I thought I'd try this, though it looked a little complicated.
Here's how it works: For each question, look up your answer on Google image search. Then choose your favorite image from the FIRST PAGE OF RESULTS ONLY.
My Name Favorite Food (this beats anything you can eat for a real meal) First Job Nickname Born Bad Habit (you may be wondering what this is--I'll let you wonder) College Degree Want to go Favorite Place Favorite Color (I really don't have a favorite--love them all together) Favorite Animal (yes, still a dream of mine to someday own some) Past Love (I was never this good, though) Doing Now (I love my job!) Where I Live Favorite Object (pathetic, I know) Grandma's Name Age
If you want to give it a whirl, I tag you. It's fun, you should try it!
I get so tired of how often these days people don't follow grammar rules or they don't understand certain rules of mechanics. It makes me wonder where the schools are failing because my 7th grade grammar teacher did not give us room to fail that subject! She pounded that grammar and those mechanics rules into our heads so hard I can still recite some of it in my sleep 18 years later!
Here are some common mistakes that I often see:
1. People adding an apostrophe before an "s" to make a word plural. This one really irritates me. Every time I see it, I want to write to that person and ask them if they ever learned this rule.
Here is an example:
We were looking for house's yesterday.
It should read:
We were looking for houses yesterday.
When you need to make something plural, the general rule is that you add an "s". You don't add an apostrophe. Apostrophes are used to show possession, not pluralization! (or I guess some people would write that as...Apostrophe's are used to show possession, not pluralization)
2. Another one:
People using "there" or "their" instead of "they're"; "your" instead of "you're" or vice versa.
Example:
There our good friends.
Should read:
They're our good friends.
"They're" and "you're" are contractions for "they are" and "you are". If you're trying to say something belongs to someone, you can use "their" or "your". "There" refers to a place, such as "I put the book over there."
Those are the two that have been popping up a lot lately. I realize that the mistake a lot of people make is that they're (as in "they are") in a hurry, so they just type. I've even made similar mistakes (although, not usually with the plural rule, that seems so elementary to me), but I usually go back and double check my work before posting a question on a message board or an entry on a blog. Sometimes I still get it wrong, but at least I try to get it right. And at least I know all the rules--Mrs. Gorman taught me well!
My dream life is very simple. I would like to own a house, a modest-size home that fits our family's needs, without a ridiculous mortgage. I would like to be living completely debt-free, with an income large enough to cover our needs and have a little leftover for some fun--not a lot of fun--just a little. That's it. Of course, having well-behaved children who attend church and all that is in there too, but I'm just tired of all the financial issues and the housing market crisis that we are being crunched by. I'm plum worn-out!
Actually, just one bewildering toddler, my 23-month-old. He sure has a mind of his own, only I'm not sure he really knows his mind. See, we have these two DVD's that he loves to watch: Thomas the Train and Disney's Legends (includes the animated stories of John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, and Casey Jones). Did I mention that he loves to watch them?
All day long, all I hear from him is, "Thomas. John Henry. Paul Bunyan. Thomas. Casey Jones. Thomas. Paul Bunyan (etc.)." The problem is that even when I put in the one he has requested, say he requested Thomas, a few minutes later he's crying and screaming "Paul Bunyan." So I'll put the Disney's Legends DVD in and choose Paul Bunyan from the menu, but then he'll cry for Thomas again. It's so frustrating!
And then today at nap, after watching Thomas twice this morning and random Disney's Legends on and off between all that, he was throwing a temper tantrum because he didn't want to nap, but he wanted to watch Thomas. No, Paul Bunyan. No, Thomas. No, John Henry. I even tried singing him the songs from the DVD, but that didn't work.
So it all boils down to this: I am at a complete loss!
The other day I had an epiphany of sorts. Most of you who know me recognize that I can be quite the pessimist, always looking on the glum side of things. I really do apologize for that. It's a personality quirk that I've been trying to rid myself of for years now, with no success. Sometimes I start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but, alas, the tunnel always returns and leaves me feeling hopeless once again.
My husband and I went to a party for his work the other day. Many of you know that in the past several years, since buying a house, he has had a wretched commute to his store, which is one of the reasons we moved in with my parents and rented out our house. The current store he is at is much closer to our house than the one before, so when we (hopefully) move back, the commute won't be so bad. Also, his work hours can be quite deplorable--sometimes working night shifts for seven days straight, coming home after 1 am, sometimes as late as 3:30 am when we were in our house.
I don't have any acquaintances who are in a similar situation. Friends of mine whose husbands are gone for long hours are often that way because they are still in school, usually graduate school of some sort (law or dental, most often), and they have a light at the end of the tunnel (there's that tunnel again!). Even if their dear ones are gone long hours, they most often don't have an hour commute at 1:30 a.m. through foot deep puddles on rural roads during the rainy season. They really can't completely understand my struggle.
On Wednesday night, though, as I sat talking with one of the other manager's wives, I learned that she was in a very similar boat that I have been in. They live out where our house is and her husband works at the store mine used to work at. He has the weird hours and the long drive, and she stays home with their kids and has to cope with it all. Yet she was unexpectedly upbeat.
It was then that I had my epiphany. If she's so happy going through the same struggle as me, but she doesn't even have the everlasting gospel light that I have, why can't I be happy? And not just her, but there are a lot of people who don't have the gospel, who have worse struggles than me, yet they still find ways to cope and live on. Makes me feel guilty for being such a negative poop.
So now I have my work cut out for me. The natural optimist (my husband is one of these) doesn't have to work so hard at being happy because they come by it naturally. For me, happiness is a huge effort that leaves me feeling very drained. It's hard work. My very nature is to look at the worst case scenario and then, if I can live with that, I'm okay. I'm not quite sure how to turn this around, since, as I mentioned before, I've been trying for a very long time with little success. But now I really know I need to try harder.
I think that we perfectionists create a lot of extra work and worry for ourselves. We want everything and everyone to be exactly perfect, so we waste a lot of time worrying about how we're going to accomplish our perfect feat. We also don't accept help because we want to do it ourselves, thinking that others can't do it as perfectly as we can. Sometimes people come in to help us but don't do it right, so we go back and do it again our way, which in turn makes it so nobody wants to help us. Then we have all these things to do and too much to do and we can't do it all, but we can't accept help because we like things to be done exactly right. Make sense?
I'm a perfectionist, though I've become less of one since marrying my husband, who is the complete opposite of that. He's so laid back about everything. He doesn't have a worry in the world. If something doesn't get done one day, there's always the next. He doesn't seem to worry about how it's done either, as long as it gets done (and I admit, it doesn't often get done). But he's a lot less stressed and way more relaxed than I ever am! It's hard to become a non-perfectionist when you already are one. You just have to stop caring so much about everything. It's hard to do.
