Liebster!

My awesomesauce cousin, the one and only Jubilant Jessi, nominated me for a Liebster award! I love silly-fun-blog-things like this, and hope you can play along too 🙂

FACTOIDS:

1. I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. But I also moved away eight years ago, my memory of the area is pretty foggy, and I feel a little phony claiming to be “from” there.
2. This year, I have baked 5 full size pies.
3. Last year I baked 19 full-size pies.
4. I handmade all of the flowers for my sister’s wedding [in May].
5. Funfetti is my favorite kind of cake.
6. Mint chocolate chip is my favorite flavor of ice cream – I like to critique different brands and pretend I’m cool or something when I compare the chip-to-ice-cream ratios and such.
7. One of my favorite scriptures that I’ve found recently is Ecclesiastes 7:12 (KJV) “For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.”
8. I have two younger sisters and three younger brothers. The birth order is girl-boy all the way down the line.
9. I am officially one-eighth Mexican. Not that you can tell by looking at me.
10. I am a Mormon! The monthly magazine published by our church is called the Ensign. The August issue arrived in my mailbox today, and I loved this article: [No Corrupt Communication] and these articles that were referenced in it: [Parental Sarcasm] [The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right.] [The Tongue of Angels]
    Definitely gave me some food for thought today.
11. I recently read this blog post about a “30 days of self portraits” challenge. I think I might do it. Here are two from today:

• 

Q&A:

1. Why did you start blogging?

Because I have a lot to say [sometimes], and I liked the idea of publishing it somewhere where people could drop by and read it if they wanted to, but it wasn’t going to pop up on a feed [or clog their “bulletins” on Myspace, etc]. I actually started out with a Myspace blog….and then switched to Blogger in 2008, and then to WordPress in 2012. If you go back in my archives, I’ve actually saved some of my best posts from my Myspace blog and transferred them to the different platforms I’ve had over the years!

2. Where is one place you have always wanted to go?

Fiji! The Truman Show was my favorite movie for a long time….so Fiji was always my answer. I guess I’ll stick to it.

3. What was your worst cooking disaster?

Oh dear. One time I tried to cook rice and I didn’t have enough water in the pot, so it burned…badly. The residue never. came. off. I was cooking something else to go with it too, and it also burned and got stuck. I think my parents ended up throwing all of those pots/pans away.

4. Best thing on the internet?

Left Handed Toons. You’re welcome.

5. Favorite family activity?

Dinner time! Kind of simple, but sitting around the dinner table with my whole family was [and still is] my favorite part of the day.

6. What’s your best crafty creation?

Probs my wedding dress. It turned out exactly as I wanted it to!

7. Just how cool are you? 🙂

I’m so cool that I’m attempting to sew my own cloth diapers! I’m turning my basic prefold diapers into fitted diapers. It’s going well enough, considering I’m not using a pattern. I’ll keep you posted…

8. What book should I read?

Anything written by Agatha Christie! Miss Marple mysteries are my absolute favorite.

9. If you could learn a new skill, what would it be?

Probably the skill of being multi-lingual. That would just be awesome. So far, I’ve mastered really-pathetic-broken-Spanish.

10. Sugar or salt?

Oooh. Depends on the day, but usually I’ll go for sugar.

11. What do you do when you’re up late and can’t sleep?

Read a good book until I get drowsy eyes. It usually works!

I TAG:

hmm. anyone else who enjoys surveys and random facts and blog linkage! comment if you’re carrying on the trend and I’ll link you right up 🙂

and here is a Q&A from me:

01. What is your name?

02. What is your quest?

03. What….is your favorite color?

04. Did you get that movie reference? And do you know the air speed velocity of a fully-laden swallow? ; )

05. What is your favorite movie? [or, favorite movie in each of your favorite genres?]

06. What kind of blogs do you like to read?

07. Are you a blog-stalker???

08. How would you decorate your dream home?

09. What is your favorite meal to cook?

10. What are your favorite pizza toppings?

11. How many times in your life have you utilized public transportation?

and that concludes this edition of yet-another-stream-of-consciousness-veiled-as-something-constructive. thank you for listening, and please join us next time!

life off the grid.

It’s been nearly three weeks since I nearly eliminated my online presence.
And you know what??

I am absolutely loving it.

I did go through withdrawals, and have periods of time when I would pick up my phone and stare blankly at it for a moment when I realized I had nothing to “do”.
But now? I don’t even miss Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest. I don’t think I ever want to go back. I set up a Chrome extension to block the websites just in case I caved and tried to log in, but after a test run to make sure it was working, I haven’t even thought to visit any of the sites.

Well, okay, I did re-activate my Pinterest account for all of five minutes to look at my boards again and see if there was anything I’d pinned that I was interested in purchasing for my birthday. There wasn’t. I then remembered that I had survived my entire life without Pinterest, and realized I did not need to “curate boards” in order to know what my personal style is or to keep track of recipes. And I promptly deactivated my account again.

Now, I am still just as good at wasting time as I was before falling off the grid. I still check Bloglovin a couple times a day, and should probably weed through the blogs I follow. I’ve found good books that while away the hours nearly as well as checking Instagram. I have friends that actually talk to me (gasp!) and spent about 3 hours of today chatting on the phone and texting them. But overall, it is an improvement, and I am content!

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the feedback I’ve gotten for this decision. If anyone thinks I’m nuts, they certainly haven’t told me so! I’ve had quite a few good face-to-face conversations with people about “unplugging”. A surprising number of dear friends got in touch with me right when I announced my decision, and have made an effort to keep up with the haps. I have picked up a fair number of pen pals as well, which is a lot of fun! And people even remembered my birthday yesterday without Facebook to remind them 😉

I feel very fortunate that I am able to take this leap. I completely understand that social networking is entirely necessary these days – it’s practically essential to any modern business or livelihood. I am so blessed to be able to care for my daughter and our home each day. I am blessed with a rich network of friends and family nearby that keep me sane on a daily basis, a well as friends and family who are further away but excellent at keeping up correspondences. My life is so, so good  and I thank the Lord for it every day 🙂

stream of consciousness

I feel terrible about neglecting this blog lately…I haven’t hardly had time to sit down and type anything up since my baby girl was born [on this OR my other blog]!

So, here is a stream of consciousness and some fun facts for you.
[spoiler alert: you’re in for a real treat]

001. When I am in my own home, I rarely close the door to the bathroom when I’m using it. Usually this is only when I’m by myself [or with one of my two family members], but sometimes I forget that it’s not considered a socially acceptable practice when company is over…Luckily, the toilet is strategically placed to not be visible from two out of four rooms in the house, but I apologize in advance if any of you ever come to my house and catch me on the pot. It could definitely happen.

002. The name of this blog is derived from the food my hubs and I chose to have at our wedding reception….Belgian waffles and a variety of breakfast cereals. It was delicious. And awesome. We love breakfast foods so much that our favorite celebratory dining spots are iHOP and Denny’s.

003. My hair is getting ridiculously long. And also, it is falling out [postpartum bodily changes are FUN]! And lately it has spent 75% of the time in a braid, the other 24% is bun time, and there’s about 1% of down time. I reckon I ought to get it legitimately cut/styled soon…

004. This is still one of my all-time favorite pictures, crappy cell phone quality and all:

She is SO BIG now [3.5 months!] and babbles, giggles, and cries louder than any other baby I have yet to hear…but she’s happy a vast majority of the time so that’s okay 🙂 she loves reading stories and being sung to. My favorites are Sandra Boynton books and Puff The Magic Dragon. I’m sure she’ll voice her preferences soon.

mean muggin’. she’s a straight-up G.

005. I made a new duvet cover! Pictured beneath ‘zee in the above photo.

006. And I actually DID find the time to write a little something for my new favorite blog, it was published today! Click on over to Hourglassy if you want to hear about some of my happy swimsuit memories [and see probably the most hysterical photo of my sister and I that has ever existed]. I just loved Darlene’s prompt for us to think of positive, happy memories associated with swim wear – rather than obsess over how our bodies are shaped and how self-conscious swimsuits can make us. Absolutely loved it.

007. I made this for Father’s Day, and yes it was as good as it looks. Ice cream pie based on Ben&Jerry’s “Everything But The…” [my Daddio’s favorito]:

008. Here is a picture that I just found while uploading that one. It’s pretty old, but it’s always been one of my favorite photos of myself. For a lot of reasons. One of them being the fabulous garage sale find that I am holding. Foam parrots are such a treasure, don’t you agree??

thanks to my seester for capturing this treasured moment

009. I had a dentist appointment today. And you know what? I think I finally found a good dentist. I had absolutely zero anxiety prior to and during this appointment [which is a first for me] and felt zero pain whatsoever [and he was placing a temporary crown – that business is not fun]. I am beyond thrilled.

010. Movies I have yet to see, but really want to: The Croods, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Man of Steel, Jurassic Park 2 & 3 (yeah somehow I missed them growing up).
Movies that I am super stoked about: Turbo, Monsters University, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2, Despicable Me 2, The Hobbit: whatever-the-next-one-is-called, How To Train Your Dragon 2, The Lego Movie, Happy Smekday!, and Me and My Shadow (whenever it eventually gets released).
Movie that I recently saw that was better than I anticipated: Escape From Planet Earth.
[yes….we love kids’ movies around here. that’s what you get when your hubs works for Dreamworks and is an animation buff, and I absolutely love it. also I guess sequels are just getting better these days??]

So, yeah. There you have it. I told you it was going to be wonderful! I promise I’ll make time to write up some good stuff soon. I have an update about my hippie shampoo recipe, and lots of things to say about the cloth diapers I’ve been using [and LOVING]. Plus maybe some recipes. And maybe some photos of my house and my mediocre-at-best interior design/decorating skillz [if I can ever get it together]. 🙂

love, rach

a word about blog trends.

So apparently, there is this thing that bloggers do.

Well, the pregnant-lady ones that is.

They post cute little updates and pictures of them with their growing baby bump, and just generally let you know how pregnancy is and stuff. Like a little diary. It’s cute.

But I’m not digging it, for myself….

So instead, here is a picture of the awesome green rug I bought for my living room last week!

thank you, Ikea!

The curtains have since been taken down and are awaiting a return…because I liked them less and less each time I saw them. Hahaha. But the rug, I love. A whole lot. But really, who can resist a green shag rug?!

Not me, that’s who.

love, rach

ps is it weird that I’ll talk ALL about pregnancy and all things associated with it if you ask me in person, yet I don’t really want to blog about it?? I mean, I don’t even have to know someone that well for them to get me talking about OB/GYN visits and puking and breasts and anything else awkward. but on the internet to a general audience?? not a peep. hahaha.

Blog Categorization?

As I was looking through some blogs of people I know and sorting through blogs that I read, I realized that most people I follow fall under these categories:

People who have gotten married and are forced to start a blog via peer pressure from relatives.
Countless hours are spent formatting a cutesy blog, subscribing to all of the family, and picking a writing style that cutely documents their life as a couple, etc.

Single college-students like myself who also happen to have a blog because it was cool at some point.
Typically, they rarely ever update their blogs. Because they’re busy doing homework and chilling with people, etc.

Adults, college-grads, people with families/careers that have something to say.
Well, either something to say or photos to post or funny anecdotes from parenting situations. Stuff like that. There’s always a purpose behind their blog, or at least some theme that ties it all together.

People I don’t really know, but they’re popular blogs that I read for my daily dose of humor.
Check out cakewrecks or superuseless superpowers, for example.

I feel like an anomaly now.
I think I’d be classified as: a Single college student with no real career who doesn’t really have many people that read her blog she just says stuff for the sake of saying it because she likes to talk. Updates when feels the need to ramble or say something [AKA fairly often]. Someone will possibly happen to read her posts because they care, but in all reality it doesn’t really get read [at least to her knowledge].
There isn’t really a specific purpose to the blog. You get a few funny stories, occasional life updates, philosophical musings, song lyrics, and anything that she might find funny.

Hahaha, how interesting. It makes me laugh. I need more friends like me that blog, I guess 😛