It's Time For Farm Babies!

It is almost time! Time for for Farm Babies at the Minnesota Zoo! Starting April 1st they open up the Wells Fargo Farm and with it the yearly Farm Babies exhibit. Baby pigs, rabbits, cows, sheep, and GOATS! All available to see up close for the month of April! The farm is one of my favorite parts of the Zoo because while the animals are not exotic in any way, you can get up close with most of the animals in this area. Pet a cow, pat a horse, feed a goat, run from a chicken (really- they are freaky lookin). I mean look at this little guy, he is just so cute!

My Unassuming Sleep Positions?

In the past year I have developed some of the strangest sleeping habits.I have always tossed and turned in my sleep...okay flipped rather than tossed. I don't wake up in order to do it, I just flop over from my back onto my stomach. I am kind of a restless sleeper only I am sleeping so I don't notice the restless part:)
Yet this year my tossing and turning has reached new levels. Please refer to the diagrams below if you are a visual learner, or just because they are there. (the white and purple things are my multiple pillows, though I only show 3 here I have 5 regular sized ones and 1 body)

When i start out at bedtime I am on one side of my queen size bed, usually on my back (picture in the upper left), the next time I awake I usually find myself kiddy corner across the bed with my head approx. in the same location (picture in the upper right). That's not a big deal, I am just stretching out right? Just using up the extra leg room available in the bed. There is nothing wrong with that. It is the third position that I find myself in that baffles me. I proceed throughout the night to keep turning further and further to my right until my body is parallel to the pillows and and I am laying with my head (sometimes) on a pillow that I have twisted around to the side and with my feet all but hanging off the side of my bed (pictures are not to scale, duh). The only conclusion I have come to so far is that even in my sleep I am strange.

Some claim that your sleep position tells you something about your personality-

Sleep Position No. 1: Crouched in the fetal position: Shy and sensitive

Sleep Position No. 2: Soldier position flat on the back with arms at the sides: Quiet and reserved
Sleep Position No. 3: On the side with legs outstretched and arms down: Social and easy-going
Sleep Position No. 4: On the side with legs outstretched and arms outstretched: Suspicious
Sleep Position No. 5: Flat on the tummy with hands at the sides of the head: Brash and gregarious
Sleep Position No. 6: On the back with outstretched arms and legs: Unassuming and a good listener

Then I would have to put myself under No. 6 as far as my "style" of sleep. Do the descriptions fit me, yes but so do many of the others. Do I think the way I sleep describes some of my personality? I can see where the correlation would come in, when you fall asleep you are at your most vulnerable, and your most comfortable so ergo the way certain people fall asleep might have something to do with if they are shy, outgoing, calm or nervous people, but sometimes how I go to sleep just depends on how tired I was when I was reading a boring part of a book:)

Back in the Saddle Again

For the past two summers I have really slacked off as far as watching what I eat and exercising and have managed to gain back some of the weight that I had lost:( (about 10 pounds) This past week i made a concentrated effort to exercise and eat better and had some great results. Not only did I have more energy but I also lost 2lbs! Right now I am concentrating on just losing the 10 lbs to give myself a small goal, but my ultimate goal will be to lose another 40 lbs. Here we go!

The Strange Scars of Childhood

You ever have memories from childhood that aren't really bad, you just got mentally scarred by them anyway? Well when i was about 6 or 7 years old I went to stay with my Grannie Annie. She lived up north in Mn, and lived out in the woods. Everyday we would take a looonnng walk down to the main road to get her mail from their mail box, and every day we would pass one of these off to the side of the road up on some saw horses:

Well, for you city folk, this is a salt lick. They were using it on the side of the road to attract and keep deer in the area.

Animals will lick the block of salt (get it, salt lick) which gives them several nutrients. Usually animals find these deposits naturally but people put out these salt licks to attract deer for viewing, photography or hunting purposes. Well after walking past it for several days, learning what it was, I wanted to know what it tasted like. So my grandmother told her trusting, loving 6 year old granddaughter to go lick it! Go ahead and lick where who knows what kind of wild beasts have been putting their mouths! And I DID! BLECH, PETOOOEEEE! EWWWWW!!! I still get the shivers when I think about it! All my mom has to say is "and what did it taste like?" IT TASTED LIKE SALT! WHAT THE #%&9#%@ DO YOU THINK IT TASTED LIKE? Couldn't Grannie just have told me that?! Man o Man!

Bunches o Blogs

These last few blogs were written months ago and were sitting as drafts so i thought they deserved to see the light of day:)

The answer is NO!

I have never been really good at saying no to people, not on really big things. On things like- do you want to eat dinner at a sucky restaurant, no, do you want to go somewhere you don't feel like going,no, do you want to work tomorrow, no. These situations I can say no to. However situations like "we thought we would do [...blank...] instead of our original plan (which would include you doing something that would push you so far outside your comfort zone your insides shrivel up). Is that okay with you?" or Can you do this (huge gargantuan size) favor for me (though you feel uncomfortable doing it)? . Where are my No's then? They have completely abandoned me because i don't want to hurt the people asking me, I feel I SHOULD be able to do some of the things I am being asked, and then I get mad at myself for agreeing, get extremely uncomfortable, upset, angry, and mad for not just being able to say no.

Have I tried to say no in the past? Yes, but as someone who has a need to be liked and have people "not be mad at her",i guess people feel/know that I will back down, because I almost always have in the past. Remember the 3 weddings in one summer anyone? I said no, I cant afford another wedding, but there I was in another wedding paying for alterations, shoes, etc. Granted i didn't have to pay for the dress but still, I had 2 other wedding that summer alone, if I didn't have finance options for those weddings there was no way I could have paid for the alterations to the dress for the last wedding. But, I couldn't say no. When I tried the bride got around me and I agreed.

When i do say no, I feel the need to offer an excuse, why? Who cares why i don't want to do something, why i cant do something. Saying no should be enough some times. I have gotten better, but the big things, the big favors are the ones I still have trouble saying no to. They are the ones that cause me the most grief.

This is how I feel sometimes-



"NO is a very simple word. One syllable. Two letters. A complete sentence. NO is one of the shortest words in the English language, yet one of the most difficult for women to say. We hear "NO!" in our heads while our mouths are saying "YES," "Sure," "I'd be glad to," "Of course I will," or "I wouldn't miss it for the world!" It's often easier to agree than to just say NO.
Saying NO for women can be a genuine struggle because of our deeply rooted need for connection. To be considerate without jeopardizing our well-being or livelihood, and assertive without losing the relationships we value -- these are two of life's most compelling challenges. Sometimes, out of a desire to be helpful or charitable, we choose to say YES even when it's difficult. At other times, we discover that we're too concerned about being liked, loved, or respected to be able to say NO. If we muster the courage to speak up, we tend to be cautious: "my answer is NO...if that's okay with you."

-My Answer is No...If That's Okay With You by Nanette Gartrell MD

Random Thoughts That I Have Thought In The Past Week.

-Half of the time my phone rings it’s not even for me. It’s no wonder I don’t like answering the thing when I hear it ring. It’s depressing.
-I want mountain climbing boots.
-I wonder how many people have died in this building.
-It really bothers me that people can hear other people pee through bathroom doors.
-Whenever someone colors their hair drastically darker I usually think they look more evil the first few times I see them.
-Anyone who honks at me is mean.
-I don’t like crunchy cookies, they break apart and I lose too much cookie in the crumbs.
-I wonder if the inside of my eyeball looks the same as the inside of a fish’s eyeball. Ya know, only bigger.
-Why when I am trying to make a good impression on people do I worry about if there are holes in my socks when the people will never know one way or another?
-I have always thought that my stuffed animals were watching me. I pretend I grew out of it but sometimes…
-I think that a lot of the women who read romance novels are silly, silly creatures (even though it makes up a majority of my library).
-Why do customers ask me a question about the location of a section when I am sitting on the ground and then act shocked and surprised when I have to get up to show them where it is?
-When did 18 become so young?
-When did 30 become so young?
-How come the wind turbine NEVER spins?
-Can you always tell when you have killed a small animal with your car? Like a squirrel, or a raccoon because I would like to know when I did, so I can feel sorry about it.
-Why were the kick balls in gym always red?
-I like buying containers more than I like buying the things to put in the containers.
-I just realized I never actually beat a video game until I was 28.
- I think I sneeze every morning in the winter after waking up and before getting out of bed.