Cell Phone 101

We've all been annoyed by the rude cell phone user more than once. Probably more than once today. The problem is that most of the people using cell phones do not follow any guidelines on what is rude, what is acceptable, or what is in the middle. Maybe these people don't have any consideration of what is obnoxious or what is appropriate in the rest of their lives, but the cell phone craziness has to stop.

So, in an effort to better the world, here are some cell phone ettiquette suggestions from the desk of Krista Martin:

- Just because your cell phone has decreased in size, it does not mean that you need to speak louder - or yell - to the other party. Unless, of course, the other party is in earshot and yelling may actually help. Keep in mind that their ears are still the same size - they may actually even be bigger than the last time you saw that person. Yelling is not necessary.

- Cell phones do not belong on the dinner table at home unless you plan to use them as a utensil. I do not reccomend using the phone as a fork, but perhaps it would work as a spoon.

- If you have voicemail set up on your cell phone, please check it.

- Restaurant diners should not place cell phones on the table - or continue to wear an ear piece - at meals. It's not part of your outfit. And, you are not that important.

- Do not stand next to me in the elevator while talking to your doctor on the phone about your latest problems. I do not want to know that you went to get Mexican food lastnight nor do I want to know about the GI side effects you are dealing with. Take some Pepto and shuddup.

- There is no need to wear more than one cell phone on your belt. C'mon. Wearing it on your belt is pretty dorky, anyway. You might as well buy a fanny-pack and you can put your cell phone in that.

- You don't (or shouldn't) drink and drive so don't dial (or text) and drive. There are enough problems on the roads without problems caused by these dangerous habits.

- When you are out in public, picking up your ringing cell phone does not permit you to immediately stop right where you are. Don't stop right in front of me when crossing the street. You can do more than one thing at a time. Or..uh...just don't answer your phone until you are sitting down.

- And lastly, but definitely not leastly, do not set your cell phone to blast La Cucaracha every time someone calls you. Unless, of course, no one calls you.

Did I miss any?

The Excitement of Married Life

While watching the Baby Borrowers, Dennis looked over at me and said: "Hey, do you even love me anymore?"

I answered this question the way I typically handle his random, totally-not-serious-at-all questions. "Dennis, are you doing drugs?"

"No. You aren't even watching this show with me."

"Yes I am."

"No you aren't. You are playing on your computer. You don't love me anymore".

After this nonsense continued for a few minutes and I resigned to my earlier assumption that he was doing drugs and that is why he was making these sarcastic comments, he told me that I need to pay attention to the show because the characters are talking about how much they love each other and how they've made their marriage work for many, many years. Maybe I could pick up a few pointers. So, I pretend to pay attention.

"Are we ever even going to do anything?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, this is all we do. We just hang out at home."

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know, but we could do something. Do you realize we've done this for the last 700 days? I'm going to the clubs tonight."

"700 days? Wow. I didn't realize we sat around at home for that many days. I thought it was closer to 600. Y'know what? I have an idea."

"Oh yeah?"

"Why don't you go ice skating?"

"Ok. I will. Maybe I'll find some hot chicks."

"Maybe."

Now that is what marriage is all about. Being ridicilous and making no sense what-so-ever. But the key is to find that someone that let's you be that way. And is that way back. Poor Dennis, he's definitely become more peculiar since we've been together. I LOVE IT!

Ahhh...just imagine what it'll be like after we've been married 40 years instead of just 4...


(Anyone else have this type of randomness? I hope the answer is a resounding yes.)

What do all of these people have in common?

Ok, ok, I'll give you the obvious ones:

(1) Beauty

(2) Money

(3) Fame

(4) Great figures....

what is the last one?

The best wedding idea EVER

Dennis, I cannot believe that we didn't think of doing this for our wedding. Josh and Maya - this would be perfect for y'all. Do not miss the slide show (link above). This story is from the Gwinnett Daily Post.

DACULA - As the famous twang of Hank Williams Jr. blasted from an SUV stereo Friday afternoon, about 30 folks socialized, sipped soda and puffed on cigarettes.

No, this wasn't a Fourth of July backyard barbecue. It was the run-up to a wedding.

In a Waffle House parking lot.

The lucky couple, George "Bubba" Mathis and Pamela Christian - both 23 and employees at the Dacula diner located at the Ga. Highway 316/U.S. Highway 29 interchange - wouldn't have it any other way.

"I don't know, it's something different," Mathis said while fixing his tie prior to the ceremony.

For years, the couple tried to marry on their Independence Day anniversary. But the bride was always scheduled to work. Instead of waiting any longer - she got the day off at the last minute; Mathis had to report for the morning shift - the couple of nine years decided to seal the deal at work.

The result was what a NASCAR tailgate might be like if Hank Jr. himself stopped by with all his rowdy friends: Loud and proud - country music, storytelling and plenty of Dale Earnhardt paraphernalia - and not an iota of pretentiousness.

Shortly after exchanging vows under the shade of a tree next to the parking lot, both man and wife let out sighs of relief as they picked up their two little blonde girls and chatted with family and friends. But there was not time to relax - the wedding cake had to be cut inside.

"It's been crazy, madness," the bride said. "Finally, everything worked out."Standing nearby, the father of the newly minted Mrs. Pamela Mathis, William Christopher, wondered if anyone had videotaped the ceremony. He wants to send it in to CMT.

"I think it's pretty redneck myself," he said, laughing. "But I'm a redneck anyway."

The couple plans to honeymoon Monday and Tuesday, butthen it's back to work.

The destination?

"I don't know yet," Mathis said.

Meggie & Krissy (1994ish)

Megan and I have been friends since 7th grade and have been through a lot together. She is my closest friend and I cannot wait for her to see this! She will die!

I remember when we made this video she has just returned from her family trip to Hawaii and we decided that we HAD to make a video because we hadn't seen each other in...oh...a week or so. Watching this video now, I see several things: (1) I know why neither of us had a boyfriend at this time, and (2) I haven't changed my dance routine since we made this video.

Anyway, enjoy.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bhfxck-ipQ

Last bit on politics (for today)

Ok, I'll get off my soap box about politics. In a minute.

I cannot stand to hear "Obama for Change" one more time. If a picture is worth a million words, then, well, these pictures are worth... 2 million words. They sum up my 2 million thoughts very well.

(Check out the fine print on the first picture. It says "TIME FOR CHANGE! Now reach into your pocket..." I saw an email that said it more eloquently - "TIME FOR CHANGE! Because that's all you'll have left". Same difference, I guess. )

Being PC is stupid.

What does it mean to be politically correct? I usually know when to bite my tongue, but I also slip up pretty frequently. I'm not talking about being deragotory or mean or insensitive. I'm talking about expressing my thoughts on politics. I have this uncanny habit of bringing it up at parties. Dennis LOVES it when I do that.

According to Wikipedia, Political correctness (PC) is a term used to describe language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen as seeking to minimize offense to gender, racial, cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups. If we're all adults here, is it unreasonable to think that we could have a conversation about politics without offending someone? Well, it would be possible if people weren't so dang emotional about politics. Why? Is it because people often take the same political views as their parents or their family? And people's families are never wrong? Or people never differ from their parents views on certain topics? C'mon.

Whatever the reason for the strong emotional tie to politics, we need to get over it. It's not about this party or that candidate. It's about educating ourselves on the issues at stake and discussing facts. Let me say that again: facts. Let me say it louder: FACTS. Did you get that? If someone else has more knowledge, newer facts or figures than I do, please share them with me. Make me more intelligent and please share what you know. I know a little - enough to be dangerous - but I'm the first to admit when I don't know the answer and/or when I need to do my homework on a topic. I want to learn and be able to speak intelligently about politics because like it or not, it has an enormous impact on my life. And yours. And our children.

So, it's in our best interest to talk about politics. Simply asking the questions of a friend on why he or she believes something to be true is easy. Let me give some easy examples: "Why do you think that?" "Where did you get that information?" or, to be more blunt: "Prove it to me." Or, I'm particularly fond of "Show me why/how" (it has something to do with being from Missouri).

What I'm asking is this: Let's be brave and not be PC. Instead of worrying about being politically correct, let's have some political conversations. It's possible to do both at the same time.


Let's start by learning about the "global warming" nonsense.

My Favorite Meal

When Dennis goes out of town we always joke that I am going to eat icing and wine for dinner. I am sad to say that yes, I have had those two items for dinner when he was out of town, but I don't do it too often. I must admit, though, if I was ever in prison and had to choose my last meal...it would probably be icing and a glass of wine.

Every single one of my friends knows that I am a sucker for icing. Cake icing. Cupcake icing. Icing right out of the container. Homemade icing. I will happily scrape the icing off of just about anything. The cake isn't all that important - the icing is what counts.

Dennis is going on a Austin, TX for several days for a meeting. Earlier today he asked me a very good question: "What are you going to eat while I'm out of town?"

Without much thought, I replied, "turkey sandwiches".

"Do you realize that isn't normal? It isn't normal to have turkey sandwiches for 5 nights in a row. It's also not normal to have wine and icing as a meal."

"I wasn't going to eat just wine and icing for dinner... there would probably be a turkey sandwich before that."

I smiled and we both laughed but I came to an important realization: I need to learn how to cook. Don't get me wrong, I mean, Dennis and I have a wide variety of meals during the average week: grilled chicken, canned vegetables, shake-n-bake chicken or pork, grilled hamburgers, this 3 ingredient meal with chicken, rice & chicken broth, and don't forget the turkey sandwiches. Wait - we do go get Mexican food on Friday nights. And, oh yeah, the other night I decided to make blueberry pancakes for dinner. And margaritas. Add that to the list.

So, my new job in life is to branch out and learn to cook. I will expand outside of our long list of routine meals. Maybe I'll try something besides chicken.

The frustration that I have with most of the cookbooks is that they have TONS of ingredients. And, most of them are things that I've never seen before, much less know where to find in the grocery store. If I haven't seen them in the grocery store, I definitely don't have them in my pantry. So, I need to find easy to prepare meals with no more than 10 ingredients. That is going to be my focus atleast a few nights while Dennis is out of town. Who knows - he may return from his trip and find a new, cooking-crazed wife waiting for him. Probably not, but at least I can try a few new things. I'll see if Kelly wants to come over this week and try some of my fancy meals. Maybe I'll fix her a meal from the back of the Bisquick box.

This is a committment that I am taking very seriously. To prove it, after Dennis and I had our conversation about me needing to learn to cook, I went to http://www.bettycrocker.com/ and signed up for a weekly e-newsletter on easy-to-prepare meals. Now, if that isn't dedication, I don't want what is.

Echo's Modeling Debut

As y'all know, Echo has done some commercials for Staples but she has decided to dabble in the world of print, as well. She is really brining in the big bucks now.

We routinely take Echo to PetSmart when we are out of town or when she just needs to work off some extra energy. They have "doggy day camp" which is basically one room with a bunch of dogs in it and an employee or two with water guns to spray any dogs that act up.

We came home from Pawley's Island several weeks ago and a day or two after that, a litle surprise showed up in the mail. We got a picture of Echo and a frisbee. I think that the photo is cute (even though we don't condone dressing up dogs). Dennis pointed out that apparently once you spend a billion dollars at that store, they mail you a photo of your own pet and a frisbee.

I'm just not quite sure how they got her to sit still for the picture. That hand in back must be holding her pretty tightly.

The Voice

It's weird. When I am walking along, minding my own business, I often hear a voice over-- the best that I can describe it is that it's like Grey's Anatomy when Dr. Grey sums up the entire show at the end of the episode. I'm not kidding - and I'm not crazy (atleast that is what the voice says). It's just this voice that helps me to see things from a more broad perspective. I know, I know, on one had you want an example of what this voice says and on the other hand you are wondering what type of medications I need, or if I should increase the dose of my current meds, etc. Well, I'll give you an example and we'll go from there.

Today I had this "voice over" of how everyone has their thing. The reason for this topic is quite possibly because I was fretting about my current (almost) non-pregnant state (more on that later) and how I really want to know that somewhere, somehow, someone is keeping score. I want to know that while other peoples lives may seem perfect, that they are probably dealing with challenges, too. It makes me feel better to know Dennis and I are not the only ones with a thing. I feel more prepared and capable of dealing with it if others have had to deal with similarly challenging situations and succeeded. If they can do it, we can do it.

While at lunch today with one of my girlfriends, we were catching up about some of our mutual friends and acquaintances. One of which is a very sweet, out-going, smart girl. I was excited to hear that she is newly engaged but then sad to hear that her future husband's illness is progressing and althought he is dealing with his disease in the best way he knows how, he won't get better. Another one: another friend of mine is dealing with bad boyfriend #189,123. All she wants to do is to find Mr. Right and all she can find is Mr. Right Now. One more: a girlfriend recently had a baby and has seen an entirely new side of her husband since the baby was born - - a side that she doesn't think that she likes. It is definitely fair to say that each of these people have a thing right now. Very different things, but still a thing. We all have a thing at one time or another.

I didn't intend to list only people with things that have to do with men, but that does seem to be the common thread... (you can come to your own conclusion). Seriously, though, everyone has a thing and I think what makes us who we are is if we have the thing or if the thing has us and what we learn along the way. Am I a pregnancy-challenged woman or a woman with pregnancy challenges? The difference is ownership. Who owns who. For the last year, I hate to say that pregnancy-challenged has owned me. It has, and I need to focus on owning it. Not the other way around. We all deal with problems and that's the game of life. I just always like to win (and to not be forced to wait to win). This life lesson on patience and faith is going to help me now and later in life. I just wish we could we hurry up the whole process.

Plus, one part of my life that I would never trade for anything is Dennis. I have many positives in my life (besides being positively hilarious) and that should count for something. For a lot of somethings.

So, I need to own it. That's the lesson of the day. At least, that is what the voice says.