If I had to choose my top 50 favorite IPOD songs .....

Ok... so I am squeezing more music on my IPOD and realizing how close I am to filling this thing to it's max. It got me thinking about which songs are my absolute MUST HAVES on my IPOD. So I thought I'd share. :)

Top 50 songs that are my IPOD MUST HAVES right now. (because top 10 is just way too hard to limit it to)

1. House of The Rising Sun - The Animals

2. Tighten Up - Black Keys

3. Pony -Ginuwine

4. Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What a Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

5. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

6. Hotel California (flamenco guitar version) - Eagles

7. Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benetar

8. Brilliant Mind - Furniture

9. You Make My Dreams Come True - Hall and Oates

10. Uprising - Muse

11. If it Kills Me (from the Casa Nova Sessions) - Jason Mraz

12. Come Together - The Beatles

13. Glycerine - Bush

14. Fame - David Bowie

15. Love Bites - Def Leppard

16. Dream On - Depeche Mode

17. Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson

18. Gods Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash

19. Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

20. Don't Stop Believin' - Journey

21. Kashmir - Led Zeppelin

22. Dreams To Remember - Otis Redding

23. Heart Shaped Box - Nirvana

24. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

25. Brick in The Wall - Pink Floyd

26. Kiss - Prince

27. Where The Streets Have No Name - U2

28. Ice Dance - Danny Elfman (from Edward Scissorhands)

29. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynard Skynard

30. There is a Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths

31. Stayin Alive - Bee Geez

32. Use Me - Bill Withers

33. La Vie En Rose - Louie Armstrong

34. I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holiday

35. Catch My Fall - Billy Idol

36. Crazy - Seal

37. It Takes Two - Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock

38. Regulators - Warren G. & Nate Dog

39. Bohemiam Rhapsody - Queen

40. Stir It Up - Bob Marley

41. Forget You - Cee Lo Green

42. Heaven On Their Minds - Jesus Christ Superstar

43. Goin Up The Country - Canned Heat

44. Come What May - Moulin Rouge

45. Dust In The Wind - Kansas

46. Broken Wings - Mr. Mister

47. Creep - Muse

48. With or Without You - U2

49. Teenage Wasteland - The Who

50. Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash

OH man. That was hard.

Still missing so many.....

New Years Resolutions ?!?

Well happy new year everyone!!! I guess I should think up some New Years resolutions before midnight tonight, so here goes:

5 New Year Resolutions I want to keep:

1. Pray more.
2. Go to church more.
3. More family time.
4. Read more books.
5. Getting some family portraits done!!!!


5 New Years Resolutions I don't intend to keep:

1. Go to the gym / excersize more.
2. Lose 20 lbs.
3. Less caffeine. (I honestly don't even plan on attempting this one)
4. Less facebook time..... (ha!)
5. More cleaning & cooking. (Facebook souffle for dinner tonight honey?)


So happy 2011 everyone!! Hope next year is a better one!

Why I LOVE our neighborhood.....

I love our little "country" feel neighborhood. I really do. I especially love it this time of year, with the other side of the street decking the outside of their houses with all of the Christmas lights! Our "tinsel town" neighborhood has become a drive by neighborhood for people to come with their families, just checking out all the lights. I love that! ..... Even though our side of the street isn't as elaborate with the Christmas lights, we still have that neighborly feel.

I love how in our neighborhood everyone waves and says hi when driving by, and people come outside to talk to each other on the weekends or weeknights. How our neighbors get together and have bonfires in their driveways or BBQs in the front yard. And of course, how can I forget the amazing 4th of July fireworks spectacular our neighborhood put on, that had the cops driving by telling us, "all done now!" LOL! It really, truly is the best neighborhood ever.

I love that next week one of my awesome neighbors Nada, (who is my Mom's age) asked me to come over so we could wrap gifts together and watch Christmas movies and she would help me keep the gifts hidden from my kids until Christmas.

I love that our entire neighborhood has been invited to a Christmas BBQ block party in the cul-de-sac, while waving to cars driving by looking at lights. I love that you can buy homemade peanut brittle and kettle corn from the people sitting outside wishing you a Merry Christmas.

I love The Johnson Family, a few houses down, who help remind us what the holiday is all about. They are an amazing example of a Christian family who strives to follow the word of God and they live their lives with so much love, integrity, and compassion for others. They have truly blessed our neighborhood and brought a lot of us closer by their examples. I can feel how much closer our neighborhood has become just by their presence.

I love that Michael's best friend lives just a few houses down and that his daughter and mine have known each other since birth and are still great friends.

I really am feeling the Christmas spirit this year and God's grace. Happy, happy birthday Jesus and thank you for so many blessings you have given me including this awesome neighborhood.

That's Gwen for you....

Okay, so I am trying to sell some stuff on Craigs list, but the last time I took some pictures it said the card was out of memory which I thought was kinda odd. I thought I had plenty more pictures left on the card. Oh well...

So, low and behold I went to save my pictures tonight and when I popped open the file for the camera card I found a fun little treasure. :)

Apparantly Gwen had got a hold of the camera and had quite a good time with it. LOL. I couldn't help but smile as I scrolled down to find about 50 images with many close ups she had taken of her nostrils, ears, lips and a few random pictures of feet, toys, a clock, bathtub and yet again more pictures of close up kissy faces, sad faces and all kinds of other strange expressions. I think these are some of the best pictures I have seen in awhile!! ha! It is so fun when their little personalities really come out. I still love to see some of the pictures Kori takes with her DSI too. It just shows off their personality. At Kori's age right now she is always flashing peace signs or making goofy faces with her friends and making homemade videos or audio of them singing. So much fun! I love it when I am reminded by them what it's like to be a kid again cause I sure do miss it!

Well anyway, I thought I would share just a few of the little treasures I found on the camera card tonight! Enjoy!! :)

To my Moscow reader .... HI! :D

So... I think it is pretty interesting that I have a blog reader from Moscow! I thought I would give a quick "shout out" and say HI! I wonder how you found my blog.... but think it's pretty cool.

Ok, that's it! Just wanted to say hi.

I miss the 80's......

Even though I was in high school in the 90's, it was such a boring decade. .....I mean really the 90's didn't have too much going on. Baggy pants, grunge style, and the whole goth thing. Eww...... Dull and boring. I don't miss too much from the 90's... but man I miss so much about the 80's!! The 80's were awesome! It was such a fun decade to grow up in. I think if I had to come up with a list of the things I miss most about the 80's it would be something like this:

1. Colorforms! .....Oh man! So simple, but I loved these things as a kid! Mork and Mindy colorforms, Smurfs colorforms, and of course the completely awesome Barbie Dreamhouse colorform!! That one was special!....The Holly Hobby one at my Grandma and Grandpas house was also super cool since you only got to play with it when you would visit them, and I think that one even had glow in the dark house lamps. COLORFORMS ROCK!

2. Olivia Newton John. You can't get much more awesome than ONJ. I remember my sister and I playing her record over and over again (of course there was always that skip on the record in the same part of the song). Olivia was especially cool in Xanadu ... rockin the roller skates and the shoelaces in her hair. That chick had style.

3. Punky Brewster. I wished that girl was my BFF.

4. The store GREAT NEWS! .....Oh man I miss that little shop! This place was the most awesomest store ever!! Half an aisle full of all kinds of awesome candy that you can hardly find anymore. Like gum cigarettes with real puffing smoke, cinnamon toothpicks, candy buttons, bit-o-honey, Abba Zabba etc. They also always sold those awesome NEON lights, like the pink flamingos and neon green palm trees. So trendy. I think I always got my favorite cabbage patch & smurf figurines there too. What a store! I wish that place never went out of business! :(

5. Latchhook. Remember these things? I loved getting a brand new box of latchhook!! (probably got them at Great News too). I don't know if I ever really finished an entire latchhook rug though. It was always fun at first, but it would get boring after awhile. It was always exciting when you finally got to switch yarn colors!

6.MINI ARCADE GAMES! SO much fun. Qbert, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Frogger. SUPER HIGH TECH for the 80's!

7. Choose Your Own Adventure books. What an awesome idea!! Why don't they make these anymore?? Your best bet with these books was to choose the scariest option and face your battles head on. ...If you chose the "run away from the scary monster" or especially the "run and get help" option, you were almost certainly going to die some horrible death by a freak of nature accident on your way to go get help. Go figure.

8. Jelly shoes! ... On second thought, maybe I don't really miss these things or the the nasty blisters these shoes would leave on your heels. But you HAD to rock a pair of jelly shoes if you wanted to look cool! And there was no way at my age that my parents would have allowed me to rock the MADONNA style. So neon colors and jelly shoes was about as far as I could go with the 80's fashion statement. (And of course maybe the side ponytail).

9. George Michael, Faith Video. Self Explanatory.

10. John Hughes movies. They just don't make em like that anymore. It was definitely was a sad day when he died. Some Kind of Wonderful, 16 candles, Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Thankfully his movies can be watched over and over again, but the 80's (thanks to John Hughes) was definitely a great movie making era.

SO many great things from the 80s!.... Rubix Cube, Big Wheel, Pee-Wee's playhouse, mixed tapes, shrinky dinks, Merlin, Simon, INTELLIVISION (yes even before the Atari) , Big hair, Gemco, bangles & loads of bracelets, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince.

Man I miss the 80s.

A Few of my Favorite Things....

OK, so I am in the mood for writing a fun blog. It's a little "shout out" to some of the many things in life that make me happy. If you haven't tried any of these things on my list, I highly recommend it.

1. Mango Fruitista from Taco Bell!! YUM!! (A little piece of vacation in a cup.) I think I even hear reggae music in the background when I drink one of these.

2. LOVE LOVE LOVE driving in my new car with the top down. Traffic is not a bad thing anymore and I look forward to driving. It just makes everything better once I get in the car with the top down and radio up.

3. The Robert Pattinson Pandora station. Trust me on this one.

4. Which brings me to an obvious favorite. My Ipod. (*thank you Ami and Justin!!) I didn't know what I was missing before this thing!! :) Life is just better with great tunes.

5. Lemon pie and sweet tea at Chick-Fil-A. 'Nuff said.

6. McDonald's sugar cookies. Best. Cookies. Ever. (which then brings me to my next favorite thing)....

7. Embarrassing as it may be.... every woman needs to know about this little secret called the "SQUEEM". (Especially after eating all those Lemon pies and sugar cookies.)

Yes, my best friend, the Squeem. (model 26J to be exact.)

Yeah... um... so when I was online researching body shapers and came across a review that said this thing sucks in your tummy so much that it might even make you pass out, I was like, "BINGO!!" 50.00 later and I wonder how I ever lived before without this thing. Hey ladies.... BEAUTY IS PAIN. Are you with me?.... One day I might actually do some real exercise to get skinny, but as for now, I will embrace the laziness that is THE SQUEEM.

8. Facebook. I love you facebook.

Lets face it, once we become a Mom, our social days are history. Hanging with the girls can be hard to squeeze into our busy schedules. Trying to balance work, the home, getting the kids to school, helping with homework, grocery shopping, etc... it feels like there is never a time to just hang with our homies. At least facebook gives me some sort of way to socialize and keep a little bit of sanity.

9. Books!!

Facebook has taken some time away from this love of mine, but when I do find a really good book it makes me happy. ♥ Some of my absolute favorites: Lolita, Chang and Eng, The Host, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter series, Twilight Saga (more of a guilty pleasure), and just recently getting into The Hunger Games series. And the best website to keep up with my book habit is www.goodreads.com (love this site).

10. Dance Parties with my kids! Okay, so once in awhile I have to force myself to get off my butt and try to squeeze in some exercise. I mean, I think I can see a definite trend above with my favorite things. Most of them involve me sitting on my happy butt, or scarfing down some sugar loaded goodies that are sure to add a few more bulges. No more bulges thank you, my SQUEEM already fits tight enough!

So...... what better way to exercise than in the privacy of my house, with my kids, who are the only ones that can appreciate the awesomeness of my white girl dance moves? I mean, I do have some MEAN robot skillz!

Alright, well anyway... I guess 10 things oughta do it for now. Just thought I'd share. Back to reality again and time to go do one of my not so favorite things and start some dinner I guess. Peace out!