ME: what I know for sure

So, here's what I know for sure. If you know me well, you know I am not the "surest" person on everything. I tend to hem and haw, asking everyone's opinion before I create my own and still I might change. I have nothing on eating crow and chaning my mind! But here is what I DO know for sure...

Disclaimer: Okay so they are NOT in order of what I love most, just slapped down lickity-split. (Cec, that is a word I don’t say enough, lickity-split! LOL!) This is besides anything truly important like my family or my religion, etc. Those are a mother-flippin given for darn sake).

I love Oprah (especially for inventing the phrase “What I know for sure”). I love her because she cares and it shows. She’s genuine – how do I know? – my gut tells me so, and he’s never wrong! She’s real, she struggles with weight (even more real), she’s funny. She has class. Yes friends – I LOVE OPRAH and proud to say so. I don’t watch her show very often but when I do I love her.

I love scrapbooking. Correction………I love reading scrapbook magazines/books and buying scrapbook stuff, and organizing scrapbook stuff, etc. And some day I may just love scrapbooking! But I do know I love, love LOVE getting my 6 issues of Simple Scrapbooks Magazine every year. That makes me so superduper happy it’s borderline embarrassing! But….scrapbooking or being part of the world of it has made me a better photographer and person. The first one is simple to understand but HOW you ask for the latter? Because being a scrapbooker is actually a lifestyle really – if you think about it. The basic drive is to STOP, take a picture, tell the story about the picture and preserve all of that artistically (the last part not being a given but a hopeful). It has made me never, ever take anything for granted. From the way my little guy smells to the reason I know my husband was the best and the first right decision I made. It’s a beautiful thing. I have learned to slow down to take the pictures and breathe in the good moments…to slow down and say “Hey this is good stuff, I am a lucky duck!”……ahh yes. It’s a lifestyle alright and I love it. I am a better person for it and that’s something to love.

I love punctuation marks, especially these babies ( ) and these !!!!!!! Capital letters are always good. Yep those make me happy and I am proud I overuse them. It's me. Oh and by the way.....I don't care if I use them correctly - I use them for me and how I want...so there!!!!!!

When I was a full time stay at home mama I loved NAP TIME Why?? Because even though the house always needed to be cleaned at this time, it was Charlotte’s nap time therefore mommy free time (confined to the house of course!). But still I could nap, be my true internet junkie self, read, watch a movie (okay don’t get the wrong idea because that’s really rare, but I liked to know I could!) talk on the phone and (gasp!) have a full sentence!!!!!!!!! I swear I will need “communications interrupted” therapy after my kids learn some communications manners and not to interrupt all the time. Sheesh!

I love fresh strawberries, Straus Family Organic plain whole milk yogurt, and honey in one of John’s big frosted glass cup/mug things – for breakfast that is. Oh yah, it’s been “my thing” for years and for a while there I ate it every morning for a year straight. I don’t know how it started but my day is better when it’s started that way. Okay so actually I don’t “start” my day that way per say, I eat it in the car while I drive the chickens to school. Because I can’t seem to afford the 5 seconds to sit down and eat it like a normal person. And I kind of like it that way! I can totally see me doing that until the day I die, eating the concoction that is, not the kid driving thing. Although……

I love BOB strollers. I have purchase literally 5 different stroller and the BOB double stroller was the one and only one that made me smile every time I pushed it. I swear it made me a better mom. I WANTED to go out vs. not really wanting to push a bus-of-a-stroller while chasing two small children who refused to sit in thing. Sorry, I started to rant. But seriously - if you are shopping for a stroller, go BOB.

I love having my family so close to me. Close in love and close in actual proximity. I am so friggin, flippin, gosh darn lucky! I have everyone I could need (except Johanna) right around me. Cereza could stand to move a little closer and Jen Babbitt too, but other than those two – I am a happy camper-e-no.

I love Johanna. Like a mad dog. I just am in love her. She said this one thing about 10 or more years ago and I will NEVER forget it because it was one of the nicest compliments, she said "Allie, the reason I love you is that you are like home to me. You just feel like home." That is the way I feel about her too, she brings back my childhood in all the right ways (I know I wasn’t supposed to touch on actual people – but I couldn’t help myself. She popped into my mind and I went with it. This is not to say I don’t have a long list of people, and don’t worry – I am sure you are on it, but I just had to…..)

I love my energy surges. (like the one I am having right now) If you know me well enough, you know I have energy surges every 2-4 weeks where I stay up all into the wee hours of the morning. Perfectly chipper and raring to go. Why? Why? Why? You might ask. Donno. But what I do know is I relish them. For someone who battles exhaustion at 8pm on the average day the energy I have at 12:30 in the morning once in a while is my hope that some day I will be able to regularly stay up past 9:30 like a normal adult.

I love Ipods. Because they are just plain COOL! Imagine…….you posses the power to play the music you want, just the songs YOU want to hear, categorize, organize and play them where ever. And have these songs be stored on some small, portable thing the size of your cell phone that can literally go anywhere with you. The shower, for a jog, in you car, in your house. It’s a beautiful thing.

I love emailing, and writing about my life and then sharing it with others. Not because I am obsessed with me. No actually, quite the opposite. I love to share my life because I am so interested in yours. I want to know everything about you. What you think about, your problems, your pleasures, the funny things your kids say, your secrets, your dreams, all about your childhood, your favorite flavor of ice cream. IT ALL. I want to know all about you, therefore I figure you are the same as me and want to know all about me! Okay and so, even though I know people are not weird and obsessed with others like I am – I guess I figure one day you WILL come around (you’re bound to) and then you will be so happy I have documented all of that data for you in an easy to read format with tabs and chapters and categories!! LOL

Which brings me to my next point….I LOVE ORGANIZATION!!! In all it’s glory, shapes and forms. Anything that promotes it or helps you achieve this goal is a friend of mine. From the shop “The Containter Store” to “get organized” books. I want to know all about it, how others do it, and be the beacon and epitome of it. I am not all these things, but this not about reality – this is about what I would like right?

I love a good font!!!!!!!!! It makes me sort of giddy. Let's leave it at that.

I love a put-together women. I will give you a break – this one is easy to miss because I don’t spend money on my clothes nor the time to fix myself up. But I love nothing more than seeing a women with her hair done, make-up on (as long as it's natural-ish looking) cute clothes and shoes, nails done, cute purse, and a happy disposition. I really admire people that have a knack for it and make the time. I always think "hats off to you!"

Cool paper clips. Lame I know, but I love them all the same.

Pottery Barn. If you don’t know what I am talking about – GET WITH IT! Pottery Barn is a work of perfection. A furniture catalog that is it’s own style, has a large following, is expensive, but just down right inspires and moves my soul. When someone says, “I want a Pottery Barn House” if you speak that language you totally get it. It’s clean, it’s simple but not sterile (yuck!), not modern or traditional per say, it’s elegant but not snotty or pretentious, it’s warm but not cluttered, it’s classic, it’s hip but not trendy. IT'S PERFECT and it’s totally me. The house of my dreams would be filled with Pottery Barn furniture. ( Oh and lots of pitter-pattering of a large gaggle of children ((I mean lots and lots)), lots of amazing pictures of my amazing family and friends, lots of good warm food, lots of talking, and lots of love.)

I love my Ford Expedition. Yep it guzzles gas by the gallons, it’s huge and loves to hide old rotting bottles under its seats, yep it can be hard to park (at least for lame people like me). But I LOVE MY TRUCK. John and I bought it when I found out I was pregnant with Charlotte and it is one of the handful of things that I did not encounter buyers remorse with. I am plagued by that.

I love my camera and lens. Sweet, sweet dear, lovely camera and heavenly lens. John got me started cuz a client was selling one brand new - my orignial Canon 10D. We got a smokin' deal, and then I recently upgraded. I love it almost as much as life itself. Okay so not really – but almost! Especially after John bought me my first good lens Christmas of ‘04, and then made me actually use it spring of ‘06. I can honestly say I take pictures I am proud of now and it makes my life SO much happier and better. It is amazing how much it has improved my quality of life. That is hands down the best money we ever spent. And would be one of the first things I grabbed (besides the kids of course) if the house were to catch on fire.

I love to write. From recommendations on baby gear, to my kids journals, to an email, to this. I love to write. Who knew!!!!!!!

I love a good quote. I have a lot of favorites but my most recent fav is Stacy Juilian’s “I scrapbook because it makes me a better person, and I want to leave better than I came.” From Cathy Zielske’s book “Clean & Simple the sequel.

I love scrapbook books. I know, I know, you are saying "Yah we know, you had a whole section on it remember?" But know - this one actually deserves it's own section. I love idea books. But especially anything that Cathy Zielske writes. I have read her first book, Clean and Simple scrapbooking like 10 times cover-to-cover. I actually get great, great pleasure just from reading it and dreaming about all the cool stuff I will some day do. And I am not bothered at all about the "some day" part. One of many things Cathy taught me. Little does she know...
I love my bed. Covers, mattress and stupid throw pillows that make me feel better than everybody else (ha!). I love it all…….and speaking of which. It’s time to hit the hay.

I love my bed. Covers, mattress and pillows. It's so comfty…….and speaking of which. It’s time to hit the hay.