Outta the Mouths of Babes.7

(oh, the darling pictures I find whilst looking at my hub's phone...
aka future blackmail material)

My kids. They crack me up. Here are a handful of snippets from around Chez Hopkins

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WILL: Gracie, did you see who came in while you were sleeping?

GRACIE: I already know. It's Uncle Tom. I was staring at him when he was sleeping in the middle of the night.

WILL: O_o That's kind of creepy.

GRACIE: I know! Uncle Tom IS creepy!

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ANNELIE: The movies' not over, Mom. There aren't letters all over the TV yet. That's how you know.

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ME: Hey, Annelie. You have a dentist appointment tomorrow.

ANNELIE [excitedly]: I do?

ME: Yup.

ANNELIE [more excitedly than before]: To have all my teeth pulled out of my head!!?

ME: Um.... no? Why.... do you want all your teeth pulled out?

ANNELIE: YES!


(anyone else seeing Little Shop of Horrors dentist in this kid's future?)

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ANNELIE [fighting with her sister]: I am mad at you! Mad and sad! And those words RHYME!

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ANNELIE: I'm having a staring contest with my boyfriend right now.

ME: Your imaginary boyfriend?

ANNELIE: Yeah. But he always wins.

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GRACIE: This song is really great. What's it called?

ME: Broken Jaw.

GRACIE: Oh. That's sad. But at least it's not called Broken Heart. Now THAT would be REALLY sad.

(my 6-year-old, such a hopeless romantic)


And for your listening (and viewing!!!) enjoyment:



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ANNELIE: Mom, you talk different.

ME: Different than what?

ANNELIE: Different than Spanish.

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Okay, that's all, folks! Hope you're all having a great week!

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: Best Roommate EVER and Bacon

My husband bought me a package of bacon the other day.

I know. Oh, believe me, I KNOW. He's amazing.

When it comes to bacon - more importantly, bacon slapped between two slices of mayonnaise-slathered Wonder bread - I'm a total nutjob. Let me just say, I've never been particularly trendy until worshiping bacon became the trend.

I WORSHIP BACON. There I said it, folks. I am a bacon-worshiper.

Of all the people who could tell you this fact about me, my former roommate Jean aka Best Roommate EVER, would say it best.

(and by say it best, I mean with a classic Jean-lives-with-Marisa look: eyebrows high, eyes wide - the "I am in the presence of a nutjob" expression on her face...)

Jean was my roommate during my last semester of college, when I was engaged to Will (who still lived in the UK at the time), was writing out mass quantities of wedding invitations (like, 50, but that felt like a ton), and, to my surprise, was in the middle of shape-shifting from a mostly cheerful college student to a neurotic preggo-monster (anyone who lives with Pregnant Marisa deserves a trophy, I'm telling ya).

Because of all this - and because my grandma loves me and bought me a ginormo Costco-sized slab of bacon - Jean was witness to extraordinary amounts of bacon consuming.

OMG, you guys, BACON!

One night, Jean, on the phone with her boyfriend, came out of her room and into the kitchen, sniffing the delicious air. She was already wearing her "I am in the presence of a nutjob" expression.

"I smell bacon. Are you making bacon?" she said. And into the phone: "Marisa's making bacon. Right now. An entire Costco package of bacon."

"Yeah!" I exclaimed, swinging my fork around like a magical bacon wand. "Want a bacon and mayonnaise sandwich?"

"Ew. No. You're making an entire package of bacon."

"I know!"

"Did you notice it's THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT???"

I looked at the clock. It was the middle of the night.

"Oh. Yeah. Look at that. Hmmmm... Guess this isn't the best time to make a slab of Costco bacon." A lie! A total lie! It's always the right time for bacon! "Are you sure you don't want some bacon?"

Insert another "I am in the presence of a nutjob" expression HERE.

"Yeah, okay, I'll have some. But not in a mayonnaise sandwich," she said.

And then we ate lots of bacon and lived happily ever after. The end.

To this day (and I literally mean THIS DAY, since I just made bacon about 5 minutes ago) I can't make bacon and mayonnaise sandwiches without seeing Jean's classic "I am in the presence of a nutjob" expression.

Bacon lovers, SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!

And just a note: If you consume mass quantities of bacon when you're pregnant, you'll gain 45+ lbs. Only a little of that will be baby weight. Not a lot of Weight Watchers recipes include mass quantities of bacon. You have been warned.

Happy Friday, folks

xoxo,

NaNo '11: 18 Days and Counting!

Let me get this straight - we are thirteen days into the month of October and I haven't yet posted about NaNoWriMo '11?

STOP THE INSANITY!

You see, I'm a mighty big lover of the month of November, which is the only month that brings 30 days of rabid writing craziness AND pumpkin pie at the same time.

But this year... I'm not quite ready for November to come. My BRING IT attitude when it comes to NaNo is more like, Um, could you just give me a few extra weeks? Which is no attitude to have when you intend to write 50k words in 30 days.

But YOU GUYS.

You know the Book That Just Won't End, Dang-it! that I have been slaving over for the past two years? Well, this baby is getting very close to query-ready and by golly, if I can break my fingers and push my brain to get it finished in the next 18 days, I will be so pumped... but until then, my NaNo plans are on hold.

And as I do not like to put my plans on hold, I am seriously pushing to finish this thing in 18 days so I can participate.

Now, the rational part of me says, "Oh heck no, this isn't possible! You still have two-thirds of this revision to sort through!"

But here's something to know about me. The irrational part of me is WAY MORE FUN and she's like, "I triple dog dare you!" and there is just no way I can back away from a triple dog dare.

Besides, if there is one thing that's really driving me to finish my WIP by Nov. 1st, it's the fact that I'm so sick of my current main character's indie Baroque and folk alternative music choices, and the music for my GLITTER-BLINGING NEW IDEA (which is way better than a Shiny New Idea, I'm telling ya) is so much more fun.

For those who are curious about my NaNo '11 music, here are my main drafting songs, which helped me set the tone, create the world and characters and sort out the plot of my book -







So, folks, I'm ready to throw off the emo-sounding tunes and bring on the awesome.

Who's with me? Any other NaNo-obsessed fools out there, ready for a month of sheer crazy? Let's harass each other with our daily updated word counts! You can find me {HERE}

And if I don't finish my current WIP in time, you are welcome to throw tomatoes at me and flaunt your word count. I promise to cheer you on!

xoxo,

*Eye Twitch*

www.annetaintor.com

Someday, Gracie is going to call me up and be like, "Mom, you will NOT BELIEVE what your granddaughter just did!!"

And I'll be like, "Oh, did she use up an entire roll of toilet paper firing wads of wet paper at the bathroom ceiling when she was supposed to be in bed, like you did when you were six?"

And then I'll chuckle.




Today?

NOT CHUCKLING.

xoxo,

On Face Washing...

Wash Your Face art print
by Lot No.2

My skin has decided that 30 is the new 13. I have not been happy about it. In fact, we have had words, but you know what 13-year-olds are like - impossible to reason with.

So. I found a link on Pinterest (the love of my life, by the way) about the Oil-Cleansing Method, where you basically slather your face in oil (castor and extra-virgin olive) and cross your fingers and hope for the best.

I know. It sounds terrifying.

But you guys!! I tried it and my skin is very happy indeed! Like, insanely happy. It seems to think I've been spending my days relaxing at the spa - which I can assure you I have not.

I'm one of those lazy people who cringes at the idea of a 3-step skin regimen, because seriously, who has time to wash your face in 3 steps? This cleansing method has 2 steps - 1.) slather face and 2.) stick a warm cloth on face until it cools down (about a minute) which sounded very high maintenance, but has turned out to be fairly low maintenance. Also, I haven't needed moisturizer after washing my face for the first time since I was 13 - AND my skin isn't covered in an oily residue. Sweet.

Will it stay all shiny and fresh and cleansed with clear pores for all eternity? Only time will tell. But so far things are looking good.

How about you, folks? Does your skin hate you more and more the older you get, too? And if so, what do you do about it?

*Update - a couple months later, my skin is still very happy, although I have had to add extra olive oil around my forehead and eyes after washing, because winter dries my skin out.

xoxo,