Blogdate? Blupdate? Upblog?

People are always asking me for updates on various storylines and rabbit trails on my blog, so I thought I would just write an update post.

For those of you who asked me to keep you updated on the Taubl’s journey on America’s Got Talent, after a gruelingly long audition process (seriously – is it really necessary to spend MONTHS showing audition tapes?!?!?), they FINALLY announced the semi-finalists that will be on the live shows and be voted for by the viewers, and the Taubls did make it!! So starting after the Olympics, they will be performing live and needing our votes! America’s Got Talent is like a magnet for all of the bizarre and fringe performers out there – and I do mean there are some strange people on that show. The Taubls stick out like a flower in a landfill.

It was really hilarious watching the show that announced the semi-finalists and seeing a conservative homeschool family standing in a crowd of people that included some of the most, umm, non-conservative performers that I’ve ever seen. Talk about being in the world and not of it. Not that I can say that I’m not entertained by the less conservative acts at times, but it’s certainly worth voting for them to show that there is a demand for clean and pure entertainment in the world!

For an update on Toenail Art (I can just hear Gina cringing now), so far my Ebay faux-auction of Leo’s priceless artwork hasn’t made it onto Jay Leno :( – but they haven’t actually done the “stuff we found on ebay” segment since I submitted it (I’ve been DVR’ing Leno religiously, just waiting for him to make toenail art famous).

I have been rather amused, though, by the unbelievable amount of hits that I get on my blog from people googling “toenail art”. However, I think they’re looking more for cute flowers painted onto still-attached toenails, rather than what they find at my blog. I get multiple hits a day – is toenail art the new big trend?!?!

My sleepwalking injury is just about healed – still a little stiff due to the scar tissue, but I can do pretty much anything with my hand again. We even went on a bike ride for the first time this afternoon (it was a GLORIOUS afternoon for a bike ride!!), which is the one thing that I have been putting off since my “incident”.

I got to pay the first bill for it last week, and have another one coming, as stitches are apparently “surgery”, and so therefore have their own deductible separate from the ER deductible. But as I said, at least I don’t feel stupid for hurting myself in a clutzy way – not much I can do about hurting myself in my sleep.

I am still sleepwalking fairly regularly – it scares me a lot more now. In fact, the other night I even sprinted back to the scene of the crime in my sleep – the dresser – but luckily, I was saving Ali from falling off of the dresser rather than trying to close a door and so therefore diving for the dresser handle. So far, no more injuries.

I found some great jeans to replace my $22 designer jeans that lasted for all of 6 months. And of course, I got a great deal on them (which always makes jeans feel better). They are from Express, and they are the Eva Boot Cut jeans.

I often get “$30 off of a $75 purchase” gift cards both in the snail-mail and e-mail from Express, and I had also noticed that their jeans were buy one, get one 50% off, so I decided to give them a try. Wit the gift card and the sale, I was able to buy two pairs of jeans for $70 (instead of the full price of $130 for two pairs). I absolutely loved them, and got another gift card in the mail, so I decided I wanted to get two more pairs to stock up for the winter.

They have about 78 colors and options in their other two lines of jeans, but only two colors in the ones I loved, so I wanted to get one more pair of each. However, over the period of a week, I visited all three of the Expresses in B’ham, and none of them had my favorite color. One of the stores even tried to convince me that they never existed. Fortunately, I was wearing the nonexistent jeans, so the clerk that didn’t think they existed (despite sign next to the jeans that show that they do, in fact, exist) had to point out to all of the other store clerks that I was wearing nonexistent jeans (a “The Emperor’s New Clothes” moment??).

I finally got a straight answer from a decisively not straight guy that worked at the Galleria store – he told me that they all got recalled!! Recalled?? For what?? “Oh, they were poor performers. They always make the stores send back the jeans that sell the least.” um…. ok. Maybe that’s why they sell the least.

However, since the home office apparently has tons of these jeans since they recalled them all, I was able to order them off the internet.

I’ve had a few people ask me if I’m still making myself use my “old lady cream”. Yes, I still hate every minute of it – how DO people LIKE being GREASY!!?? But I am using it, at least once a day (I just can’t make myself grease up twice a day). I haven’t noticed a difference yet, but I am still hoping to wake up one day soon looking 10 Years Younger.

I still love my blook and am now working on editing the second book, posts 101-200. I have a much better feel for what works well in it now, so hopefully the second one will be even better. I highly recommend blurb for blog publishing if you ever have the desire to have a book of your blog!!

For those of you following Kendall‘s adoption, she should be coming home VERY soon!! We are so excited for God’s provision in working everything out (granted, it was in His timing, not the timing that any of us, and certainly Brad and Deidre, would have chosen)! She should definitely be home and one of Ali’s new best friends within a month!!

Well, that’s all of the updates that I can think of right now. If I left off an update that you’ve been wanting to know, leave me a comment and I’ll fill in the rest of the rabbit trail!!