Celebrity Lookalikes: Little Friend Edition

 

When Little Friend woke up from his nap this afternoon, I couldn't help but laugh.  One of my nicknames for him from the time he was a teeny baby is Chief Crazy Hair.  Today his crazy hair put me in mind of a certain "celebrity."  Just add glasses, a suit, and a mustache,  and you'd have Baby Don King! ;)

Look-alikes?

I didn't know my Kiddo was such a chameleon. Is it just my imagination, or does he look a little bit like....


... Samuel L. Jackson?




... Tiger Woods?




... he wants to make a statement?

Maybe the "stars" really are like us... ;)

Russell Crowe's Son Destined to Marry Keith & Nicole's Daughter? - Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe : People.com

This article made me laugh, given that I sort of joke that Kiddo has a list of approved future brides (pretty much just the daughters of my dear friends or people I really admire, with extra points going to those girls whose parents read my blog ... and I request that he should get first shot at Miss Emmarae! :) ). I also thought Mikaela would appreciate this, since she too likes to match-make for Kiddo. It's good to know that Nicole Kidman and I are alike in one way. Too bad it isn't that we could be mistaken for twins...sigh.

Seriously, nobody should be allowed to look this good at 6 months pregnant-- unless we all did!

Love this Little Girl!

Can I just say, that while I'm still undecided about the November elections, I think Piper Palin ROCKS! Here she is at her mommy's 2006 Inauguration. Clearly, Gov. Palin has been upstaged a few times by her little cutie.

My New Hero (and I'm not being cheeky)

I just happened to turn on the tv and Oprah's on. Today she's focusing on people who "found their calling" to help others. She was talking to this man who left his high-paying job at Microsoft to increase worldwide literacy. John Wood is responsible for the donation of 2.8 million books to children in developing countries, the establishment of 5,100 libraries, the creation of local language books, and is providing scholarships for girls and women.

A Room to Read Library in Cambodia, photo by Jayson Morris

On our trip to Lesotho, I saw exactly one Library, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a community library. I had never even thought of such a thing before, and it made me sad. Of course, we had brought 15 or 20 kids' books with us for Kiddo, and it was amazing to see how the children we met, even those much older than Kiddo, were fascinated with his books. They would ask politely to see them and then just pore over them. I felt awful asking for them back, so I did leave a few behind with our family and with our friend, Bokang. But I wanted to give so much more!

John Wood is definitely doing A LOT more; he's changing millions of lives by giving women and children the opportunity to read and to learn. I can't imagine my life without these blessings, and I love what Mr. Wood is doing to bring them to millions of children.

For more information on John's charity, Room to Read, and their wonderful work, please visit:

http://www.roomtoread.org

Or of course, you can always check out www.oprah.com !

Kiddo will be so jealous!

Maybe you've heard that Kiddo's favorite number is EIGHT!

Anyway, this lucky Parker Foster Aiken kid (so sounds like a Law firm!) was born on 8-8-08 at 8:08 a.m. Poor Kiddo didn't have any EIGHTS in his birthday... or time, or weight, or length...

Numerology Expert: Clay Aiken's Son Has 'Powerful' Birthdate - Babies, Music News, Clay Aiken : People.com

I love this quote from the "expert" :

"Eight is a very powerful number. It's a number of mastery," says Hardt of Life Path Numerology in Indianapolis, Ind. "It's a number of being in control," he adds "That's why a lot of people are drawn to it."

That must be why Kiddo likes it so much. He's all about being in control!

I am a girl of 100 lists..

#1: 8th grade #2: Wedding Reception #3: with 3-week-old Kiddo

See items #35 and #52

On some other people’s blogs, I’ve seen a TAG where they’ve shared 100 things about themselves. Even though no one’s ever tagged me with that one, I’m sure you’re all just dying to know another 100 useless things about me. Since this is my 100^th post, I will inflict them upon you. HA! However, I do realize that you may be outclicking by now. Anyway, here goes:

1. I love to make lists. I’ve considered filling a notebook with 100 Lists, just so I could really call myself a “Girl of 100 Lists.”
2. At least once a week, I dream that I am a senior in High School again, but I’ve skipped most of the last semester and now I have to take finals.
3. In those dreams, I dream about a few of the teachers I liked, but rarely are any of my actual classmates there. One notable exception is sometimes I still have dreams with the boy I liked all through H.S. in them. How sad.
4. Here’s a big surprise: I was named Biggest Bookworm of my senior class. At the time, I was a little disappointed, but now I think it’s cool. They knew who I was! I actual don’t know if I won it outright or if the real winner turned it down. I know the boy who actually won turned it down, so they gave the title to another person with a lot of votes.
5. When I was in H.S., I wrote an opinion column that angered a teacher so much that he wrote a full page Letter to the Editor in response. I thought that was really cool.
6. The only people who invited me to sit with them at Lunch in H.S. were mostly potheads, but they never offered me drugs or used them in front of me. However, one of the guys thought I was a Narc.
7. I’m the only person I know who honestly doesn’t think she knows what marijuana smells like.
8. I always imagine that it smells like patchouli because most of the potheads I knew also wore Patchouli.
9. I hate the smell of Patchouli.
10. I don’t think my feet are that big, but children are always tripping over them.
11. When I was a teenager, my feet seemed bigger because my legs were so skinny.
12. The bottoms of my feet are exceedingly dry, especially on my baby toes. My husband says I could use those killer baby toes if anyone ever attacks me.
13. I like to do the New York Times Sunday crossword, but rarely do I finish it without looking things up in the dictionary.
14. I had to go online to Dictionary.com and imdb.com to solve the last Sunday puzzle I did.
15. I cannot solve a Sudoku, however. I guess I do better with words than numbers.
16. In 11^th grade, I was the only one in my Alg II class who solved a logic problem we had for homework, so my teacher asked me to show the class how I did it.
17. For about a week after that, I wanted to be a math teacher. I think it’s just because I loved Mr. Richey so much. He was the BEST math teacher a kid could have.
18. In 6^th grade, I got really mad at my best friend because she and another kid wrote class predictions, and they decided I would be a Lawyer when I grew up because I liked “to argue so much.” She knew I wanted to be a famed author, and when I reminded her of that, she said, “See, you’re arguing now!”
19. That friend is the only one from growing up that I still keep in contact with. She works for the Supreme Court of Ohio.
20. I like big words. When I was in Elem. School, I decided to call people who picked on me “dilapidated dugongs” because, although it didn’t make sense, they wouldn’t know that. And it sounded really bad to me.
21. Most people usually spell my name wrong.
22. It used to bother me A LOT, but now I usually ignore it.
23. It does irk me when my relatives spell my husband’s name right, but not mine. Who’s been part of the family longer, folks?!?!
24. I still remember the exact date I got my ears pierced (30 December 1982) and the day I got my first period (you don’t want to know that one, I’m sure).
25. My family laughs at me because I also remember what I was wearing on the second of those two dates.
26. I often associated when specific events took place with what I was wearing or how I wore my hair.
27. Now that I’m older, my hairstyle doesn’t change that much. But I can tell you what Daddy-O and I were wearing on our first date.
28. I have donated hair to Locks of Love twice. I wish I’d known about it when I was younger because I like to grow my hair out and then chop it off.
29. When I was in 8^th grade, a boy I admired from afar found out. He told the guy who ratted me out that he knew who I was, and that I wasn’t very good-looking and I talked about my hair a lot.
30. Even now I’m self-conscious about how much I talk about my hair.
31. In H.S., my best guy friend told another of our friends I was the perfect girl because I was smart, watched basketball and Beavis & Butthead. Interesting criteria, eh?
32. Every now and then, the phrase, “Breakin’ the Law! Breakin’ the Law!” comes into my head and I still think of B&B.
33. I am sure my mother had no idea that I watched B&B. She might not even know what it was.
34. I used to like to do celebrity impersonations for my family. I am not that good at them anymore.
35. Some of my favorites were: Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, Pat!, Momma from Throw Momma from the Train, Rudy Galindo, and Molly from Days of Our Lives.
36. In college, I watched almost every soap opera on TV when I could. I never watch them now.
37. I think this is because I was suffering untreated depression, and it was a way to self-medicate.
38. The main reason I never tried drugs was because when I like something, I tend to be over the top about it. And then I joined the Church.
39. For instance, I ate bologna sandwiches for lunch for almost an entire year.
40. I now get creeped out by the thought of bologna.
41. I still hold grudges against 2 of the guys I dated in college. I’m glad I didn’t marry them for so many reasons, but I still don’t like them.
42. Number 41 embarrasses me and I know I need to get over it.
43. In general, I think I’m pretty forgiving.
44. Sometimes I dream my own movies or nonexistent episodes of my favorite TV shows. I still dream about Gilmore Girls.
45. I have also had dreams lately in which I am attempting to do math problems, but it’s hard for me to solve them because I can’t write them down.
46. I never dreamed about Math when I was in school.
47. The most embarrassing things that have ever happened to me involved either bathroom issues or my clothes.
48. When we were just buddies, Daddy-O came to visit me and my roommate. When I shifted in my chair, the back of my jeans split and my roommate had to rush me out of the room to tell me.
49. I never thought he had noticed until he told me AFTER we were married.
50. I wish I had my husband’s metabolism.
51. I also wish he was the one who could get pregnant and have the babies. I think we’d have LOTS of kids if that were the case.
52. I really would like to adopt children someday, and not just because my PPD was so severe. I just can’t stand that there are MILLIONS of kids throughout the world who don’t have homes and parents.
53. I would really like to adopt a child from Lesotho because there are so many orphans there.
54. I really miss my grandparents and think of them almost every day, even though it’s been more than a decade since they passed away. I also dream about their house all the time.
55. When I was pregnant for Kiddo, I was terrified he would be born on 06-06-06 and people would make fun.
56. Since I was about 14, I have also been afraid of having a hermaphrodite baby.
57. And then I found out about parasitic twins….
58. I have always had a lot of strange fears.
59. When I was little I was afraid I’d find a snake in the toilet, and that a plane would fall out of the sky and crush me.
60. I LOVE to watch the Olympics.
61. I still remember watching the 1984 Olympics. I was 7 years old.
62. When we lived in I.C., I met Bart Conner (1984 Gold Medalist) at an NCAA Gymnastics event. I was so excited, but none of my friends knew who he was-- except Kevin, who was suitably impressed.
63. I have also met the pop group, The Jets, after a concert at the Ohio State Fair.
64. One of their cousins was a missionary in our ward in Ohio the summer I got baptized.
65. A friend of mine got free tickets and backstage passes to a Weird Al concert and took me. We got to meet Weird Al.
66. I still regret that I didn’t ask Al if his hair was real.
67. I love Dean’s Brown Cow ice cream. I think it is heavenly, except that it’s making me fat.
68. So I’m trying to indulge my other current craving instead: apples with Peanut Butter. However, I’m not sure the PB isn’t also making me fat.
69. Can you tell I feel really fat right now? I need to see someone who’s actually REALLY fat to put it into perspective. That sounds horrible, but do you know what I mean?
70. The medicine I take to keep myself relatively sane also makes me feel VERY hot—not in a good way!
71. You know the scene in Napoleon Dynamite when Pedro decides his hair is making him hot so he shaves it all off? I was tempted to do that last week.
72. I didn’t cut off all my hair because I was afraid of scaring Kiddo and the Primary kids. There I go, talking about my hair again…
73. Here’s another hair item, though: I’ve never colored my hair, but sometimes I wish I’d done something crazy like put blue streaks in it when I was younger. Now I think I’m too old, and I’d just look sad.
74. I also have never played a Nintendo, PlayStation, or Wii.
75. When I was REALLY young, we had a primitive Texas Instruments computer and we used to play “Hunt the Wumpus.”
76. Sometimes I think I hallucinated my childhood because none of my friends can recall a lot of the stuff I remember. Can you remember any of the following shows or toys: Herself the Elf, Schmoo (sp?), Galaxy High, Gingham Girls, SeaWees, The Snorks, Rose Petal, Kidd Video, Hot! (an early music video show), ShirtTails, Pound Puppies? Thank heavens for the Internet. I’ve found evidence of almost all of these things on YouTube alone.
77. The first cassette I ever bought was Belinda Carlisle.
78. I wanted to be Belinda Carlisle, even though my sister Heather said she sang like Barbie and the Rockers. Heather tried desperately to shape my musical tastes, but only partially succeeded.
79. I was a HUGE NKOTB fan, and I kept the tapes, buttons, t-shirts, shoestrings, books, because I thought they might be worth something someday (at least a laugh with my kids).
80. However, when I heard that NKOTB was getting back together I thought, don’t they have anything better to do? Who’s going to go to their concerts? Imagine my surprise…
81. I have inexplicable celebrity crushes on Hugh Grant, The Rock, Denzel Washington, Benjamin Bratt and the guy who played Squanto. Maybe you can understand some of them... maybe?
82. When I was little, my first celebrity crushes were Michael J. Fox and Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz). Seriously. I also liked the guys from a-ha. In high school, I loved Daniel Day-Lewis and Harry Connick, Jr. In college, it was Grant Hill and Alexei Nemov. In my twenties, I adored Shane Battier and the very handsome, but also very dead, Gary Cooper. Major points if you know who all of those guys are!
83. One reason I have so much time to read is that I haven’t been cleaning house much. Oh, and I have no social life here.
84. I don’t clean much because the only people who come over are my Mom (who will love me anyway) and the missionaries (for dinner, once a month).
85. I wish I liked to clean, but I can’t do it much with Kiddo awake, and I have to have loud music to do it well. Thus, that rules out cleaning when he’s asleep.
86. I also don’t like to cook, because it seems silly to spend huge amounts of time to create something that will be devoured and gone in 5 minutes or less.
87. I do like to eat, though.
88. I think it is my daddy’s fault that I like Dr. Pepper so much, so I am not letting Kiddo have any pop.
89. I think if you are a Midwesterner, you must call it “Pop” – none of this “soda” business. That’s what East Coasters say. I have been told that Southerners call it all “Coke.” What do people out West call it?
90. I am usually very healthy, but I have been to the ER 6 times. I was only admitted once, though.
91. As clumsy as I am, I can’t believe I’ve never broken a bone.
92. One of my friends told me I shouldn’t call myself clumsy because I was putting myself down. I don’t think “clumsy” is a put-down; it’s a statement of fact. Some people are clumsy. Some aren’t. No big deal.
93. I do, however, have a bad tendency to put myself down a lot.
94. I don’t like to look at our Wedding pictures because I think I look terrible in them, my dress didn’t fit right, and the stupid florists messed up the flowers.
95. I do appreciate compliments, but I have a really hard time believing them and responding appropriately.
96. I think the main reason I don’t go back to work, even though financially I probably should, is because I’m so crazy about my little boy that I would be jealous of whoever got to spend their days with him—even when he’s crabby.
97. I also hate interviews. It seems unnatural to spend so much time boasting about yourself.
98. I always think I want to be a Humanitarian and go teach children in developing countries, but I don’t know if I could handle not living near a Library or not having DSL. Isn’t that pathetic?
99. If I were a teacher, I would want to teach Kindergarten. My best job ever was working with Kindergartners. I always felt needed, and I got to laugh nearly every day.
100. I love to see movies in the discount theater, by myself, in the middle of the day, with snacks I brought from home. I feel like they’re running the show just for me. Unfortunately, I’ve only gotten to do that twice since Kiddo was born.

So there you go. If you stuck with it to the end, you deserve a medal of some sort—or at least some Dean’s Brown Cow. The sad thing is, I could do another 100 now that I’m on a roll. But I will spare you! If you’ve never done this before, I TAG YOU! And I promise, I will read every item. REALLY!

Say It Isn't So!!!

I just read an article that says that Charles Barkley may be in trouble for some gambling debts. I think he hasn't paid something like $400,000! I can't even imagine that! Gambling has never really made sense to me, and it is disheartening to see people wasting so much money when they could be using it to help people. On a personal note, I hope he'll just pay off his debt and get back to doing what he does best: entertaining people.

One thing most people would probably be surprised to know about me is that I LOVE Charles Barkley. I think he's one of the funniest people on the planet. Yes, he's controversial. No, I don't agree with everything he says. Sometimes his language is a bit too colorful. He's brutally honest. But there's few celebrities that I can think of who give a better interview. When I hear he's going to be on any talk show, I get way too excited and make it a point to watch. When I worked at ACT, I even listened to his book, I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It on disc, made my husband listen to it, and also listened to a long interview with him I found in the Books on Tape section of the Library. Really, though, how could you not be intrigued by a title like I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It?

Anyway, in case you're wondering why in the world I love this crazy guy, here's just some of the wit and wisdom of Charles Barkley. I was, however, disappointed that I couldn't find anywhere the exact quote from an interview he did with Jay Leno. It went something like this: Jay teased him about having gotten out of shape. Charles indignantly replied, "I am too in shape. Round is a shape!!!" It was too, too funny. Enjoy!

• I don't care what people think. People are stupid.
• I figure if I kill the first one, word will get out. (on how he plans to handle his daughter being old enough to date)
• I'm still trying to get my grandmother off her old behind and into the Olympics. Why not? She can dust. (on the sport of curling)
• I heard Tonya Harding is calling herself the Charles Barkley of figure skating. I was going to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized I have no character.
• These are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it.
• (Charles in response to Kenny Smith's jokes about his weight) I am not fat, it's the camera, it puts on 10 pounds. (Kenny Smith) Well, there must be a whole lot of cameras!
• Sports are not for old guys, this ain't baseball.
• That's wronger than ketchup on pancakes.
• On why he voted for President Bush: "My family got all over me because they said Bush is only for the rich people. Then I reminded them, 'Hey, I'm rich.'"
• "I think the biggest problem is parents are so concerned with being friends with their kids. You're not their friend. You're their parent."
• "I came to the realization a couple months ago that I am fat. If you get tired from walking - and that's all that golf is - then you are officially fat."
• "People say I eat a lot. I really don’t. More or less I just eat all the time.
• "You don't wear Nike, it's going to happen. They gave him all that money to wear those cheap Filas." re: Grant Hill's foot injuries.
• “How long do you think Steve Nash spent on his hair? 5 seconds? 10 seconds?"
• EJ: "Did they recognize you in South Dakota?" Charles: "Yes, they did. It was easy because I was the only black person there. When they see me walking down the street they say 'There he goes again'. And when I come back the next year they say 'He's back yawl!'"
• "My goals are to play the piano and get really, really, really fat."

Does this remind you of anyone?

Every time my husband and I see this billboard, we do a double take because the guy reminds us so much of Ben Affleck-- well, maybe if he were 5 or 10 years older. I can't remember what the ad is for. Anyway, we really don't think Mr. Affleck is slumming it by endorsing one of our local businesses, but I'm curious: are we alone in seeing the resemblance? What do you think?

Who's your Mama?

Because our Little Guy is so good at memorizing things, has a strong independent streak, and a paranoid Mama, we've been trying to teach him his full name, age, address, Daddy's full name, and Mommy's full name. So far, he's doing really well and has it almost all down. He's a little sketchy on our address-- he knows the street name and our unit number, but not the street number to our complex. Even though pronouncing his Daddy's name is tricky for plenty of adults, he's got that just about perfect! I can't believe it.

But the craziest thing is his reply to, "What's your Mommy's name?" If you noticed in a previous post, he KNOWS my first name is Rachael and occasionally uses it, I guess to see if I'm paying attention. Yet one day he looked at me, smiled, and answered, "A-wyn Kwauss." I asked him "WHAT?!?!" and he repeated the same answer! I corrected him, but since that day, he always answers, "A-wyn Kwauss."

Now, if you ask him who sings "Baby Mine," one of our favorite songs, he also answers, "A-wyn Kwauss." So where did he get the idea to call me "Alison Krauss?" My one guess is that he's heard me tell him that my middle name is Ellyn, and maybe he thinks that sounds the same as Alison. I really have no idea. Or maybe it's because our singing voices sound suspiciously alike. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Not in this lifetime, I'm sad to say! I truly have a problem with coveting her talent (sigh).

So earlier this week, I said to the kid, "Now you know your Mommy isn't named Alison Krauss. Sometimes I wish I were Alison Krauss. Then I would have a beautiful singing voice, and we'd never have to worry about money. Wouldn't that be fun? But you know what? I wouldn't want to be Alison Krauss if I couldn't be your Mommy-- and I probably wouldn't be. I'd rather be your Mommy than be Alison Krauss because I love you and you're my favorite little person in the whole world." I hugged him and gave him a kiss.

But today, when I asked him again, "What's your Mommy's name?" he smiled and replied, "A-wyn Kwauss."

So, what's the deal-- is he telling me he wants to trade me in for a cooler Mom, or is he just trying to drive me crazy? Given his Daddy-O's personality, I'm betting on the latter!

Guess who loves you?

Now, don't you feel better already?!?!

God Be With You Till We Meet Again

Gordon B. Hinckley
(23 June 1910- 27 January 2008)

Have you heard the news?

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/beloved-church-president-gor

don-b-hinckley-dies-at-97

A truly great man with a kind, wise, and gentle spirit, a keen mind, and a wonderful sense of humor has passed away. (If I still have any non-LDS readers out there, Gordon B. Hinckley was the President of our Church for the last 12 years, most of the 13.5 that I have been a member.) His life was a legacy of service and devotion to God, and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On a personal note, I am so sad. I love President Hinckley-- and so does my Kiddo. My husband and I were talking just last night how Kiddo can always correctly pick out the Prophet from pictures in the Ensign or Friend. He gets so excited to see the "Poffif," or President "Hinky." How do you teach a 19-month-old that there will be a different prophet now?

I am glad, though, for my testimony the Church is true and the knowledge that we will still be led by a Prophet who lives the teachings of Jesus Christ, even if it's not President Hinckley, my "favorite."

Why I am glad I'm not famous... Reason #1

If I ever have a picture taken of me that is this bad (and, oh, I think I may have already), at least it won't end up all over the Internet.

I really don't know anything about this Amy Winehouse chickie, but since she's a woman and she's famous, I would imagine she's got to be at least relatively pretty most of the time. The person who took, sold, or published this photo must not be a fan, though.

I think aliens are inhabiting my body...

...because I actually watched the whole second half of a football game this afternoon-- and for once, I didn't hate it!!!!

I think it's actually this guy's fault.

Darn that Chris "Beanie" Wells!! And Go Buckeyes!!!