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27: Favorite books from my childhood

1. The Giver
2. Are you there God, it's me margaret?
3. Number the stars
4. Nancy Drew books
5. The Babysitters Club
6. Encyclopedia Brown
7. Sweet Valley High
8. Sweet Valley Twins
9. Sweet Valley University
10. Sweet Valley Kids
11. Iggie's House
12. Starring Sally J. Freeman as herself
13. It's not the end of the world
14. Tiger Eyes
15. Deenie
16. Forever
17. Goosebumps
18. Tuck Everlasting
19. Mrs.Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
20. Bridge to Terabithia
21. Harriet the Spy
22. James and the Giant Peach
23. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
24. Sarah Plain and Tall
25. The American Girl doll books
26. The Polar Express
27. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Thinking of these just makes me want to read each of them again!

What was your favorite book from childhood?

Christmas Week: Day 2... 27

27: Christmas Songs I love

1. Tennessee Christmas by Amy Grant: Duh! I am a TN girl and grew up loving this song. It just takes me back to all of my childhood Christmas's.
2. All I want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey: Who doesn't love this song?
3. Mary Did You Know: I love the way this song talks about Christ... "the blind will see the deaf will hear the dead will live again". Praise Him!
4. Breath of Heaven
5. The Chipmunk Song: Cracks me up! I sing it all year in my best impersonation, which Mr.Pate says is horrid.
6. Winter Wonderland: So dreamy.
7. Rockin around the Christmas Tree: I want to be at a party with this blaring just like in Home Alone, only with real people.
8. It's Beginning to Look alot like Christmas: It will just put you in the mood.
9. Labour of Love on the Behold the Lamb of God cd: This is my new favorite this year. What a neat perspective on that night. I love this way it starts: "it was not a silent night, there was blood on the ground"
10. The Christmas Song: "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire"... I have never seen chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but this song just makes you feel all warm and cozy.
11. Have yourself a Merry Christmas: My fav version is the one on the red WOW cd. Upbeat and makes you want to dance.
12. Gather Round,Ye Children, Come: Can you tell I have gotten into the Behold the Lamb of God cd? Love this song, just makes me praise the Lord for the crazy love of the Gospel.
13. Santa Baby: Fun and flirty. When I was young I loved going to my sister's chorus shows and hearing this!
14. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Mariah Carey: Again, upbeat and fun (even though she is asking him to come home so I guess its sad?).
15. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by NSync: I love the NSync Christmas cd and this song is my fav off of it.
16. Jingle Bell Rock: Classic.
17. Christmas Shoes: Makes me cry every time.
18. I need a Silent night by Amy Grant: This is also a new fav. It talks about how she needs a silent night, a holy night, instead of the craziness that Christmas can be today with shopping and events etc.
19. We Three Kings: This has always been one of my fav Christmas hymns.
20. Let it Snow!: Being someone who rarely sees a good snow, it is a romantic idea, this song.
21. O Holy Night: Beautiful.
22. Little Drummer Boy: Its different sounding and I love that.
23. It's the most Wonderful Time of the Year: Yes it is!
24. Baby, It's Cold Outside
25. Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC: Oh yeah, ghetto style!
26. Do You Hear What I Hear
27. Passover Us by Andrew Peterson: What a great look at how the Old Testament proclaimed the coming of Christ.

Now if you you don't have any Christmas music to listen to this season, here is a link to help you out:

My Christmas playlist at playlist.org:

http://www.playlist.com/SabrinaPate

So what is your favorite Christmas Song??

27

The 27 favorite or most memorable toys of my life

1. Talkboy: Loved it! I used mine mainly to pretend I was interviewing some famous person or to record my beautiful vocals.

2. Cabbage patch kids: Mikey was my first and most loved. I had him for a long time and I am telling you, I was so obsessed with him. I also had one of the baby ones.

3. Polly Pockets: Basically it was like a teeny tiny barbie house that closed up in a box (I think they are different now). I was supper obsessed with these and loved them so much. This is by far my favorite childhood toy. A few of my specific fav ones: the orange square one that was a house, the flower shaped one that was some kind of garden, the one that had the roller-coaster, and the apartment one. Some pics, just in case you have never seen a polly pocket!

4. Barbies: I always liked the non-blonde ones best... I guess I related better to them?

5. Paper Dolls: I know that paper dolls have been around for a really long time, but I just adored them.

6. American Girl Dolls: I had Molly, the girl that lived during WW2 I think? She had cute pigtail braids. But I didn't like her bed or chest, so I had Samantha's chest and bed. I also read all of the books, like every american girl's. They were great.

7. Care Bears: I had one that I wouldn't let out of my sight until I went to Kindergarten.

8. Barbie Corvette Power Wheels: I was styling and profilin' in my pink vette.

9. Game Boy: Oh yeah, the old school grey boxes. I had a barbie game I loved, and the ever so popular tetris.

10. A Tea Set: I had a little ceramic tea set that I played with all the time one winter.

11. Bike with the Radio on the Handlebars (it had a specific name but I cant remember): Such a simple thing really, and I probably could have rigged up my own, but I loved that bike and radio so much. I would ride up and down my road jammin.

12. The bed tent: I had one of those tents that was attached to the matching sheet set, it was like camping in your bed! Awesome.

13. The computer: Old school computer that is... as in actual floppy disks. My favorite games we had were jeopardy, wheel of fortune, and where in the world is carmen san diego. (And at school? Old school Oregon Trail!)

14. Mall Madness: The ultimate shopping game! You even got a credit card!

15. Girl Talk: I was such a wuss and almost always chose truth.

16. Peg Game: We bought one at a restaurant we used to have at home called Po' Folks. It was like the one on your tables at Cracker Barrel except it had corners too.

17. The Children's Encyclopedia: I have told you people a million times that I am not creative, so I used to love these books because I would get ideas on things to play etc. Seriously, I was that girl.

18. Furby: The saddest part about loving this toy is when I loved this toy... my junior year of high school. Don't judge me- it was the trend!

19. CandyLand: My cousin Amy and I would not only play it, but pretend we lived in that world. You have to admit its a pretty cool world.

20. Teddy Ruxpin: The talking bear that had books who went along with him.

21. Trolls: They were all the rage. Why did we ever like these ugly little things? I played with mine like a little baby doll and even had clothes for them.

22. Easy Bake Oven: Yummy yummy. It is so funny that I liked this so much, my mom would have let me just use the real oven but instead I baked tiny cakes in this! And why am I so bad at baking now?

23. Popples: Anybody remember these toys? They were these stuffed animals that basically folded into a ball or "popped" out. They had shows too, which I watched all the time.

24. Littlest Pet Shop: But not the ones you think of today. Back in the day they looked like this, and i loved them.

25. Pound Puppies: Remember those adorable faces and little carriers they came in?

26. Roller Racer: Man these were fun!

27. Chatty Cathy: Mine completely wore out! I would always play with this at my nanny martha's. She was definitely a favorite doll. This was a vintage doll, I guess it was my grandmothers and she just let me play with it there?

Well that was alot of toys, and a huge trip down memory lane! I hope this post brought back good memories for some of you, and informed some of you youngins about some awesome toys before your time! For those of you reading in a "reader" or on your phone, I have linked several of the toys to websites that have pictures or more info. So if you are interested, then come to my actual blog and click away! Enjoy!

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27: Things I Would Do If I Had Time

I feel like there are constantly things going through my head that I would love to be doing, if only I had the time! So here are just a few of those things, in no particular order.

1. Visit our families a bunch!
2. Watch a Christmas movie everyday until Dec 26th.
3. Cook really cool, gourmet meals.
4. Scour "Simple Mom's" blog archives, I love pretty much anything she writes.
5. Scour "Young House Love"'s archives.
6. Upload all of my pictures to Picasa.
7. Tag all of my pictures in Picasa.
8. Use the "Faces" feature in iPhoto for all of my photos.
9. Find every letter of the Alphabet in nature/architecture and take pictures of them.
10. Read all of the Narnia books again.
11. Read all of the Babysitters Club books again (oh sweet childhood).
12. Watch Troop Beverly Hills, License to Drive, Teen Witch, A Chorus Line and Can't Buy me love in a movie marathon with my sister, while eating cookie dough.
13. Scrapbook.
14. Research remodeling my bathroom.
15. Clean my van.
16. Finally make the collage in the shape of 2009 with all the youth pictures I printed off.
17. Watch all this season's "One Tree Hill" episodes on Youtube.
18. Take the stickers off of our french doors.
19. Roast s'mores in my backyard.
20. Sit at Barnes and Noble with a peppermint mocha, a great book and my journal.
21. Have a sleepover with mel, amanda and duke. Maybe play with the bump it again? haha!
22. Go stay at a bed and breakfast.
23. Go see the lights at Opryland Hotel and stroll through Opry Mills.
24. Go see the Nutcracker.
25. Have a Christmas potluck at my house with Christmas music blaring!
26. Paint the doors in my house.
27. Use my fireplace!

I could probably think of a million more things too, but enough about me- what are the things you would do if you had time?

27: Things I am Bad At

27 : Things I am Bad At

1. Birthdays. I am horrible at remembering them, horrible at celebrating mine and other people's, and horrible at getting gifts. I never know really how to respond to someone making a big deal about your birthday?? Once I even called my sister on her birthday, but didn't realize it was her birthday. She had to prompt me to say Happy Birthday!
   
2. Numbers. This is one reason I am not good at Birthdays, I cannot remember numbers! I mix numbers in my head so easily. I will try to remember the phone number is ___ but I have totally switched it by the time I need to repeat it.
   
3. Drawing or Art. You should come over and see the Jesse Tree Ornaments I drew versus the one's mr.pate drew, it is pathetic. I messed up a hammer! I mean really, a hammer? But I did find out my husband is actually good at drawing, who knew?
   
4. The phone. Most of my friends can attest to the fact that I am horrid at the phone. I hate to talk on the phone. I hate to answer the phone when I am around other people or watching something. And I despise checking my voicemail… I don't know why. I mean it's not like it takes that long, but I will put it off for days if I can. So be warned, texting or email is the best way to reach me.
   
5. Sleeping somewhere other than my bed. I turn into an insomniac as soon as I leave my house. I am not sure if it is me being afraid ( I hate the dark anyhow) or just out of my routine, but even when I go to my parents house (a.k.a. the house I lived in for 22 years) I cannot sleep!!
   
6. Baking. I can occasionally make brownies or cookies, but other than that I am so bad at this. Last year I attempted to make a birthday cake for Melanie and ended up with a lopsided burnt cake. It was just a box cake people!
   
7. Walking in crowded place. I am including this one for mr.pate, who swears I am the worst at looking where I am going. I run into or almost run into lots of people when shopping. Basically I end up with lots of evil stares as I shop.
   
8. Being on time. No matter how early I get up or get ready for something, I will be late. I am one of those people that sees I have time, so I try to fit one more thing in… and then end up late. And I just don't care sometimes, I am slow and I don't like to rush. Mr.Pate also hates this (he prob is annoyed by the whole list in fact).
   
9. Leaving places. Once it is time to leave somewhere or someone, I am slow at saying goodbye.
   
10. Being left out. Since high school I have been made fun of for always wanting to be "in the know". At my high school we had breaks where we could hang out in the lobby before classes. Kids would stand in circles and chat, and my friends (esp. Courtney) would get on me b/c I would come up late and immediately say "what? What's going on? Who said what?" I still do this everywhere I go: church, work, friends' houses, the bcm, etc. Sorry people- I don't want to be left out!
    
11. Working Out: I am so not good at pushing myself and I am a complainer/ whiner.
    
12. Dressing Up: I hate skirts or dresses, and I feel so uncomfortable dressed up.
    
13. Make Up: Until recently my mom didn't even wear make-up, and my sister still doesn't wear make-up. So I just did not have anyone in my house to teach me all about this. I am bad at choosing makeup, applying it and remembering to wash it off too. Most of the time I just skip it altogether these days. Mr.Pate doesn't seem to mind.
    
14. Getting Ready Quickly: My friends will tell you (esp. Mel) that I am the slowest shower girl ever. Mel always makes me take a shower at night when I am at her house, b/c I will hold us up too much in the morning. I have no idea why but I take 20 minute showers usually, and that feels super rushed people! And then there is the blow drying of the hair, applying lotion, etc etc. Hate getting ready and hate showering (yes I am a dirty girl!).
    
15. Mopping: I seem to make a bigger mess than I clean when I mop. I just end up pushing around the dirty water. This is Mr.Pate's job (although he doesn't ever do it either… good thing we don't have a crawling baby).
    
16. Spelling: Spell check and predictive texting are my bff's. I am so bad at spelling! I blame it on the fact that I did not learn phonics as a child, I learned to read with sight words. So I don't know what sounds letters are supposed to make when, I just know what that word sounds like. Give me a break!
    
17. Words of Affirmation: I am not good at encouraging. I am just a blunt person with hardly any optimism. I mean I am not all negative nancy, I just don't encourage well.
    
18. Finishing things: I thought of end the list here so you would get the point, haha! I am one of those people who goes almost all the way, but leaves a tad bit undone for some reason. Like cleaning, but leaving one shirt on the floor.
    
19. Alarm Clocks: I blame it on my dad, but I annoy people with my alarm clock habits. I always set the alarm at least 10 or 15 minutes before I plan on getting up so I can hit snooze a few times. It drove Duke nuts in college, it drives Mr.Pate nuts now, but what can I do? Ha
    
20. Bodily Functions: Cant talk about them to anyone, I even struggle to talk with doctors about them.
    
21. Retelling funny stories: You know when something funny happens, and then later you are trying to tell someone how funny it was? I always make it seem like the lamest thing ever.
    
22. Remembering very important things: For some reason I can remember the dumbest memories from my life, but when I know something important about someone or I have something important happen, I just cannot remember it! It is a curse.
    
23. Leaving my house: Once I am home, I am so bad at leaving to go do anything. I just get in hermit mode and don't want to go see anyone or anything.
    
24. Using exclamation points!!!: I over use this punctuation way too much. If you have ever seen my posts, any comments I leave on other blogs, or any emails I write you would definitely agree with this statement!
    
25. Sounding sincere or sympathetic to people: I always come across as blunt and harsh I think, but in my mind that is not what I am saying.
    
26. Repetition (well kinda): I am great at watching the same movies over and over, but I hate when children want to do or say or play the exact same thing over and over and over again. I know I sound like a jerk, but don't worry I play with them and just do the thing over and over, I just hate it! Charlie is especially hard with this, because his favorite word is "more". Ha!
    
27. Spelling out loud: This is different than my just plain bad at spelling self, this is me being so very bad at writing or typing words as people spell them out loud to me! I think I become dyslexic when it happens, because I always switch the order of the letters. Did I mention my job requires me to do this like 20 times a day at least?? Our customers must think I am the dumbest thing since a doorknob.
    

There you have it folks. It feels good to admit my shortcomings, and don't they say admitting it is the first step? What are you bad at? Come on, you can be honest here…

27

Well, last week I turned 27. And I was going to write this post then, but now is as good a time as any. For some reason I have the desire to make lists lately, not just "To Do" lists, but my top this etc. also. So I am going to be doing a post each week on lists of "27" to satisfy my desire to list things. I apologize now for my personality, but here we are.

Week 1:

27 memories from my life

1. Getting my Barbie corvette power-wheels when I was 5 (I think) for Christmas. We lived two houses down from my great-grandmother and I drove to our Christmas celebration there. I also gave every cousin that fit in a drive down the street. I was big stuff.
2. Listening to the soundtrack of "Oliver and Company" on tape using my Walkman over and over again, when I was in Kindergarten.
3. The "Talkboy" from home alone. Loved that toy!
4. Spending the night at my cousin Amy's house when we were young. We were obsessed with polly pockets (the original), playing super nintendo, the movie "the Secret Garden", playing candyland, playing with cabbage patch kids and climbing into closets. She lived with her grandmother at the time and she would make us boiled eggs, celery, pancakes and other yummy yummy food (not altogether of course!).
5. When my cousin Stormy was born, I was totally jealous. His sister SunniPat only wanted to hold him and stare at him and did not want to play with me!
6. When Stormy was a kid, his sister and I would watch him. If he was being bad or annoying us, we would put him in my pantry (which was small and dark) and make him stay. Yep, someone should have called social services on us I am sure.
7. The fair! Every August the fair would come, and I loved it every year.
8. The christmas when I was in middle school and my sister took me shopping with her. I remember listening to "Ironic" by Alanis Moresette over and over again, and "When country wasn't cool" by Barbara Mandrel.
9. Driving to the airport with Ashley to pick up my sister when I was in middle school. They were still in high school and he told me how much he had felt lost without her for the last 10 days. George Strait's "Carried Away" song was on. I think I knew at that moment he would one day be my brother.
10. Having my softball team over for a sleepover one night. So much drama! One girl admitted being anorexic and bulimic, it was the first time I had ever known anyone like that.
11. My birthday party my 5th or 6th grade year. We went to Denim and Diamonds with my parents and then had a sleepover. We got in our hot tub and kept jumping out, jumping on the trampoline while we were soaking wet (it was November) and then jumping back in. We were idiots.
12. How cool I thought I was in 7th grade on game days when I got to wear my cheerleading uniform to school. Ha, I have seen the pictures and i was a sore sight thats for sure.
13. Field day or something like that when I was in middle school. We got to sit outside most of the day and hang out. I was wearing my consignment store jeans with the slits in both knees. It totally used to be cool... wait hasnt that one come back in style?
14. Freshmen year of high school, I found out my two best friends were smoking pot. I quit being friends with them. Willy was like my only friend for a while.
15. Sophomore year I was best friends with Ginny and Shelly. I remember going to Don Wrights party and my old best friend starting a fight with me (pushed me to the ground) because she thought I liked her lame boyfriend. Ginny stood up for me and hit her or something.
16. My first real "car" date was with Ben Scott. It was actually a really good date. But he and I were just not meant to be. He is a hippy, and I am too straight edged.
17. Riding in Stephen's car after we had gone to the swim meet in Nashville where Byron ignored me. We had just broken up and I was sooo depressed. Now I want to look back at the "me" then and slap some sense into her. Ah the melodrama of high school!
18. Driving to the hospital after the accident with Michael. I am pretty sure my heart was not beating.
19. Sitting outside the police station, my dad finally told me Michael had actually died. The world literally stood still.
20. Driving to WKU the week before we started college. Gas was $0.99 at the swifty on Nashville Rd and it was the first time I realized you could see the hill from there.
21. The first night we stayed in our dorm at WKU, Bemis Hall. Kristen and I both cried ourselves to sleep.
22. The first time I saw mr.pate, he was yelling at someone on the Intramural field. I was terrified of him. I thought he must be one of those "live for sports" kids who are so annoying. Ha...
23. The girls night in Schnieder hall sophomore year. Maryem, Duke, Amanda, and Cheye were there (maybe someone else). Finally I was making real friends in college.
24. Breaking Free bible study by Beth Moore. I would sit at the table outside our dorm room and be consumed with the Word. It was the first time I truly loved it.
25. The night mr.pate and I talked on IM about going on a date, and I told him he had to ask me in person.
26. The next three days he made me wait until he finally asked me.
27. The week before I got a job this year, I had a complete breakdown one day and wept before the Lord. I wanted so badly to believe he would provide but it was getting harder by the minute. One week later, the phone finally rang. Thats how life goes doesn't it?