hey, this is the Wednesday Mind Hump Meme by Blogdrive Insanity

1. If you could be an audience member, or be on, any TV show, which one would you choose?
Oprah for sure, hopefully during a mega giveaway episode!

2. Who is your favorite TV actor, past or present?
I LOVE William Shatner and I’m not afraid to admit it. He made Star Trek the great show I love!! He was dramatic, handsome and inspiring all at the same time.

3. How many hours of TV do you watch each day?
I watch as much as I can, I love tv personally but I don’t get to watch what I like if the tv is on and the kids are up. They just make noise through anything I want to watch. I have the t.v. on from the second they are in bed until 1 a.m. usually… thank goodness for the DVR!

4. What’s your favorite game show?
My favorite game show is Jeopardy because I always learn something. The game shows I’d like to be on are The Price is Right and/or Wheel of Fortune.

boy2001 has some big shoes to fill… and girl2004 all dressed up like Laura Ingalls.
My first Wordless Wednesday
wordless wednesdaymemes

Ten on Tuesday Meme

Ten Things I Like About My Job

I’ll consider my job, being a stay-at-home-mom for this meme…

1. I’m with my 3 favorite people every day…
2. The wardrobe is fab, I get to wear whatever I want…
3. Collect all the hugs and kisses which are great!
4. Get to witness all the first steps and jumps…
5. Deciding (I’m the decider) what my children are exposed to and choosing…
6. TV shows are lively and entertaining like yo gabba gaba…
7. Like the picture and story books, life is glossy glossy…
8. I am in demand and my kids actually like me - so far!!
9. We get to do all kinds of things together, rock hunting and sand collecting current favorites.
10. I can count toes and fingers any time I want… 10 is good!

While at the BlogHer conference I met several fascinating women but the most intriguing to me was a young woman Tajee. Tajee is from Japan (which you know I love and have very fond memories of). I just checked out her blog (I can’t believe it’s taken me almost a month!) I have got to start making my own podcasts this one of Tajee running to the Beach is so much fun to watch!

As you may know, my husband and I lived in Japan for four years. During that time I was teaching English conversation most of the time, but I also took time to study Japanese on my own with several different books and study groups. I enjoyed writing hiragana and katakana characters and it gave me a great understanding of the language and pronunciation. What I needed was more Japanese vocabulary so I could carry on a conversation and not just answer with “hai” or gorilla/pointing language.

It was not easy even living in Japan itself, I was learning in what David McGimpsey calls, “the slowest way possible”. Reading in my head and saying the word over and over, writing it over and over… leading to no progress! I’m impatient, I don’t want to speak some time in the far future, I want to Speak Japanese Fast!

Now, it’s been 8 years since we’ve come back to the U.S. I am still very interested in Japan and Japanese language learning and found a great eBook that is conveniently downloadable from the internet and I’m convinced it is the key to unlocking Japanese Learning for life!

The system is simple to use and easy to pick up on, perfect for the casual traveler or serious student. Don’t waste any more time with things that don’t work! Learn 225 Japanese vocabulary words when you download Speak Japanese Fast.

David McGimpsey lives in Osaka, Japan and is the author of Speak Japanese Fast, The Japanese Project and Learn Japanese Right Now.

japanese learnspeak japanese fastJapan

Manic Monday

Q: If you met your clone– someone with your exact personality traits, likes and dislikes, etc. — would you want to be friends with him/her? Why or why not?

YES! I would love to meet someone just like me!

I would love someone who would go antique hunting with me in the cheapest, grimiest stores and like Chinese Buffet and watching Little House on the Prairie, I Love Lucy an episode of Brady Bunch in the middle to mix it up a bit. We would both like Starbuck’s Pomegranite fruit blends and mourn the end of their existence. *sigh*

We would also go for long walks and talk about life, faith and fashion.

Q: What is your biggest challenge in life right now?

My biggest challenge is not shopping, with the high cost of food, gas and other things I have to keep to a stricter budget than ever before. We’ve always had left over money to buy stuff we wanted, it seems that is harder to do now.

Thanks for the Great Meme Fracas! This is my first Monday Melee!

1. The Misanthtropic: Name something (about humanity) you absolutely hate.
I really hate clicques and shunning people or just plain ignoring them. It reminds me of an Oprah years ago, the guest was saying when you don’t talk to someone it’s the same as saying, “I have no medicine for you” (meaning the person would die).

2. The Meretricious: Expose something or someone that’s phony, fraudulent or bogus.

Fats make you fat… our bodies need a certain amount of oil and fat… I cannot stand when people keep away from fats. I can tell by the person’s skin that they don’t eat fat, their skin is just dull.

3. The Malcontent: Name something you’re unhappy with.

I’m unhappy with the price of things, gas for sure but mostly groceries… we can’t afford to feed our kids steaks, I got 3 little steaks last week on clearance for $20 from $33! That’s outrageous but I did it because they love it, and they were sick of beans (I make them eat a cup of beans most days for the iron). I can’t believe how expensive it is to feed yourself and kids.

4. The Meritorious: Give someone credit for something and name it if you can.

If I could give someone credit for something it would be (drumroll please) the fruit stand guy. Every year there is a fruit stand erected in my town, it’s one of the ways I know summer is really coming! Last year, the fruit stand was trashed by some local teenagers with some major loss of fruit and the stand was destroyed.

There was talk the fruit stand would not come back. I mourned the loss since this guy always has fruit at half the price of the grocery stores and is a very nice man on top of that. He deserves some credit for rebuilding and coming back this year so I want to give my nominatin to him.

5. The Mirror: See something good about yourself and name it

This is hard, I have such a love/hate relationsip with my reflection! I guess I’ll go with my dimple, although it cause me a lot of heartache in the first grade. The little boy who sat next to me poked a really sharp pencil in my dimple and I had an itty bitty scar for the longest.

6. The Make-Believe: Name something you wish for.

I would have a real life robot that would solve all the points I brought out in this meme… a robot that would talk to you when no one else will, could find discount meat and fruit, and give positive affirmations when you’re not feeling so hot about yourself.

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Guilty as Charged! This is pretty much true, I think if you had family, had a home and community life in many ways was better a few hundred years ago. Of course if you were in a minority or underclass your chances of being a slave, servant or other bound worker life may be better today.

I’m on pins and needles, send me links to your results…

What is Your World View?

You scored as Romanticist, Romanticism encourages
society to look backwards to find our solutions. Your
rationale is that things were much better a few hundred
years ago so we should thus look back to those times
and replace them in our modern society. You believe in
a simple life and that the complexities of the modern
world have turned it upside down.

What is Your World View?
created with QuizFarm.com

My answers to these questions are soooooo boring! SatSpecial Meme I’m too dang moderate!

1. Quiet evening at home or Out on the town?:
Both, I like to stay home with family AND I love to go out to DANCE or drink or both which I Never get to do anymore!

2. Watch a movie or Reading a good book?:
Both, but I have an ever so slight preference towards the movie right now because it is mindless for the most part. Also, the movie time is DH and mine social time, we talk and joke over a movie so it doesn’t really matter how good or bad it is. In contrast, when I’m reading I do not want to be disturbed.

3. Order a meal or Cooking one yourself?:
I cook many of our meals and I take my time and do my best to provide a scrumptious meal but I really don’t enjoy it, it’s simply more cost effective to feed 5 mouths at homes most days. I have a STRONG preference for eating out and more importantly not having to cook.

4. Going for a walk or Taking a ride in the car?:
I LOVE to walk and in a perfect world all the places I drive to would be in walking distance. I would LOVE to live in a planned community with everything I needed and liked nearby… what would that include?
Chinese Buffet that had all the specials, mongolian bbq, king crab legs, lamp chops, sushi and all the regular Chinese fair for less than $12.
GAP and babyGap because I could live in most of their clothes and outfit the kids.
Victoria’s Secret for unmentionables
Gymboree for the girl clothes I love
DSW for footwear for me
Walmart for craft junk, toys, kid stuff, boy clothes, etc…
Variety of Thrift Shops for all the antiques and collectibles I’m into and fertile hunting grounds

That would make me REALlY happy and I’d have gas money to spend on other stuff.

Meerkat Manor is one of my favorite shows right now. I got a preview DVD and just fell in love with the show. I watched a few times last year but never seem to catch it on.

Boy2001 just stayed up with me to watch this week’s episode and I just had to spend 10 minutes consoling him right now about why that #@^&*(!! meerkat ate the babies! The shot of the babies hand was upsetting, I know it’s nature but it still hurts to see.

I’ll tune in, I hope she will recover