Saturday 9 – Snoooooooze

1. How long do you sleep each night?
About seven hours, on average.

2. Do you fall asleep easily?
Usually, I’m so wiped out after a day with my kids and with work, that yeah – I’m out after I spend some time reading or if I’m out of books, figuring a Sudoku puzzle. If I try to sleep without the reading, though – forget it. I need that to wind down my brain.

3. Do you fall asleep at times not in your bed?
Rarely. I do tend to fall asleep if I’m the passenger on a long car trip. I slept down a good chunk of the PCH on a business trip to Oregon once to avoid talking to a coworker.

4. Do you listen to music or use “white noise” to sleep?
I used to always have music on to go to sleep but Hubby can’t sleep that way, so I had to give it up.

5. Do you sleep through the night or get up a couple of times?
I almost never get up in the middle of the night if the kids don’t. Once I’m up in the middle of the night, it’s a HUGE pain for me to fall asleep again.

6. Do you have trouble sleeping away from your own bed?
Sometimes. It depends where I am.

7. Do you need an alarm clock to get you up?
I haven’t used an alarm clock in about three years.

8. Do you ever take medication to help you sleep?
If I need to get some sleep and I’m not at all tired, I will happily take a Tylenol PM. It’s not often, but it works – I’d rather get sleep than lie in bed upset about not sleeping.

9. Do you/have you slept with pets?
Nope.

Thursday Ten: It’s Because of the Arpeggios Edition

1. Guitar lessons continue to go alright – today, I learned “We Three Kings” (which I can now add to my holiday music arsenal, along with “O Holy Night” and “Silent Night”). I also learned the first bit of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” – because my teacher was trying to teach me about arpeggios. Yes, I have heard of Blue Oyster Cult. No, I probably wouldn’t know the song if I got it in “Name that Tune”. Next week, she says she’ll teach me parts of “Taylor” by Jack Johnson, which makes me very happy because I love Jack Johnson.

2. Cheetos? They are good. I love Cheetos. Every Thursday, I manage to forget to eat lunch before I go to guitar lesson, so when I got home today I was starving. I cracked open some Cheetos. I was chatting with a girlfriend of mine, telling her my keyboard was now covered with artificial cheese – she replied: “Cheetos: ur doing it right.” We decided that Cheetos were like cheesy, orange crack – which under most circumstances we all agree would be bad. When it comes to Cheetos, though, we make an exception.

3. This weekend is the Michigan/Michigan State football game. GOOOO BLUE. (However, I am not terribly optimistic).

4. I got another HUGE pile of magazines in the mail today. I’m not even caught up from the last round. Today’s mail included another copy of Cookie magazine (which I would NEVER pay for, by the way – it was a free subscription and I don’t love the magazine), Rolling Stone, Good Housekeeping and Health. I love magazines.

5. It’s my mom’s boss’s birthday tomorrow and he’s on some diet plan that allows very few sweets but apparently gives the thumbs up to rice crispy treats. My mother, however, is “baked goods” inept (I hesitate to use the term baked goods, because I hardly would put the rice crispy treat in that category). She actually asked me to make them for her. This is why I know how to bake. As soon as I could read, my mom had me take over the baking projects. This morning she dropped off marshmallows and rice crispies and tomorrow she’ll pick them up on her way to work. Like I’m the freakin’ snack drive through.

6. The Princess came home today and told me a mean boy in her class gave her a piece of paper today with the words “Poop you” written on it (Kids. What the hell are they thinking?). I asked if she showed the teacher. “No, mom,” she said, “but I recycled it.” That’s my girl.

7. New music this week: LOTS. Some of it isn’t so “new”, but new to my collection anyway. “3×5” John Mayer; “U Want Me 2” Sarah McLachlan; “Bad Girlfriend” Theory of a Deadman; “A Sorta Fairytale” Tori Amos; “Bizarre Love Triangle” New Order; aaaaaaaand “Miss Independent” (not Kelly Clarkson) Ne-Yo. Why yes, I’m working on a birthday iTunes gift card.

8. I miss Project Runway.

9. Pumpkin is doing much better with her sleeping… and if she sleeps through tonight, I’m taking her out for donuts for breakfast tomorrow. Bribery – I never thought I’d be that kind of parent but when it comes to me getting my sleep, it’s totally worth it because I need my sleep.

10. Soooo, “High School Musical 3” – how many people getting suckered into taking their kids this weekend?

So, It’s Been Fifty Days (And Other Hooey)

Today is day 50 of the Envisage 365 project (Y’all see that link to the right – you can click on it). I can’t believe it’s been 50 days already, and that I haven’t missed a day yet. I’m keeping my images in a few different places – the E365 blog, my Facebook, and Flickr. So many of the women involved in this project are amazing photographers – me? Not so much. But it’s been cool trying to define my day with a picture and already checking out the pictures from the past fifty days and remembering the past month and a half-ish.
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In other drama, Pumpkin has taken to waking up each night at 3:30 a.m. and she doesn’t appear to really need anything: sometimes a diaper change (she wears a diaper or pull up at bed) and to be covered up with a blanket so she can go back to bed. HOW DO I MAKE HER STOP? Seriously, getting up at 3:30 a.m. means that I’m often awake for at least an hour following that. She isn’t teething. She doesn’t seem to be sick. It’s just DRIVING ME NUTS. So, if you have kids that sleep and like sleep, can you please tell me how you made that happen?