40 posts tagged “qotd”

If you could do anything you want tomorrow, what would it be?
Submitted by Becca-Pink.

Believe it or not, I would clean my house.  Not because I love it so much (trust me, I don't), but simply because it needs a good cleaning in such a bad way.

How many houses have you lived in? How is where you live now different from where you grew up?

I lived in one house from the time I was born until I went away to college.  It's an old farmhouse in rural northwest Iowa.  You can almost see it in the picture below:

In four years of college, I lived in four different places:
  - Dorm room in Cedar Falls, Iowa (University of Northern Iowa) my freshman year
  - Dorm room in Orange City, Iowa (Northwestern College) my sophomore year
  - Shared house in Orange City, Iowa my junior year.  It was campus housing but a real house with real bathrooms and a real kitchen.  I think there were nine of us in there.  It was great fun.
  - Campus apartments in Orange City my senior year.

Every summer I would come home to the above house except between my junior and senior years, which I spent in South Bend, Indiana as a camp counselor.  It was at that camp that I met my husband. 

We got married a week after I graduated from college, so the next real residence for me was here in Rochester, his hometown.  We figured he'd find some kind of a job and I'd get something at the clinic - which I did, but not right away.  For the first 2 1/2 years we lived in this tiny, tiny apartment (it was all we could afford) with a neighbor from Russia who used to cook who-knows-what - I never knew what it was but I can still remember how it smelled.  This kid had this cherubic 5-year-old face but also a mustache...it was funny-looking in an ironic way.  He was also very small, so I suppose the mustache was to establish the fact that he was, in fact, out of grade school.

I digress.

When we found out we were expecting Bailey, there was no way we could stay in our apartment and have a baby, mostly because of all the crap that comes with them.  Cribs, pack-n-plays, swings, strollers, et cetera, et cetera.  (One thing we wouldn't have needed in that place was a baby monitor; in any spot in that apartment you'd never be far enough away from the baby that you wouldn't be able to hear her breathe.)  So anyway, the time was right and the market was good, so we bought our first house:

It was a small house, but was perfect for us at the time.  There are some things I really miss about that house, like the great backyard and huge master bedroom.  We brought both of our babies home from the hospital to that house, but eventually we decided we needed just a little more room so we sold it for a handy profit and moved up just a notch to our current house:

This picture wasn't taken today, although for as cold of a spring as it's been, it wasn't all that long ago that there was still snow on the ground.

This house is really, truly perfect for a family of four.  We've done some landscaping & stuff but essentially, this is it.   I laugh sometimes because it's so......me.  I've always wanted a colonial.  Sure, there are more changes we'd like to make, but it really is the right house for us.

Part 2 of this QotD is that I'm supposed to compare & contrast where I live now to where I grew up.  Well, there's the obvious city vs. country, but essentially it's the same part of the country (SE MN vs. NW IA) so people generally have the same attitudes.   There's a little more cultural diversity here, in all classes of society.  We have immigrants who come to work in the cannery and immigrants who come to be doctors - and everyone in between.  For the most part we are a pretty homogenously white population, though - like where I grew up.  I remember people not being terribly open-minded when I was growing up, but that's not 100% bad.  (I always think of 1 Corinthians: "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial...." In other words, you have to protect your thinking to some degree.)  True to sterotype, people are generally friendlier outside the city, at least that's my experience.  And I think people are more resourceful outside of town too.  It might be that farmer mentality being passed down over the generations.  You don't have it - you make do or go without.  Actually, I think those of us in the city could learn a lesson there.

What parenting tip do you swear by?

TRUST YOUR GUT.

What are you most sensitive about? 

Two things.

1 - Anything that anyone might say that might imply that I'm not doing a good job at something.  Obviously I know I'm not perfect, and of course I want to know if I need to improve the way I do something.  But the message is sometimes hard to take.  I take a lot of things personally that I shouldn't.  But I'm getting better about it, slowly.  I'm learning to look at criticisms more objectively, especially when they really aren't criticisms.

2 - On a much more serious and important note, it just kills me when I hear stories in the news (or anyplace else) of children being abused.  Just looking at those words I just typed makes me want to cry.  I seriously had to stop reading FOXNews.com except the headlines because there were just too many horrible things happening to kids.  I feel like a jerk for burying my head in the sand, but what can I do?  I just want kids to not have to hurt.  They don't deserve to be mistreated, especially by the people they trust.  How can someone mistreat their own child?  Selfish, selfish parents.  You need a license to cut hair but any moron can have a child.  It's just not right.  Ugh.

What was the #1 song on the radio when you were born?

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce.

Now that song is going to be in my head all day.

What piece of advice do you wish you could take?

Bite your tongue.

No, really, that's the advice I wish I could take.  Way too often I say something and later regret it.  And I think I'm getting worse as I get older.

How did you create your username for VOX? What influenced your decision?
Submitted by Strive2Be.

I've had 2 usernames since I started on Vox.  The first one was crazylabtech (still in my url), which was fine until Steve thought it was something else.  Which is probably also true; I just didn't feel the need to announce it. :)

The second (and current) name, Mello, is something that my sister started calling me when we were kids.  She still calls me Mello.  I chose it as my username because it popped into my head when I was trying to think of a replacement for crazyb**ch, I mean crazylabtech.  I didn't want to use Melissa (what most other people call me when they're not calling me a crazyb**ch) because I wanted to be unique on Vox.

So there you have it.

What is the worst city you've ever been to and why? 
Submitted by Soup.

Newark, New Jersey....and I never even left the airport.

It was a bad flying weekend and Newark was a stopover.  Every leg of that flight (6 in all, round trip) was delayed and I think I spent a total of about 4 hours sitting on the tarmac.  So I was already irritated, but the airline I was on was not being helpful, and the desk attendant was just downright RUDE.  I will never forget her.  Not all of the problems with that weekend were the airline's fault, but still, you don't have to be rude about it.  I'm usually all about second chances, but after that weekend I will never fly that airline again and I will avoid going to Newark ever again if at all possible.

Oh, the one good thing was that I was able to see the Statue of Liberty as we were landing, since the airport is right across the river from NYC.  But that wasn't Newark so it doesn't count.

What do you think is your best physical attribute? 
Submitted by Nacwolin.

Hello, everything about me is stunning.

 

That was sarcasm.

 

This is redundant because nearly every answer I've read to this question says this same thing, but I guess I'd have to go with my eyes.

What food item would you miss the most if it were removed from your diet and recipes? 
Submitted by scorpion1116.  

Butter.

I love it.  I will not give it up.  Nothing compares to that melted butter on warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven bread...mmmm.....or on a baked potato.....or in the skin of baked potato (try it if you never have).....mmmmm

Once as a young child, I was once caught by my mother eating a stick of butter.

It must be my Swedish heritage, but I think butter is straight from God.  As a matter of fact, my kitchen has some Swedish designs in it, and one of them is a trivet that hangs on my wall.  It says "Food should be cooked with butter and love."  My cooking motto!  (Actually, I cook with margarine and oil more than butter because butter burns, but I like the sentiment.)

I know, it's not supposed to be good for you.  I've tried those so-called "butter replacements" out there and they taste like margarine.  I can believe it's not butter, thank you very much.