Yet i STILL married him

I love white and nerdy dearly. He is my best friend and soul mate and we have been together over 11 years now. But over the course of our time together I have found a few things out about my man that leave me just shaking my head.

1. He has a touch of OCD. He washes his hands about 497 times a day. He washes them after making the kids breakfast, after doing laundry, after making a bowl of cereal, after tying his shoes, after setting the table, after unloading the dishwasher, and of course after potty breaks and before meal times. He washes his hands after taking out the trash, or putting out the recyclables. He woke up this morning to the alarm, and said "I had the wierdest dreams, now I have to go wash my hands"
No, it wasnt some sort of erotic dream, or anything like that, in his dream he was digging through the trash(and found 20 bucks!), so when he woke up he felt dirty, violated and sick. SO yes, he DREAMS of trash and it makes him wash his hands.

2. When we met he didnt like Chinese food. Honestly, that was ALMOST a deal breaker.
We would go out and I would try and get him to go out to a chinese restaurant and he would stubbornly refuse. "I just dont like chinese food. I have had terrible experiences and I just cant eat it." So after a little more poking and prodding and needling I find the REAL story. WHen he was like 7 he went to a chinese restaurant in EL PASO TEXAS that wasnt any good. So in the remaining 17 years he refused to eat chinese food. So I finally forced him to go with me, he fell in love and now I can't get him AWAY from chinese food.

3. He is completely UN-handy. All the curtain rods, pictures, bookshelves etc are because of ME. Up until about 6 months ago he was so hopeless with power tools and the complete opposite of being handy. We owned all the tools and drills etc, but he rarely used them. Finally, while helping my dad install blinds, he got a crash course on the ways of manliness and power tools. So we're getting there...and it only took 11 years!!

4. He hates ABBA. Again, almost a deal breaker. I personally LOVE ABBA. I Love them. In fact I love them so much I have even seen "ABBA: The Movie" several times. Charles on the other hand barely tolerates them. However the ironic thing is this: One of his favorite Musicals is "Chess"(London version). The music for chess was written by none other than Benny and Bjorn from ABBA, and most of that music has the typical ABBA beat and style. So how he can say he hates ABBA, yet loves Chess is beyond me. Sometimes I will purposely listen to ABBA when he is around, just so he has Chiquitita or Super Trooper stuck in his head all day. Someday I WILL get him to admit he likes them."If you change your mind(take a chance) Im the first in line(take a chance)...take a chance take a chance take a chance chance"

5. He doesnt like onions. A Long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away he went to taco bell and had a burrito with onions. He claims the onions gave him really bad gas and a stomach ache, so now, even to this day, 18 years later, he cant eat onions. Everywhere he goes to eat, "no onions" When I cook I throw in onions and even if I have cooked them so much they no longer have flavor, he has this mental block and it turns him green. We eat a lot of sweet vidalias, which really have very little onion flavor. He seriously starts getting stomach cramps just THINKING about onions. He makes comments like "pretty good. Would have been better without the onions". But if he DOES eat onions at a japanese restaurant or whatnot, he makes a point of telling me "Look honey! I'm eating my onions. Arent you proud of me?" Yes,so proud. Now where did I put your medal??

6.He walks around barefoot 24/7. He comes from a barefoot family. He would mow the lawn barefoot if I would let him.
He really likes to be barefoot. He has about 3 inch thick callouses and dead skin on his feet from it too. I want to take him to the nail salnon to get a man-pedicure. I would love to see that Vietnamese slip of a girl tackle THOSE bad boys. They are like frodo from Lord of the Rings

7. He speaks fluent Portugese(having lived in Brazil). We have a fairly large Brazilian population here and if he hears someone speaking portugese he will find an excuse to talk to them in their native tongue. Of course they are always so surprised that this white and nerdy gringo speaks Brazilian Portugese it is quite humourous. Example: we were at an ice cream store and a group of brazilians walked in. They were looking at the flavours and one was trying to explain to the other group hat passionfruit was. He couldnt think of the portugese word for it(or he didnt know what the english word meant so he couldnt translate) Charles jumps right in and says "blah blah blah blah blah". The could have dropped dead there right on the floor. But they were grateful and were shocked at the same time.I know in their head they were thinking "where on earth did he learn that?"

8. He speaks his foreign words with an over pronouced accent. It really used to bother me, now I am just used to it. We go to a mexican restaurant an he super pronounces everything. Kind of Giada De Laurentis on the Food Network. Burrito(which I pronounce burr-ree-toe) becomes Boor-dee-toh)(the r and d are kind of rolled together)
En-chill-lah-duh becomes En-chi-la-da etc etc etc. Remember those kids in your foreign language classes who thought they were so great because they would over pronunciate everything? yeah, he does that.

9. He is SUPER WHITE. I don't mean white bread or typical stereotype white guy dancing(although thats true too). I mean, he is WHITE. We had one of our friends say "Man, Charles you are so white I dont know where your legs leave off and your socks begin!"
We are talking bike reflector white. Dont take him out in the bright sunlight, you will get snow blindness. He cant tan. He has two colors: white and red. There is very little in between. His arms can get a little color, but thats after a full summer out in the sun. Even in HAWAII he couldnt get a tan.


10. He is a pack rat and trash picker. If I try and throw stuff away he will pull it OUT of the trash and say "Hey we can still use this".(Then he will go and promptly wash his hands)
When we got married we received SEVERAL blenders, mixers, food processors etc. We kept them for about 6 years. Finally one day I went through, pulled out the ones we never used and put them in a box. I put them out by the dumpster with a note saying "free to a good home". He comes home from work and says "Oh there was a box of appliances out there someone was throwing away. I would have brought them in, but I know we already have like 3 of everything". He found out a year later that they were ours.
When we were moving into our house and were packing up, I deliberately waited until he was gone before I started de-junking and throwing stuff away. I threw out some old clothesa nd towels and my roller blades that didnt even FIT anymore. When he got home from work he came in, my roller blades in hand from the dumpster and said "Look what someone was throwing out! They are still in perfectly good condition and they are big enough they might fit you!" My friend Amy happened to be there at the time and she just cracked up. She looked at me and said "I totally thought you were joking about his habit!".
We have a whole house FULL of "we might use that again someday"s, and "I will lose enough weight to fit into that again" and "It's broke? i might be able to fix it. I'll get to it later".
No matter how hard I try to throw things away, they always find a way BACK into the house.

One more funny story. He may drive me crazy, but he makes me laugh.

My kids had a Buzz Lightyear costume from Disney store. It came with that purple stretch lycra cap that you put on your head and velcro under your chin. Well one day he was doing laudry, got undressed, and put on a pair of tighty whitey underwear. He pulled the purple cap all the way over his big head and velcroed it under his chin. He jumps out of the laundry room in nothing but underwear and a purple cap. He puts his hand on his waist, sucks in his gut, puffs out his chest and says "I'm Buzz Lightyear!".
I had to change my pants I laughed so hard. Now every time I see that purple cap laying around (because our kids may shrink 10 inches and they would wear that costume again you know) I just laugh until I cry.

So those were just a few silly quirks and funny things the man in my life does. It certainly makes my life more interesting. I wouldnt be as happy as I am without him in my life.(awwww, arent I mooshy??)
I love you White and Nerdy!

I'll bet ya never would have guessed

Wierd things you may not know about me:

1. Eating Croutons makes me dizzy. Something about the crunching kind of twinges my inner ear, and it seriously makes me lightheaded and dizzy. No other crunchy food does it, just croutons. So whenever I get a salad at a restaurant, I pick them off and make my kids eat them.

2. I LOVE sourkraut. my Maiden name is Koch, I am half german, of course I love Kraut. Pork Roast and Sourkraut. YUM. I order extra kraut on reuben sandwiches too. Hot dogs, sausage. Can't get enough Kraut.

3. As much as I love reading a good book, uplifting literature and the classics, I also have a soft spot for ridiculous "bodice rippers". My favorite line from the WORST romance novel ever written is "with a low feral growl, he ripped her gown asunder" AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Thats freaking awesome.

4. I have been to 49 of the 50 states. I have never been to Maine.maybe someday. I've eaten Lobster from maine...does that count?

5. I lived in Aix-en-Provence, France in college while attending Centre d'Aix at the Institute for American Universities. It was my goal to try every cheese and pastry produced in france. My favorite store was The Monoprix. I still dream about "Caprice des Dieux" and those Smoked Almonds.

6. I can do the Pigeon. (as in Bert and Ernie Doing the wah wah pigeon)


7. My favorite book of all time is "Monster at the end of the book" with Grover.

8. I secretly like Yo Gabba Gabba. My name is Sarah, I like to Dance!


I like it when people make fun of Brittney Spears...bring it on Chris Crocker!

Everybody's talkin' at me, I cant hear a word they're sayin'....

So much to do! So Much to say! thank goodness for free association and lists!

1. I got into the 4 day Rock Hill Galleria Mall craft show. It is Christmas in October and will be the first Thurs-Sunday of October. I need to get tables and think of some cool displays. I will be headed there as The Balm Shoppe. My daddy and I are going to Lowes or Home depot today to look at wood and think of cool display ideas. I have a few things in mind, but am worried that they may be a little too grandiose. But he is super handy and good at making stuff, I think he is the perfect person to help me out.

2. I went to a Hot Chocolate Hodge Podge last night atMichelle's house. Just a small group of women enjoying hot chocolate, games and Krispy Kreme donut holes. We had a lot of fun and I got to know some new faces and friends! I totally kick butt at Taboo.

3. I still have my sale at The Balm Shoppe going on. 3 original lip balms for $6. Vegan or Beeswax and you choose from a huge list of flavors. So far I have sold 12 lip balms through this sale, which has been great. Hopefully I can reach the greatest amount of people and get my name out there. What I would really like to do is wholesale to gift shops etc. So who knows who these lip balms will end up with!!

4. This is still my favorite video of all time. I dont know if it was a commercial or if it was real. All I know is I laugh my tush off every time I watch it.

5.I got my new business cards a few days ago from Got Print. This was my own design that I uploaded, to go along with my shop banner and my blog banner.

They turned out SO WELL. You get the heavy cardstock paper and it comes with the glossy coating for free. The price cant be beat and they dont hound you with messages and spam like vistaprint.

I like vistaprint, dont get me wrong, but now that I have found GotPrint, I am never going back to VP for business cards. You can get 500 for 12.75 if you upload your own. It is an amazing deal and they are so professional looking. Check them out.

6. This was my favorite commercial this superbowl. Naomi Campbell cant dance worth crap, but the lizards are darn entertaining. very clever. Glad I found it on Youtube(of course you can find just about anything there!)

And Finally, my Must Have from Etsy.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9401809.
This awesome necklace comes from the etsy
shop of VintageFiligree.
Isnt it stunning?? I can see that around my neck!!






And thanks to my dear friend Dana for sending me these pictures from her last visit and our trip to Monkey joes. Those two cuties are my boys Finn(left) and Peter(right)
a.k.a. Bumblebee and Optimus Prime.



I think thats enough for one day, dont you??

how weekly etsy mini will work

Ok what I am going to have to do is take a picture of each list as the weeks progress, so they dont change on my blog. So the first few days the blog will be clickable. After that it will just be a picture of the etsy mini, and not the actual etsy mini itself. .. so they will not be clickable. Does that make sense?? HUH? (in my best Brittney Spears Chaotic voice)
LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!