How clean is clean?

Today was house-cleaning day.  Every so often when I clean, I get to wondering if my normal is everyone else's normal.  

You know, like if people found out how often I disinfect the countertops at my house, would they gasp in horror?

I put two polls on the left side of my blog to figure out our collective average.  I totally realize that the number of people living in the house and other factors (like if you have a shoes-on or -off policy) will affect the results, but we're just looking for an idea here, folks.

Later, after all my loyal readers have faithfully answered the poll, I may post more details of my cleaning routine -- but only if I find out I don't have to be embarrassed about it.  :-)

The 'Nameless' Post

One of my idiosyncracies is that I think it is weird to call a baby by its name while it is still in utero.  We had the new baby's name chosen even before we were sure of the gender, but for some reason I still call her "the baby," "she," "her," and "it."  My children all refer to her by her name, but I just can't do it.  (In my defense, Nathan calls her "baby" too.)

Rebecca frequently asks, "Mom, is Rachel sleeping right now?"  (If she is still and not kicking my kids assume she is sleeping.)  Braden likes to give me one hug around my shoulders and one on my belly - "one for Mom and one for Rachel."  Cassidy begins many sentences with, "When Rachel is born..."

I'm fully committed to the name:  I have hung the letters on the wall in her room and I am making a Christmas stocking with her name on it.  But I still won't say it out loud.

Here is a photo of the other wall in the baby's room.  As you can see by the empty frames, it is awaiting some cute pictures from after she is born.  This is the conversation I had with my husband upon showing him the newly arranged room:  

Nathan:  "It looks like someone vomited purple in here."

Brenda:  "Oh, you be quiet.  I like it."

Nathan:  "I didn't say I didn't like it.  It's cute."

Gosh, I don't know why I didn't understand how much he likes it - I mean, the word vomit says it all...

Common Sense? You're Kidding.

Nathan found this blog post made by a former professor, which I found interesting and well-written.

http://warp.byu.edu/site/comment/reply/117

This is what I think about it:

Hallelujah.  I don't even know what to say because this post says it all.  I am only 29, and our government's 'finger in every pot' habits already exhaust, annoy, and frustrate me.  Ctl+Alt+Del full steam ahead!  

P.S.  Can I just tell you how well-funded our retirement would be if we were in charge of our own Social Security withholding?  Even if we could guarantee full disbursement of what we are entitled to?  As for now, we completely discount Social Security funding when making projections for our later years, and sadly, have chosen to consider that as "gravy," taking the dim but financially conservative view that they May or May Not fix the system by the end of 40 years.  Just the tip of the iceberg, friends.

Disappearing Digits

I lost visual contact with my feet earlier this week.  Farewell, toes.  I'll see you in October.  

Flicked off

A word about today's title:  when I was little, I used to think that if someone showed you their favorite offensive finger, they were 'flicking you off.'

I saw this on a friend's blog, and I had to do a Flickr collage. It's really fun! Just answer the quiz below and search for each of the words or phrases on Flickr. Using only the images that appear on the first page (I cheated a little bit), select your favorite image, paste the URL's into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows), and you're done!

Here are the questions. . .

What is your first name? (Brenda)
What is your favorite food? (bread)
What high school did you attend? (Mountain View High School)
What is your favorite color? (red)
Who is your celebrity crush? (Colin Firth.  I love me some P&P.)
Favorite drink? (Slurpee)
Dream vacation? (London)
Favorite dessert? (boysenberry cobbler)
What do you want to be when you grow up? (the fun grandma)
What do you love most in life? (husband)
One word to describe you? (talkative)
Your Flickr name? (I don't have one)

First Day of School

As per tradition, these are our first day of school Porch Pictures. Aren't they super cute in their brand new clothes?  They picked them out themselves - I had dresses for my first day of school until 5th grade, when I decided it was dorky to wear a dress.  I didn't want to force Cassidy into dorkiness, so I gave her a choice (and checked it twice) but she insisted that she wanted a new dress to start school.  Braden didn't get to choose a new dress - boys only get to choose between a new shirt, a new shirt, or ... a new shirt.  

My brother jokingly asked if I was the kind of mom who cries sending kids off to school.  Nope, pretty sure I'm not. 

However, neither are they the type to be anxious either.  Both of them denied being worried yesterday, and both had faces lit up with excitement when we asked what they thought about school starting the next day.  

Braden started kindergarten and Cassie began 3rd grade.  They both came back with glowing reports about their fun new teachers.

Becca wanted in on the photo action, and wasn't to be denied.  Sorry to say, the way her birthday falls, it will still be a l-o-n-g time until she gets to have a first day of school picture.

I swear they taste different

Can someone please explain the allure of stuck-together pieces of cereal?  I have spent the last week picking out the Siamese cereal from the boxes of my kids' Froot Loops and Golden Grahams and snacking on them dry.  I can't figure out why they taste better.