What Do You Think About When Going Night Night?

I feel that in order to answer this prompt I need to give a little background on how I go to sleep.

On Mondays, Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s I take my niece and nephew to school with my mom so I wake up at 6, but on Thursday’s and Friday’s their parents are home so I get to sleep in another hour. However, I’m usually still awake by 6:30 (we live near a train station and there is a train that goes by at6:28 that tends to wake us up).

Either way, by the time 8 or 9 rolls around I’m falling asleep. Thomas usually wakes up closer to 7 and has more willpower that keeps him up doing one thing or another until 10, 11, or later.  This also means that I go to sleep by myself and my husband joins me an hour or two after I go to sleep (on the weekends he may join me when I’m about to get up!).

As I go to sleep I think many things… not limited to:

• This house is so disorganized! When will I ever find a place for everything!
• We still haven’t decorated. It’s like we’re playing house and it’s not really ours yet.
• Looking at the stack of laundry in the corner: I have so much laundry to do and no time to fold or put it away and I don’t even have kids.
• Why aren’t there any shows I want to watch on right now.
• Why can’t I  keep my eyes open long enough to watch the shows on the DVR.
• Did I take my medicine?
• Did I brush my teeth?
• Will Thomas turn off the lights before he goes to bed?
• Should I close the window so that he doesn’t hear the train at night and wake him up? But I love sleeping with the window open! I have discovered  the last few nights that the morning trains wake me up – starting at 5:30, but the ones overnight generally don’t bother me. They all bother Thomas, he says. We live about ¼ mile behind a train station.

At that point I’m usually falling asleep and the window stays open. My husband has been very catering to my wants as far as how the house looks and the windows staying open.

What do you think about when you’re going to sleep?

Which Restrictions Can You Not Stand?

I suppose I’ve been known to break a rule, or even two. I know rules are supposed to be there to “protect” us, but some are just plain dumb. Still, I was only able to come up with a few that really get to me.

For example…

1. Grocery bags. This is the most recent stupid law that has come into effect in Los Angeles. For those of you who are lucky enough to not be in an area that has such a law, you are lucky.  The idea is that plastic grocery bags are hazardous to the environment. That they get thrown away and are a waste. Well, I don’t know about you, but we NEVER threw a bag away unless it was completely ripped. They were always used as trash bags, lunch bags, transport this or that bags. Now we don’t have the luxury of the stores giving us bags (we have to pay 10 cents to get paper bags) so we have to buy our own trash bags, lunch bags, transfer things bags. Which sounds to me like a conspiracy between the stores and the government to get us to spend more money and for them to save money.  These bans also cause losses in manufacturing jobs when we’re still recovering from a recession. I’ve also read articles about the harm in reusable bags including the contamination that comes from them being placed on the floor and then on tables/couches/etc.
2. Drinking Age While this never affected me personally, I’d lower the drinking age to 18. I think this goes hand in hand with voting. Why, if we can serve in the military at 18, can’t we drink? We can smoke at 18! But a beer? Nah.
3. Traffic Lights Okay, so this isn’t a law but it’s something I think needs to be changed. Wherever there is a left turning arrow and U-Turns are not allow, there should be a right turning arrow. It would make many intersections work a lot more smoothly. I don’t know why it bothers me…
4. Permanent Markers I bet some of you didn’t know you had broken the law this way. Apparently many states have a law that states that you may not  carry permanent markers with you in public since they can be used for vandalism.

What can't you stand?

List Yourself November: Day 1 - What's Your Name?

Today's starts Amanda Nicole's (from Knock on Wood!) November-Long link-up all about Lists! I love lists. Especially lately because I've been so overwhelmed in all aspects of my life that I haven't had time to put thorough blog posts ideas. 

Follow the link-up and join it at anytime. You don't have to go in order! You can pick and chose the topics you like and post them whenever you want. Just go on back to Knock on Wood and link up your post!  You can grab the button at the bottom of this post! 

While you can post at anytime any topic, I'm going to try to go in order.... so...

Day One: List all the names you’ve been called – endearing and not so.

I LOVE lists!

1.      Katherine

a.     This is my birth name. My mom liked it very much and wished everyone call me this.

2.      Kathy

a.     This is what most people call me. The story goes that I used to call myself “aty” and so Kathy stuck. My mom says she didn’t (doesn’t?) like the name, but it is what it is.

3.      Kath

a.     Only 2 people have ever called me this. First it was my longest friend – Kevin. We met when I was like 4 and he was 2 or 3. Although we are not as close as we were back then, we are still in touch (and he came to my wedding!). My sister-in-law also started calling me Kath. I don’t know why.

4.      Kat

a.     Not many people call me this either. There is one person at work that calls me Kat. I’m not sure why, but hey – it’s not a bad thing to be called.

5.      Lacabe

a.     This is my maiden name it is also now legally my middle name. A few people at work also call me by my last name. No one has started calling me by my married name.

6.      Bicho/Bicho Feo

a.     I haven’t been called this in a long time. It literally means “bug” (or “ugly bug”), but it was a term of endearment that my sister and brother have used on me (and then their own kids) when I was little.

7.      Babe

a.     Thomas and I have adopted these names. We call each other babe or baby constantly. Rarely do we use our actual names.

8.      Bitch

a.     I’m sure I’ve been called this by people at one point or another.

9.      Fat

a.     I’m overweight, I’ve been obese. I’ve been called the name once or twice. Slips right on by me.

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Happy Halloween!

I wanted to come by and wish everyone a safe and Happy Halloween! I'll be dressing up Minnie Mouse again - this time with a nose and everything. 

In the morning I'll be going to the kids' school for their Halloween parade. This will be Nikki's last as she'll be going to middle school next year. Jonathan is in 1st grade so we have a few years to go with him (And also start all over with mine in a few years!). 

I'm keeping the costume on for work (even if I'm the only one who dresses up - it's Friday after all!), although I'm taking a change of clothes just in case I need to do a switch. When I went to Disneyland with this dress I ended up getting very uncomfortable. 

My brother will take the kids trick-or-treating at the mall in the afternoon, and when it gets dark we will hit up the streets. 

SoCal has been extra warm this summer and there is rain in the forecast for tonight (depending whom you ask) so let's keep our fingers crossed that the rain holds back a while. 

I also wanted to mention that starting tomorrow, NOVEMBER 1st Knock on Wood is hosting a November List Link-Up. You can pick any of the topics she has typed up and post on any day you want, or if you want, you can post in order like I plan to. Who doesn't love getting to make lists! 

You can see the list over there and use the button below to link up with her! 

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Conversations: Jonathan Speaks!

Here we are again for Knock on Wood's Conversations link up! I love reading about other people's funny conversations and so I've been trying hard to remember the funny ones I have with my family and friends (or maybe the ones I eavesdrop on!). 

All my posts have been about Jonathan (my nephew for anyone who doesn't know) because he just cracks me up.

A few days ago Jonathan (who, by the way, is 6 years old) saw a magazine on a chair at my parents’ house. It’s a magazine from Uruguay published in Los Angeles that my dad picks up when he does some shopping at an Argentine store.

This is the back cover:

Jonathan looked at it and exclaimed: “OMG! That’s horrible!!”

Me: What’s horrible??

Jonathan: Are you kidding me?? I’m not ready for S-E-X!!

I don't know if I should be worried, concerned, surprised, or proud! We've always known that he is bright and he catches on really quickly so it's not really a surprise that he would make the connection from the sexual references he might hear/see on TV. BUT it might not be the best that he knows all this at such a young age. 

Weekend Summed Up

I have to say that I love Halloween. I love the traditions in brings. I love the pumpkin carvings. What I'm not loving this year is the heat. We are in a never ending summer in SoCal. It's cooled down quite a bit, but we were still sweltering over the weekend. 

Friday night was the night we had agreed on to carve our pumpkins. We bought a couple a few weeks ago when we went to the fright fair/pumpkin patch. It was a fun adventure. I hadn't carved a pumpkin in many years and only remembered how messy it was. I don't particularly love the feeling of the goo on my hands. Luckily the pumpkin I was working with had little moosh and a lot of drier strings. 

Thomas concentrating on the pumpkin. You can see my design.

We didn't have proper carving tools. We had to take a late night trip to Wal*Mart to pick up a kit. 

I was able to get the top off! Yay! 

Unfortunately we didn't have batteries for the lights, but I will fix that today! 

On Saturday morning I got a call from the LA County Registrar/Recorder's office. I've worked many elections in the last 12 years that I've been old enough to vote (wow, that made me feel old! I've vote in every election and probably worked all except 3 or 4). I had been assigned as a clerk to my local precinct this year but I had told them to place me on the list to be the "inspector" (the boss of the precinct) so on Saturday when someone cancelled they called me to see if I would do it. It's a different precinct, but it's not too far away. Besides, I like being the boss! I had to pick up the supplies that morning. 

An hour or so later I had to go to help my friend to set up her sons' 6th birthday party. It was a nice event that lasted from about noon until past 4pm (when I left). I brought my nephew Jonathan with me (Nikki had a different birthday party to go to). 

My friend and I put together a "pin the bat on the man" game during the week. It was fun. 

After that party we headed to Thomas' cousins' daughters' 1st birthday party. We stayed there for a short while because we had to head over to Red Robin's for my brothers' celebratory birthday dinner (my dad, Nikki, and I were also celebrated. Free meals for all of us and dessert!). 

The kids asked to spend the night after dinner so we brought them home and then watched a movie and stayed up way too late. 

On Sunday morning we played video games and then I headed over to the Pierce Farm Center Halloween Harvest Festival to do the corn maze with my brother and the kids. 

I finished Sunday by doing some grocery shopping and then grilling up some steaks and doing some housework. 

We got some more pumpkins so I'll help the kids carve them this week.

Have a great Monday everyone! 

Seven Quirks

I was nominated by Melissa (mostly because I forced her to) and then by Amanda to talk about 7 quirky things about me. I tend to think that I am quirky through and through, but let’s get to the specifics. 

So I confess....

1. I don’t know if this is a quirk – but I cannot stand loose hair to be on my clothing. If I spot a wayward hair it gets pulled off me immediately. I hate that I can’t see behind me to pull those hairs off because I’m sure there are a ton! I like to pull them off other people, too but that sometimes becomes weird.
2. YET! I can’t stop touching my hair. I am constantly playing with it. More so now that I have my perm than I did beforehand. I’m just so enthralled that my hair is not just limp against my head that I need constant proof that it’s still curly (and it doesn’t matter that I sit next to a huge mirror and can look at it all the time).
3. Melissa and Amanda have determined that I am quirky in that I can twist my tongue in weird ways and that I can also roll my R’s. Along with that I can move my ears and flare my nostrils – I can even do it at the same time! However I cannot roll my R’s, flare my nostrils, and move my ears all at the same time.
4. I have issues with textures in my mouth. There are things that I just cannot eat. For example: cream cheese, greek yogurt, guacamole/avocado, and beans (to name a few).
5. I also have issues with food scents. When I’m done eating my Yoplait Yogurt (Light of course) I need to throw it in the trash upside down or far away from me, because the smell just grosses me out. I love the yogurt and the smell is fine while I eat it, but once I’m done I don’t want it near me.
6. I like to sleep with the window open even when it gets really cold. I like to be under a bunch of blankets and comforters with my head sticking out into the hold air. My husband doesn’t. Especially since we live near a train station and the trains (especially Amtrak!) are VERY loud.
7. I cannot think of a seventh one. I just can't.