HNT-Lean on Me

Moosekahl and Jillie are two blog pals of mine who have both had some terrible news in the past week. Moose has been a sweet friend who has listened to me and encouraged me when I've needed it. Jillie is a ray of sunshine who I've swapped tie-dye with and gotten lemons back (and yes, that's a good thing, fresh lemons are fabulous!) I have some other friends out there who have been dealing with some long term difficulties too.

For my friends, you've got my shoulder when you need it.

HHNT

HNT-Celebrating a Return

Last week I was in Georgia taking care of my mother-in-law. As I said, it went much better than I thought, both in terms of her physical recovery and in terms of our getting along. Nonetheless I was glad to get home. Mr. Lime and the kids all came to the airport to pick me up and we went out to dinner on the way home since it was close to dinner time and we had a 2 hour drive.

Palm Springs Savant likes to take pictures of himself with martinis so when my raspberry margarita was served I took a cue from him and had Isaac snap a shot. It was a lot bigger than I expected (and a lot weaker so I guess it evens out). Anyway, this is my "Aaaahhhhh, good to be home and still not have to cook and clean tonight" look.

HHNT

HNT-Snow on the Roof

No, that's not the world's worst case of dandruff. During the snow storm last week this is how much snow accumulated on my head as I walked from the chiropractor's office to my car. My camera was in the car so a HNT post was born.

Keep warm!

HHNT

HNT-Plucky Sidekick

There's a new superhero in town at Mark Leslie's place.
Mild mannered nerdy book loving book seller by day . . .
Super geeky writer by night!

Faster than a one liner, more powerful than an extended metaphor, able to leap stacks of rejections in a single bound . . . it's a lit prof . . . it's an editor, NO! It's Super Writer!

And what's a superhero without a plucky sidekick? When the family is home she is cooking, cleaning, running kids to activities in the Mom Taxi, and lately doing battle with nasty pathogens in between handing out meds.
As soon as everyone is off to school or work she dons her magic bathrobe, grabs a cup of tea and some snacks, cranks up the iPod, and becomes.....

Blogger Girl!

Separated by hundreds of miles but connected by the internet, she and Super Writer tap along on their keyboards as they fight for humor, blogging, and the digital way!

HHNT

HNT-Happiness is Good Plumbing

Back in September the entire shower head assembly fell off in my hand when I tried to adjust it. After some warnings to Mr. Lime and reminders of how upset he was when I found someone to repair a wall I had waited for him to fix for 2 years, he fixed in it about a month and a half. In the meantime I used the kids' bathroom. Although I grew up in a house with only one bathroom and for our entire married life until we moved 4 years ago we were in a one bathroom house I got very accustomed to my lovely little master bath. It's tiny, but it's all mine. I was a little put out when I had to share once again.

Last week we were having generalized plumbing woes and no one was allowed to use any shower or tub for a little while.

All the plumbing issues seem to be resolved so now I am back in my own little shower. I am such a happy girl.

HHNT

HNT- Lay here

I took this picture some time ago figuring I'd get my 100th post up much earlier than I did. Holidays and whatnot sort of delayed me. Last night I fell asleep on the couch and missed posting. Off to a great start for HNT this year aren't I?

Well anyway, it's about 10 F outside this morning so just use your imagination to believe this is current. I'm laying there remembering warmer days...aaahhhh....

If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me

and just forget the world?

HHNT

HNTless

Sorry, no pics today. Birthday celebrations and sick kids and holiday preparations took over this week. Since we are supposed to put the year's best back up in a couple weeks why don't you let me know what you found to be memorable, but I won't limit it to just this year if you are a long time reader and have a favorite from a long time ago.

HNT-Easy to Ignore

Easy to Ignore

You and the moon are a beautiful sight to me.

The stars in your eyes make it really hard to see you.

A night in the sun is all I really want,

You and me with the best of both for once.

Night breaks.

My heart could not ache any more.

Am I that easy to ignore?

You let your song blow right through me.

Your mighty intellect makes you mighty hard to see.

Will there come a time for me to be more to you more to me?

Night breaks.

My heart could not ache any more.

Am I that easy to ignore?

~Leigh Nash~

HNT-Who is That Masked Blogger?

You mean you guessed it was me? Did the dress give it away?

Good job, you clever thing. Now how about some treats for me?

Happy Halloween

&

HHNT

Halloween HNT

I ran out of time and ideas for an HNT shot this week so I am dipping waaaaay back into the archives from a post I did during the first couple months I was blogging.

Apparently it's a reasonable Halloween choice for me...

You Could Be a Vampire... If You Had To

Like most people, the thought of being a vampire has crossed your mind. But you're not sure if you'd do it, even if you could. Living forever doesn't sound half bad, if you could live forever with the people you love the most. But do vampires even love? And would the vampire version of you even be you? It's all too much to contemplate. Luckily, the chances of you ever becoming a vampire are astronomically low. (Lucky for all of you too, I suppose.) What you would like best about being a vampire: Living forever What you would like least about being a vampire: Blood stained teeth

Could You Be a Vampire?

HHNT!

HNT-Layover

If you read yesterday's post you know I had an absolute blast in Texas and a great deal of that was due to the incomparable hospitality Seamus showed me. Silly me forgot to ask to take any pictures with him, but I did take some pictures when I met G-man, Signgurl, and Roxi during my layover in Michigan. What a blast that was.

Signgurl and I both had the same thought to goose G-man when the picture was snapped.

Now I guess turnabout is fair play.

HHNT!

HNT-Mmmmmmm...

I received a special care package from G-man in the mail recently. It was an early birthday present since I will actually be out of town (headed to Texas, yeehaw!) next week for my birthday (and second blogiversary).

I think he hit the sweet spot with his gift choices!

Mmmmmmm........thank you, G-man!

HHNT

HNT-Lime Dress #4

Sometimes I have the hardest time coming up with an exciting dinner menu, something that will please the different palates at House of Lime. It can be really frustrating trying to come up with something that will please one vegetarian, three omnivores and one carnivore ages 12 to 40-something.

When I slip on my lovely little lime dress dinner time preparations are so much more fun. Thank you, lime dress, for making me feel good even when folks are complaining about the menu.

HHNT

HNT-A Mom Jeans Free Zone Since 2006

Susie had a funny post about the fashion horror of 'Mom Jeans.' She suggested we do a joint anti-mom jeans HNT. She said she'd get Mr. Ratburn in on it too.

My girls hounded me about my horrid collection of jeans until I gave in and bought a more stylish pair. I have never much enjoyed shopping for clothes and jeans or trousers least of all. It's miserable trying to find anything that fits properly. Occasionally the clouds part, the sun shines down, angels descend, and I rejoice over finding the Holy Grail of denim.

The mid rise, boot cut (Bonus! It was on the sale rack...a certain mom-ish frugality lives on.)

If the heavenly glory was so blinding you had to avert your gaze, here is a less dazzling shot. You'll have to live with the shadow of my arm and cell phone...and the mom-mobile in the background (Hey, whaddya want? I got 3 kids and their accoutrements to be schlepping all over creation)

HHNT

HNT-Lime Dress #3 Back to School

Buffy, Ashley, and Chad have gone off to school once again. Ta-Ta, my darlings. Have a good day at school. Mummy will miss you.

One must carry on somehow and a smashing lime dress seems to brighten my spirits so well.

HHNT

HNT-Lime Dress #2

See how I sparkle when I give my toilet a scrub just because I'm wearing my new Lime Dress?

It's a slinky green miracle!

HHNT

HNT-Lime Dress

Thanks to all who left such lovely comments last week. So many of you said I should have indulged myself and I thought about that.

Then airplanejayne said...
every year you buy back-to-school clothes for the kid(s). When was the last time YOU got a BTS outfit? Don't YOU have to drive them to school? Don't YOU have to go to B.T.S. night? Don't YOU have to go meet teachers? the kid's friends? hel-LO!?!?!? You deserve the dress!!!! Go buy it!

Sometime laterwitnessing am i said...
You should splurge, go for it. You deserve it, buy it, make it yours. Nobody is noticing what isn't buttoned up and it says alot if you felt good in it. "It hid the bits I am self conscious about and sorta did nice things for the bits that ain't too shabby." That is a good thing.Wear it . . . out to dinner. Wear it to the grocery store -- just for fun.

Those two folks made me giggle at the suggestions as to where I should wear the dress and it appealed to my sense of zaniness so I thought, 'Why not? They are right!' I went back to the store and they actually had the dress in a size larger. It's still a bit snug but I can close it at least and although I have never bought clothing with the incentive to loose weight before I did this time.

With that, may I present to you with shots from my real camera, not the one in my phone...

The Lime Dress.

I figure I have tie dyed you all to death. So, who wants a 'Lime Dress brightens the mundane duties of daily life series' for HNT? I gotta get some use outta this dress now that I own it.

HHNT

HNT-Back to Whatever...

It's that time of year when I take all the Limelets back to school shopping. Sometimes I try crazy things on just to amuse myself, which is somewhat absurd because I really don't enjoy clothes shopping. I dislike it mainly because ever since I developed hips and breasts when I was 11 I have had a hard time finding things that fit comfortably (Excuse me do you have anything for a curvy girl child who is not even 5 feet tall and that is age appropriate for an 11 year old?). As an adult I hated worrying about being stylish and so I basically didn't worry about it. Since I have gained a fair amount of weight in the last year or so it's even more aggravating. Most of the time shopping is an exercise in finding something that merely doesn't make me want to gag when I look at it on me.

So, imagine my surprise when I picked out this wild green dress made out of two scarves and tried it on just to be silly and not only did I not turn a nauseous green upon inspection of my reflection but kinda liked what I saw. It hid the bits I am self conscious about and sorta did nice things for the bits that ain't too shabby. I was pleased.

Sing it with me now....I feel pretty, oh so pretty...

HHNT

*Epilogue: I did not purchase the dress because it was actually too small for me (I couldn't even close the top all the way), I don't actually have any place I could ever wear it, and it cost more than I could afford. But for a few minutes it felt nice. And please, I am not fishing for compliments with this post....just being a little naked in exposing my thought life.

HNT-Half Nekkid Walls

This is the ghastly wallpaper that covered the walls of my daughter's room. Hideous isn't it?

This is me trying to strip the horror from the walls. I finally got the last of it off the walls at 10:00 PM Wednesday. Onto the spackling and painting...you'll understand if I don't make it around today, I hope.

HHNT

* For the record...I did not choose this wallpaper in the first place. It came with the house. Tie dye fixation, notwithstanding, I tend to think I have better taste than this.

HNT- Black & White

I'm developing quite the salty stripe in my pepper hair. I kinda like it even though people generally seem to assume I am a fair bit older than I really am because of the grays. I'm still not going to dye it. I'll just compensate by acting like a bigger kid.

HHNT