Pinterest Peeves



This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just like that Penn was sneaking into the background.



There are a few things that have been irritating me and all of them have to do with Pinterest (big surprise).

1. Whoever started posting the 27 picture long pin needs to be punished.  It takes all day to scroll through some stupid montage of pictures that show stupid and useless cleaning tips.  Sure they might be good tips, but if you are too lazy to check out the website for all the tips then you probably aren't using them anyway.  Add to that the super long pin written in Japanese.  Please, stop perpetuating the obscenely long pin.

2. What's worse than that? The empty pin. If I find a pin that interests me, I always click to the website to check out the original post.  Many times the website is gone, or the link goes nowhere.  The best part is I see the pin being repinned again and again.

3. Or how about the faulty pin?  You know the one.  It promises all the Insanity and P90X workouts for free all in one place.  Guess what? That link got shut down for copyright issues.  What? You actually have to buy the CDs to get the workouts? I guess I should have checked the website before repinning...

4. And finally, I hate when I click over to a website to find that the tutorial/tip/technique is only referred to via a link.  In other words the pin is from a secondary source that only cites the primary source.  That secondary source is basking in webtraffic for someone elses idea and I think that is tacky.  If you used someones tutorial then you should pin the original-- not your result.  Make sense?

For all you fellow pinners out there, let it be known I am now taking it upon myself to be the Pinterest police.

As a side note... Ever since I signed up for Pinterest I've been wanting to post a picture of Kevin Bacon, have my followers pin the picture, then have their followers pin it, and so on until it comes back to me from someone I don't know.  Would it only be six degrees I wonder?

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful...

I am a little sad.  I just cancelled our Sirius/XM account effective immediately.  Do you know what that means? No more Radio Disney for the kids on the way to school.  But really it means no more three stations of NPR for my listening pleasure. It's ok because I am a little addicted to the Adam Corolla podcast (warning: explicit).

Speaking of NPR, I was listening to a "news" story about how our perception of others has changed as a result of social media.  The experts were saying that there is a delicate balance between updating your status with good news and bragging.  Most of your well-intentioned status updates, tweets, and good old fashioned blog entries are perceived by others as bragging.  Your friends get irritated and exhausted when they have to read one more entry about your perfect husband (we get it, he's your best friend), your super cute kids (mine are cuter), your professional achievements (so you're good at your job, who cares), your latest DIY decorating miracle (it looked better on Pinterest), or the marathon you run every morning in record time (that means nothing to me). They're just jealous.

It's a tricky thing though because, as the experts pointed out, you don't want to complain too much either.  No one wants to hear about your good-for-nothing husband, your ugly kids, how much you hate your job, your lack of style, and your lazy attitude. I had to kind of make some of those up, since I don't see as much complaining on social media.  Maybe I don't see it as much because I am the expert complainer.  That's right, I'm bragging about my ability to complain.

I have been thinking about this premise as it relates to choosing a profile picture.  As I get older, and believe me I have aged exponentially in the last few years, I am realizing that not every picture of me is flattering.  In fact, finding a suitable profile picture has become nearly impossible.  Plus, you don't want to choose one that looks overtly glamorous or posed.  In other words, I don't want to make other people feel bad when they look at my perfect profile picture, but I also don't want them to feel sorry for me because the years haven't been kind. 

Here are a few to choose from:

Obnoxious back to school pictures... again

She wants to be Shirley Temple for Halloween, can you tell?

Kitty is in 2nd grade this year.

John is in 5th grade

Chickie is 13 months

Not walking...yet

The trendy instagram filter.

Boredom

This is going to sound lame but I found myself fighting boredom all weekend. It wasn't for a lack of things to do, there was plenty. I just didn't feel like it. It was awful and I couldn't tell you what I would rather have been doing.

Sometimes I get what Jared and I call "paralyzed" which is another word for overwhelmed.  School starts this week (hooray) and I spent the last week full on stressing about my kids' placement. We necessitated a transfer which I will probably go into in another post sometime, and I'm pretty sure the district forgot about us until I started calling and freaking out.  Anyway, I was stressed and then I just crashed and stopped worrying about everything.

And then I got bored.

 I like to start fresh every school year with goals that involve healthy homemade lunches, homemade dinner every night followed by homework, scripture study, family prayer, preparing for the morning and an early bedtime. I convinced myself that in order to achieve this perfection I needed a "drop zone" for backpacks, shoes, and school clutter. Long story short I spent most of my day on Saturday rearranging things that didn't need rearranging only to decide my whole house is a "drop zone" and there was nothing I could do about it. Pretty much I started with a bookshelf and it snowballed into organizing a closet, a portion of the garage, the winter gear, and the tools.

Now I sit here looking around feeling antsy and bored because I'm paralyzed from the disorder of my reality.

Plus I still don't know where the backpack crap is going to go.

Another Priest Lake summer post

We spent another week at the lake this summer. We had a good time, but by the end everyone was ready to go home.  John put it this way, "For the first four days it's paradise, but then it fades." Reality is hard to swallow as you get older.

The pictures aren't great, I left my memory card at home so I had to use my phone.



Chickie hated her life jacket



Cold kids after a swim in the middle of the lake



You can't see it, but Quinton and John are both reading magazines.  I thought it was funny.



Chickie ate the entire tootsie pop.  She loved to sit in that chair and hang out.

 

Kitty's favorite pose.  She loves Baby Brent from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.



Me and my bike

This is old news, but I got a bike for my birthday. I didn't want to invest in a hard core bike that had shocks and fancy pedal clips. At least I know myself better than that. I will never be a die hard mountain bike rider with tight shorts and impressive calf muscles. So I went to WalMart and picked a cheap Schwinn that looks a little like PeeWee Herman's bike.

I like the vintage look and the fact that there are gears. I don't like the image of my goofy self riding it. The bottom line is that I am not cool enough to pull of the trendy bike. I need a scarf on my head, red lipstick and rosy cheeks. Oh well.

Here's the thing though. I've been riding around on mostly flat tires. I checked the pressure before a ride with John yesterday and discovered that my squeeze of the tire was not even remotely accurate. I just thought I was too heavy and thats why the tires bulged when I got on. But guess what? It is way easier to pull chickie in her trailer when your tires are properly inflated. Who knew?

I'll still be walking it up the hill to get home though.

Happy birthday Chickie!

Ice cream cake... mmm.

Guess who is one?



Believe it or not, Kitty wears sunscreen.





Penn picked out her favorite new baby.




Getting the baby ready for a ride.



She got mad that the lid wouldn't close all the way on her baby.