Lent

Ok, here's the scoop. I've given something up for lent for the past two years and will do so again this year. It has become a little tradition of my own to give up soda. This is hard because I love my cherry coke from Sonic and my favorite dessert is a coke float. I usually make it half way through lent with no problem but Satan starts tempting me the second half.

Last year with the soda I gave up chocolate. This was a dumb move on my part. Women should NOT give up chocolate unless they have to for medical reasons! I never knew just how much chocolate there was out there. I couldn't have a chocolate birthday cake. Peanut couldn't either (because of the way lent fell). I couldn't have a hot fudge sunday nor chocolate chip cookies. I couldn't have kisses on valentines day or a million other things. I won't be doing that again any time soon. I managed to go the 40 days and 6 Sundays without it, but not without whining about it the whole time.

That brings us up to this year, this lent. Again, like in the past, I'm going to give up my precious pop. I've heard from several people that if you go without pop for a while and then try the diet stuff the switch is easier because you taste buds have almost forgotten how good the real stuff is. I think I'll try that. We'll see how that goes. But also, I've learned a few things about lent in the past few weeks. I've learned that it's not just about making the sacrifice but stopping to pray everytime you want what you've given up. This year I've joined a wonderful group of bloggers atForty Days to Forever- A Lenten Prayer Blog . This is a wonderful blog filled with prayer. There are something like 26 contributers. Some might post a prayer daily, some might weekly. Whatever the case might be we are praying, together during this time of lent.

The second part of my sacrifice during lent is my home computer. Tonight when I go to bed I am turning off the computer and it will stay off until Easter. What this doesn't mean is that I'm going to disappear until Easter. Now, it just means that I'll be limited to my work hours to blog and check emails. But ONLY after my work is done. Think lunch break. So, yes, this changes the Friday caption contest slightly. I will put the picture up on Friday like normal, but since I won't be checking my email or the blog over the weekend I'll post my favorites on Monday.

Also, I'll probably be commenting less on your blogs just because I'll be limited in time. This doesn't mean I won't read them because how could I not?!?! I just might not have time to post my witty remarks, but I might, we'll see.

Ok, that's it for now. Tomorrow I'm going to have pictures of baby kitties to share with the group!!!

Sunday Potpourri

pot·pour·ri

1.A mixture of dried flower petals and spices used to scent the air.
2.A miscellaneous anthology or collection: a potpourri of short stories and humorous verse.
3.A combination of incongruous things

Hee hee hee... Ok, I think it's funny when your blog's name is FRESH CUT FLOWERS and the subject title is potpourri and you're NOT talking about definition #1.

I want to give a shout out to Parker, who might be my youngest reader! I'm glad to hear I can make you laugh!

To Mike, Tj, Doc Pontious, we missed you today! There were only three of us in Sunday School today. Come back next week!!!!

There will be a slight change to the Friday Caption Contest for the next 6 or so weeks. I'm going to end it on Monday instead of Sunday. Hey, I said it was slight! I'll tell you more about it later in the week when I talk about lent. And THANK YOU to everyone who participates. I know how much I enjoy reading the captions you all come up with. Who knew you could be so creative and funny!

Have a wonderful Lord's day everyone! See ya around the blogsphere tomorrow.

Friday's Caption Contest

Here's the three that made ME laugh the most.

Just because you don't make it into my top three doesn't mean I don't appreciate or laugh at your entry.

1. Will Smama "Help! There's an 'I' key stuck to my hand!"

2. Jennybee aka Emma "George sees Neo and now wishes he had just taken the blue pill"

3. Faith "While shopping for his wife, Harvey estimates her size for the clerk."

Faith, I hope Harvey never goes shopping for me!!!

Where's my EYE

Hmm... today my keyboard fell n the floor. Ever snce no longer have the letter ... oh can't type t because t won't type... 'll spell t out f you haven't fgured t out yet t's the letter "eye"

Can type the rest of my lfe wthout the letter eye?

Dd you really notce before sad anythng?

LOL... just another part of my "wonderful" day.

You are a Carnation:
You are friendly, energetic, cheerful, and bubbly.
You love being around people. Outgoing and
talkative, you rarely meet a stranger. Others
feel at ease around you because of your
playful nature.
Symbolism: In Victorian times carnations were given
to show fascination with another. They also
symbolize friendship and whimsicalness.

Which Flower are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Picture This

A picture is worth a thousand words. What is one place you have seen that only a picture can adequately describe?

Kit the Kat

I have a cat. Her name is Kit the Kat. She's pregnant. This is no big deal to us, she's had three litters before. However about three weeks ago I decided that she was so big that labor was soon to happen and have made her an inside cat. Since this decision she has refused to have those babies. It's been THREE weeks. Every day I wake up, she's fat. I come home from work, she's fat. She spends a lot of time looking for a small dark place to have the kittens but still she remains fat. Even my husband, who doesn't like cats has come to ask the daily question, "Is the cat still fat?" and my response is always, "Yes."

How do you induce labor in a cat? It's not like I can take her to the mall and make her walk around it a dozen time. Can you give a cat Castor Oil? I'm ready for those kittens. Kit doesn't seem to mind. She gets to stay inside where it's warm, have food set out for her 24/7, someone to clean up after her potty breaks, and lots of attention (some wanted and some not so much). The only "down side" I guess she has is the fact that I lock her in the laundry room at night so she doesn't wake us all up jumping on stuff. But even that has become a game to her. The other night I put her in her room and sat down at the computer to check my email one last time. I could hear her scratching at the door then a few minutes later I got up to go to the kitchen and there she was. SHE HAD OPENED THE DOOR! Luckily the lock is on the outside so I can lock her in!

So we wait..... and wait.... and then wait some more for these dad-gum kittens to get here! She's probably got a dozen in there cookin' away. It's pretty funny to watch her waddle around the house. Have you ever seen a cat waddle? Everyone should experience this at least once in their life. I haven't figured out how to upload a video or I'd show you Kit.

Anyway, hopefully I'll have pictures of the new kittens to show you soon!

Friday's Caption Contest

And the winners for this week's contest:
Jennybee: "You want to take my temperature WHERE?"

Ayatollah Mugsy:"What do you mean I don't get any royalties from Troll Doll sales?" said Terrence the Primate. He vowed to appeal the court's decision.

Dr Mike Kear: I'm going hunting with Dick who?!

Friday Caption Contest

This week's winners:

Ayatollah Mugsy: First the tire boot and then the sinkhole. Javier knew he shouldn't have crossed the path of that black cat. And little did Javier know that he was about to be car-jacked by that large woman who was running toward his passenger door.

Eija: Coming up! A grand car show - the most luxurious setting and the best car(s) in the territory!

Jenny Bee:Never tick off the mayor especially when it's your ex-wife.

Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for Friday's Caption Contest! I've got a great picture for you this week!!!

And the picture of the computer in this post isn't it...lol!

My Johari Window

Along the lines of Monday's blog about our "real" selves. I've found this Johari window, courtesy of the RevGalBlogPals. So those of you that think you know me...even just because we blog together, go to this site and pick the words you'd describe me as. It's not really that hard and kind of interesting to see. From there you can also create your own Johari window. If you do let me know so I can help you see the person you didn't know you were.

Traveling

Today I explored the mountains and valleys of the Grand Canyon. Then I saw the sky scrapers of Manhattan. After I left there I went to France to see the Eiffel Tower. And then I went to St Peter's Basilica and the Colosseum in Italy.




Then the pizza guy showed up and I closed out Google Earth.

The Pasta Diet

The Pasta Diet
1) You walka pasta da bakery.
2) You walka pasta da candy store.
3) You walka pasta da Ice Cream shop.
4) You walka pasta da table and fridge.

And for those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word onnutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all the conflicting medical studies:
1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks thanAmericans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks thanAmericans.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacksthan Americans.
4. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heartattacks than Americans.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausage and suffer fewerheart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you

Another you?

Ok,MadCapMum has me thinking about the personalities we project on our blogs. In real life I don't know many strangers. I'm almost always smiling when I'm talking to people and if I'm not smiling I'm at least making eye contact and trying my hardest (sometimes easy sometimes not so much) to focus on what is being said. But here in cyber space you can't see my smile, you can't see my eye contact. But does my writing get that point across?

Am I able to project my true personality to those of you that don't really know me? Well, how can you strangers actually answer that if you don't know me. A couple of you I do know in Real World, do you think I'm the same online and off? Do you try to project the true you to the rest of cyber world or have you created an alterego that you wish you were?

Does Bruce Wayne really equal Batman? Does Leslee of Enid America really equal Leslee of Fresh Cut Flowers? Is there really a pug out there that blogs? Ok, I think that's enough questions to get a good conversation going.

Blog about your dog day

I bet you didn't know, but today is Blog About Your Dog Day. Yes-sir-e-bob!

This is Snoogans. He is part Eskimo and part Samoyed. He is the most mellow dog I've ever met. He came to live with us last August. After a couple of weeks of playing escape artist games he finally settled down and is perfectly content to hang out in the back yard. For the first several weeks he would pee on the Winnie dog that lived next door through the fence. But now they just chase each other up and down the fence. There was a husky that also lived right by us Snoogans and the husky would sit at the fence talking for hours. But the husky went away one day and hasn't come back. Snoogans loves the winter and gets down right giddy when it snows.

Snoogans likes long walks around the neighborhood(especially when we walk to pick Peanut up from school and ALL the kids pet him). Peanut. Treats. And taking naps under the tree in the back yard.

Birthday

I had a WONDERFUL birthday! My "sweet" Peanut woke me up at 8:30 because she was afraid I would over sleep and miss a minute of my birthday. Then her and her daddy decided to go get donuts for breakfast but not before hooking the playstation up to the tv in the living room so I could watch the movie I bought myself "Just Like Heaven". It was every bit as good as I thought it would be and a perfect chick flick! I got to watch almost the whole thing before Nickel and Peanut got home. When they arrived they brought me the prettiest potted purple tulips! I'll plant them later on the year after I've got my usefulness out of them and enjoy them forever! Around noon I finally took a shower and got out of my pajamas. My husband took us to a resturant outside of town and we had the best barbeque in the whole world (or at least the known-to-me world). We stopped at Lowes on the way home to look at kitchen sinks because we need to replace ours and lawnmowers. Then we went on home. Around 3 or so I put my pajamas back on and cuddled up on the couch and watched my movie again. It was a wonderful day and I highly recommend spending your birthday like this!

Leslee's Friday Caption Contest

And the winners are:

1. Dr Mike Kear: I'm Verdecrane from the planet Felinium 7. Take me to Captain Picard!

2. Jackie:

6 pack of beer - $15

Limes for the apitizers - $4

Cat walking in at the perfect time - priceless

3. Jayne: "And you thought blonds had more fun?"

Nickel had to help me because there were so many great entries. We might have to make a weekly habit of this! Thanks for playing!!!

If you didn't a chance to enter the contest but still have a great caption please leave it in the comments.

And the winner is...

This is the medal I received when my partner and I placed third in a dramatic duet.

Four Lies and A Truth

Jennifer at Sob'ah My Soul tagged me for this little game. And I LOVE it so I'm playing along.
The directions are to write five things about yourself with only ONE of them being true. The other four are fiction, and everyone else gets to guess which one is not fiction.

1. My parents got a divorce when I was 6.
2. I'm a twin
3. I was an extra in the movie Twister -the scene where they're at the drive in theater
4. I was on the Competition Drama Team in High School
5. I speak fluent Cherokee

Guess which one is true.
I'm going to tag five for this, but I know it's easy to get tagged out, so don't feel obligated to play. If this sounds like fun, though, and you could use some blogspiration let us know so we can come and guess your truth.

1. The crew at Emmaus Theory
2. The RevGals
3. My Canadian friends
4. My pug friends
5. Everyone else!

Finding My Voice

Since I have no great wonderful event to tell you about I have chosen today to tell you about the day I went from being a shy, quite, reserved girl into the bold opinionated woman you know and LOVE today!

Setting: 7th grade. I had permed hair. My sense of style was NOTHING like what the rest of the world was experiencing at that time. I had a mouth full of metal. I rode the bus to and from school everyday. I made good grades. I was a goodytooshoe who went to church every Sunday. I didn't use bad language. I cried when I thought I made anyone mad. I didn't have very good friends.

So one day my so called "friends" and I were riding the bus to school. Kelly and Robin were two years old then Brandy, Regina, and myself but for the most part we got along. Sort of. My "friends" would periodically decide to get mad at me for something or another. Perhaps I annoyed them. Perhaps they were just PMSing and I was an easy target. Whatever the reason I was always trying to make them feel better about themselves. I was constantly apologizing for stuff that I had no idea I had done. I was the low man on the totem poll. On this particular day the girls were all in a frenzy by the time I got on the bus. Kelly had decided she was going to break up with her boyfriend Shawn. Shawn and I had English together. That day I told him he needed to talk to Kelly. He asked me why. I didn't tell him, just told him he needed to talk to her. He asked me if she was going to break up with him. I didn't say no. Well, Shawn figuring things out decided to beat Kelly to the punch and broke up with her first. It wasn't pretty and Kelly was heartbroken. I still am unsure why.

My "friends" decided I had told Shawn about Kelly's plan and that I wanted to go out with him myself so I must be excommunicated from the group. They refused to talk to me. They refused to sit with me at lunch. And being so shy I couldn't just walk up to anyone else and eat with them. I ate alone. I stood outside after eating by myself while the girls huddled and would look at me as if to say, yes, we're talking about you. What you gonna do about it? Cry? Then they'd laugh. I was even scared that they would try to beat me up or that they'd talk one of their other friends (who was ALWAYS in trouble for fighting) into beating me up. And I didn't stand a chance. I was miserable. I kept trying to apologize for this horrible mistake I had made, but they wouldn't listen.

Later that day on the way home from school Regina was sitting in the sit behind me on the bus. She stood up and told me that they just didn't think they could trust me after what I did to Kelly. Well, that was it. I had had enough. I stood up, looked her straight in the eye and asked, "What in the HELL did I do to Kelly that effects you?!!?" Regina just stood there. Probably shocked that I could yell at her without crying (which I was known for). After a moment she just rolled her eyes and sat back down. She did not have a come back. She didn't have a defense. She had nothing. And none of the other girls said anything either. They didn't talk much on the way home. Not to me or to each other. They didn't huddle together to whisper. They didn't make fun of me. It was like I had finally proven myself to these girls. Maybe they were actually thinking about what I said.

I would love to say that magically these "friends" became the best friends in the whole wide world but they didn't. But I stopped trying to please them from that moment on. That was the first moment in my whole life where I stood up for myself, and to be honest, I liked it. But with great power comes great responsibility...(oops, sorry this isn't a Spider Man comic book...) I didn't let it go to my head. Not too much anyway. Now I use my power of self esteem to reach out to others that might need a little push...like calling a half stranger (only half because we talk via blog comments) and inviting her to lunch (Cindy, we need to do that again soon because I had SO much fun!!!).

These girls and I remained friends, and I use that word as loosely as you can, throughout high school. From time to time my mom sees them in my home town and they ask about me and want me to call them. But I don't. And it's not that I wouldn't talk to them on the phone if they called me. But I firmly believe that that part of my life is over. If God wants me to reach out them He'll let me know. But until then, I'll enjoy life. I'll laugh with good friends. I'll love with all my heart. I'll live to fullest of life that God has intended. And I'll know that God created me, he did not make me to be a door mat! A servant, yes, but not a door mat.

Blessing my friends! I hope today you find or use your voice to praise the Mighty One!

Memory Lane

Ok folk, I haven't had much originallity in me the last couple of day. Jennifer over at Sob'ah My Soul posted some pictures of herself growing up and I thought you might like to see how precious I was at one time too.

This picture of me and my brother was taken when I was taken when i was about 10 months.
Look at those big brown eyes! I was two and a half.

I remember when this picture was taken right before I was four. It was a Friday night at Walmart and a black man (the first one I ever saw) was taking the pictures. He was nice but I was a little nervous and was chewing on my bottom lip. I was shocked that he asked me why I chewing on my lip because I didn't think he knew!

This picture was taken about 6 months later at my grandma's house. Do you like my PINK POODLE PANTS?!?!? The red barn wasn't my grandmothers but I still think of her when I see red barns.

After the 6th grade graduation there was a party at the college. I don't remember how much each picture cost, but Kristi and I spent a lot of time in front of that camera. I really really liked polka dots and my mom made a lot of my clothes that year.
About a year later I was the victim of a bad perm (well... you couldn't really see it in the last picture but I had a bad perm then too). This was at least 7th grade because that's when I got the metal mouth. Remember when it was cool to wear just one strap of overalls? I don't really miss that style.

Flash forward to highschool. I think this was senior year. Haley and I have been friends for 12 years now and inseperable in high school.

Ok, another flash forward to age 19. My family tells me this was my skinny year. Probably because I lived on my own and couldn't afford to eat what I wanted. The beautiful little girl is my neice Allie.

Five Factor Personality Test

My friend Claire did this quiz on her blog and since it hit me pretty dead on I thought I'd share. Have fun with it!

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have medium extroversion. You're not the life of the party, but you do show up for the party. Sometimes you are full of energy and open to new social experiences. But you also need to hibernate and enjoy your "down time." Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have high agreeableness. You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly. Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone. You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about YOUR NAME

This was cute so I picked it up at Claire's site.

1. I have 3 E's in my first name

2. Most people spell it wrong on their first, second, and third try.

3. This bothered me a LOT when I was little.

4. I've gotten use to spelling it for people now.

5. I can spell my name on a calculator - 337537 now look at it upside down.

6. Lee is my father's middle name

7. Lee was also his mother's middle name.

8. It's also my brother's middle name.

9. Kids use to tease me by calling me More-Lee.

10. I wanted my name to be Lynessa (long E there folk NOT like vanessa).

11. My name means "From a chosen camp".

12. Those cute cards, pens, keychains, etc you find everywhere with names on them-yeah, you'll never see my name there.

13. In High School I was friends with a Lesley. People always got a chuckle when we'd say hi to each other in the halls. "Hi Lesley" "Hi Leslee"

Lent

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things.


My friend Jules has been talking about the upcoming Lent season over on her blog and it has me thinking too. For the last two years I've given something up. Made a personalsacrificee. Something that it's really hard to live without for 46 days. Both years I've given up pop (my favorite thing to drink in the whole wide world!) and last year I gave up chocolate too. I did manage to go all 46 days but not without some complaining. The pop last year was easy it was the chocolate that I had a hard time with. As you might recall Lent ran through February and part of March. Well, that meant that Lent ran through my birthday, Valentine's Day, AND Peanut's birthday.

This year it doesn't start until March 1 so it'll just run through Peanut's birthday. I'm planning on doing the pop thing again this year too. I've been told by several people that it's easier to go to diet pop once you've taken a break from the real stuff. I'll see if this is true for me.

But this verse fromPhilippianss keeps coming at me. For two weeks in a row pastor has gone over it on Wednesday Night and it pops into my mind at different times of the day.

God, you want me to do WHAT?!??

For 46 days I am going to try my very very hardest to follow this verse. Whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy I will meditate on these things. I think this might be the hardest Lent so far. But I'm up to the challenge. I think I'll have to make some copies of this verse and tape them to my computer at home and work, in my car, on my desk, beside my bed, on the fridge, everywhere that I am.

And just for the "fun" of it, I'm actually going to start today.... you know, after I spend the morning griping about my co-workers to other people... yeah, today is a good day to start.

I may spend ALL day Easter venting about the crap that goes on, or perhaps come Easter you'll see a brand new person (those of you that get to see me). I might even get to grow a little bit spiritually, wouldn't THAT be cool?

Ok, 10 minutes down and 72 days, 10 hours and 3 minutes to go! Praise God!

Another thing that made me laugh

So last Saturday I went out to eat with my bestfriend Haley and NickD. We had a great time visiting and talking about things going on in each other's lives. We even saw a couple that we went to school with. The girl was actually my best friend in kindergarten but that means nothing to her. She's a pleasant enough girl though so we spoke to them on the way out for a few moments. We then went back to Haley's apartment where her NickD's brother and girlfriend came over with the game taboo. If you've never played taboo I recommend you go out and buy this game right after you finish reading this blog. It was a lot of fun. Here is a snippet of how our game went.

NickD's word was COCONUT and he had to use other words to get his brother to say Coconut without using the 5 or 6 other words listed on this card or using any hand gestures. The following is the actual clue and response used.

NickD- Okay. *pause to re-read words he could not say* Oh, ok. Girls in Hawaii wear these over their breast.

Brother- Cantaloupes!

All three of us Girls-laughter followed by rolling on the floor hold our aching stomachs from laughing so hard!

Brother- What? They're not cantaloupes?