I got this elsewhere on the net…. but thought you all might be interested in reading it:

25 random things about Meryl:

1. I like pop up videos. Really.
2. I have absolutely always hated my own name.  (ETA: Sorry Mom and Dad, You did your best!)
3. Even though I weigh the most I ever have, I also have the best self esteem I’ve ever had.
4. I like substituting the real words in songs, and putting in the word “meow”
5. I am at my absolute happiest when singing. In tune or not.
6. I am an intense planner. I wouldn’t say a control freak… I just like knowing how things are going to be. They usually don’t go that way, but it’s still refreshing to plan.
7. I love to budget. I seriously do.
8. I spent most of my childhood and teen years looking forward to being a mother, and I often feel like a failure now that I am one. (not always, just often)
9. I played the violin for several months, but quit when I wasn’t amazingly good at it right off.
10. I can’t read and listen to music. The lyrics and the words get garbled together.
11. When I was little, I wished my name was Katherine.
12. I have wanted to be more than 10 different professions in the course of my life. Turns out? I actually hate doing just about anything.
13. I desperately miss working retail.
14. If I could do one thing as a job, I would LOVE to be a columnist for a video game magazine or parenting magazine (Column about video games!)
15. I have an intense love of fabric.
16. Once upon a time I wanted to be a fashion designer. Turns out? I have no sense of style.
17. I will always shop at the Hot topic. At least two items I wear every day are from there. 😉
18. I say random words like dojobby, thingamajiggit, bucketface, and (yes) banana hammock.
20. Some of my best memories involve a Dodge lancer, freeways, music turned up too loud, cassette tapes, junk food and my older siblings.
21. I often ponder on what has changed since the 1950’s in the American Worker’s frame of mind.
22. I wish I were eloquent enough to express all the emotion in my heart and mind so that the entire world could feel it.
23. Sometimes I wish I could sit all day in a cafe, or a coffee place, or anywhere, with a journal, and watch people.
24. In all my imaginings in all my life, I never imagined my life like this– which is alright with me, every day is surreal. I thought I’d be dead at 16.
25. I often wish the day had more hours in it, so I could work just as much as I am at home and still get to sleep. 🙂

Derringer Meryl [think about it.] Out

people are afraid.

What they don’t know scares them. In one breath I was about to say “I wish people were more like me” but really… I wish people loved each other more so that they would want to reach out and understand each other. I wish people had less fear in their hearts. I wish that people could let go of what they think, and learn. I wish people would have hope. I wish people weren’t embarassed or scared.

I wish that things in the world were better.

Derringer Meryl [This was going to be angry–] Out

We don’t have any. OK. we don’t have any we agree on. What an update right? Scott likes Tycho Li for a boy and has no names for a girl. I have a passel of boy’s names I like that Scott hates (a passel being three apparently: Emmett LaMar,  William Alexander, Gabriel Tycho) or at the very least really dislikes. I like older sounding names that can be shortened. Emmett doesn’t really fall in there, but William to Will and Gabriel to Gabe. I also like Other names like Wesley and Levi, but have no coordinating middle names for them.

As far as girls names go, we are pretty uninspired. I like Brynn Leigh. But I don’t like Brinn Leigh. Which is purely aesthetics. I know, spelling shouldn’t matter, and for that matter why two ‘n’s? why not just one? I don’t know. I like the way it looks. Another name I really like is Petra, as well as Kara.

Scott has been stubborn about talking about names. Apparently my doctor won’t let you try an ultrasound prior to 20 weeks, so I’m SOL until later next month. I’m so jealous. Scott and I are antsy to find out. Mostly me. I’m such a planner that I want to figure out which way I need to go… Do I need to plan for a bunkbed, or just a Big girl Katie bed? I definitely need to get her a “I’m the big sister” shirt. 🙂 OY! Crazy.

Last night as I was waiting for an appointment I saw a little boy running around. He looked like he was probably around 15 months or so. He was cute. I realize I’m not dreading having this baby, I’m dreading going back to having A baby. Where they can’t talk to you, and they can’t tell you anything. I was getting so used to Katie’s ability to tell me yes or no or even specifically what she wanted for lunch. It is so nice (In exciting Katie news, she ate a whole corn dog for lunch without any extra goading. YAY!) I’m not looking forward to going back to the vomit and the crying and the late nights and middle of the night stuff. BUT, time marches on and just like Katie, our new baby will get older.

Hopefully he’ll get older with a name that I like.

Derringer Meryl {I just call it ‘Him’ because that’s my prerogative] Out

PS: Scott would like me to add that he thinks the name Emmett LaMar is Ugly. I would like to add that I think it flows well, and that Scott is a dork. LOL. Just kidding. How about this? We both toss out the boys names the other person doesn’t like. So you can drop Tycho Li and I’ll drop Emmett LaMar. OK?

Sometimes, when I meet or see people (or just plain know people) who are newly engaged, or who are just fresh in love… I envy them.

In marriage it’s easier to remember the fact that someone forgot to take out the trash or that you’ve cooked dinner every night for a month, and that you need a night away from the screaming kids, and you’d love if your spouse would look at you like they used to when it seemed like you were the whole world. It’s easy to forget the good things and hard to forget the bad. In my almost five years of marriage I have learned things that are essential to being happy.  #1) Be honest. All the time. Being honest and being hurtful aren’t the same. I think that’s an important difference most people don’t get. Often you hear someone say something rude and they say “I’m just being honest.” when in all reality they are being malicious. I am horrible at keeping secrets from Scott.  And I like it that way. I like being bothered when I try and keep things from him. I love to talk to him so much that not telling him something is annoying, and I’d rather not.  #2) Communication. You hear Oprah and Dr. Phil and everyone who has ever dispensed advise blather on about how important communication is in a marriage, so people talk and talk to each other and don’t understand why they don’t feel better.  Communication is just as much about talking as it is about listening. Listening to both the words and the tone will help anyone understand their spouse better. #3) Put all of yourself into making the other person happy. This is possibly the best advice I ever got before getting married. I may have never mentioned it before… If you spend all your time thinking and working to make your spouse happy– and they spend all their time to make you happy… It is most assured that you will be happy. It only works if both people are doing it though. #4) Don’t keep track. Don’t think about how you took out the trash, and did the dishes, and changed the diaper, and etc etc. Don’t keep track of what you did, and they didn’t. It’s a start of a fight (in your head) and you’re spending all that time noticing what you’re doing and probably being angry about it– that you don’t even notice what they’re doing.  Don’t keep track. Don’t remember that they asked your oldest to come and get you so they could get into the car and go home. #5) remember. Remember what it was like to be freshly in love. remember what it was like when you couldn’t be away from each other…. as important as it is to forget somethings, it is doubly important to remember your love for each other.

I don’t think my marriage is perfect. Far from it. But it’s good. It’s solid. And I love my husband.

Derringer Meryl [Marriage] Out

Ok. I get the concept, but at the same time, what kind of crap is that?

So a friend posed the question “My daughter oversleeps a lot, and misses the bus, I’m sick of driving her and I feel like she’s not understanding the consequences of being late to school.”

When I think of teenagers, i shy away from the thought of Katie as a teen, because heaven knows I don’t want to venture into that line of thought until I absolutely have to.  So I think about ME as a teen. I was not always the most well put together. AND, I overslept. A lot. Oh, and? My mom woke me up, all the time. (and while those aren’t treasured memories, at least I don’t think so, for my mom as it was FRUSTRATING to try and wake me up, I enjoyed the time to kind of be a bit of a kid. I’m a fairly responsible person and I don’t think my mom waking me up hurt me in the least.) She drove me to school EVERY DAY (not just days I was late, as there was no bus for my school in my area) and when i was dumb and forgot homework or a book at home, I knew that (despite my stupidity) my mom was there to bail me out. I don’t think it taught me to be lazy. I work fourty hours a week, I have a toddler, and a baby on the way, I have a house, I pay bills. I’m a functioning Human being. WHY? because I knew that my mom wouldn’t always be able to bail me out of stuff, and it was nice while she could, and it was great when she could… but we all grow up and say “I need to pay rent, I need to buy food, and if I’m a lazy slob, and if I’m unreliable, I won’t be able to.” I can’t say my parents ever sat me down and ingrained the virtues of hardwork and what not. I knew if I were responsible, I’d be working to get the things I wanted or needed. Mostly, I learned by watching my parents. My dad went to work every day when I was a kid, and worked graves and weird hours, and my mom worked from time to time too. They didnt’ sit with their hand out asking for someone to give them things– they worked to get what they wanted or needed. My brothers all had jobs. I guess you could say I’m only the person I am because of the examples I had set for me.

Anyway. I don’t think(in all of my wise-ness) that you need to make kids learn how hard life is. It’s plain to see. At least it was for me.  Sometimes life sucks, and sometimes it doesn’t. Kids should have a safe and welcome place to be when it does suck– and wouldn’t it be great if it was home?

Derringer Meryl [softie] Out