Tuesday, March 24, 2009

(Almost) Totally Random Thoughts. And a Contest.

Did you know there is a new book coming out called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Really. I'm having a hard time comprehending on just how many levels this is totally wrong. The author is giving full credit for having co-written this book with Jane Austen. Apparently most of the original language is preserved. The additions will be obvious as they will involve blood and mayhem and well, the undead. It really might be true that all of the great books have been written. Any other aspiring author is just wasting her time.

I had my recurring dream last night. It hasn't happened for some time because I haven't been school teaching. Only this time, it started off in an entire different direction. I was the mother of five: a fact I only realized some time in to the dream. The only two kids that I recognized were the youngest two who were the same as my oldest two. I didn't recognize my husband either, though it is probably safe to say that he was off stage the entire time. The oldest of these children was a horrible boy who shared an uncanny resemblance to Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's gene pool. He shouted at me about how I'd never been there for him. I felt terrible, but wanted to explain that I'd only recently become aware of his existence. Instead I shouted right back at him, using some pretty choice language. (Actually, lately, I've been often dreaming that I am shouting at my children.) The argument occurred right before a major ward activity and I was busy stringing fairy lights along wires on the ceiling and couldn't deal with the demon-child. Then I found out he was sluffing school. Eventually, after the party, I made it to the school (which was my old high school, but not), only to be told that I was actually still enrolled there, had missed most of my classes in the last year and was in danger of not graduating, particularly because my calculus grades were so low. I was also expected to remember my old combination lock so that I could find my books. Then Padawan told me he was hungry. Oh, wait, that last sentence really happened.

The recurring part is only the last bit--about the schooling thing. It is very common for me to have dreams about incomplete credits (always calculus), poor grades and general panic until I wake up. At least this time I wasn't naked.

I believe I made a perfect cup of hot chocolate this morning. I start with a little bit of hot water and add sugar and cocoa--light on the sugar, heavy on the cocoa. I like it slightly bitter. I add skim milk for the last 2/3 of the liquid and get it nice and hot. Today I had a bit of heavy cream left over in the fridge and added a tablespoon or two of that. If not for that horrible dream I'd have wanted to get right back into bed.

To make breakfast for the kiddos today I had to get fresh dishes out of the dishwasher. My dishwasher is not the brightest appliance in the house and cannot seem to understand that it is supposed to wash AND dry the dishes. It does one or the other. Sometimes the soap doesn't come out, but the dishes come out dry with every bit of food within a three foot radius stuck to them in gritty particles. Today was a no-dry morning. I am completely okay with putting them away wet. Plantboy dries them all. Of course, he is highly efficient. He can dry and put them away faster than I can just put them away.

And my last random thought concerns the Easter Bunny. I just can't do it. Santa yes. He is nice and cozy and the stories about him are fun and he is just so human. But I cannot bring myself to create the magic of a huge freaky bunny for my kids. I just feel too foolish. I realize that to refrain while many other children do get this sick and wrong visitor may undermine my kids' Santa-belief but I think I am okay with that. I figure this was my last year with Jedi Knight and the whole Santa thing anyway. He is just too inquisitive. Santa is lost in the details.

Now, all of these random thoughts are going to be held together by a contest.

Why a contest? What is significant about March 24?

Not a thing. It is just that I'm absolutely curious to know who is out there. I found out this week that a few more people are reading this blog. People I know, and some that I don't know. A couple of these people have been reading for some time. I just want to know who is out there. I've noticed that people running contests will often triple their comments during a contest because everybody loves free stuff.

Here are the rules for entering and potentially winning the AWESOME prize: You must comment and answer at least one of the questions listed on the bottom of this post. If you answer more than one question you get more than one entry. I'll even give you an extra entry if it is the first time you've commented here. The second rule is that if you enter then you must send an address where your AWESOME prize can be mailed.

1. What is the weirdest book title you have every seen/read? Or, if you could warp a classic, what title would you mangle? (Like Moby Dick Cheney: A Memoir)

2. What do you think my recurring dream means? Or which dream of your own can you not shake?

3. How do you make the perfect cup of hot chocolate?

4. Do you put the dishes away wet or dry?

5. To Easter Bunny or not to Easter Bunny, that is the question. (No, really, that IS the last question. There is just no question mark?)

I must admit to having mixed motives here. I would love to get a 30-comment post, even if your reasons for commenting and entirely mercenary. Hey, tell yourself, "If its free, its for me."

35 comments:

Scully said...

As far as the Easter Bunny goes, my parents never did it and it never had an impact on my belief in Santa Claus. We had a great FHE tradition the Monday before Easter where we dyed eggs and made up our Easter baskets together and that was that. And my parents also made a point of not having Santa bring the big presents, but rather a surprise that might not have been on our list but was fun. So I don't think not having the Easter Bunny visit your house is a problem at all.

And since it is rainy and cold outside and I am without a car these days, I will answer another question. I think your recurring school dream is just your subconscious's way of working through feeling either ill-prepared or overwhelmed. My recurring dream (nightmare?) is vampires. And the bonus part is that if I someone 'lose' in the dream, I start the whole dream over verbatim for as many times as it takes to beat said vampires. I always have this dream when I am stressed out and feeling abandoned. Good times. And even if I don't have time to comment, I check in on your blog daily.

tnralvords said...

I read, I read!

Kim said...

I admit I am a lurker. I believe I found you via Nemesis - I think I found your comment on her "fluff" post intriguing and wanted to know more about you. And I put the dishes away wet. Unless of course they sit in the dishwasher for 3 days until I put them away (I currently have a full load sitting at home waiting for me).

t. said...

1. My husband had a book he read and reread called The Self Aware Universe- I teased him by calling it The Self Centered Universe, Self Conscious Universe, Self Absorbed -you get the idea- I cracked myself up.

2. When I'm very stressed- I dream that I'm getting several kids ready for church, we're late and I am going through huge boxes of little patent leather shoes, none of which have a mate, trying to find a pair for a 4 year old who keeps curling her toes when I try them on her to see if they fit or I'm digging through giant piles of laundry searching for slips and tights and matching socks all the while trying to figure out what I'm going to wear. Many of my siblings have this same dream- because it actually happened.
My favorite funny recurring dream is where my family and I are good friends with the Depps -as in Johnny and his family.

3. I like Ghirardelli double chocolate- sometimes I add rasberry syrup or pumpkin spice.

4. Sometimes we use the dishes straight from the washer before I get them put away -then the wet/dry question isn't an issue.

5. When my first two boys were little Jeff and I decided we would not do the Easter Bunny thing- we sat the boys down and explained that the Easter Bunny they'd been hearing about from friends was just a fun story, but we would still get them Easter eggs and candy. They were fine with that as long as they still got candy. Jeff and I felt very progressive. Then the day before Easter both of the boys started talking about the Easter bunny coming tomorrow and could they put out carrots and could they build a trap with Legos and try to catch him. It was like we had never said anything. They were so cute and excited we just went with it. So the Easter Bunny comes to our house- but he and the Tooth Fairy are not as reliable as Santa- they get here when they get here. After several years of Santa centered Christmas, my sister and her husband decided to have a more Christ centered Christmas and so told their kids there wasn't a Santa and the presents were from them. They had Christmas and did lots of service which they felt good about, but it just wasn't the same or as fun. So the next year they told the kids they had made a big mistake and Santa was real! Their kids were thrilled. They still do all the service but Santa comes.

I enjoy your blog very much. It's the first one I've read by someone I know.

FoxyJ said...

1. I'm personally not a big fan of that kids' book about the 'farting dog'. Not a nice title in my opinion.

2. I have recurring dreams all the time where I just can't get somewhere. Like I'm trying to walk to school or I'm trying to get ready for church and all kinds of crazy obstacles come up. It's really annoying--I think it's my stress about not being able to finish stuff.

3. I like my hot cocoa European-style, where you use whole milk and then melt some bittersweet chocolate and a bit of cornstarch in it. Then it gets nice and thick and delicious. It's not something I make every day though.

3. I like to dry off the dishes before I put them away.

4. We never did the Easter bunny either when I was growing up and we don't do it now. When I was a kid Easter was about getting a new dress for church, dying eggs that we would turn into deviled eggs for our special lunch the next day, and maybe a bit of candy. With our kids that's mostly how we've kept things--I don't like the fact that so many holidays get turned into a time for kids to get gifts. My kids get a few gifts for their birthdays and Christmas, but we try to keep our lives from focusing too much on stuff. They have fun dying eggs and during the last few years we've lived somewhere with an egg hunt, but that's generally it. They get new church outfits that will last them for the spring/summer, and that's about it. I want to keep Easter Sunday focused on Christ.

Kimberly said...

I don't have to put wet dishes away anymore after a random splurge last summer. It was totally out of character to buy a new dishwasher when the old one was still functional, but I just couldn't take wet dishes and soap residue anymore. I was really happy when a junk-man came by and swiped the old dishwasher off our curb.

We do the bunny thing, but I try not to hype it up. It's just for fun.

Debbie Barr said...

First off, I must say, are you aware of the Pride and Prejudice Zombie movie coming out? Elton John is somehow involved.

Second, I wouldn't worry about the Easter Bunny thing. My parents never did the Easter Bunny or much with the Tooth Fairy, but I believed in Santa for years. Well, until I sort of figured it out and asked my Mom. And proceeded to bawl for half an hour after she told me the truth.

Probably not what you wanted to hear.

Janssen said...

I put away my dishes as soon as the dishwasher finishes, so it's normally a little drippy, but not WET.

Perfect cup of hot chocolate has creamer in it. Flavored creamer. Creme Brulee creamer.

chris w said...

I would comment even without a contest. :) But dude, free stuff!

1. I couldn't think of anyting clever as a book title mangle, but Foxy J's comment about the Farting Dog made me think of the book: "Everybody Poops". It is such a horrible title, but it's cute and a great gift for someone who is potty training - or really for someone who is having problems with THAT part of potty training.

2. It is no surprise to me at all that you and I have the exact same recurring dream. Mine always involves being unprepared for a test/performance/graduation and usually involves me finding out I have missed an entire course that I forgot I had signed up for or that I have a major part in the performance and don't know my part. Also, it usually occurs in a place of my past such as that same high school.
I think it means that you and I stress over the same things and that while we are sleeping our brain works through our present stress by relating it to past stress. And that we are the biggest science geeks ever.

3. A. Go to 7-11
B. Get a hot chocolate
C. Load it up with hazel-nut and irish-cream flavored creamers.

4. I don't know why, but I HATE unloading the washer. I don't mind loading as much. My sweet husband usually unloads for me. However, if I end up doing it they have not only dried by machine, but usually sat there for a while as well just for good measure.

5. I love doing the easter basket and coloring eggs and going to easter egg hunts - but interestingly, I've never given credit to the bunny. We just do it. I have been excited to do the easter basket full of eggs that each have a "Chris centered" easter item in them that tells the atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection story to focus on that this year.

Good luck on 30 comments. Gooooo free stuff! Yay!

emandtrev said...

Sign me up for the contest@ Knowing that you've been there, you'll hopefully find my answer to your first questions somewhat amusing. A coworker in Houston once hooked me up with a book (after hearing me talk of the place with such love and adoration) called:

1. Slocum and the Bear Lake Monster. (I'm chuckling to myself even as I type.)

And a couple others:

2. I've always had vivid, and sometimes downright strange, dreams. I think I can connect most of mine now to worry. Worrying that I didn't get something done, that I won't have enough time, that I'm forgetting something, yada, yada.

3. My perfect cup of hot chocolate is pretty darn close to yours. I use about 2/3 water and 1/3 milk with the cocoa. Add a dash of hazelnut creamer or syrup and I am in heeeeaaaven.

That is all. This may be my longest comment ever. :)

Doreen said...

Dunkin' Donuts makes the best hot chocolate. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is just wrong. :p

chicagosapps said...

I have the same dream! Sometimes it's high school with the locker and all, sometimes it's college and I realize the final exam is tomorrow and I haven't attended all semester. And sometimes (as a nod to my teaching years) it's from the Junior high where I taught and I am late for class while I KNOW my class is wreaking havoc and possibly even breaking laws and I am going to get in SO much trouble and probably fired.

Since I did graduate in Psychology, I pondered these recurring dreams a lot and decided that I had them because I like to be in control and manage things. Why is it one of my greatest fears that I have forgotten something and will be held accountable for it?

Also, I think your demon child you didn't know about kind of falls into that category. I sometimes have the dream that I had a baby but forgot it at the hospital or somewhere, but I don't tell anybody and try to figure out a way to get the baby back without anyone knowing I am such an idiot.

Easter bunny is kind of lame. And scary. We don't do it, it has nothing to do with the resurrection. We DO talk about why bunnies are a symbol of spring, along with flowers and birds.

Kimberly Bluestocking said...

Potential book title knock-off: The Scarlet Better, about a woman ostracized from her poker group.

As a new missionary, I had recurring nightmares that I couldn't apply the Commitment Pattern correctly (I'm dating myself there). I would try and try to resolve someone's concerns or get them to make a commitment, and I just couldn't do it. It was incredibly frustrating. I started literally praying not to dream about it, and that helped.

I make cocoa by adding 1 cup hot milk to 1T cocoa + 1.5T sugar + a dash of salt. I may have to try it Foxy-style with a bit of cornstarch.

I put my dishes away dry, no thanks to our washer.

When I was a kid the Bunny came to our house, but he wasn't a big deal like Santa. I don't feel greatly motivated to introduce him to my kids, but they'll probably hear about him anyway and we'll just go with it.

Sweet Joys said...

This is my first comment EVER!! I don't care about the contest, I just want you to know I'm a devoted blog reader and love you to pieces. I hate to comment, because I fear I will sound dumb or uninteresting, but here it goes...

I have a reoccuring dream about being back at my old job before I had kids and having to pick up where I left off, except now I have kids that I'm trying to take care of and I can't remember how to do every part of my job the way I used to...I left that job on less than perfect terms, so I really hate that dream.

Ryan teases me about how chocolatey my hot chocolate is...the ratio of cocoa to water is embarrassing! And I always add a little bit of milk or cream on the top.

My new "energy efficient" dishwasher doesn't have a dry cycle. I hate it...my dishes are never dry and sometimes not even clean. I miss my water wasting, old dishwasher. Man, that thing could clean! Technology is not getting better, in my opinion.

We really play down the Easter Bunny at our house. He comes, but brings a church book or CD, and calls it good. We try to have several FHEs on Christ leading up to Easter. Grandma Geneal puts on a huge Easter egg hunt at her house that the kids really love, and we are OK with that...traditions are a great thing.

Anyway, love your blog...love you...may or may not comment much in the future, so I'd better let you know now!!

Sherry said...

1. Taking Charge of Your Fertility. It's a book about birth control without hormones. The irony is that I am completely unable to take control of my fertility (or infertility, rather) WITHOUT the help of hormones.

2. My recurring dream is similar to yours. I've been enrolled in a class all semester, but I don't know it until the last few weeks of classes. Also, dreams about not graduating from high school.

3. I love hot chocolate with whipped cream on the top.

4. Dry.

5. No Easter Bunny. I grew up with it, but I could very easily drop it. Or else the Easter Bunny brings some candy and a few nicely died eggs and puts them in the basket. No hunting.

I thought of you when I kept my mouth closed during some terrible political "discussions" at my highly-conservative work-place this week.

Sunnie said...

i'll just answer #4- sometimes i put them away a little wet. it's probably bad, but oh well. not soaking, but sometimes the ones from the dishwasher aren't completely dry. is that bad???

Anonymous said...

Hey, STM!
You already know that I have the same reoccuring dream--however for years I had one where I found out that my husband and I were never properly married (some technical mistake) and here we were with four kids and 20 years behind us. Opps! Maybe it was about guilt because a REAL marriage should be alot harder work, and alot less fun!

The perfect cup of hot chocolate comes from the hispanic section of Wal-mart. Abulita brand. It is a hard little wedge. Properly made, you melt it into hot milk and then whip it until frothy. I usually skip that part but it is still terrific. Christmas hot chocolate made with candy canes rates high too.

Jeff McBride said...

I'm always up for a contest.
1.) My daughter is into the book Pinkalicious - about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and ends up turning pink.
2.) Dreams are tough. I think it has to do with our subconscious dealing with our insecurities.
3.) Stephen's candycane hot chocolate is the best.
4.) Don't care as long as it's coming out of the dishwasher. I hate to wash dishes by hand.
5.) We do the Easter Bunny. Can't beat watching the kids running around looking for chocolate eggs.

Anyway love the blog.

FoxyJ said...

When I worked at the library years ago we kept a running list of the wackiest romance book titles. It was awesome--I wish I had it somewhere. Something like "The Shiek's New Lover" and "A Cowboy for Christmas". Terrible titles.

Z. Marie said...

1. I've always been bothered by the Stinky Cheese Man. Not that I've ever read it. Perhaps that's why I've been given the opportunity to have a second child, to right that wrong.
4. I put the dishes away dry. But that often means having to dry them, as the dishwasher rarely cooperates.
5. I say no Easter bunny. Yes, it's creepy, but it also detracts from the holiday. (You can argue Santa has the spirit of Christmas. What does the Easter bunny have to do with the resurrection?)

chosha said...

1. There's a book I bought called Never Gymless. It's a training manual for people who want to train at home. But before the author decided to go for a more marketable title, it was called 'The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness.' Awesome!

2. The dream...I think your teaching was your first child and now the younger ones are taking your attention away from him. One day you'll go back, but you're not sure if you'll remember everything.

3. Dark cooking chocolate - generic brand is fine. Trust me on this, not milk chocolate; dark, even if you're not usually into it. Heat milk on the stove and break off pieces of the chocolate and add them in, stirring all the while. Taste it from time to time to find out if it's chocolately enough yet. A whole block for enough milk to make 5 or so hot chocolates is fine. This kind of hot chocolate is just so delicious and rich.

4. I've never understood why people dry dishes when, hello, they dry all by themselves.

5. The thing I like about the Easter Bunny is that he just leaves chocolate eggs. No super stalkerish Santa who 'sees you when you're sleeping' and decides your fate on the Nice or Naughty list. Would I bother making Easter Bunny real? Maybe not. An Easter egg hunt is still as fun if humans hid the eggs.

Unknown said...

Favorite hot chocolate is Stephens Hot Cocoa, milk chocolate made with milk.

calmrapids said...

2. I think you have a lot of anxiety about getting things done right. School/Teaching and Mothering are a big part of your life so that is the visual your dream takes to portray your subconscious speed bumps.

3. I use my Choco-Motion hot chocolate maker. It was a Christmas gift a couple of years ago. I use skim milk--not water, half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate mix. I put it all in the machine, push the button and it makes it the perfect temp and mixes it quite nicely. It takes about 10 minutes. Delicious! I think it's a great invention.

4. wet

5. Easter Bunny is not a big deal here--the kids know it's not real but they like the surprise in the morning. We keep the traditions small and simple. We color eggs together on Sat night--lots of creativity comes out then! Chris likes to hide the baskets so we don't get into them before church. We tried a Saturday Easter and it just didn't work for us.

I'll have to think about #1.

Brooke said...

Okay, okay, I'll come out of my lurking quietude. But not because I need a prize! It's more that I am hoping to help you reach your goal of 30 comments! I have loved reading your blog over the last couple of months!

So... I actually love a white-chocolate steamer from Caffe Ibis here in Logan. Delish! So that's kind of not answering your question. To MAKE my perfect cup of hot cocoa, I like cheap Swiss Miss. I know. So lame. If I'm feeling particularly festive, I stir it with a candy cane.

Also, we don't have a dishwasher. That's right. So our dishes are always put away very dry, after they have sat in the drainer. I read somewhere that letting your dishes air dry is more sanitary than drying them with a towel. So I find comfort in attributing my dishes out in the drainer to trying to do what's best for my family. Ha! It has nothing to do with laziness. Of course.

And regarding the Easter Bunny. Well, I have never thought too much about the Easter Bunny. I don't think we make a very big deal of him around here. If we did, I think my boys would be pretty alarmed. I don't think we've ever talked much about where all those eggs and candy come from... Hmmmm. Maybe this is something we need to address at our house. Or not.

I have no idea how to interpret your dream. But I do have very bizarre dreams when I am pregnant. ??? Could that be it? :)

Unknown said...

You're almost there! I think you'll get your 30, no problem.

1. 'Old Man and the Seahorses from Atlantis whose riders resemble a tribe of Jokers' (nemesis of Batman)[why so serious?]

2.Your recurring dream is so eerily close to mine, that I'd swear you were the fly on the wall of my old high school. When you find out what it means, post that. It'll be therapeutic for me, too.

3.Haven't found perfection yet, but I'm happy settling for 2% milk, heated, with Mormon food storage hot cocoa mix, and a dollop of REAL whipped cream on top.

4.I don't put dishes away. I leave that task for my minions. But we don't run the heated dry mode, so if they're on top of it, they go away wet. Usually they sit there for many hours before someone notices that they need putting away. Then they're dry.

5.NO NO NO to the EB. My four year old just asked me that question today. I had NO regrets telling him that it's all pretend. I'm ready to dump SC too, but won't do it until he's ready. I've been doing the SC gig for so long, I'm ready to move on.

6.Because I must tell you that the plethora of blog material crammed into one post makes for an entertaining and filling helping of blog cruising. Thanks.

Courtney said...

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Great name and a great read.

Christy said...

WOW that's a lot of comments.

1. War & Peas - could be about some kind of amazing food fight

2. I don't know what that dream means but I have the same dream (the being back in high school part) a lot - very stressful

3. The perfect cup of hot coco involves purchasing peppermint hot coco from Williams Sonoma and making it according to the directions

4. I run the dishwasher when we are sleeping and the dishes are usually dry by morning... I think putting them away wet is asking for mold and bacteria to grow on your dishes.

5. We tell the kids to go in the other room while the easter bunny hides the eggs. The kids know we are hiding them though. If it was up to me we wouldn't have pretended there was a Santa either. I never believed and I don't feel like I was jipped. I felt respected.

mstanger said...

I'll bite, since you're almost to 30.

1) Not terribly weird but creative: "The Brothers K" which combines The Brothers Karamazov and baseball strikeouts (Ks). One of the best books I've read in recent years.

2) No psychoanalysis expertise here, but I have a weird one myself that I can't figure out. I'm in some sort of presidential assassination prevention class, and we're at Ford's Theatre on a fieldtrip, hiding up in the ceiling while we watch a performance, when the instructor announces that there is someone who would like to meet the class members and thank us. In walks a figure in a patchwork dress and a big Snoopy Head (like from Snoopy on Ice). The instructor says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States, Mr. George Bush!" (I first began having the dream during Sr.'s presidency). The figure pops off the Snoopy head, and sure enough, it is the president, who warmly thanks us and explains that he uses this "disguise" when he goes out in public to avoid unwanted attention.

3) I don't know how he makes it, but Walter Nassi's Hot Chocolate at Cucina Toscana in SLC is BY FAR the best I have ever had. Gourmet Italian at its best.

4) I have a dishwasher that dries things for me, but inevitably I make a mistake or two on loading and end up with some water collecting in a pot lid, which I then sloosh on the floor during unloading and have to clean up.

5) The Easter Bunny, being a good Christian Bunny, has been obliging enough to come to our house on Friday night to allow all of us to focus on the Atonement and Resurrection on Sunday. This also allows the kids quite a bit of time to recover from their Sugar gorge, and avoid chocolate stains on their Easter dresses.

Sherry said...

Is it cheating if I leave a second comment? THIRTY! Yea!

Science Teacher Mommy said...

Hah! Sherry, I was trying to get thirty unique comments and not include myself. I ALMOST made it. I haven't given up hope. Maybe one day.

Your dreams make you all as certifiably as nuts as I am, though I have to say that Mike's is the most bizarre. Particularly that it is a RECURRING dream.

You are also a bunch of chocoholics. Once again, I find myself not alone: this time my solidarity lies in the fact that so many share my love for the five hundred calorie beverage.

I put the dishes away wet; we go through them too fast for germs to build up. Though a petri dish experiment might be interesting to run right here in my kitchen.

And thanks for confusing me even further on my Easter Bunny tradition!

Slim said...

1. i wish i were more of an avid reader -- not enough time i guess. My second grader reads more than i do. I will have to say "How to Hug a Porcupine." Good book, though

2. I think your recurring dream means you need less hot chocolate. Maybe too much caffiene? :)

3. Open a bag of hot chocolate mix with the marshmallows and add water. I know, I know -- but no time!

4. Wet of course. It's a time thing.

5. We Easter Bunny, but he brings them an Easter Egg Hunt where each egg has a scripture in it telling the story of the last week of the Savior's life. He teaches the kids about the symbols of New Life which are found in their easter baskets -- eggs, flowers, baby chicks, etc.

I read every post even if I don't have time to leave a comment! :)

Melanie said...

1. I can't think of a good answer for this one, but I actually think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies looks interesting. I may actually read it.

2. I frequently have dreams about my teeth falling out or having really crooked or yellow teeth. I've read that this is a symbol of fear of loss of control, which usually makes sense in the context in which I have these dreams. Also, I'm frequently complimented on my teeth, so in addition to the psychological interpretation about loss of control, there's a literal fear associated with this dream as well.

3. Melt dark chocolate, mix with cream. A really rich indulgence!

4. I think using the drying function is an unnecessary use of energy (plus things tend to fall down and melt in my dishwasher). I'll usually-but not always-wipe the dishes off with a towel before putting them away.

5. I really liked the idea in April's Ensign about putting gospel related items in Easter baskets. But that's doesn't answer your question about the Easter bunny. I don't think I'd come right out and tell my kids that there's no Easter bunny, but I'd certainly downplay it in favor of focusing on Christ and the real reason behind the holiday.

Alissa said...

OK, I'll end my lurking. I started reading your blog because you were always posting on KimBlue's. I think you actually posted on our blog a couple of times too. I love your writing; it always gives me something to think about, which I love.

1. I thought of "Everybody Poops" too. Although in a year or so, I may really dig it.

2. I'm a professional musician and I always dream that I either forgot my instrument or showed up late to the performance.

About Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, it's getting some really good buzz! Who would have thought?

Cathy said...

I can't completely take credit for these since I just used Google after having my brain fail at finding awful book titles among the many stored there. How about this?
"People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It" by Gary Leon Hill
Or there's a great list on Amazon complete with book covers: "Strange But True Book Titles". Some of these are rather risque. The cover illustrations add an interesting dimension. I would never be interested in a book called "Porn for Women" except it has a picture of a man vacuuming on the cover...but I still am afraid to look further!

2. I had a dream repeatedly as a child about being smothered by something both incredibly heavy and very soft. It was always dark in the dream but somehow I knew the thing cutting off my air supply was yellow. I hated yellow for years.

3. Hot chocolate usually makes me sick to my stomach. It's not worth it.

4. Dry. I seriously didn't think there was any other way to do it and freaked out when my Chinese roommate put scantily washed dishes dripping wet into our cupboards. It's reassuring to know that putting them away wet isn't a national characteristic of Chinese people (you'd think I would have learned this from my Chinese-American stepfamily!)

5. No Easter Bunny. No Candy either. My kids search for eggs filled with plastic animals. They're young enough to like this.

Science Teacher Mommy said...

What a way to end; Cathy your responses were probably the very most interesting on the whole list.