Answer Me This . . . and all the things about Iowa! (oh, and me lip-syncing)

In my excitement over your generosity towards Bonnie's fundraiser for Fulton, I decided to make an entry for Fulton's mom Kelly's lip-sync battle at This Ain't the Lyceum. (That whole sentence was kinda name dropp-y.) Anywho, watch it, thumbs up it if you don't hate it. That's just for me. My children and niece were already paid handsomely in m&ms (and they got to pick the song).



And now back to our regularly scheduled programming . . .

Greetings and salutations! And a very warm welcome to Answer Me This . . . the internet's favorite virtual cocktail party* in which I ask six totally random questions and we all answer them and get to know each other a little better.

Isn't that nice?

*this statement may not be true.

So, here goes this week's edition:

1. What do you still want to do this summer?

Well, I still NEED to order our uniforms (done!) and books for school, and map out the year so I know when we'll start. It would appear that next school year will not be interrupted by any new babies (famous last words) so instead of taking a super long break over the fall/winter holidays, I'm thinking about trying a three weeks on/one week off (or whatever works out) kind of schedule.

Has anyone else tried that?

As for vacation-y things still to-do. we've been in Iowa for a week visiting my sister and her husband, and are heading back to Chicago today, then home to LA and real life on Wednesday. I want to go to San Diego to visit my parents for a couple of days, and I also plan to get Frankie potty trained and Lulu sleep trained before school starts. So, THAT should be an interesting couple of days, huh?

Speaking of the Iowa trip, it has been super-terrific.

One rainy day, we went to the Bass Pro Shop in Des Moines. It was my first time to such an establishment. And, wow. That's quite an operation they've got going there.

We did some shootin' . . .


and some lookin' at critters . . .


and we played a little game we like called "What's the Craziest Thing in Here?"


The results were inconclusive, but I totally think my Meat Saw wins. Socks? C'mon.

We've also fished, some of us more successfully than others . . .


We've played boardgames . . .


We went to horse camp . . .


Good times were had by all.

2. What's your favorite kind of pie?



Mud Pie, which I usually get to eat on my birthday because my awesome husband makes it for me, and Lemon Meringue, which I almost never get to eat because everyone else in my family kinda thinks it's slimy and gross. So, if I buy one at a holiday, I'm basically just buying myself a whole pie. Which somehow seems not okay, so I do it only occasionally.

3. How much sleep do you need each day? How much do you get?


I need 6-8 hours per day, and that's what I get. I just prefer it broken up into chunks. Three would be ideal. But that doesn't work with my kids' schedules, so I sleep twice, 4-6 hours at night and a 1-2 hour nap.

4. Do you prefer to swim in a pool, lake, river, or ocean?


I most prefer to be wet in a nice, warm bath. But barring that, I don't have a preference for type of body of water. I don't mind fish or sea weed or anything. It's just all about temperature for me. I do not like cold water.

5. Do you know any poems by heart?


Yep. Lots. I know all the poems the kids memorize for school from kindergarten through about third grade. After that they start getting really long, I can help with prompts, but I don't think I could do them all on my own.



From my own childhood, I still know The Jabberwocky, and about a dozen Shel Silverstein poems.

6. Do you use the public library?

Yes, yes, yes. I didn't used to. For years, if I wanted a book, I just ordered it off of Amazon. Then I started trying not to spend money on non-essentials during Lent, but I still wanted books, and I remembered . . . the library.


I was a huge fan of the library growing up, and have fond memories of the summer reading contests. I think I'm an even bigger fan now. I can reserve books online and send a kid in to pick them up at the front desk, without ever getting out of the car. I can borrow ebooks on my iPad right that very second. I can read the buzz-iest new YA book, or a classic I've always meant to read, and then not have to find a place for it to live in my house. If I want to read it again, then I'll think about buying it.


It's really such a lovely resource.





Here are next week's questions:

1. What is your favorite room in the house?

2. Do you subscribe to any magazines or other periodicals?

3. How do you feel about the sign of peace in Mass? Enriching? Awkward? Overdone? Just right? Some combination of the above?

4. What is your least favorite sound?

5. What was your favorite TV show (or shows) growing up?

6. What are your favorite TV shows now?

Next week's installment will go live at 10pm Pacific Saturday night, and will be open until 10pm Wednesday night.

So, please, answer this week's questions for yourself in the comments. If you have a blog, answer the questions there, link back to this post, and link your blog post up below. For bonus points, you can even tag a couple other bloggers so THEY can play along too! So fun.

But always remember, in Answer Me This . . . there are no rules, and the points don't matter.