url, I cannot access the link you gave. :( "
>>>>>>>>>>>

Oh, ok.

Try here.

Or just go to www dot notquitewhatihadplanned dot com directly.

And then leave me a message letting me know it worked.

Because I haven't gotten a single comment since I made the switch.

Not one.

Even my most boring posts EVER usually warrant a comment or two, even if its to tell me how boring they are.

So either the new site is de-funct, or everyone hates it --- which would really suck for me.

Or maybe my mic is not working ... hello? Hello?

Is this thing on????

Updated to add:

"the site is working but there is not a comment section.....it says no comment in fact."

Well, what *should* happen is that you can click on "no comment" and then you get the opportunity to leave one. Then once one person does, it should say "1 comment" .... etc. Hopefully someone will leave a comment and we can see if its working properly! :)

Updated again to add:

"I sent you a comment yesterday and it told me that it was awaiting moderation.??????? Love the new site."

Oh. Em. Gee. I. AM. A. MORON!!!! I didn't even KNOW I had to approve the comments!!! Ha!

See, here's where I'll confess: my feelings were a teensy bit hurt that I didn't think anyone was going to the new site, or that no one even noticed I had changed things over. I kept thinking, "I know I've been neglecting the blogger site and not posting as regularly, but wow, people just dropped off like flies! I'm ready to start posting regularly again, and nobody even noticed???"

Now I go over and realize I have 23 comments waiting on me -------- how funny is that? How funny am I? And by "funny", I mean "incredibly stupid" :)

Well, excuse me, I'm off to approve some comments. :)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building

Well, I've got news. And I've got more news. And I've got hopeful news.

The Not Quite party has moved.

To here.

I sincerely hope you'll join me. And then bookmark the new site, and visit again.

Things I learned on Fall Break this year

(In no particular order .....)

1. I am really friggin' out of shape.

1a. There are a lot of stairs at Great Wolf Lodge. Most of them go up, which is unfortunate for people who are really friggin' out of shape.

1b. Don't complain about lines to get on water slide rides, because that might be the only chance you get to catch your breath in between the exhausting treks up the stairs, over and over and over.

2. You should check to see if your swimsuit bottoms have a hole in them BEFORE you wear them on vacation.

3. The weight of four ("well-fed", in the words of one of my friends) adults on the Tornado makes an AWESOME difference in the amount of sweet air you catch in the funnel.

3a. Remind me next time I go to Great Wolf to only invite people who are much larger than me ..... its a tad embarrassing for the skinny-minnie lifeguard to place you in the "fat" seat in the tube each time, and put the tiny children on either side of you to "balance out the weight of the tube" ......... whatever.

4. If you get thirsty enough, you will drink regular Dr. Pepper instead of diet, and not even bat an eye at the extra calories, because you know you will burn them off on the stinking stairs.

5. After leaving Great Wolf Lodge, and driving to visit friends in Dallas ..... A friend who has two boxes of Milk Duds waiting on your pillow at her house, and a case of Diet Dr. Pepper in her fridge, is a true friend, indeed.

6. Texans take 7-yr old football very seriously.

7. 8-yr old, too.

8. But when your friend's sons both win their games, and the sun is shining and the temperature is perfect, it is an awesome way to watch a football game. And although I realize the coaches take it very seriously (and maybe some of the parents, too, I'm just saying) and I doubt they would agree with me, I still say at that age, "cute" is the appropriate adjective to describe the game. Although "undefeated" is a nice adjective, as well.

8a. Much better than being at the Cotton Bowl yesterday, anyway.

9. Don't kid yourself that "who cares what I look like on the drive home, it's not like I'm going to see anyone I know."

9a. When three young men stop you at a gas station on I-35 and comment on your sweatshirt, telling you that they graduated from the same high school, that will be cool.

9b. Then they will tell you that they graduated in 2004, and you will abruptly and hurtfully realize that you are older than dirt and be quite depressed about yourself for a while.

9c. Then you will eat the two boxes of Milk Duds and not be so depressed anymore.

10. Halogen headlights should be outlawed.

(I realize that number 10 kind of came out of nowhere, but my gosh, those things are obnoxious shining into your eyes on the highway ---- obnoxious!!)

11. "I Love You, Man!" is just as funny the second time around.

(Yeah, number 11 kind of came out of nowhere, too, but who doesn't love Paul Rudd?)

12. More than Paul Rudd, I love mini-vacations. How many days until Fall Break 2010? And who wants to join us at Great Wolf Lodge?

And you thought the melting of the polar ice caps was slow

Blaine, the kids, and I, are happily ensconced in our room at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas. This is our second annual "Fall Break at Great Wolf Extravaganza", and we've got five (six?) other families meeting us here tomorrow morning. We drove down the night before on purpose, so we could have a relaxing, soothing evening in the hotel and then hit the water park first thing in the morning. If your definition of "relaxing" involves me getting angry with my children in the parking lot because they didn't want to help schlep the suitcases into the hotel, then our evening has indeed been that.

Further inspection revealed they only sell diet Pepsi products at this hotel. Help me.

And, do you remember how slow the aol dial up of years gone by used to be? Like, dinosaur slow? Well, it appears the free wi-fi service provided by the hotel is run by a provider called "Stayonline", who is apparently the younger, slower, more frustrating step-cousin to aol dial up.

Connecting, logging on, loading this page, and sending this update has taken almost twenty minutes. I haven't been able to access my e-mail at all. I clicked "connect to webmail" and went to the bathroom to change into my pajamas and remove my makeup. When I returned, the page still had not loaded. It's almost enough to make me flash back to the days of "You've got mail!"

It's ok, though. Blaine didn't get to visit Great Wolf with us last year because he was having radiation, so tomorrow morning we have the fun of introducing him to the infamous "toilet bowl" slide. I will call my sister and beg her to bring me some Diet DP, we will spend all day playing, and all will be right with my world again.

At least until I try to get online tomorrow night. Then, if the service isn't any faster than today, I will quite possibly have a stroke.

SPT October 13

Continuing in my October Self-Portrait Challenge Theme of "4 Random Things About Me" ..... I present Random Item #2:

Of all the places Blaine and I have ever been stationed, the one I loved most, and would most consider returning to, was Ohio. In fact, Blaine and I agree that if we didn't have family here in OKC, then Ohio is the place we would most likely have retired.

Reasons?

It is the farthest northeast we have ever lived, and therefore was the most beautiful during fall, my favorite time of year.

It is the place we lived when our children were babies (and one was even born there, becoming a Buckeye for life!) and had pinchy-squeezable cheeks and I was still the boss of their social schedule. The three years we spent there were an enormously happy time in our lives. (and hey, no one in my family had cancer yet!)

Hands down, it had more family friendly activities (farms, pumpkin patches, public parks, festivals, etc) than any other place we have ever lived.

It was the most similar to OKC, so we felt at home there.

And most importantly, for this reason:


(please ignore the fact that they are all dressed and I am still in my pajama bottoms. It was perhaps not my most productive weekend ever .....)

Some of the best girlfriends in the entire world, most of whom I met in my mother's club, while living in Ohio. They supported me in my "young mother" days, introduced me to scrapbooking, and became the best adult-women friends I have ever had. Almost all are military wives; almost all have since scattered to the wind since our time there, like me. We have been meeting, all over the country, to scrapbook together, since the year 2000. We laugh, we talk, we eat chocolate, and we make the most killer amaretto slushies you have ever tasted in your life. Our friendships extend beyond scrapbooking. We care about each other's marriages, children, and families. We watch each other's kids grow up through pictures and stories. We e-mail, we call. We share news; we ask advice. We vacation together. Two of us were unable to attend this year ...... the rest of us were sad.

I am beyond blessed to be a part of this amazing group of women.

And this year, our annual get-together was in Ohio. Really, could I ask for any better?

Panorama

Different people, I believe, are touched and comforted by different panoramas. Have a space down deep in their soul where calm and peace are available, based on what the eye can see, and what is soothing to their psyche.

Some people enjoy an ocean view ..... some people love snow-capped mountains. For others, a city scape is what makes them happy.

Me? It's farmland. I LOVE the rolling pastures; miles and miles and miles of wheat and hay bales and hard amber duram, as far as the eye can see. White farmhouses, red barns, grain silos. Throw in some horses, or cows, and I'm even happier. I can BREATHE when I can see for miles; I feel calm; it is soothing to me .... the midwest* makes me happy.

That's why I was so excited for my drive to Ohio yesterday. Eight hundred and sixty five miles of farms and ranches and pumpkin patches and corn fields. Even better is this time of year, with the turning leaves and beautiful red wildflowers (weeds?) on the side of the highway. I was ECSTATIC to make the drive yesterday and enjoy the bucolic farmland and rolling plains and open-ness. I love that view. Love it so much that in my next life,** I want to come back as a farmer's wife,*** and sit on the porch and drink coffee **** and soak in the beauty.

Guess what? On my drive to Ohio yesterday, I didn't see a single thing. Because it RAINED the entire 865 miles. The entire drive, there was never a moment that my windshield wipers were not on. Sometimes intermittently, for drizzle, and sometimes for a steady rain. And for about four hours of white-knuckle, torrential blinding downpour. I could barely see to stay in the highway, let alone enjoy the beautiful fall view out the window. And the bad weather, and slower driving speeds, stretched the drive out to almost fifteen hours. Fifteen hours of rain.

Quite frankly, I felt cheated.

I guess the good part of the day was the fact it was still fifteen hours of listening to the music **I** wanted to listen to (guilty pleasures -- Meatloaf, Bowling for Soup, Caroline's Spine ....) and only stopping according to my own potty break needs, and not listening to anyone whine for snacks, or argue in the backseat.

So yeah, despite the rain, it was still a good drive.

But I *am* hoping for sunny weather on the way back home. I have some corn fields and horse pastures to gaze over.

*Why is it called the mid-west? Does anyone know? Oklahoma is not "west" of half the country, why is it not called mid-mid? And Indiana and Illinois and Missouri and Ohio are less "west" than that. Is it because it is west of the Mississippi River? Because before the western part of the country was settled, and before California actually became a state, we were west at the time? Can anyone answer? Because honestly, these are the questions that keep me up at night.

**For the record, I don't really believe in a next life. But if I DID, I would want to come back as a farmer's wife.

***You know what? Scratch that. Wouldn't I have to work really hard as a farmer's wife? Churning butter, and tilling vegetables, and washing our clothes out in the stream? That's way too much work. I think I've decided that in my next life I would rather come back as a very wealthy person, and I could just BUY farmland and pay incredibly good looking men to work shirtless, churning my butter for me.

****I don't actually drink coffee. But if I had enough good looking shirtless men working for me, I could sit on the porch and drink me an eyeful of THAT.

Clearly I cannot tell teim (or spell)

According to Facebook, my site is "down for maintenance, and should be available again in a few hours." Facebook is "sorry for any inconvenience this has caused."

That note has been on my Facebook page since last Sunday. It is now Wednesday. According to MY mental math, that is way more than "a few hours." Facebook is also "aware of this problem and our technical team is working hard to correct it."

You would think, since I cannot waste as much time farting around on Facebook like I normally do, that I would be getting tons more stuff done around the house. Which would be a good thing, since I am leaving at 5am for a five-day scrapbooking retreat in Ohio. (Hello, beautiful autumn colors, I cannot wait to see you again .....)

But, no. Instead I am obsessively checking my computer, possibly even more than normal, to see if Facebook is "fixed" yet. Because I cannot bear that the lives of my "friends" are going on as usual and I do not know what they are doing. (Nosy, much? Why yes I am.) Thank goodness I don't play farmtown or mafia wars, because at this point my crops would have withered and died and my mafia gangsters would have .... would have .... well, whatever abandoned mafia gangters do.

Facebook, come back to me. Or at least teach me how you tell time, so I can know when "a few hours" will be.

SPT October 6

Continuing on with Lelly's Self-Portrait Challenges, the month of October is dedicated to "100 Things About Me." Well, not about Lelly, of course, but about ME. And the "100 Things About Me" list that I am supposed to have completed, and to have posted on my sidebar, because everyone knows that every blogger on the planet is required to have completed the list, and posted it on their sidebar --- pretty much everyone already has. In fact, I think it's probably a law by now.

Thankfully, however, not an enforceable law, because I alone am the solitary blogger in the world who has NOT completed my "100 Things About Me" list and posted it for all of you to read. (Um, yeah, note to self: "alone" means pretty much the same thing as "solitary", so you're kind of just rambling now ..... Maybe that could be thing #1: I don't make much sense when I speak.)

Quite frankly, I'm not sure I could come up with 100 Things About Me. I know for an indisputable FACT that I couldn't come up with 100 interesting things .....

So instead, for the four Tuesdays in the month of October, I'll give you Four Random Things according to what I've done recently.

Week #1:

One random fact about me: I have an almost pathological devotion to certain sentimental things ..... and some things, not. My wedding dress? Sold it just a few months after the wedding because I would rather have the cash. My kids' artwork? Some, I keep. But most, especially if it has any kind of paint or glitter or macaroni or shell or bead or feather or any kind of 3-D crap on it .... in the trash it goes. Old toys and clothes? Gone. I don't normally even have enough stuff to have a garage sale because I pass it on to Goodwill too quickly.

The few things I keep ... pictures, of course, hence my obsession with scrapbooking. Books that I love. I have a hard time getting rid of books that I know I will be willing to read again. Old calendars. Just seems a shame to throw out a yearly account of our life as a family.

And, I'm extremely sentimental when it comes to my hometown, memories, traditions, and old friends.



This photo was taken last weekend at our high school homecoming football game. Since it was also my 25th class reunion year, a few of us from our class met up at the stadium to watch the game together.

I am one of the obnoxious people who actually enjoyed her teenage years. Because I loved school. In large part, because of the people you see in this photo. Many others, who also mean a great deal to me, couldn't make it, of course. But in this photo .....

I see Michele, my first ever "best friend". My next door neighbor when we were in elementary school, classmate for twelve years, fellow band and Drill Team member. And still one of the ones I look forward to seeing most because she is silly and goofy and makes me laugh the entire time I am with her.

I see Jani, another friend since kindergarten. We played french horn together for years, and were also in Drill Team together. Jani is one of the few people who kept in touch with me (remember, this was in the days before cell phones or e-mail) the entire time I was moving around the country with Blaine. And now she lives three blocks away from me and our girls go to school together, and are themselves developing a friendship that I dearly hope they will cherish as much as I cherish mine with Jani.

I see Lisa, yet another friend I went to school with from kindergarten on. Head cheerleader, star athlete, brainiac .... and used to be, a little intimidating to me. As adults, I've gotten to know her better than when we were young, and realized I was silly to be so intimidated. Not because she wasn't all of those things -- she was -- just that she is also kind and honest and funny, as well.

I see Marla, my comrade in arms in junior high. Who knows how many hours she and I spent on the telephone in junior high??? Her family took me on vacation, and for several years I considered her house my home away from home. We discovered boys about the same time (although truthfully, boys discovered her way before they discovered me!) and now our kids go to school together --- Kendrie even played soccer on her daughter's team the first year we moved back here. I don't spend as much time with Marla as I would like now, and I miss her.

I see Carla and Mary and Jerry, more friends from high school ....

I see Louis --- well, no explanation needed for Louis, who I've known since the sixth grade, and who has been one of my best friends for over 25 years. Many a lunch break, and many a phone call, has been spent catching up on each other's news and lives; many a Sonic drink was consumed in high school, trying to decipher the teenage relationships around us; and many an Amaretto Sour has been shared as adults, for no other reason than we enjoy one another's company more than just about anyone else on the planet. (Oh, wait, I just explained him anyway, didn't I?)

I am sentimental when it comes to these relationships .... in a fierce, almost possessive way. And I probably don't tell these people as often as I should how I feel about them, but make no mistake .... I am grateful. Sentimental and grateful, at the same time.

Updates

1. Big changes coming. Thanks to people willing to help (shout out to Scott in Utah!) and the beauty of independent web design ......

2. Honest mistake on the credit card. I had put the wrong card in the ATM machine and when I entered the {wrong} pin number, it flagged my account as suspicious. I appreciate the vigilance of my credit card company, but it would have been good to know I had been flagged, and deemed unable to use my card, **BEFORE** I was standing in the check out line of the commissary with $690 in groceries. That's all I'm saying.

3. The contractor never showed on Thursday. Two thumbs down. But he called on Friday and apologized, and said he would start on Saturday. Two thumbs up. He never showed up on Saturday. Two thumbs down. But he called on Saturday night and apologized and said he would start on Monday. I'll wait until tomorrow morning to see if I should give another two thumbs up. Or not.

4. Camera started working again just as mysteriously as it quit working. Bizarre. Frustrating. Worrisome. I am helping to photograph the 2nd annual "Go, Mitch, Go" Golf Tournament Fundraiser tomorrow and it will be BEYOND embarrassing if my auto-focus simply quits in the middle of the tournament.

And in other news .....

5. I was able to spend some of this weekend scrapbooking with a group of ladies at a local church. It was a lot of fun and there was chocolate and all was well. I stayed up until 2:30 am organizing my photos, in preparation for my annual get-away this upcoming weekend, and then realized the only place left to sleep was in the sanctuary. On a pew. And my body is wider than a church pew, I discovered. So if sleeping in the sanctuary, on a pew, during a scrapbooking getaway, isn't sacrilegious enough, I'm pretty sure cursing when you get a cramp in your leg at 4am is.

UPDATED TO ADD:

6. "Account Unavailable
Your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience." .... the status of my Facebook account. Going on 24 hours now. Clearly, *my* definition of "a few hours" is not the same as Facebook's definition!

A freakin' awesome day

1. I made it as far as step ONE in fixing my blog before running into a glitch and having to ask for more help.

2. My credit card was declined at the grocery store today.

3. The contractor cashed our $1000.00 deposit check and then never showed up to work today, nor did anyone in his office answer the phone all day, nor did anyone return our calls.

4. Half-way through Kellen's football game tonight, the auto-focus on my camera quit working.

So, you got anything? Anything at all you'd like to throw at me? Locusts? Famine? Plague? Because really, the mood I'm in, I can take it.

Bring it on.