Personalized T-Shirts With Artwork

I was having a little bit too much fun one day last week (kind of like when I made a personalized t-shirt two weeks ago and made a huge mess in the process) and posted a lot of silliness on my Facebook wall. The posts went a little something like this:

“Do not, I repeat, DO NOT join Twitter and then follow your favorite blogger. You WILL regret it. I can promise you this. Now for a ridiculous Star Trek: The Next Generation reference that I know you won’t get or care about but that I just can’t stop myself from posting because I’m a huge geek coming in

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Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.”

“Life is good when you can be sitting alone, in your library, laughing hysterically at yourself.”

And in regards to a medium-sized, metal chicken my favorite blogger was giving away (because she’s even weirder than me): “Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that if I do win him (for I am convinced it is a him), I will tell Darling Hubby that he’s a rare antique, find a place of honor for him in my dining room, put a mini t-shirt on him and stick a ‘Hello my name is . . . Rooster Cogburn (because who doesn’t love John Wayne???)’ sticker on him. I figure he would be a great conversation piece. If I ever had company over, that is.”

My favorite: “Mind officially lost. I just stroked my laptop and said, ‘I love you’.”

And finally: “I have a bruise on my wrist just below the heel of my palm. I have no idea where it came from. Is this a sign of impending senility or my mad ninja skillz?”

I think I may be pulling a Benjamin Button of sorts (without the period clothing, though). I seem to be aging backwards. Not in looks, mind you, but in mentality. When I was younger I was much more uptight. Sure, I had fun and all that, wore the apparel that was in fashion at the time, but I had a very black and white view of things. Now I am a lot more immature. Plus I am now able to see all the greys there are in life and am a lot less uptight about pretty much everything. As a teenager, I always felt as if I were old like in my thirties (hahaha, thirties = old?). Now that I am in my thirties, I do actually feel like I’m in my thirties, but in ways I feel like a teenager, too. Only now with a whole lot more wisdom on my side then I had back then. I like who I am now when I’m being goofy and letting loose (the most fun I’ve had in recent months was making tie-dyed t-shirts with my bestie and making a huge mess in the process). Don’t get me wrong, I liked myself back in the day as well, it’s just that being more open is so much less stressful. And the reason I say I’m aging backwards is that it seems that most adults get more conservative as they get older, but I seem to be becoming more open-minded and accepting (except with clothes, I just don’t get what a lot of the kids are wearing these days). Maybe it’s just life teaching me to stop judging. I don’t know, but whatever it is, I like it.

I tried a new way to make custom, homemade microwave popcorn thanks to a Facebook friend’s suggestion. My conclusion is, “Sayonara, nasty store-bought microwave popcorn!” Here’s what I did: I put 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels (I prefer the ‘white’ kernels) into a brown paper lunch sack and folded over the top a couple of times so it would stay closed. Then I put it on its side into the microwave for 2 minutes (should have tried 2 minutes and 15 seconds for my microwave, but for a powerful one it could take as little as 1 minute). Then stop when popping is down to a second between pops. Then I melted a little bit of butter, poured it straight into the bag, closed it back up and shook it a little. Then I added a bit of popcorn salt, closed it again and shook it again. Then I folded down the top and had a lovely, perfectly portioned popcorn snack right from the bag. I can’t wait for my popcorn fiend (my youngest son) to try this because he will love it! Provided he can manage not to wipe his yummy, buttery fingers on his brand new all-over printed t-shirt, that is.

Last Thursday my husband was scheduled to work in Iowa City, but since Iowa City was scheduled to receive several inches of snow the job he was to be working on got cancelled. Since his employers had nothing else on the books for him to do that day, he went ahead and took a vacation day. I did not realize any of this until I had already gotten dressed in my ‘take the kids to school’ sweatpants and t-shirt and had gone downstairs to get the kids ready to go to school. By the time I found out it was too late for me to go back to bed so I decided to put the day to good use. I okay’d my husband to dress our youngest in whatever screen printed clothes she wanted to wear and put him in charge of taking care of her and I spent the day cleaning and reorganizing my bedroom and library including all my clothes. I was originally only going to do just my library but then decided if I was going to go to the effort, why not go whole hog?  They both had not been cleaned deeply for far too long anyway, so I spent the entire day getting things just the way I wanted them and the way it should be. It’s so nice now to have a spring-cleaned room in the middle of winter.

I want snow. I also want a custom printed hoodie. I’m still holding out hope for that as well. The only real snow we’ve gotten so far this year was back in November and although we got about six and a half inches worth, it didn’t last long at all since we were able to go back to wearing our custom screen printed sweatshirts outside as temperatures went back above freezing beginning the very day we received it. Last year at our annual (as long as there’s enough snow) sledding party at my mom and dad’s acreage we decided to try a different hill for sledding than usual. It turned out that it was a really good hill for sledding but there was an awful lot of tall grass left under the snow causing bumps and lumps. Over the summer, my dad groomed the hill with his mower to make a good sledding path. Now that it’s winter, we really need a fair amount of snow so that we can try it out. We sure don’t want all his hard work to have been for nothing, do we? We need screen printed t-shirts that say, “Where’s the powder?” for this winter, I think.

My youngest son is in youth basketball this year and is having so much fun. He can’t wait to put on his practice shorts and custom screen printed t-shirt and go to practice every day that they have it. He’s only eight and they are so cute to watch at that age. Most of the kids don’t have any idea what they’re doing, but the ones that do are rather impressive. It’s kind of funny though to watch all of the kids gather in a bunch trying to get the rebounds! My son was so excited at his last game. He was finally able to get a basket in! The team finally had their team pictures done last week for which I am really glad. Since the games are in the mornings on Saturdays, and since I am not a morning person, I keep forgetting to bring my camera to the games to get a good shot. The kids are so cute in their team jerseys that I can’t wait to get the team photos back and hang it on my “kids’ photo wall”. I am thoroughly enjoying watching my son and his team play, but I have to admit that I will be glad when it’s over, too. Those early Saturday morning games are just about killing me!

I don’t make it a habit to make New Year’s resolutions. I haven’t done so in years. I always find that I don’t have to willpower to keep up with whatever it is I resolved to do for an entire year. So now I don’t even bother. But if I did make resolutions they would probably look something like this:

-Be nicer to myself.

-Buy some new printed t-shirts. A little color never hurt anyone and neither did having shirts that weren’t beginning to look worn.

-Eat better

-Exercise more

-Make sure that the three months you haven’t had pop continues and turns into a year.

-Start using the ton of printed grocery bags that I have more often instead of forgetting them in the van all the time.

-Try to be more understanding

-Design a custom shirt and have it printed (don’t know why just sounds like fun)

-Stop cussing so much. It doesn’t matter that it’s pretty much only in my own head, it needs to stop.

-Be a better friend/wife/mother/daughter

-Cook better meals

So do you see another reason I don’t make resolutions? The lists end up going on and on and on. I have far too much to improve upon!