If I eat grass, will I get milk too?

Anyone who knows me, knows I like to talk, and ask questions, and then talk some more.  That's probably a good thing when you're trying to blog things I would think. 

Several years ago, I was out with some friends when a random thought popped into my head and I said it aloud.  One of the friends I was with looked at me curiously and said, "Do you really have to say everything that comes to your mind?" 

I was kind of hurt.  I never realized how often I blurted out my thoughts.  This was actually before the days of blogs and Facebook and Twitter, and all of the numerous ways of cyber-thinking aloud.  But my friend's comment affected me.

This kind of blurt it out randomness is quite celebrated now days.  Everyone wants to be interesting and different and have someone notice them.  You can't get on Facebook without somebody posting every 15 minutes about every moment of his/her life and every thought that comes to their mind.  These are every day occurrences and are accepted as normal.  But I assure you.... this was not always the case.  Not for me. 

My Mom tells me that when I was a very little girl, I would drive her absolutely crazy with my barrage of questions and chattering.  Apparently, once when I was about 4 years old, Mom and I had been driving in the car.  We were on a rural road where there were cows out grazing, when out of the blue I asked, "Mom, if I eat grass will I get milk too?" 

I honestly think I remember this moment.  Either that, or the story has been told so many times and I've imagined the scene so vividly, it became real.  In any case, that kind of question was not an unusual for a 4 year old Sharon to ask.  It was cute and charming at 4. Not so much during adolescence. 

I was weird growing up.  I know everyone says this about themselves but in my case... it's absolutely true.  Especially in high school.  I was one of those kids that seemed to be friends with a lot of popular people but I somehow never got invited to parties and always felt like the third wheel.  There was always an inside joke that I obviously was not a part of.  Clueless is the best word that comes to mind.  I suppose we all have high school horror stories, and I won't bore you with mine.  Not now, anyway.  But, I suspect the reason for my being a slight outcast was because I just said things.  Aloud.  No filter what-so-ever.  I tried to assimilate into what everyone else was like.  But inside my questions boiled and bubbled, never to be asked aloud.  I would slip up from time to time and blurt something out.  I always immediately knew when this happened because wherever I was or whoever I was with would give me a startled, "Did she just say that out loud?" look, and then awkwardly pretend nothing happened. 

I suppose that quirk of mine has come full circle and is now going to hopefully be useful to me once again .  And you can listen to me, or ignore me.  Either way... I still don't know if eating grass will help me get milk.  Maybe I should ask someone. 

What's in a (blog's) name?

Well, here I am.  Trying this again.  Blogging.  Just who do I think I am?  Why does anyone care about what I have to say?   Who cares about my opinion?  My thoughts, my stories, my experiences.  At this point:  I don't know and frankly, I don't care.  I'm warning you now... I sometimes spell words incorrectly.  My "grammar" isn't stellar and I will make lots of embarrassing mistakes as I open myself up to this cruel and VERY opinionated world.  But I must carry on. 

I've often wondered how people come up with the names of their blog.  Some are obvious.... but others are obscure.  And I'm interested to hear the story behind their name.  So, I'm going to share the origin of my blog's name.  I think it's interesting.  Maybe you will too?

I met my husband, Ted back in March of 2006.  One of the things that attracted me to him was his sense of humor.  I love to laugh and tease and have fun, and so did Ted.  We brought that out in one another.  We had only been dating for about a month when Ted invited me to join him and his family for the weekend at his grandparents cabin down out in Madris, Oregon.  Ted is an only child, so it was just going to be Ted, his parents, his grandparents and a few of his cousins.

The cabin was small, so Ted's parents pulled their trailer up to sleep in.  Once we arrived it was nothing but riding motorcycles, eating and playing games.  At the end of the first day, I was exhausted so we all decided to turn in for the night.   We all put on our pajamas and hunkered down for the evening, when Stephanie, my future mother-in-law announced she was going to read us all a bedtime story.  Ted and I looked at each other and started to giggle.  It had been a long time since someone read us a bedtime story but, sure!  It sounded fun! 

The story ended up being a different perspective of "The Three Little Pigs" story, as told by the Big Bad Wolf. 
Note:  It's a hilarious book.  You should check it out and read it to your children.  The name of the book escapes me, but that's what Google is for.
Anyway, Stephanie sat at the end of her bed and started to read.  But instead of saying, "Big Bad Wolf.." she would say, "Big Bad Woof."  I'm not sure why, but Ted and I found this mispronunciation quite hilarious, and we couldn't stop laughing.  Stephanie didn't know why we were laughing, and it was becoming so distracting, she stopped reading and declared she would resume the story when we had settled down.  As Ted and I composed ourselves.... Ted's dad (also named Ted...which is going to make story telling about Ted-my-husband's stories about his family interesting to accomplish...) turned off the trailer lights and started giving us a light show on the ceiling with his flashlight.  Instead of helping us settle down from our giggling... it made us giggle even more.  Stephanie became indignant about the whole situation and haughtily said to Dad-Ted, "Yes, yes... You're Soo funny.  You've always been able to entertain me." 

That set me and husband-Ted over the edge and our laughter resumed for what probably ended up being unreasonably too long.  But we were smitten with one another, and when you start to fall in love with someone..... you pretty much laugh at everything. 

And so it was.  Ever since that day/night... Ted and I have often declared to one another, usually after a particularly funny moment, "Yes, yes.  You've always been able to entertain me."