My Boss is 'OOO'

My boss is ‘OOO’ so I am finally finding the time to catch up on my Betcha Didn’t Know section.

Betcha Didn't Know #13 - My biggest pet peeve is the sound of someone erasing with a nearly gone eraser. This #1 ranking pet peeve has not changed since the 2nd grade. The fact that I am merely writing this sentence sends chills down my spine. To all that are reading this, let it be known...if you have a pencil where the eraser is worn down and you run the risk of metal touching paper....either buy yourself an eraser cap, throw the pencil away, or stay far away from me.

Betcha Didn't Know #14 - The celebrity I most want to beat up is Angelina Jolie. She looks like she has a rough edge, so I probably wouldn't win the fight, but I don't like home wreckers, so she was the name I wrote down on the getting-to-know-your-coworkers survey I recently filled out.

Betcha Didn't Know #15 - I can't stand jingle bells. Not the song in particular, but certain people who wear them around their neck every day from Thanksgiving on...especially people who wear jingle bells and get up and go to the copy machine 12 times an hour. I think there should be a rule that if you want to be that festive and wear jingle bells, you can be....twice a day....from the parking lot to your desk, and then again from your desk to the parking lot. I sound like a Grinch, but it really is annoying. Trust Me.

Betcha Didn't Know #16 - I am the most low maintenance person you will ever meet. In fact, I challenge you to find someone more low maintenance than myself. I probably shouldn't be bragging about this, but I realized just how much of an oddity I was the other day when a friend of mine asked me if it was okay to use a different scent of conditioner than shampoo...that is of course, if they were the same brand. I couldn't help but laugh. I don't use shampoo that costs more than $1, and I sure as heck don't use conditioner. No, not even 2-in-1. So, let's just get this out in the open...I don't use conditioner, it takes 3 minutes to blow dry my hair completely, I get a haircut once a year (whether I need to, or not), pluck once a quarter, and I don't have a nightly face-washing ritual. All things considering, I am not all that unkempt.

Betcha Didn't Know #17 - I have a heart murmur. Davis also has a heart murmur and was recently seen by a cardiologist. He assured us it was just an "innocent" murmur and he is 100% healthy. I don't even know what a heart murmur is, except that it's an 'extra sound'. I'm sure mine is innocent as well because it hasn't bothered me up to this point. It is the only box I ever check 'yes' to when filling out my health history.

Betcha Didn't Know #18 - I am about to lose my first diet challenge of the year. Up to this point, I have only lost one diet challenge in my life, and that's when I became pregnant half-way through it. This year, I have won not one, not two, but three diet competitions. I am currently in the maintain it - don't gain it weight challenge, which started on the day before Thanksgiving. The only goal is to be the same weight on New Years Day, or pay $20 to the other contestants to split. Somehow, I need to lose 7 pounds between now and 1-1-07. It shouldn't be all that hard except that I have 4 parties between now and then. Judging by how far off-track I have gotten since Thanksgiving, I would consider it a miracle that I only have 7 pounds to lose. I seriously ate pumpkin pie for two straight weeks (thank you Amy!). Who knew it stayed good that long? And then I bought gourmet cookie dough to support a fundraiser. Who can tell a 2nd grader no? And then I gave my old Christmas tree to a friend and she repaid me with a Chipotle gift card after I refused her cash. Now...well, after tonight...I am back on track. I am thinking about applying for the body-for-life challenge. It is an annual challenge that starts at the beginning of each year and I think you can win $1M. I'm convinced this could be my big year to win. I am at the perfect starting weight...big enough to look fat in my before picture, and small enough to hit my goal weight by the end. Wish me luck...that is, after I pay my $20 for losing this year.

Betcha Didn't Know #19 - In my quest for efficiency, I am a terrible homemaker. I have convinced Jeff go along with me and my crazy ideas. We call our bedroom the "staging area" of the rest of the house. And, if you ever notice, you are not allowed in this room unless you are at a party with over 20 people in attendance. The reason being is that our bedroom is a complete mess unless we are having a large party, or the president is coming over, neither of which frequently happens. The main issue with the bedroom is laundry...clean and dirty. Because of my efficient nature (or lazy nature, call it what you will), I think it is a complete waste of time to hang the kids clothes up, take them all the way upstairs, only to need a change of clothes no more than three minutes later. So instead, we have 4 major piles (along with several sub-piles. They are, in no particular order,
1) a dirty clothes pile (immediately right of the door),
2) a clean clothes yet to be folded pile (center of the room),
3) Davis' clean clothes pile (next to my night stand), and
4) Hayden's clean clothes pile (to the right of the dresser).
The room is considered clean when there are only three piles, which is only about 2 days a week.

Surprise! Update Section
And for those of you that have been dying to know what my big surprise was from the last blog entry…it was paint. Jeff actually surprised me two days in a row. The first day he took off, he painted the dining room a rust red color. I loved it, and couldn't have picked out a better color. The second day, I was fully expecting he was going to put up the Christmas tree. Instead, he painted the whole kitchen a beautiful kelly green. And I say beautiful because it is a beautiful color...in a park...in the spring. I just was not very good at faking my enthusiasm for the color, to say the least. Which brings me to why my husband should be nominated as husband-of-the-year. He is the most wonderful patient husband in the world, and quite possibly, the only man who would put up with my antics. Our kitchen is now brown, a lovely brown that matches the rest of our house. We'll leave it at that, but Thank You Jeff.