I think I woke up in the wrong house twice in a row! Because the house I woke up in contained two happy boys who were ready early and were NOT fighting and were not complaining about anything and were not demanding lunch money they’d forgotten to ask for the night before or any of that! I think they’ve been taken over by aliens!

And you know what? This morning they each actually woke up late! And they were still ready early! It was amazing! Often, if a child is running late, and it looks like they won’t have time for a relaxed breakfast – they’ll have to grab a granola bar and run type of day – they will holler at me, “MOM! Please, can’t you just take me?!” But when it’s already that far into the morning, it is hard to work things out. The three of them take two different buses – one leaving 30 minutes prior to the other. So the second bus rider, which this year is only Sammie, either has to be ready early so they can come with us, or in a really good mood, so they can finish getting ready and get on the bus without my being here. Their dad sleeps late and is not in any way, shape, or form, a morning person. So he’s just in bed – not watching them get on the bus, like their sweet, protective mama does.

So anyway, this morning, Shawn asked me as soon as I got him up – and that really gave me enough time to say, ‘yes’. Actually, I told him ‘maybe’ – if I can get everyone cooperating for that, we’ll do it. And they did. And I did. And it was really rather quite lovely. It’s funny, that now driving them to school is kind of a treat for all of us. In Texas, it was just an everyday occurence. But it gave us some time to be together, laugh, and enjoy each other. It was nice.

I do hope the aliens who’ve inhabited
my sons’ bodies don’t leave too soon -
I’m enjoying them!______________________

Truly and utterly devastating! I am a complete internet failure!

How do I know? Well, thanks to my friend, Cat, that’s how!

Hey Cat –

I’m so depressed – I got 55%!!

Online Dating from Mingle²

Isn’t it awful? Can someone please pass a tissue?

Ya’ll go take it, too – and come back here and report, so maybe I’ll have some company in my ultimate failure!

Well, thanks to my friend, Cat, from Ami-Chan.net – we’re about to find out! She tagged me for the middle name meme and this is how I have to play it:

The Rules:

1. You have to post the rules before you give the facts.
2. You must list one fact that is relevant to your life for each letter in your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name than use a name that you like.
3. When you are tagged you must write a post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your post you must tag one person for each letter in your middle name.. Don’t forget to comment them telling that they are tagged and to read your post to get the rules.

My middle name is MARIE, so here we go:

M - married to Mark

A – anal about hand-washing (ok, this is too funny – I have my lunch on a plate in front of the keyboard, and while trying to type this line, my hands kept hitting my peeled banana and frustrating me! LOL!!!)

R – rigs, I love big Rigs!! hehehehe!

I – I idolize Gayla of MomGadget.com and Wendy, of emomsathome.com – these two ladies really turned me onto the power of blogging!

E – eccentric, I’ve been called this more than once in my life, and I actually rather like it!

Ok, now with five letters in my middle name, I have to tag five people to play along with us! I’ll pick:

1. Gayla, of MomGadget.com

2. Wendy, of emomsathome.com (Of course, you know I’d pick those two!)

3. Loretta, of Thoughts Out of My Head

4. Marissa, of My Dandelion Patch

5. Eve, of Confessions of a Housewife

Now ya’ll get busy – let’s hear about those middle names and what they have to say about you! (If I haven’t double-tagged anyone, that is!)

One more reason I’m only almost a Hippie – I love big, gas-guzzling machines! All kinds! Love them, love them, love them. I completely place the blame on Greg Evigan and a very sweet (furry) friend of his! Yes, these two guys right here:

….are definitely at fault! But aren’t they both just so cute?!

I was in the fourth grade, and I was totally hooked on their show, BJ and the Bear. And ever since then, I just can’t get enough of big machines! Construction trucks, giant construction trucks (Ooh – even better! You know, those kind that can’t drive on our regular roads!), semi trucks, pick-up trucks – all of them!

So in thinking about how to differentiate this blog from my blogspot one, I’ve decided to call it “H2″ – at least for a little while. I do love Hummers (Evil hippie! Bad hippie!) and so I thought it was perfectly fitting!

You may take comfort in the fact that the truck I covet right now is a 2000 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab. Not only is it a mini-truck, but, it is a Japanese vehicle – two things to make it a bit nicer to the environment.

There is another, though, that I love so dearly – and it is absolutely horrible for the environment! It does, however, cost around $150,000 – so I’m pretty sure I won’t be buying one anytime soon!

But is that not just a THING OF BEAUTY, or what?!

It’s the new International CXT.  Some of you Posties may remember the Big Blue Monster – he was a CXT – oh, how I longed to meet him! 

Our last house in Texas, was a few miles up the road from an International location. When they first got these trucks in, hubby and I were going crazy, we were so excited! He kept passing there to go to work, and he wasn’t even sure what he was seeing those first days, because, the one truck he saw was way in the back. But he kept trying to explain to me what he saw and we were both just freaking out! It was kind of like, two kids peeking at Christmas presents together, and discovering that Mom and Dad had bought them the coolest gifts EVER! Ha! Mark finally decided that, yes, it had to have been some kind of giant pick-up truck, and that was it! I had had enough! I was going to see for myself!

I drove my little minivan-mom self over there, and I drove right in past the ‘Employees Only’ signs and drove right to the back of the buildings! I had to know what they had back there! And besides, what is the worst they could tell me? “Uh, ma’m, you’re not supposed to be back here.” And then I leave – no problem.

Only – that never happened. Nobody ever said anything to me. And guess what? They had about twenty of those bad boys back there! I parked my minivan facing the trucks, turned off the engine, and just sat there s-a-l-i-v-a-t-i-n-g! Serious! I needed the Brawny man to clean off my steering wheel!

I returned on multiple occasions to sit and yearn for this fine piece of machinery, like any true truck nut would, and no one ever said anything to me. Well, except for the time I brought Mark with me, and we saw a man out there with the trucks, so we went to talk to him. He told us some more about the trucks, and their cost, and that only ‘Daddy Warbucks’ and his pals would even be test-driving them!

So yes, in bad hippie form, I am a hardcore truck nut! And I’ve been thinking about a few cute ways to set this blog apart from its ancestor, and I think “H2″ is just the perfect way to do that! So Hippie Spelunker – “H2″ it is!

This young lady has handled herself so well in the face of what could be the ultimate humiliation! I have to say that I am really very impressed with her!

I think this gal is going to do just fine in life! She handled herself like a pro, after an embarrassing mistake!

….or, from K8, that is! This really funny and wonderful blogger, K8, is having a contest. In her contest, she is giving away heaps, and I do mean HEAPS, of scrapbooking goodies! I would so love to win this scrapbooking contest!! We all, as bloggers, have a chance, though! All you have to do to enter is put her adorable graphic in your sidebar or post about the contest or put the graphic after every post, if you’re so inclined! I am actually so glad that I stumbled onto this contest (thank you, Laura!) because, I love K8’s blog!! It’s called Three Wild Monkeys and she is so funny! And her sweet little monkeys are completely adorable!

And don’t you just love the graphic?