Okie dokie artichokie.

David will be bummed. According to my last poll more people type "Okay" than "OK". (David types it as "OK".) Nobody types it as "O.K." I guess those extra periods are simply not necessary. As for myself, I use "Okay".

I'm sure though as long I don't "K-back" David he'll be fine. That probably needs explaining: you type a ridiculously long text to someone, and all they respond to you is "K". David and I have a rule: we have to either write "OK" or "Okay" or "Alright", etc.; no typing just "K". Ha ha!

Happy typing to you all!

Khaki and blue or khaki and red?

Let's say you're out of toilet paper. "Crud. Better go to the store." Then you notice you are running low on Kleenex. "Write that down on the shopping list." Now, where do you go to purchase those supplies:  Target or Walmart? According to my last poll Walmart was the favorite choice by eight to 5.

David and I both chose Target. I like Walmart's prices, but I prefer the cleanliness and general ambiance of Target better. And I really like their clothing, especially for children. Plus they have such great clearance items. A month ago I scored a light-up LEGO key chain for less than $4 on clearance. I was stoked! I now have three LEGO minifigures attached to my keys, and one of them doubles as a flash light. ☺

But if I need to pick up TP and Kleenex AND I want to get some apples and milk, all in one shopping trip, I'll drive to Walmart instead. I've measured it out, and Walmart is closer to me by two blocks. ;-)
~
I was thinking about my latest poll question while sending a text message the other day. I realized that while I always type out the word "okay" David simply writes "OK". What do you usually do?

"Will that be paper or plastic, Ma'am?" "Uhh..."

For my last poll I asked you "Paper or Plastic?", and I also added the reusable bag/tote option which has become so popular. Here are the results:

Paper--3 votes

Plastic--8 votes

Reusable container--1

Whenever I shop at Hy-Vee Grocery I get asked the question, "Is plastic alright?" And you know what? For me it's NOT alright. I am a paper person. Yes, plastic bags have handles, and admittedly I will carry 10+ bags on my arms so that I only have to make one trip from the vehicle to the house whereas you can only carry 2 bags of groceries MAX with paper bags. But I still would rather have paper bags. I use them inside my garbage bag in the trash can to provide an extra layer of protection. But more and more places don't offer paper bags anymore. Whenever you shop at Walmart or Target you only have the plastic option. I like having the choice.

Speaking of Walmart, have you ever noticed how flimsy their plastic bags are? They almost ALWAYS rip, and there is usually a hole in the bottom. I use my plastic bags as garbage bags in my smaller trash cans in the house, so having a hole in the bottom is a huge inconvenience. I have to examine every bag before I use it to make sure it doesn't have a hole. Also, the associates put like only 4 items in each bag, so you end up with 25 plastic bags for one shopping trip.

I also use cardboard totes and cloth bags, when I remember them. That's the difficult part about those reusable containers:  you have to remember to bring them with you to the store. And my uncle reported at our Christmas gathering that people usually don't wash their cloth bags, and thus the bags are getting full of bacteria. And then you put your fruit and veggies in them and...well...you get the picture. So if you use reusable bags make sure you wash them from time to time.

Time for a new poll!

Tea time [poll results]

This past year David decided that he was going to begin drinking tea. Somewhere online he read that green tea is very good for your body. So instead of consuming 2 cups of cappuccino each night, which is full of sugar, he was going to drink tea. He jumped into his plan, and so far has been committed to it. At first he stuck with one or two flavors, but being adventuresome by nature he quickly branched out into imbibing many varieties. Now he drinks a lot of tea each night; it's not unusual for him to have 5 cups. We even had to clear out cabinet space in the kitchen so we could have our own tea cupboard to house all our boxes of tea.

Of course with David's new found love of tea he wanted me to join him. I was to give up cappuccino along with him and join the tea bandwagon. I was not thrilled about this prospect. I had previously tried iced tea, and I did not enjoy it. But being the excessively supportive wife that I am (shameless plug for myself ☺) I decided to give tea a try. I tried several flavors, and I soon discovered that I somewhat like tea. I liked it enough that I was drinking it every night right alongside David. But after awhile I realized that I was craving cappuccino. No matter how much stevia or sugar you dump into your tea cup it simply cannot rival the smooth goodness of French vanilla cappuccino. I have quit drinking tea. :-|

This scenario is what made me think of my last poll. According to the results most of voters drink tea in some form: either hot or cold. A couple of you don't, and I can certainly understand why. Tea seems to be like coffee in that it's an acquired taste.

My next poll is one that I feel I might be recycling. But since I cannot remember which polls I've used besides the one from last time I am using it again...possibly. ☺

"Let me off! I don't feel so good." *queasy look*

I haven't done a poll update in so long that I decided to make a comment on my last poll.

I asked the question: Do merry-go-rounds make you sick? Four people said "no", and eight said "yes". I had to vote a whole-hearted YES!

Oh my, I can't even look at a merry-go-round without getting sick to my stomach. That's right--just watching them makes me ill. Same goes for swings. It's rather unfortunate because I used to love swinging. We have a nice porch swing that I really enjoy sitting on and reading during the warmer months. But the movement of the swing, even slightly, makes me sick. Often the girls or one of their friends will bound up to me and shake the swing, and then I'll have to say, "No! Don't move the swing!" They don't understand of course. I mean, it's a swing; it ought to be used as such. ☺

My mom and I took my girls to the amusement park this summer, and we had a debate about which rides she and I were going to go on with the girls since we both knew that the rides would make us both sick. But we both took Dramamine® at the beginning of the day and hoped for the best. We ended up doing fairly well between the two of us.

One thing I've noticed as an adult is that the older I get - and seemingly the more times I'm pregnant - the more easily nauseated I become. Loads of thanks to whomever created Dramamine® as it's saved me many-a-time!

My next poll has to do with the upcoming holidays. Enjoy!

Have you ever wondered how many germs are on the magazines at the doctor?

I ask that question because I have thought of it before. Think of how many people have touched them in any given day. Kind of gives you the shivers, huh? Despite that thought I still grab the magazines or newspaper without thinking twice whenever I visit the eye doctor or dentist, etc. I like to read magazines, and according to my last poll so do many of my readers. Seven of us like them so much that we even subscribe to at least one magazine. I have to state for the record that the Sowers household gets quite a few magazines. Here is how many we get according to each person:

Emma--1
Paige--2
Me--3
David--4

Sometimes it's tough for me to balance reading my magazines with reading books. I usually don't have time to page through an entire issue of Reader's Digest unless I spend several weeks dedicated to completing it. And one of my magazines I simply give to my mother-in-law.

Part of the reason why we have so many magazines coming to our house is because a few of them I've gotten free subscriptions to. That's right folks, FREE! I subscribe to an email newsletter called Free Snatcher, and almost daily there are discounted or free magazine subscriptions. It's pretty great. Just the other day I got my mom 3 months of Redbook. And David got 2 years of Car & Driver for free as well.
...Emma just said that the mailman came, and "There's a magazine." Is it one of mine?! Nope. Just another one for David. :-)

Finally gettin' around to commenting on my last poll ☺

In case you haven't already noticed I have put up a new poll. My latest questionnaire comes compliments of the Wii Poll channel. ☺ Can you believe that there is an entire channel devoted to polling questions? I have a difficult time thinking up one poll let alone many. I suppose it helps when you have literally millions of people contributing ideas. The channel's concept is simple: they present you with a question, you click your choice, then you get another question. That's it. And it's popular, too. ☺

My last poll was about sports. I asked how much of a sports participant were you. All-time gamer? Casual player? Just a fan? Here's how things laid out:

• uh....I just now noticed that my poll results have been deleted from my computer's desktop. Guess I'm wingin' it!
• I know how I voted, and I chose "casual player". I think about 5 others chose this option as well. I like to play volleyball, badminton, and table tennis, and David and I have fun tossing a baseball around to each other while we listen to the Twins game. But as for participating on a team? No way; too much pressure. Plus I'm just a mediocre player, and that's the truth.
• My sister-in-law told me AFTER my poll was complete that she would have voted that she "owned sports", even while pregnant. (She missed the poll.) She would have been the only person who felt that way, although I think that Leah--if she voted--should have picked this as well. She bats .400!
• One lone voter said they didn't play sports. I hear ya, Voter. If this was a poll about exercise I would be writing, "Do trips back and forth from the fridge count as exercise?" I can't stand exercising, and sports are exercise. I try not to think of that while I play. ;-)

Happy voting!

**** Editor's note: I found my poll results! There were right there on my desktop. ☺ Silly me!

Which way do you thread your belt?

Thanks to all who voted on my last poll. Judging by the results I guess it doesn't matter if you're left-handed or not: most people who wear belts thread them to the left. Maybe I don't have to consciously insert Emma's belt to the right now.

• 9 votes to the left
• 1 to right
• 1 person doesn't wear a belt

I have come to a crossroads with my polls. I feel like my ideas have been exhausted. So in an effort to vamp up my blog I am asking you for ideas. If you have any thoughts for good poll questions leave me a comment. ☺ Until then, "enjoy" my latest poll about athleticism.

Poll Time

Over two weeks ago I went to the bank, and I put my deposit into the canister and sent it to the Teller. She sent it back, but along with my deposit receipt the teller included a Twizzlers licorice. I was floored. Who doesn't like free candy? ☺ She then informed me that it was "National Licorice Day". I had heard an advertisement for this day during a Twizzlers radio commercial, but little did I think it would affect me.

I decided to make an announcement to the Facebook world, calling my "friends" to celebrate this unique holiday with a bag of Red Vines. Well, there was some debate over Twizzlers versus Red Vines. I figured the only sure-fire way of deciding who the real winner is would be to conduct a poll.

As you could discern by my Facebook post I favor Red Vines, but, sadly, I was outvoted. Twizzlers won 7-6. If offered a choice between the two I'd have to pick one of each. *hee hee* They are both so good! I bought a bag of Twizzlers Nibs today! My mother-in-law introduced me to Harry and David Old-Fashioned Licorice, and they are spectacular, too.

Quick question though: what do you all think of black licorice? My mom will cut up her licorice and mix black and red pieces together. I'll eat a few of the black chunks, but then I pick around them, hunting for the reds. :)
***
David was answering poll questions the other night on a Wii channel, and he came up with a funny poll. So I decided to use that for this week's question. To quote David, "Well..you've always heard the expression 'We all put our pants on one leg at a time.' And that got me thinking about which leg goes first."☺

Biweekly poll

Thanks for voting on my last poll! I asked you if you leave the light on when you walk to your bedroom or if you turn it off. The results were tied; 4 votes each.

This poll idea came from my own life. Every night on the way to bed I turn on the kitchen light and then turn it off when I leave the room. Then I walk into the foyer, and I turn on both the foyer light and the light upstairs at the top of the steps. I have to turn the light off in the foyer before going upstairs, so I do that. I then start to walk up the stairs, all the while being completely frightened by what COULD be coming up the stairs behind me or what COULD be lurking in the now darkened rooms below me. When I'm finally upstairs I HAVE to leave the light on in the hallway while I'm getting ready in the bathroom. And that hallway light will stay on until the lamp by my bed is glowing. Then I walk back to the hallway light switch and turn it off, safely walking in the light from my lamp. ☺

David of course thinks this habit of mine is ridiculous and an utter waste of electricity, which it is. But my overactive imagination will not let me walk in the dark. We writers are so high maintenance! ☺

"Just give me something to write with. Even a crayon will work."

Every once in awhile I'll get into a discussion with others on odd and yet divisive topics. You know those topics: where there isn't a clear winner; only people on both sides of the issue who feel very passionately about their opinion. One of those discussions happened a few weeks ago regarding pens. ☺

See, I am very particular about pens. I have to use a specific type of gel pen for writing checks and notes to myself. They are Pilot retractable gel pens in blue ink. I just don't like the way my check register looks when I use a different pen. I know, VERY kooky of me. Of course my friends argued that gel pens smear when used on a check. Ah, that is true sometimes, but not with those Pilot gel pens. They are top of the line!

Apparently others feel the same way as I do because gel pens were the favorite on my last poll. Let's see how things ended:

• 2 votes for those white Bic pens you see in stores being sold in mass quantities. They are probably sold in huge bunches like that because more often than not when you grab one to write with IT DOESN'T WORK! How many times have you picked up one of these pens, tried to write with it, and nothing happened except a scratch on your paper? You then proceeded to scribble with it back and forth on the paper to get the ink flowing. Yeah, if we all had a penny for how many times that has happened we could all retire early. :-P
• 3 votes for retractable pens. Thinking on this more I probably should have combined this option with gel because as I mentioned before: I like retractable gel pens.
• 7 votes for gel pens. EXCELLENT!
• No votes for Sharpie. Eh, they're more of a marker anyway.

Thanks for voting!

"I think it's VIE-ah." -David Sowers

I had to gloat a little to David about my last poll. Overwhelmingly people voted that when you see the word "via" one should pronounce it "vee-ah" instead of "vie-ah".

• 6 = vie-ah
• 11 = vee-ah

We have been having this debate at our house for YEARS, and I'm glad to see that my preference won. I'm not saying to those of you that voted David's way are incorrect, but...yes, yes I am. ;-) Just kidding.

After David saw the final poll results he said the above quote. *sigh* I guess this is one argument I'll never win with him. ☺ THANKS FOR VOTING!!!

Toss me the ball!

I hope you enjoyed my "Unconventional Ball Poll". I got the idea from the daily word search in my local paper. Normally when you hear the word "ball" you think of something round that is used in sports. None of the choices in my poll would have popped into my head.

• 4 = Meatball
• 3 = Eyeball
• 1 = Gumball
• 2 = Wiffle ball
• 1 = Ball point pen
• 0 = Cannonball

I voted for meatball because it's a food. ☺ (I don't need a better reason than that.) My sister-in-law said, "I had to go with eyeball because I need to see." A well presented thought. I was actually surprised that wiffle ball garnered two votes. Wiffle balls always remind me of those giant, orange plastic bats that every kid has growing up. Oh, and I spelled cannonball incorrectly in my poll. *sigh*

How did you vote? I am thinking of doing a series of "How do you pronounce _____?" polls. David and I often have discussions on the correct way to say specific words.

Is cleanliness REALLY next to godliness?

Naturally since we have children our home isn't pristine, but it doesn't rival a garbage dump either. It's mostly picked up. Since I don't work outside the home I should, in theory, have enough time and energy to do my daily household chores. Notice I said "in theory" because you see, there are certain chores that I abhor. Certain chores that no matter how much free time I have I don't want to do them. Number one on that list? DUSTING! So I was pretty surprised when my last poll closed, and the winning chore for "least repulsive" was dusting. Ugh.

• 2 people voted for laundry. Is it weird to say that I like laundry? I love the satisfaction of seeing something really dirty come out of the washing machine looking and smelling clean. But I don't like folding and packing the clothes away. Sometimes the clothes hang out in the laundry baskets for a few days before they make their way into our dressers. :-P
• Nobody chose taking out the trash. This is David's job in our house although I often bag it up and put it by the back door. But he has to take it out to the trash bin. Trash is a man's world.
• 1 vote for doing the dishes. Dishes are okay. But if my dishwasher ever broke I'd be crying. Seriously.
• 2 people don't mind vacuuming or washing their floors.
• 3 for dusting. In the Sowers household we like pets: cats, fish, and dust bunnies. To quote a lady from church, "You can write your name in my dust, just don't write the date."

Happy cleaning!

"What's the greatest nation? DO-nation."

David likes to say that. And since this was his poll I thought it fitting to quote him. ☺ With all the attention lately on giving to Haiti disaster relief David came up with this poll. He noticed that there have been several celebrities in the news lately that have donated large sums of money. So, "Why would you give to a charity?"

• 4 people would donate because they genuinely care.
• No one chose to donate because of the tax write-off.
• 1 person doesn't trust charities.
• 1 person would donate because they have lots of extra money.

I chose the option "I don't trust charities." I know that sounds bad, but a person hears about the corruption in many charities, and it has to make you hesitant about where your money is going when you DO donate. Is it actually going to help people, or is the money being allocated to bonuses for the people running the charity? It's a tough call to make. That is why I do most of my charitable giving to my local church. But every three months we get a donation card in the mail from the Epilepsy Foundation requesting our used clothing and household goods, and that's when I clean out my closet. ☺

Jugo de naranja

For those who don't speak Spanish (and that includes me, despite taking two years of Español in HS) jugo de naranja means "orange juice". And that means that it's time for me to blab about my last poll. *wink*

My girls and I drink a lot of orange juice. It's just one of those drinks that tastes oh so good with breakfast...and at eleven o'clock at night. ☺ But we do NOT like pulp. The mere sight of pulp in our glass makes us question if we really want orange juice at all. It takes a lot of gumption to drink orange "guts", in my opinion.

But not everyone agrees with me as the winner of my pulp poll was "a little pulp". Seven people thought that a little pulp was okay. But I wasn't alone in not liking pulp as 6 other voters chose "none at all", like I did. Two people like a lot of pulp. Well I hope they don't mind if I put my juice through a sieve before I drink it. ☺

Thanks for voting! My next poll is up.

"Get the biggest aluminum tree you can find, Charlie Brown, maybe painted pink."

Remember that pathetic looking Christmas tree that Charlie Brown finds? The tree was no more than a stick with a few branches. But the Peanuts gang decorated it, and it was so cute. ☺ I like that movie.

An evergreen tree in one's home isn't essential to enjoying and/or celebrating Christmas, but it's a tradition that I enjoy. So I asked you this past week if YOU had a tree in your house, and if so, what kind? Three people have a real tree, 8 have an artificial tree, and 1 person didn't have a tree.

Now comes that age-old question: "When do you take down the Christmas tree?" Since we have an artificial tree ours will probably be up for a few more weeks. I don't know about you, but the thought of boxing up all those ornaments, lights, and the tree itself is daunting. I will wait until Dave is suddenly inspired to remove it. :D

My next poll is now up. Ciào!

"Ooh, that looks yummy. Just a taste won't hurt; a sampling."

My next poll is up!

This past week I asked if any of you had gained any holiday weight. Five said they hadn't and three said they had. I had to answer "yes". Since Thanksgiving I have retained 5 extra pounds. *sigh* And the next few days I will be attending family gatherings where I will surely be imbibing in too many goodies. God, give me the grace to exhibit self-control.

New Poll Is Up, and Up, and Up

I have posted a new poll for this week. It's all about holiday weight, and it's a simple yes or no question. I just want know, "Have you gained any holiday weight?" ☺

For my last poll I asked you all how you felt about winter's arrival. The majority of respondents said they didn't mind the snow. Two people hate it and two others love it. The snow and colder temperatures don't bother me either. Although when it's below zero and there is a wind chill, and you have to leave your house because you cannot live off of peanut butter sandwiches any longer and you HAVE to go out so you can go to the grocery store, that's about when I start pining for summer again.

This is a side note, but have you ever noticed how some digital thermometers will read -0°? MINUS zero. Why do they need the minus? Maybe it's for our benefit, kind of like a mental health checker to make sure we are still in our right mind as our nostrils are freezing together.

Gotta love winter!!

♪ It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. ♫

The snow is coming down! Southern MN is in for a huge snowstorm today and tomorrow. As of right now we have about 3 inches of solid accumulation, and more is to come tonight and tomorrow. The wind is blowing hard already.

After supper tonight I was enjoying an ice cream cup. And as I was eating it I was thinking to myself, This is good, but I would rather have a really yummy ice cream treat. So I stated my feelings aloud, "I wish I had a blizzard."

David quipped, "We have one outside." Always the one-liners with him. ☺


For last week's poll I asked if you read the newspaper. The winner was tied between people reading it daily and those who read it occasionally (four apiece). Two people watch the TV news to keep up current events, and one person doesn't care about the news. I used to be a person who fell into the latter category. I didn't watch the news, and I didn't read the paper. The only news items I knew about were the headlines that caught my eye on MSN.com when I would log onto the Internet. But that all changed when my in-laws gave us a subscription to a local newspaper. You can't ignore the news when it's sitting in your mailbox every day. I was quickly hooked, and now I am in the habit of reading the paper every morning during breakfast. I still don't watch the TV news though, and admittedly I skip a lot of the stories in the newspaper that are depressing. But at least now I know what's happening with those Family Circle kids every day. ;-)