"You Want to Know about Me?...Really?"

Gee...I do love Bono...BUT...
this is NOT a U2 or Bono fan site.
I wanted to create a blog to be involved with all of the online scrapbooking& paper crafting things, so I created a name, basically, that I WOULD REMEMBER! LOL --- And now that’s showing up where ever I go?!?
I am learning more each day about blogging, vlogging and crafting, so just bear with me.
Now that you know this about me, let me share more information about ... me!
Gosh, its been a long time since I talked this much...about me!
And you know why I don’t get to talk about me?

Cause I am a mom, wife and a grandma of one precious little 4 year old boy.
I am 50...and truth be told, I like some things about being 50. One of them is being a grandma. I like the things that I know for certain and the fact that I understand now, that I know nothing. I sure wished someone would have told me that when I was 15 or 20 years old...that I really knew nothing...but oh heck, I wouldn't have listened anyway.
To reallllllllly know me and understand me, you have to know that I am Italian/Irish/Native American....and Hillbilly (NOW LISTEN...this word “Hillbilly” is used in my life & home as a term of endearment...more on why I love that word later) ;) ----

So can you IMAGINE this combination of heritages?
Sometimes, I get on my own nerves.
In fact, just like I told my doctor a few weeks ago, I KNOW I am a little weird…I am.
And I am okay with that…(another good thing about being 50)
Now isn't it funny - that even though I didn't grow up in Palermo ... I definitely seem to be very Italian.
I only really noticed this after watching some of these reality shows. Growing up in Cincinnati, I wasn't around a lot of Italian families, other than my own. But once I watched the Gotti family reality show...I have to tell you, I noticed some rather similar "traits", shall we say...between my family and Victoria's family!

Actually, I seem to resemble Ray Romano’s mother (Everyone Loves Raymond) a little more than I care to admit. And believe me, it wasn’t me who noticed this years ago! (I don’t have plastic on the living room furniture - I got over that YEARS ago) ;) But it is a smart idea.
NOW lets stop right there - you see...I didn't always love who I was - in fact, I didn't even like who I was. When I was younger...no matter how hard I dieted...my legs and butt were thick. (Uhmmm thank GOD my butt is thick! Be sure to read “Is Scrapbooking Hazardous to your Health from my blog posts!)

When I was very very young, other kids called me names because in the summer, I would tan so dark...I almost looked purple. Besides the racist names you can imagine, I was also called the Purple People Eater! (boy oh boy, I am dating myself on that one! Right? LOL)
Anyway - for many years...I just wished I was that teeny tiny, pale skinned, blond haired kid ...
With a last name like Zimmerman or Applegate.
Well….GONE ARE THOSE DAYS!
Cause I wouldn't change my life with anyone....
At some point in my life - I looked at my relatives, who once lived in Mississippi (my moms father met my grandma in Mississippi...he was from the upper east coast...he was Italian) (he sure was far from home right?! LOL cause Mississippi and New York were probably like a world apart back in those days)...
Anyway --- the maternal side of my family, have HUGE southern accents...dark hair, dark eyes, they are totally gorgeoussssss women and some very handsome, deep voiced men...their motto is "treat your guests like family and your family like guests" - and they stuck to that. They overcook for every meal - can turn a nickel into ninety nine - and EVERYTHING has to have a bit of bacon grease thrown into it...(might I say that my great grandparents lived into their late 80's on that diet?) and they were not all crumpled up in a corner either - something to be said about bacon grease? Maybe so?

No matter who’s house you went into … there is normally the best SWEET TEA you have ever tasted on the counter...and biscuits? Oh, please…don’t talk about biscuits - home made biscuits with dinner, lunch and even on weekday mornings!

Personally - I could have died when I found out biscuits had been squeezed into cans.
I thought the poor little things would suffocate in there!! I wondered for years as a young girl, WHO would stand there and squash the biscuits INTO the cans?
SO THIS IS WHY HILLBILLY is the sweetest cultural word in the dictionary to me.
And to me...it IS a term of endearment...not slanderous.

And up till the conception of my mother…(remember it was her dad who was Italian) I don’t think the family had ever really known anyone…Italian. Then came our lineage - LOL - just imagine this nice little southern family being hit with the Italian personality! LOL Its like Housewives of New Jersey meets The Beverly Hillbillies! Right? I mean, I wasn’t there in the beginning, but I surely saw the “merge” as I was growing up and my mom and my aunts were around the cousins … the cousins didn’t have that Italian heritage…I always wondered if their big brown eyes were ALWAYS big and brown before the birth of my mom and her sisters?!? LOL

Ohhh anyway - (I still have to laugh at this to this day)
So now that you have that little piece of necessary background details we can move on
… cause the heritage thing - should explain everythinnnnngggg….
my personality, my choice of words, my temperament, my choice of words, my passion…Italian, Irish, Native American -- Hillbilly…you get it now, right? J
Shooting to the present: I am married to a pretty good guy (PLEASE never tell him I said this! it would blow my cover) and we are together for going on 21 years...we both had children from previous relationships (me 1 - him 3) and "we" had our kids, which happened to be 2 of the most beautiful hairy precious little girls you would ever want to meet - Prancer & Katie.

Prancer was a rat terrier on the way to the pound - Katie a Lab mix, that I found abandoned along with her 3 siblings at a gas station. ;) By the time I left, all puppies had a home. Prancer took after my side of the family…she was crazy. Katie, resembled my husband - laid back for the most part and would scoot from one end of the living room to the other when people looked at her. Yep - just like my hubby, bless her heart. (Nope - she didn’t have worms, nor does he, the doctors said they do it for attention and possibly, because their hineys itch).

Prancer & Katie passed away within 3 months of each other in 2007. Prancer was 14 and Katie 12. I still miss them … : ( in fact, WE still miss them.
My son...will be 28 years old tomorrow (4/8) (WOW! I remember BEING 28 myself!) and he is the worlds best father …. Of course, he is daddy to the worlds BEST 4 year old kid ... My grandson ; )

Now I seem to have nicknames for everyone & everything. Nate is known most often as
My NaterBug - "Cookie" - Nate McBoogerFace - MawMaws Precious Boy ... And just a few weeks ago, I taught him yet another invaluable life lesson. How to hold your tongue and say “My father works on a pirate ship” --- if you have never done this yourself - try it! Try it right now….MY ---- Father ---- Works --- On --- A --- Pirate ---- Ship ---- He got quite the kick out that one. ; ) I just don’t think his mother appreciated this lesson in life. His mother and my son aren’t together anymore …. So my son is a SINGLE MAN and don’t think I ain’t searching for a nice little Italian girl out there for him. I’m thinking Jwow from MTV’s
Jersey Shore actually. (yes…I am 50 and I watch Jersey Shore…I actually love little Vinnie on there and I want to make sure he finds a good Italian woman too).

We (the hubby & I) don't do much - we LOVE being at home. Last vacation was probably 8 or 9 years ago? (trying to think here) We took all the boys to Florida...we knew they were getting older and probably wouldn't want to vacation with us much longer, heck, they didn‘t want to do THAT vacation with us!
My husbands kids are now - 25, 28 and 31. Wow, right? Our kids are ADULTS?!?! How did that happen?
Its so weird seeing these kids at ages…that we were … only yesterday!?!?
So we don’t really go away and vacation…I feel like we vacation every single day of the summer actually because our backyard is magical. It really is.

We plants loads of flowers…although this year Barrack doesn’t seem to want us to have flowers in our yard…because our TAXES ARE KILLING US!!

And I love colorful flowers- which usually means those darn annuals that cost us a fortune every single spring. Our prized possession is a beautiful inground pool. I don't think there is anything better than a weekend when everyone is off and around the pool. We are blessed...but...we also give up certain things to have this. We don't fly off to exotic locations...I never drink (only because I just don't like the taste of alcohol...PLUS if you know me, I am already a fruitcake, I don't really think adding alcohol to a fruitcake is a good thing! Right? LOL)

We don't really gamble (although every couple of years we will go over to the "boats" for the buffet dinner and we will drop a whole 50 bucks into the slots! LOL) then we regret losing our money for another 2 years! LOL My hubby fishes...and he is pretty attached to his guitar ... We do like to argue out in the yard in front of our neighbors…stuff like “Hey, idiot, are you going to tie the table down before the gale force winds sweep thru with this upcoming storm?!?? Then he says “Hey Fatty, whats wrong with your legs & arms? Then I say, “Hey if you don’t like it, leave!” Then he says “Okay I will” then I say “Okay…I’ll be ready to go in 10 minutes if you are” and then we go in the house and laugh cause the neighbors are still out there with their mouths open, scratching their heads. Meanwhile - the people around us get divorced or get girlfriends & boyfriends…we can’t afford them though, cause we are saving our money to go back to the gambling boats next year ;)

All in all… we are pretty laid back peeps..
( I learned that word from the kids! It means "people") ;)
So why the name Melovebonoandscrapbooking, you ask?
Well I never expected that I would get SO involved in the whole You Tube & Blog thing! You already know…I am old ...I have never really understood the whole My Space and Facebook thing. I felt like its nosy and prying. But after receiving a Blu Ray with Wifi access for Christmas 2010 .. I "stumbled" upon the You Tube access! YES - I can literally watch You Tube videos on my TV!!! Its like a 24 hour Scrapbooking Memories marathon...everyday!!!!

Just TRY to imagine....watching any kind of video, about anything in the whole wide world by just typing in a few keywords! Well my first keywords were Scrapbooking....and that’s when I landed on Kristal Andrew's YT videos...needless to say...I was hooked.
I first developed my You Tube name as MeLoveBono for 2 reasons...number 1...I DO love Bono and number 2 .. it’s a name I could remember! LOL listen, do you know how many times I have created a name or password for something and the next day, I forget it?

Yeah yeah yeah...I know...I should write it down - but sometimes...I FORGET to write it down! LOL
So anyway - in order to use a phrase I would remember ... I Love Bono and then -
I just added the “AND Scrapbooking“...I thought I was keeping it simple - right? ; )
And I do love Bono…I have since their (U2’s) first album.

IN FACT - if you squint - my husband looks like Bono! I’m not kidding! Especially when he has the hoody on his jacket pulled up on his head (sigh).
Now…before I sign out here, I have to give just one more shout out - its to TikiBoo78 over on You Tube and her blog is primpedinpaper.com - she was the second person I ever watched on the You Tube videos. There are a lot of great blogs & You Tube videos out there - you probably know that better than I do - but I really do think if I would have landed on any other videos -- if it wouldn’t have been Kristal & Nicole’s - I don’t know if I would have been so hooked. I love that they are real…and they are genuine … their work is so good, but they are not fussy.
And I just adore who each of these women are.
In fact, I did the from the first few minutes of videos. ; )

So … this is me. But its not ALL of me ; ) So, you’re just going to have to come back for more Incredibly Dangerous Scrapbooking Adventures with Ms. V! ; )

Thanks for stopping by - it really is so appreciated. XOXO Vicki