Does This Make Me Crazee?

In celebration of her 100 posts, Juls over at Everyday is a Crazee Day, wants to see just how crazee I am. This is what makes me crazee:

1. I have to distribute my food evenly when I eat. Meaning, I chew my first bite on the left side and my second bite on the right. Call me crazee, but I think it's helped me avoid cavities. Dental balance!

2. I'm terrified of the dark.

3. I still get a little nervous when I flush the toilet because of that movie "Alligator" that came out in the 80's (remember when the alligator ended up in the toilet).

4. I put sugar in my grits.

5. I hum when I read.

6. When people cough or sneeze in my presence I hold my breath as long as I can as to not inhale their germs.

7. I hyperventilated after witnessing the birth of my niece.

8. 90 degrees is a comfortable temperature for me. Anything less is cold.

9. I hate the smell and taste of mint. Gum grosses me out. If you are in my car chewing gum or eating something mint flavored, be prepared to be asked to leave. Being in a confined space with mint makes me want to call it quits.

10. Ever since I saw the episode of Golden Girls where Dorothy was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue syndrome, I've been convinced that I have it. Either that or narcolepsy. Speaking of Golden Girls, am I the only one who has seen every episode more than once and can actually quote full dialogues (not you, Christie.....I know you're worse than me)?

Okay Juls! You have exposed me for the crazee person that I really am. I expect you all to accept my craziness and embrace your own. Are you crazee too?? Well head on over to Everyday is a Crazee Day, and play along.

~Joan

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Fun Friday: VGNO and Happy 75th Post!

Tonight I'm at home and it's a rainy yucky mess outside. Soooooooo......I'm joining in on the Virtual Girl's Night Out fun hosted by Ann. If you don't know about VGNO, you must go over and visit Ann to see how you too can join in the fun. Tonight's game is "Captain Stubing Walks Into A Bar." Ann has challenged us to turn these words into a silly, strange, freaky or completely wild little story.

**Lounge **Gopher
**Captains Table **Zsa Zsa Gabor
**Charo **Pacific Princess
**Lido Deck **Pool

Well, I am always bucking the system and quite frankly I'm not in the story writing mood right now so I decided to see if I could use all of these words in one sentence. Here it goes:

Up on the Lido Deck of the fabulous Pacific Princess cruise ship, Zsa Zsa Gabor plays pool at the Captain’s Table while Charo throws back shots in the Love Boat Lounge, ditching his gopher duties.

BTW: Today is my 75th post!
~Joan

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Aside...Please pardon my absence in the blogosphere. I've been traveling, working, and not sleeping. I am back now, and I've missed you all! Now on to Spiritual Sunday....

As you know I have no problem shamelessly plugging my place of worship, Impact Church. This time it's for a much greater cause. The church has partnered with Blood:Water Mission, a 501(c)3, in an effort to bring water to Africa. Millions of Africans are losing their lives because they don't have access to clean water. The cost of one well ($4500) can provide water for a village of 1000 people. If we all contribute a little, we can make a big difference!

Impact's worship team has produced a song, "Thirst No More"- featuring Isaac Carree of Men Of Standard, which can be downloaded for $1. 100% of the proceeds will benefit Blood:Water Mission. Click here to purchase the MP3 for $1 and help bring water to people in need in Africa and click here for more information about Blood: Water Mission. Please spread the word!

~Joan

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Thought Provoking Thursday: Tax Relief

I stole borrowed this meme from Christie at My Life-A Work in Progress.

Yesterday, my husband and I went to Jackson Hewitt to get our taxes done at 1pm. 4 hours and 2 bad attitudes later, we walked out of the office owing money for the first time in our lives. That night my husband toiled over this mind-boggling situation trying to figure out where we went wrong. He figured out that our mortgage was sold to another company, and we did not submit all of the paperwork for our mortgage insurance.

This morning we started out with rocky attitudes. Then I said to my husband, "we should not let our circumstances dictate our attitudes, but our attitudes most certainly should influence our circumstances."

We went back to Jackson Hewitt with the correct paperwork. In order to fix the problem, we had to file an amendment to the original. Thanks to Joe and Tinnia (pronounced Tina), not only did we not owe after this amendment, but now we are getting back more than twice of what we owed. This experience is a true testament to how good God is because had we brought in the correct paperwork the day before, we still would have owed. You see my new BFF Tinnia is the supervisor at Jackson Hewitt, and she was able to to a little more finagling for us than the person we saw yesterday. Everything happens for a reason!

~Joan

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Wordless Wednesday: Wanna get poked?

Mind out of the gutter people. Click the picture to find out how Pokens can change your networking life!

~Joan

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Timeout Tuesday: Timeout for Shout Outs

I am sooooooooo behind on stuff in general, so here it goes:

Giveaways
***Stop over and see Juls at Every Day Is A Crazee Day for some March Madness Crazeeness. She's doing a great giveaway with lots of cool stuff!
***Check out Ryan Ashley at Optimistic Cynicism for her OPI giveaway.
***Christie-A Work in Progress aka The Chatterbox is helping us become more eco-friendly with the Wonderwash from Laundry Alternative and Mini Spintop Dryer giveaway on The Chatterbox Reviews. Okay, part of this contest is to post a pic of your laundry room. Here is what mine currently looks like. Such a poor representation.....it usually looks 10 times worse! Yes I did contemplate throwing a bunch of clothes in their for show, but that would not have been honest now would it? I would use this product to wash more frequently because my husband somehow manages to produce enough clothes for a family of 6 on a weekly basis. Since this is a quicker way to wash, I can get more loads done and finally feel like there is no laundry to do. Is that even possible?

Wish me luck on all of the contests! I hope you win too!

What's Going On?
***Some of you may have noticed my new widgets in the sidebar. My sister and I are participating in the Great Urban Race for the second year in a row. It's like the Amazing Race on CBS, but on a much smaller scale. It takes place in major cities across the country. Teams compete by following a series of clues around the city to the end of the race. The top 25 teams from each city get to go to Las Vegas to compete for a $25,000 grand prize. Last year we came in 154th out of 205 teams (Christie will correct me if I'm wrong). It was a 5 hour race, and about 30 minutes in, it monsooned and never stopped. We persevered and finished the race even though we knew we weren't winning and several teams had dropped out due to the rain. I am very proud that we finished and I hope that we can be strong contenders this year. The race is on April 18th, so wish us luck!





***Some of you may have been wondering why you see my big face on that little body running on the right. On April 25th, I will be participating in my second March for Babies. This organization raises money for research and care for preemies. One of my dearest friends has a preemie and we are walking in honor of him. If you would like to donate to a worthy cause, click here or click the banner at the top of this page or just click on the link under my big face. Thanks for your support!
***Finally........The Red Pump Project is a campaign to raise awareness about the effect of HIV/Aids on women and girls.


•Please tell more female bloggers to support the cause.

•The official The Red Pump Project page is now up ( http://theredpumpproject.blogspot.com/ ). Please check it out. By March 10th, there will be a lot more content on it, including a way to donate to the cause. The page will also serve as a resource well for HIV/AIDS & women (even after March 10th).

•Please send luvvieblog@gmaill.com the link to your blog. She is creating a blogroll of the Rockers of the Red Pump. Your site will also be listed on a post on her blog, (http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/ ), Karyn's ( http://thefabulousgiver.wordpress.com/ ), and The Red Pump Project's on that day.
•When your email is received, you will receive more info on how to get the widgets.

Whew! Okay. Now I can breathe.

Oh........and one more thing....in case you've been living under a rock......Stesha aka Wenda at Hot Chocolate Caramel Mocha had her twins!!!!!!!! Congrats to the family! I can't wait for the pics!

Oops and one last thing.......Chatterbox Radio is now on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:00am-10:45am. Please tune in each week for 3 times the fun!

Okay. i'm really done now. I think...

~Joan

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Mr. and Mrs. Murphy Monday: Whose Funeral is it Anyway?

My family has nicknamed me and my hubby Mr. and Mrs. Murphy because of the random stuff that always seems to happen to us. You know Murphy's Law; "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way." I don't look at myself as cursed, but as someone who is very blessed. Weird things just happen to me; that's all.

About a year or two ago, my husband and I attended my Aunt Juanita's funeral (may she rest in peace). Just to put my relationship in context, Aunt Juanita was my Dad's aunt by marriage. I was able to see family members I hadn't seen in a very long time and introduce my hubby to some folks he hadn't met yet. Funerals are strange that way........the occasion is sad, but they always seem to turn into family reunions.

Anyhoo, the funeral had just ended and hubs and I got into the car to join the procession to the cemetery--or so we thought. The little man came by with the orange funeral sticker and stuck in our window. The black hearse drove by followed by cars with their orange funeral stickers. When the opportunity presented itself, we jumped in the line.

When we arrived at the cemetery, we followed the cars up the hill and then parked along with everyone else (okay, okay, I'll speed it up). So people start getting out of their cars, and just as my husband begins to step out of the car:

Me: Wait! I don't see anybody I know.


Hubby: What do you mean? Where's your dad and everyone else?


Me: I don't know, but I don't recognize any of these people. This is not my family.

Hubby gets back into the car. We start driving around the cemetery assuming we took a wrong turn and got in the wrong line. We scoped out several burial sites to see if I could spot any of my family members. No luck. I thought to myself, I know I haven't seen them in a long time, but you'd think I'd recognize somebody. Not to mention we just saw them all at the funeral. After, driving around the entire cemetery, we gave up our search. I called my cousin to try to get to the bottom of this mystery:

Me: Hey, where are you?

Cousin: We're on the way to the house. Why weren't you at the cemetery?

Me: We followed the procession, but apparently we ended up at the wrong cemetery. We went to Cemetery A .

Cousin: Cemetery A?! That's all the way on the other side of town. The burial was at Cemetery B.

Me: (talking to my husband now) The burial was at Cemetery B.

Hubby: Cemetery B?! That's all the way on the other side of town!

Me: I know!

Hubby: Well, how did we end up here?

Me: I don't know. We must've gotten in the wrong funeral procession.

Cousin: (speaking to other family members in the background) Mr. and Mrs. Murphy went to the wrong cemetery. Hahahahahahahaha!

Family: (guffawing in the background) What? They went where? Hahahahahahaha! Cemetery A?! Hahahahaha!

Cousin: Well, are you coming to the repast?

Me: No. I think we've had enough adventure and embarrassment for one day. You all can just feel free to laugh and talk about us behind our backs. Thanks!

Cousin: Okay, bye. Hahahahahahaha (while hanging up the phone)!

Leave it to Mr. and Mrs. Murphy to bring comic relief to a funeral. What are the odds that another funeral procession would be passing by the funeral home where we were precisely at the time when we were getting ready to leave?

~Joan

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(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Rumor Control

I am Joan of All Trades who is also KGW residing in DiverCity, USA. To my left (or right if you are anal about it) is my actual biological sister The Chatterbox or Christie A Work in Progress who is planning a Funeral for her Fat Pants and helping people be Inspired 2 Write. Yes, the children in some of my pictures and content in blog posts are hers. Any questions?

~Joan

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