Holiday! Celebrate!

26. Make Up Your Own Holidays

First, I would like to nominate my birthday, November 23, as a holiday. Unfortunately, it usually falls quite close to Thanksgiving so it gets overlooked a lot. We all know I hate the cold and making my birthday a holiday would brighten my spirits.

What other holidays would be good? There should be a National Nap Day. It doesn't necessarily mean you get the day off from work but you have to at least be able to take a nap during the day.

Maybe we can make Tabletop Day, a day of playing board and card games, more well-known. There are tons of people that love playing games but they don't even know Tabletop Day exists. (For the record, it's Saturday, April 5 this year.) It should definitely be a real holiday.

Finally, there should be a National Pet Adoption Day. You don't have to go adopt a pet but this would be aimed at getting people to stop buying puppy mill animals and showing them that adopting from shelters would be better. There wouldn't be a lame Sarah McLaughlin commercial or anything like that. It would be a fun family day. People shouldn't be guilted into adopting pets from shelters. It's an awful form of advertising. Oh, and the adoption agencies would also be a little more lenient on their policies. (When my family moved into our house, we had trouble adopting a dog because we had a cat. We ended up having to buy Bella from a breeder before we were able to adopt from a shelter.) It's a day to make pet adoption easier, not more difficult.

Review: Crest Chocolate Toothpaste

My daughter chose to purchase Crest's Mint Chocolate toothpaste when her regular fruit-flavored toothpaste ran out. We were skeptical about a chocolate toothpaste but we gave it a try.

Be Adventurous! The toothpaste itself is tinted green and contains tiny brown flecks. Considering the toothpaste ended up tasting like mint chocolate chip ice cream, I am assuming those brown flecks are the chocolate part. I was really quite surprised at how tasty the toothpaste was. Admittedly, it was strange brushing with mint chocolate chip flavored paste as opposed to peppermint or even cinnamon. However, once you get over the weirdness, it is rather awesome.

I'm not sure why society has decided that toothpaste must be minty (even the cinnamon flavors can be difficult to find sometimes) but this was a very welcome change. Children's toothpastes tend to be fruit or bubblegum flavored. There's no reason that adults can't have the same indulgence in their hygiene routine. After all, there is some mintiness there. It's just swirled with chocolate goodness. I'm looking forward to trying the other two flavors in the line - Lime Spearmint and Vanilla Mint. I can only hope those are as good as the mint chocolate one.

I am a rockstar!

25. Songs I'll Record For My Album

This one is interesting since I used to sing in an online cover group. We'd pick songs and record our lines to email to the mixer. Once the mixer was finished mixing everyone's lines with the background music, all of the songs would be released as an album. I haven't done a lot of solo singing though. Let's see....what would I put on a solo album....

Glamorous Sky by Nakashima Mika as Nana (her VEVO account only has short versions of her songs for some reason) Love Addict by Nakashima Mika I'll Remember by Madonna (her music company likes to make everyone disable the audio on her videos so I don't have a link for it) Dark Horse by Katy Perry (the radio version without the rap)

Hm. I really don't know what else. My husband is supposed to be fixing a laptop for me so I can record some more stuff so maybe one day I'll have an album. That would be cool.

Show Me The Love!

24. Best Ways To Show Love

I think the best way to show love is to just be engaged with the person you are with. And I don't be "about to be married" engaged. I mean, take an interest in what your partner likes. For example, my husband enjoys video games. If he's playing a game that I think looks interesting, I'll sit with him and watch him play. Meanwhile, my husband has taken a few trips out to help me at my craft show tables. We both have our own separate hobbies but, at the same time, we know that it's not all about the "Me."

The same theory runs true with my daughter. Sometimes I'll sit and watch TV with her or we'll play games together. She also helps me make jewelry and helps out at my craft show tables when she can.

I don't really think that you have to be gushy with the displays of affection or anything. Just be with someone when you are with them. Put down the phone or iPad for awhile and just be together. Simple as that.

It's Time For

23. It's Time For...

Well, today is Sunday. That means it's time for laundry. After the laundry, it will be time for the dishes. (Due to the setup in our house, I can't run the washing machine and the dishwasher at the same time. It is annoying.) At some point, it will be time for grocery shopping. Sunday is almost always time for chores.

According to my dogs, it is time for a nap. But they always think it is time for a nap.

According to my husband, it is time for video games. He is currently playing Titanfall.

And, according to my daughter, it is time for hanging out with friends. She hasn't been home since Friday afternoon. Soon, it will be time for coming home.

Please Don't Stop The Music

22. This Week's Playlist

I don't really have a playlist, per se. So here are the songs I currently like:

Dark Horse - Katy Perry Burn - Ellie Goulding Say Something - A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera Best Day of My Life - American Authors Applause - Lady Gaga Brave - Sara Bareilles

I love music so it's kinda hard for me to just pick a handful that I love but this is a good place to start.

Perfection!

21. The Perfect [Blank] Involves [Blank]

The perfect day involves lots of naps The perfect home involves lots of love The perfect vacation involves a stroll on the beach The perfect day trip involves roller coasters The perfect sandwich involves cheese

I don't really have a lot of standards for "perfection." A nice, relaxing day on the beach with some naps and grilled cheese sandwiches thrown in. That would be nice.

Get Off My Lawn!

20. When I Was Your Age

I'm not sure who "Your" is supposed to refer to so I'm going to make it refer to my daughter. She just turned 12 about two weeks ago and she is in 6th grade.

I was still in elementary school because our schools went K-6, 7-9, 10-12. (Apparently that is no longer the case at the schools I attended. It looks like it now matches my daughter's school: K-5, 6-8, 9-12.) It was around this time (5th-6th grade) that I stopped getting so terribly sick on a regular basis.

Sixth grade was also when I got to be on the Safety Patrol at school. That doesn't exist at my daughter's school. The Safetys wore belts (ours were bright orange) and were basically crossing guards and hallway monitors for the younger students. We would be stationed at major intersections inside the school and crosswalks for a few blocks around the school. Our jobs were to make sure the kids weren't running in the halls, crossing the road safely, and just basically making sure the kids got home OK.

This was the year I got glasses.

I think this may have been the first year we had official computer classes in school.

I was a junior in Girl Scouts and I helped my mother with her Brownie troop.

Hm, everything else is a bit of a blur. There isn't anything big that jumps out. I was a normal kid living a normal suburban life. Nothing spectacular.

Just Pin It!

19. "Pins" To Try

I did sorta did this awhile ago. Let's see if I can find some new stuff to try.

I'm not usually a big fan of painting my nails but this is really cool:

Ooh. I love blueberries. A lot. Like, a LOT a lot.

And I really do need to organize my kitchen pantry.....

This just might be absolutely delicious. My daughter wouldn't eat it but I could eat her share!

Playing Host

18. Where I Take Out of Town Guests

We don't get a whole lot of out of town guests. I can only remember having one in the past 12 years. So I guess I'll have to talk about where I would take someone if they came to visit.

I guess the Philadelphia Zoo is a given. And the Adventure Aquarium is a pretty fun trip too. The Franklin Institute can be a good time for geeks like us but the exhibits are frequently broken. Or at least that has been our experience in the past decade or so. The Pagoda in Reading was cool when we took our daughter a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how interesting that would be though. It's basically just a mountain-side view of the city of Reading.

Anything beyond those few would depend on the interests of the guests. I wouldn't take someone who hates art to the Art Museum, for example. Besides, sometimes just cruising around the countryside is a better trip than checking out the tourist spots.