Stuff

Stuff, stuff, and more stuff.  That's how I would describe my house if you asked me about it.  It's got lots of stuff.  One of my many, MANY, flaws is disorganization.  I can have my place absolutely spotless and in less than 24 hours it will be disastrous once again.

I don't ever have people over for this fact.  If I do clean and tell you  to come on over, in the 30 minutes it will take for you to arrive on my doorstep, my place will no longer be suitable for guests.  I'm like the Tasmanian devil or something.  For real.

Because clutter and chaos seem to be my natural habitat, it should be no surprise that toys on the floor don't drive me crazy.  Don't get me wrong, I make Stink pick up her toys, but it's usually when the ratio of my stuff to her stuff is awry.  If I don't have enough room to put my clutter, well then, clearly it's time for her to put her clutter away.

So there you have it.  What I lack in organizational skills, I make up in other awesome life skills.  Which escape me at the present time, but they're there.  I promise.

You know the great thing about letting your daughter go to bed without picking up her toys?  You then get to appreciate all the cute things she has done throughout the day in a decompressed, quiet, and relaxed state of mind.

I had 3 papers to work on today for school.  So around bedtime I was crabby, frazzled, and had brain drain while trying to get everything done.  Needless to say, the cuteness of a 5 year old escaped me.  Now, my homework is submitted, the little one is in bed, and I've had a Tylenol to get rid of this headache.  I can take a breath as I look around.  Some days I hate all this stuff around me. But there are days like today where I have to admit that I love looking at all this stuff around me.  It's so much more than just junk.  So much of this stuff is what makes my daughter the unique and amazing child that she is.

There's this pile of dolls:

It's just like an I Spy game.  I spy Woody,  an elephant, Jessie, Veterinarian Barbie, Mother Gothel, Celestia My Little Pony, 1 baby bottle, Princess Anna of Arendelle, Ballerina Barbie, a knock-off My Little Pony, Belle, 1 doll sippy cup, Jazmine Bratz doll, and Prince Charming (wearing in Barbie's Veterinarian coat)

No matter what, there is always a pile of dolls.  Always.  I can have her put away all of these dolls as soon as she wakes up, and I'll look up an hour later and there will be a new pile of dolls somewhere else.  This chickadee loves her dolls.

In addition to a pile of dolls there will always be dolls that are tucked in and taking naps spread throughout the living room.  Mr. Man says they're creepy and dead looking.  I think they're precious.  Today 'Gelica is the lucky doll who gets the crib.

Gelica.  Napping.  With her eyes open.  See, not creepy at all.

Look, Stink even made her a pillow so her little baby doll neck doesn't get cramped.  100% precious.

One of my favorite types of piles is the piles of books.  My little lamb is learning to read.  She's so proud of herself, and so am I.  I have to admit that this is a pretty cool age.

Here's a gem I came across that can't help but to make you laugh.  I would try to give some sane explanation as to what it means, but I can't.  After all, I'm not five.

So that's my current world of chaos and toys.  I should probably be annoyed, but i'm not.  I am well aware of the fact that one day, there will no longer be toys that scatter the house.  It's only a matter of time before her cell phone is her new best friend and she hides away in her room all day.  As crazy as this life is, I am trying to soak up each and every moment of my "I have a kooky 5 year old princess" life.

And I have no awesome or wise ending to this post.  Bummer I know.  Until next time!

Wedding Stuff

So, I should probably come up with a Wedding Wednesday theme or something.  Some clever excuse to talk about my wedding plans on a regular basis.  You know, like people do that "Throwback Thursday" thing on Facebook.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's basically a thing on facebook that gives people an excuse to post pictures of the past.  It's actually pretty neat to see some of the pictures people post.

As for Wedding Wednesdays, I guess it could give me a chance to chronicle all this wedding planning jazz.  After all, I'm sure I won't remember most of the planning when all is said and done.  I'll have to think on if I want to do Wedding Wednesdays (henceforth to be abbreviated Wedd. Wed.).  As we all know,  I'm really bad at sticking to schedules.

Until I decide, I'll go ahead and give a wedding planning update.  Our wedding date is set for the end of February.  So let the countdown commence.  T-minus 11 months to until "D-day."  Clearly, I like nicknames for things.  D-DAY.  That is the name I have assigned for our wedding day (thought of it just now, in fact.  geez, i'm clever).

D-DAY equals the day I take Mr. Man's last name and will officially become Mrs. D.  Or, I guess D-day can equal  Doom's day.  The day where I will be doooooomed for all eternity.  Either one works (I kid. I kid.)  What the heck does D-day really stand for anyway?  I mean, I know it has to do with some battle that was initiated on this said "Day of D".  However which war and which battle escapes me.  History was always my worst subject.  I guess I'll have to Google that one.

Anyway, yesterday me and mi madre went to check out a caterer.  We did the whole "come and taste our free food, eat up,  and get so full that you'll want to give us your money" thing.  Which of course we did.  We went.  We ate.  We got full and happy and rubbed our bellies.  We then said, "Here take our money.  Take our money and come make our wedding guests full and happy.  Take our money and make us some delish food so that our guests can rub their bellies too."

So that's one thing we can check off the list (yay!).  We officially have picked a caterer.  One thing down, seventy-five thousand more to go.  Next step will be to pick out our menu items.  That will be way later down the road.  Probably December-ish.  Which is good.  This way Mr. Man (I can't remember what I called him on my last blog, so this will the fiance's name here on out) will be able to come along and help me pick.

Here's what we ended up tasting:

Broccoli, Italian Chicken, and Rosemary Buttered Potatoes

I have to say it was pretty tasty.  Which I guess should be obvious, seeing how we chose to go with them.  I want to give a BIG thanks to my mom for helping out through this process.  I would be lost without her!  Thanks Mom!!

Speaking of yesterday, Mr. Man and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary.  It's been 3 amazing years.  I would insert a bunch of mushy stuff about how perfect we are for one another, how I love him more than I thought possible, how he makes me laugh when I'm in the grumpiest of moods, how he laughs at all of my ridiculous jokes, how I should've scared him off long ago but he's stayed right here, how I can't imagine life without him, how we talk for hours on the phone and never run out of things to say, or how he's my best friend and I'm so very lucky.  I could say a bunch of mushy stuff like that, but I won't.

Here are some pictures from the past three years.  I love the ones of us that are completely ridiculous because we can never be serious when we're together.

Like I mentioned, it's been a great 3 years and it's exciting planning for our future.

So that's all for today.  Have a great weekend folks!!

Saint Patrick's Day

Hello, friends!

I had a really great Saint Patrick's Day.  I ended up going to the parade, which I hadn't been to in years.  I felt awful that I couldn't take Stink.  The last time I went was with Stink in 2010.  Stink was such a cutie bug dressed in her green gear.

But, alas, now Stink's is in Kindergarten.  Big kid school.  The must-be-in-attendance-5-days-a-week, school.  It sucks!   Before,  I used to work nights and only 3 nights a week at that.  There was always so much time to do stuff.  We were able to go so many places during the week.  Now I have to be a bad mom all the time.  Being a bad mom for not sending her to school or being a bad mom because she sad she can't come and do fun things with me.  Like I said, it sucks!

After dropping Stink off at school, I headed downtown and met best bud Emily and her fam for breakfast.  After eating, we headed to the parade where we got a surprise. Village Pantry randomly came up and asked Emily if she and her friends were interested in riding their float.  Umm heck yeah we were!!!

So I was on a float.  In the parade.  It was amazing.  Cold, but amazing!

After that we headed to get some green beers.  From there, we bounced around to different St Paddy's day celebrations.  It was a great day, especially because I refused to think about school or the millions of others things I should've been doing instead.

Next year, I've decided if I don't have to work I'm going to be a rebel and let my child play hooky from school to take her to the parade.   I think.  Maybe.  Actually, now that I think about it I'm getting guilty conscience already.  I guess we'll just have to see.

So, anyhoo that was my St. Patrick's day.

It's A New Day. It's A New Blog. And I'm Feeling Good.

So I'm very excited to be writing this.  It's been a long time coming.  I've been wanting to blog again for a very long time.  I believe the last time I blogged was over a year ago.  

Before I begin, I must tell you, my dear readers, that I don't actually care about you.  Scratch that!  Of course I care about you!  I care about you in a "love thy fellow man, Kumbaya, teach love not hate" sense of the word.  But, I don't actually care about your readership.  Harsh, I know.  Really, I only blog to preserve memories.  You can look at it two ways…..I’m a narcissistic mom who loves to talk about myself and my kid (who’s awesome, duh!), or look at it as though that I'm letting you read my diary.  They’re both equally true.  Either way: Read, don't read, I don't care.

With that said, know that I will be long winded.  I will be boring.  I will find myself funny, even though you won't.  Most of all, I will go on and on (and on!) about my amazing kid.  What she did at school. What we ate for dinner.  What songs she loves. The color of her toothbrush.  The characteristics of her toe jam and belly button fuzz, etc., etc.  

So, if haven’t lost you yet, I’m happy you’re with me and can’t wait to talk about myself!

Back to why it took me so long to start blogging again.  I wanted to start fresh.  If you followed my blog in the past, you have probably noticed the page not only looks completely different, but none of my old posts are here.  I LOVE all the memories on my old blog.  I started the blog fall of 2009 when Stink was only a year old.  I feel as though that was a lifetime ago.  I can barely remember what it was like to have a toddler.  Not only has Stink changed, so have I.  For that reason, I thought it would be great to start a whole new chapter on my blog.

Because I wanted to start from scratch, I needed to makes sure I preserved all of those wonderful old memories.  Doing so took a bit longer than I intended.  I ended up turning my blog into a book.  If you have a blog….I HIGHLY recommend it.  I love my book.  Making one can be a bit pricey, but well worth the money.  Here’s how it turned out:

Love it!  Now I can still look at the old blog posts whenever I want and these posts from a lifetime ago won't clutter up the blog.  

Now that we have that out of the way, I'll list some things to keep in mind while reading my blog.  Let’s call them:

The Minky Dink Link’s Mission Statement

1)  I don’t ever take myself seriously.  Therefore, neither should you.  Ever.

2)  You may find me ridiculous, raunchy, inappropriate, and/or immature.  That’s ok.  I am all of these things.  I blame my genetics.  I have a condition called Crossing The Line Syndrome.  I will try to make sure it does not flare up on this blog.  Just beware it may rear its ugly head from time to time.

3)  If you don’t hear from me for a while, feel free to send me a mental pat on the back.  Brief absences between posts should be celebrated. I am a procrastinator.  In fact, right now I should be writing a paper.  It’s due at midnight and I've yet to start (it's 8 pm).  Don’t worry I’m sure it will write itself.  So if I’m not posting, I may actually be doing something productive!

4)  I love to craft.  So there may be posts about crafts I do which will probably bore a lot of people.  But that's ok......because I don't care (remember)?

5)  I’m always dieting.  You will always hear about my diets.  You can’t wait to hear all about it, I know.  Also, I should mention I’m on a diet at this very moment.  Right this very, very minute....just as soon as I finish my Qdoba chips and queso.

6)  I’m planning a wedding.  I gag a little bit whenever I think about the girly-frills that all weddings entail.  As a reader, it’s ok to gag with me as I discuss irrelevant, frivolous, and yawn-worthy topics.  By the way, should I have my caterer season the lemon pepper chicken with rosemary, thyme, or both???

7)  My posts will be long.  Like, practically a novel, long.  I write like I talk and I'm a babbler.  Also, it aids in the procrastination.  

8) Not only will posts be long, but they will be A.D.D. in nature, just like their writer.  I will jump from topic to topic and I ALWAYS interrupt myself.  I will also go off on tangents.  I’m quite tangential (Such a fancy word.  I know. I couldn't resist using it.)

9) Punctuation and grammar are merely guidelines for me.  I will use loads of parentheses and dot dot dots [which is totally a grammatically correct term (dot dot dot)].  Also, how about that fancy parentheses/brackets combo I used just now?  In addition, I will not always use spel cheque.  So if you have a hard time reading my posts, ¡no me importa! (aka I don’t care).

10) I’m in nursing school and I hate it.  Be prepared to hear me whine.

Thus completes my mission statement.  Or at least everything I can think of right now.  Now that you know what you’re getting yourself into, welcome.  Let the blogging commence!

Oh! One more thing!

11) I hate reading blogs that are all wordy.  Reading is lame.  So I will try to include a picture or video or some kind of something other than all those boring, boring words.

Since I don’t have a good picture of me and the Stink to post right now, I’ll give you a video.  It relates to my title, “It's A New Day. It's A New Blog. And I'm Feeling Good.”  In case you didn't get the reference, it’s from a Nina Simone song.  And if you don’t know who Nina Simone is, you can thank me after listening for introducing you to her.  Enjoy.