It's a blog-tastic day!

I am having too much fun today and I think I need to share it. It's retro day on my MP3 player. Here are the best songs that I have listened to so far today:

1. Motownphilly by Boys II Men
2. All My Life by KC and JoJo
3. Cheeseburger in Paradise by Jimmy Buffet
4. Billie Jean by Michael J.
5. Lightening Crashes by Live
6. Fantasy by Mariah Carey
7. Down down Baby by Nelly

Man, what a Friday. Jealous?

Greatest News Story of All Time

When I was getting ready for work this morning, I saw the most heart-felt thing on the Today Show that I have ever seen - no, I'm not talking about Meredith's plow to wear white pants before Memorial Day. I can't get over this - I was literally in tears. It's moments like this that make you appreciate everything that you have, especially family. It's what it's all about.

Sorry about the format. . . and the commercial -it's all I could do.

A Soldier's Return

I forgot something. . .

If I ruled the world, I would make any and all nail clipping in public illegal. If you were caught trimming up your nails at work, you'd automatically go to jail.

I can't believe that I forgot that one! I had a good reminder this morning. . .

If I ruled the world. . .

Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if I was in charge. I don't want to be in charge of important things, just little things that would (in general) make the quality of life better for us little people. If I ruled the world, here are some things that I would change:

• Everyone would get Friday afternoons off. There is just something to be said about a Friday afternoon NOT at work.
• Grocery carts would be automatically weighted in the front so that everyone could stand on the back and roll their way to happiness.
• Anyone working at a retail establishment that ever said 'I hate today,' 'This job sucks' or 'Now we're going to be here forever' when a customer walks into a store or up to said worker would automatically be fired - no questions asked.
• Texas Roadhouse rolls for everyone, at least once per week.
• Flip flops would go with any outfit. . . and be totally acceptable at work.
• Everyone would greet the people that they know with kisses on the cheek. It's a totally acceptable greeting and if you wanted to "miss on accident", so what?
• There would be 50 calories in a Snickers Ice Cream Bar. . . ok, 120 - the same as a granola bar. I'm not completely unrealistic!
• Everyone could buy every style of clothes in their size and have it look good.
• Gas would be 75 cents per gallon.
• People would never fall out of real love.
• We would do road construction like they do in Japan. . . at night and when they are done for the day, you don't even know they were there.
• Texas Roadhouse rolls for everyone. . . I meant twice per week!
• Cereal would be it's own food group and you'd need 3 servings per day.

I think that's a pretty good starter list. Agree? What would you do if you ruled the world? Hit me with some more ideas and I'll see what I can do in my next meeting about all of this. . .

I Just Want to Go Home!!!

While many of you are probably thinking that this blog is going to be in reference to my overly-exciting job and the sentiments that I get everyday at about 11:00. . . you're wrong. Ok, you're right that the subject line does accurately portray those morning work sentiments, but that's not what this blog is about. . at least not today.

I come from a pretty great city that has become overly-populated in the last 10 or so years. I believe that this large increase in people is due solely to the addition of a Super Wal-Mart and the neighboring Home Depot, but what do I know. Anyway, the increasing number of people has lead to increased traffic which means. . . you guessed it, road construction. A lot of it. And I officially hate it.

It all started last year with the Gentile expansion project (Gentile is the main road closest to my house and the very road that my beloved parents reside on). The city thought it a brilliant plan to uproot an entire main road and expand it. Did they have the sense to tackle this project in pieces so as to minimize the effect it would have on traffic? Nope, they sure didn't. Process: tear up the entire street so it is undrivable for a long time and then redo the entire thing. Net effect: prolonged unuse of a main road west of my house and a dirty car every time I tried to visit the parents (there was dirt everywhere, over everything). Inconvenience time: about 6-8 months.

After this brilliant project started, it was all downhill from there. They apparently forgot to expand the top of West Gentile but remembered about 3 weeks ago that it needed to be done. So now, the entire road is open EXCEPT the part that lets you get to main street - aka, the most important part of the road. It's like redoing a house and leaving the front door off. . . or better yet, locked with no key. It does nobody any good. Process: tear up the road immediately in front of the road that leads to Carlee's house. Net effect: having to drive 15 blocks out of my way, either direction in order to get out of my neighborhood. Inconvenience time: about 30 minutes per DAY!

To this I add Layton's desire to accommodate the tracks project. Again, construction. Neighboring city overhauling part of their main road that is THE alternate route home. Again, construction.

'Shoulder work ahead', 'Road Closed', 'One Lane Ahead'. These short phrases are now the story of my life. Every (and I'm not exaggerating as I tend to do at times) route for me to get home is interrupted by construction. I can't remember the last time I was able to drive directly to my house. This does not a happy girl make when all I want to do is go home! Is that too much to ask?

Parenting at it's Finest!

With all of the hub-bug about whether or not it's ok to spank kids or even punish kids really, I think it's important to recognize the rare opportunity it is to see parents let their kids have it. I'm a firm believer that's it's not only ok to spank kids when they are out of line, but it's recommended. Rarely does punishment happen anymore, let alone get a picture of it.

I was recently in the Denver airport and encountered a young boy who was screaming bloody murder because he couldn't climb on the window. After about 2 minutes, his mom walked over to him and calmly pulled him off the window. He continued to scream like someone had ripped his heart out, so. . .she paddled his butt with a spanking like I haven't seen since I lied about brushing my teeth. The entire gate of people clapped. From what I could gather, they hadn't seen a kid get punished in some time either. It was a proud moment for us all and frankly, restored a little confidence in humanity.

So, I'm taking this public opportunity to thank all those parents that can still strike the fear of the night into their kids with the threat of a good punishment. In honor of those parents, I am posting a series of pictures that not only demonstrate punishment, but shear humiliation of a kid who has done wrong. Go, Mom, Go! Now this is punishment.

You're Beautiful

I can't even begin to get over this kid. This made my day. . . ok, my week because I've been trying to post this for like 3 days! (Thanks Steph).

It's all about cold turkey!

While I would love to write a blog about how delicious cold turkey sandwiches are. . . because they are. . . that's not the kind of cold turkey I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the kicking a bad habit, undying conviction, going for the gold kind of cold turkey. It's mildly painful, but over the last month I've decided that it's the only way to go.

Just for kicks, I thought I would look up the origin of this tasty little phrase to see what implications it had on me completing my goals. Yahoo! had an interesting article about the origin of the idiom (did that sound like a really intelligent sentence or was it me?) and actually a fairly sick description of how it came to be (blood draining away from the skin. . . sick!). BUT, I was not yet satisfied. SO, I turned to the ever helpful, always accurate (wink, wink) Wikipedia to see what they had to say on the subject. After reading their description of 'Cold Turkey' and how more times than not, it's not an effective form of de-addition and could, in fact, lead to death, I decided to give up and write my own harrowing, positive experience with the phrase! What do industry experts know anyway. This is the world according to Carlee!

A couple of months ago, my friend Melissa and I decided to go on a 'No Sugar' bet for the next few months in order to help shed some baby fat (at least that's what I like to call it) before our trip to Hawaii. We said that we could only expose ourselves to the sugary world of Treat Land twice a month until our trip. If we fell off the wagon, the bill for one of our many Hawaii activities was the loser's to own. So, I stopped eating sweets. Cold turkey quit. One day it was ice cream and M&Ms and the next it was nothing. Not even a little. Results of the little experiment: haven't screwed up yet. Here we are almost three months later and I am still 98% sugar free! (That 2% is saved for my sweet personality of course. . .psych! It's really for the two treats I am allotted each month.) I call that success.

Second cold turkey trial. About 3 weeks ago I realized that even though the sugar free game was fun and all, my diet still sucked. What was the source of my heartache? Oddly enough, it was the source of my joy - pizza and french fries. I came to the realization that even though the sugarless endeavor was probably good for me, replacing the cake with the pizza wasn't exactly helping the baby fat wave bye bye. So, I did it. I resolved to cut out my two absolute favorite bad-for-you foods for the next couple of months. Again, cold turkey. One day it was Red Robin and Papa John's. The next day, nothing. Not even a little.

While I am not going to lie and say that I don't miss my favorite things (I want pizza pretty much every day), I will say that it's been less painful than I thought it would be. Would eating one piece of pizza kill me? Probably not. It probably wouldn't even make me gain extra baby fat. BUT, staying completely away from the temptation has done wonders for the self control. I'm an advocate. if you want to ditch something in your life, cold turkey is the way to do it. Just get rid of it. . . completely. No farting around with weaning things out. Rip the band aid. I promise you'll feel much better once you do. Maybe more hungry, but better nonetheless!

Now that I think about it, it IS pretty ironic that it's literally cold turkey that's ended up replacing the pizza and fries addiction! I do love those sandwiches.