New Stuff and Me Stuff

Well I did finally do it. I bought my laptop. I ended up going with a Toshiba laptop that Best Buy was selling for $350. So far, I'm very happy with it. Thank you to everyone who offered advice and everything. I had so much to consider and lots of options, and I really didn't want to make a bad decision. And so I pondered and even prayed about the decision. Which to some may sound hokey. But I believe that our prayers are answered, and I believe that what is important to us is important to our Heavenly Father. I do not pray over every DVD I purchase or every tank of gas I put in my car. But this was a big deal to me. I have certain financial goals, and part of meeting those goals is making wise purchases, especially when they are large ones. So, I prayed about it and weighed the pros and cons. And while this laptop did get a few unfavorable reviews, I was careful to read what they were. And basically, the majority of the people said it was a good laptop for the price and for people who want it for basic internet usage, word processing needs, and watching DVDs. And that pretty much sums up why I want it right there :). I am not a gamer, so I don't care that my laptop is not conducive to the high-processing-speed requiring internet games. I am loving the big screen when I watch episodes of Scrubs and Frasier. And it responds well and quickly with all that I ask of it. Today I even found out that I have a 60 day trial for the Microsoft Office suite. It runs Windows 7, which a lot of people say is nice, since a few months ago, the laptops were coming with Vista. And because of my funeral home job, and there is some agreement between our corporation and Microsoft, I'm going to be able to buy the MS Office Professional Suite for $24.00 (which is basically the shipping and handling on the CDs). I know it works, because my mom already did it. Hey... I believe in getting your perks where you can get them. And a software package that normally runs $800 for $24.00 is well worth it :). My only frustration with it right now is that I can't get it to hook up to the internet at home. We have "wired" internet, and it keeps asking me for a password, which my mom says she doesn't know why, because her computer doesn't ask for that. So I am using my mom's computer for internet usage at home. But I'm connecting fine with my laptop to the internet (wireless) at work. So we are going to look into going wireless at home also and that way we have mobility, etc. So anyway, I'm happy with my purchase :).

And here are a few Nilla facts to store away.

I don't really like sponges for dishes. I prefer dish cloths. It's weird, really, because I grew up using sponges my whole life until I was married and we got dish cloths for a wedding gift. But I so prefer the dish clothes. You can just throw them in the washer with a load of towels, and they wash up nicely. Not so with sponges. Plus, with sponges, people have a tendency to use the same sponge they use for dishes for cleaning stovetops and countertops, and even worse things. And that totally grosses me out. I'm neurotic with my sponges. We have sponges at work. The nice bright yellow ones (well, when they are new they are nice and bright yellow). As soon as that sponge starts looking dull and dirty, I stop using it on my I Love Jim mug (thanks Elka! I use this almost daily!), and I start using paper towel to wash my mug. Grody looking sponges usually are grody smelling (and can leave your hand smelling grody if you use them) and grody period. And they give me the heebie jeebies. Ick.

I don't really care for coconut. If I ever have a box of chocolates that is unlabeled, I try to guess my way around the box and eat the "yucky" ones first. Coconut would be in that group. I'm always disappointed when I save one for close to the end because it looks yummy from the outside, but then it turns out to be coconut. Blech. I should probably make a reference to Forrest Gump here and agree that life is like a box of chocolates... You never know what you're going to get, even when you try really hard to figure out ;).

I do not drink milk with dinner. Actually, the fact is that I probably don't drink enough milk. Because I only drink milk in my cereal (always the really bad for you sugar cereal like Cap'n Crunch or Fruity Pebbles, because they are my favorites ;)) or in chocolate milk, or with oreo cookies, which I rarely have anyway (the cookies).

Speaking of Cap'n Crunch... Did you know they used to make a Cap'n Crunch "All Crunchberries" cereal? They really did! It wasn't all that long ago either. 6 or 7 years. Downfall of this: if you really like it and eat it a lot (like daily), it will turn your poop weird colors. Please note that I do not know this from my own personal experience!!! (I know it from someone else's own personal experience ;)).

And the only reason that thought popped into my head recently is because I took Ben-a Booder (Benjamin, Brad's youngest) to Coldstone for his 4th birthday. And I was shown, once again, that most kids will always select the blue ice cream (cotton candy) and the sprinkles as their mix in, even though they have much better things from which to choose (like cake batter ice cream with cookie dough mix-in). And so, while telling Brad about Benjamin picking the blue ice cream, we remembered a summer we visited Dothan and went to the mall and there was an ice cream shop (I think where the Pretzel Maker shop is now) and they had an ice cream flavor called Superman, and it was vivid blue, vivid red, and vivid yellow. And we didn't get to have that kind, even though we wanted it (though for the life of me I can't fathom why), because my mom didn't believe in the food coloring (though for some strange reason she never took issue with the green-colored mint chocolate chip, which, in my opinion, is the only real mint chocolate chip), which is why we never got to have Fruity Pebbles as children, and to which I attribute my obsession with Fruity Pebbles in adulthood. And anyway, so that conversation led to Brad telling me about a co-worker who ate so many Fruit Loops one time that he had those same issues as the Crunchberries. I don't really know why one would share that information with a co-worker, but whatever. Now I know the story, though. And that led me to the Crunchberries thought.

And I say that most kids will choose the blue ice cream with sprinkles for this reason. I know that there is at least one kid who won't. And that kid is Samuel. See, for their birthdays last year, I took Saria (in April) and Samuel (in June) to Coldstone to do the same thing. Saria got the exact same thing that Benjamin got. Blue cotton candy flavor with sprinkles. Which is atrocious to me (cotton candy ice cream!?! Blech!). But I know it's the excitement of it, and kids are just drawn to the blue ice cream and the sprinkles. Even the girl behind the counter told me when Saria ordered it that it is a very popular one among kids. Funny. But Samuel. Well, Samuel is a child after my own heart. He is too serious to get the blue and sprinkles. He got mint (green) with oreo cookies. Which is so befitting his personality. He is the serious one. The one who is way too literal. He doesn't have time for nonsense like cotton candy-flavored ice cream and jimmies (sprinkles). It's adorable. One time, I was trying to get Samuel to eat something and I was playing a game with him that we had started playing with Desiree (this was about a year and half ago or so). I would scoop up a bite of whatever it was and say, "Take a bite of Spongebob" or whatever character. Well, Desiree thought that was a fun game, and it worked for her. When I tried it on Samuel, his response was, "Spongebob isn't in there." Hahahaha... Gotta love that kid. Brad has a million other stories like that one involving Samuel.

And on the note of taking Benjamin for ice cream... He wasn't too sure about that experience. He's never been away from both Brad and Tarylyn for any length of time. He did fine, but you could tell he wasn't really too keen on it. He was quiet almost the whole time until we got back to his house. And then he was normal Benjamin again. Kids are funny.

And lastly... I am not a fan of Coke products. Sorry Coca-Cola people. I'm a Pepsi girl all the way. In almost every flavor, I prefer the Pepsi product to Coke's version. And yes, I realize Coke was first. I don't really care. I prefer Pepsi to Coke; Mt. Dew to Mello Yello; Dr. Pepper to Mr. Pibb; Seven-Up to Sprite; Sunkist to whatever Coke's orange equivalent is. Though I don't really care for Sierra Mist, which is Pespi. Although I'm getting back into my old habit of not drinking soda all the time. I'd gotten really bad since I moved here about drinking a lot of canned soda again. When I was in Tuscaloosa, I almost never had it. It became a treat for me. So, I'm back to having just one soda a week. It's definitely healthier. Oh, and for the record... I don't like diet anything, as far as sodas. I hate the taste... That aspartame-y taste. Ew. So what about you? Are you a Pepsi fan or a Coke fan? I'm just curious to see what my reader's prefer, so you should leave me a comment with the answer ;).

And I updated my "Glimpses" section. This month, it's all about some Nilla trips. It was hard to select only 4. But those 4 were some major trips, and they give a good amount of laughter to the reader ;). I re-read my Panama trip blog post last night, and I laughed! I had forgotten some of the details, like the dude "serenading" us with Dust in the Wind (not really... we don't know who it was, just that he kept singing the chorus over and over and over again and we could hear it through the window, and my dad and I would look at each other and laugh ;)).