Snow Day

Most of Minnesota braced for the weekend blizzard. It was a beautiful snow...and what made it even more beautiful, was that we had nowhere else to be.

This was the neighborhood scene about 10 am this morning. If nothing else, it gave us all a chance to catch up with each other after several months of hibernation.

...and a good time was had by all!

List of 4's

I just got a "List of 4's" from my high-school friend, Steph. I thought I'd share it will you all:

FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE
1. Trauma & Neurosurgery Nurse Clinician
2. ICU Nurse
3. Perkins waitress (will go down in my record book for "Most Horrible Job", ever)
4. Babysitter
FOUR MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED OVER AND OVER
1. Lord of the Rings (yep…all of them.)
2. Love Actually (I have a thing for British accents)
3. Star Wars (not really by my choice – just because people in my family always seems to have it playing.)
4. Forrest Gump (an oldie but a goodie!)
FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED
1. Charleston, West Virginia
2. Overland Park and Olathe, Kansas
3. New Haven, Connecticut
4. Bradenton, Florida
FOUR TV SHOWS I LIKE TO WATCH
1. LOST
2. The Office (almost too funny for TV!)
3. Brother's & Sister's
4. Grey's Anatomy

FOUR WEBSITES I VISIT DAILY

1. All the links on my blog (some of you should really post more often!)

2. MSNBC

3. You Tube

4. Ebay

FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION
1. Ireland
2. Key West, Florida
3. Hawaii
4. Bar Harbor, Maine
FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS
1. Mexican
2. Thanksgiving feast
3. Italian
4. Ice Cream
FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW
1. On a caribbean cruise with my husband
2. Seattle (to help my baby sister celebrate her birthday tonight! – Happy Birthday, Gina!!)
3. Disney World with my family
4. At the bank cashing in my lottery check

Now, you're all tagged...

The good old days

So, I went out for lunch today with my kids and our neighbors Brendan and Clare….and I had a very “old” moment. The conversation went something like this:

Will: “Hey you guys, Britney Spears shaved her head!”
Maddie, Clare and Brendan: “WHAT?”
Brendan: “Why would she do that?
Me: “They think she might be going crazy.”
Maddie: “Well, you go crazy all the time, and you haven’t shaved your head, mom.”
All: "Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Clare: “Oooohhh! I love this song!”
(Faintly hear music playing overhead…almost too faintly for my 36 year old ears…)
Suddenly all 4 kids start singing while other people in the restaurant turn their heads our way:
“One Prozac a day, husbands a CPA…her dreams went out the door, when she turned 24…”
“She was gonna be an actress, she was gonna be a star, she was gonna shake her hee-hee-hee on the hood of White Snake’s car…"
“Since Bruce Springstein, Madonna, way before Nirvana, there was U2 and Blondie, and music still on MTV, her 2 kids in high school they tell her that she’s uncool, she’s still preoccupied with 19, 19, 1985. …”
“She’s seen all the classics, she knows every line, Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, even St. Elmo’s Fire. She rocked out to Wham, not a big Limp Bizkit fan, thought she’d get a hand on a member of Duran Duran…”
“When did Motley Crue become classic rock? Please make this stop – stop – stop.”

WHAT?!?! Who are these little people that are sitting here, surrounding me at McDonalds and unknowingly mocking my youth?? Aside from the fact that it is incredibly frightening that they know all the words, it’s even more un-nerving that they could be singing about ME! I bet you can’t give me the name of a single 32-37 year old woman that doesn’t remember watching Breakfast Club over and over; having a big crush on Vince Neil of Motley Crue, or watching endless hours of MTV. I dare you… Well, it could almost be about me – although I really never liked Duran Duran, or wanted to be an actress. (much less shake my butt on the hood of a car) But the truth is, I LOVED 1985!

Anyway, this scenario left me with 2 questions. 1) Where does the time go? and 2) How do they know about Britney Spears anyway?

For those of you who don't know the song, my YouTube Pick of the Day: 1985

Talking Politics

Our family drove back to SD last weekend to visit my grandparents who have recently moved into the local nursing home following my grandpa’s surgery. I’m happy to report that they are doing very well! Grandpa seems to be getting stronger everyday.

Well, it’s been several months since we made the long, 6 hour trip back home, and during the drive I was reminded why I miss taking these long road trips. I actually get to talk to my husband. It’s an amazing concept, really. There’s nothing like being trapped in a small space, for hours on end, to facilitate stimulating and thought-provoking conversation. After crossing the Minnesota/South Dakota border, our focus of conversation took it’s usual turn from "Retirement", to "Politics".

As some of you may know – my husband and I have a history of political polarity. While I responsibly and conscientiously lean to the left, he favors the soul-less right side of the fence. For example, prior to the 2004 presidential election, our neighbors were all witnesses to the battle of political yard signs along 44th Place and Frankfort Pkwy. We also have great memories of a Halloween party in which Bill dressed as John “Frankenstein” Kerry, complete with flip-flops, a communist lapel pin and several purple hearts applied with Band-Aids. I, on the other hand, sported a Dubya mask, military fatigues, a gun, a “Halliburton” hat, and even labeled my ass with “Mission Accomplished”.

So, you may say we have a slight difference of opinion.

But…the amazing thing that I discovered on our long trek to SD, was that aside from our differing political end-points, once broken down into small topics…we really aren’t that different. It’s not that we haven’t had this exact same conversation hundreds of time before. In fact, it may surprise you to know that some of our favorite topics are religion and politics. (now, you’re probably thinking that the Gallagher’s must really be the life of party!!) I’m not sure if we just discovered this unifying fact at this time because we were actually calm enough to hear what each other had to say…or that we may actually be sub-consciously converting one another to the other side.

The key to this discovery lies in the fact that we each weigh the importance of the issues very differently. For example, we both pretty much agree on the social issues of abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research…but Bill doesn’t think they are important. And when it comes to issues of economics and gun control, our opinions are really not that far off either. It’s just that, to me, they aren’t as important. As for foreign policy, health care, and the war in Iraq...well, I'll just leave those for another time.

So, don’t get me wrong. There is no way in hell I’m crossing over to the dark side. And I have a feeling that Bill won’t be singing “Peace Train” anytime soon either. But, it certainly does make for an interesting marriage…and I wouldn’t have it any other way:)

Extreme Room Makeover: Part II

BEFORE:





AFTER:

Will really likes his "grown-up" room. In fact, he loves everything about it. He loves bed-time. He loves reading books in bed. He loves doing his homework at his desk. And, he told me he'd rather be in his room than in Florida. Amazing.

And, it didn't take me long to learn two things:

1) It is much easier for a grown woman to get up into the loft bed, then down from it.

2) Make sure you are WAY clear of the bed before standing up from the desk.

Will's turn

And now it's time for Will's bedroom re-do...

Did you notice my new title?

So, you may have noticed that I’ve been playing around with different titles for this site during the past month. Ever since I’ve started blogging, the title has been “Gallagher News”. I have recently decided that it is really an incredibly dull title…can you say BO-RING? I tried a few different ones: “Life in the ‘burbs” (too hum-drum blah…) and “Life Up North” (what is “north”, anyway…it’s not like we’re in the Arctic) and “The World According to Me” (just a tad too egocentric).

Well, I’ve settled on this one: “Are you kidding me???” This phrase is special to me for a couple reasons. First, I just so happen to use this rhetorical question all the time, in response to many situations. For example, just a couple days ago while in Eureka, I found Will and Madison engaged in a fight over toothpaste that had escalated to a screaming match at 11:17 pm, while everyone else was sleeping. I responded by venomously whispering, “Are you kidding me???” In another situation, Bill had just offered to take the day off work to get some stuff done around the house. I joyously replied, “Are you kidding me???” I even use it at work. Last week in reaction to one of our new admits who was involved in a drunken snowmobiling accident; I offered this same phrase in utter amazement of the pure stupidity of the situation.

The second reason I hold this phrase very near and dear to my heart is that these were the first four words to leave my mouth after the ultrasonographer placed the transducer probe on my pregnant abdomen nine short years ago. As I saw two perfectly round little circular objects (which turned out to be tiny skulls), I was unable to stop asking the poor women “Are you kidding me???….Are you kidding me???….Are you kidding me???” The only thing that stopped me from uttering those words for the rest of that day was her very brisk retort, “Ma’am, I’m not kidding you. This is my job.” My repetitive questioning soon turned into uncontrollable laughter, which in turn made my big belly jiggle...seemingly forever. As I remember, she was pretty relieved to see us leave her office that day.

And the rest is history…



YouTube Pick of the Day: 9 months in 20 seconds

College plans

Will: "I think I’ll go to college in Kansas."

Madison: "I’m going to go to college in Hawaii."

Dad: "Hawaii is going to be really expensive. And, they really aren’t known for their great academic reputation. You should really go to Wisconsin."

Madison: "I’m not going because of that. I just like Hawaii. And they have an ocean there."

Will: "Does Kansas have a lot of tornadoes?"

Mom: "In some parts, they do. Don't you want to be a Jackrabbit from SDSU?""

Will: "No. I think I’ll just go to college in Wisconsin. That should be pretty cheap."

RAEBNC

OK… so call me old, call me a dork, call me un-cool. I have not been able to bring myself to use any of those ridiculous abbreviations that have become so popular since the dawn of text-messaging. In fact, I’m so out of touch with “hip-ness”, I actually had to Google ROTFLOL. Seriously. And I guess if you don’t know what that means – you’re a dork, too.

It’s not that I ever text-message anyone. Which is mostly due to the fact that I’m over the age of 16…never mind that I don’t really know how, anyway. But, occasionally I like to post comments on other people’s blogs and find myself writing stuff like: That’s so funny/cute/weird!! I’m rolling on the floor laughing out loud! Ha Ha!! It’s really pretty pathetic.

So, for something fun to do, and to weaken my aversion to these stupid acronyms, I’m going to “text” you some messages to see if you can figure it out. And I promise, I didn’t make these up on my own - they're legit! Here it goes:

1. IMHO PEBCAK
2. ROTFLOLAPMP
3. WIBAMU
4. FYA IFOML
5. TTFN LYMY



YouTube Pick of the Day: Weird Al's White & Nerdy

I’d been waiting for last night for months! So, what do you think is going on?? Why did Jack finish Ben’s surgery (he probaby should have let him die)? What did Ben and Juliet talk about? How could he possibly wake up during the whole thing, anyway? Do you think Alex is really Ben’s daughter? Why would Jack sacrifice himself for Kate and Sawyer? Why was Karl being imprisoned and brainwashed? Is Ethan one of the recruiters from the Dharma project…or is his company, Mittelos, an enemy of theirs? How does all the experimental pregnancy research fit in with everything (and why have they taken all the children in the first place)? Is Juliet (or any of the Others) actually captives on the island as well? So many questions!!!

And the scariest part of it is that I just went directly to the website http://www.oceanicflight815.com/ without Googling it…and I’ve just spent the last 30 minutes researching theories. (Gasp!)

BBBBRRRRRRRRRR.........

So, I bet all you Kansas City and Seattle people are really wishing you were in Minnesota right about now, huh?? Yep, looks like we won't be seeing any positve numbers for another 3 days. On my way into work this morning, I was really hating the fact that I have a job...where I have to work weekends... in the frozen tundra.

You definitely know it's too cold when your car makes that horrible squeeling noise for several minutes after starting, the inside of your nose "cracks" when you scrunch it, and you have to pick icicles off your eyelashes after the bitter wind has forced out tears that have frozen instantly.

On the bright side, it's already February 3! We're in the "home stretch"!!

YouTube Pick of the Day: Where the Hell is Matt?