A moratorium on unsubstantiated forwards

Ooh, this is my 51st post! Might have to have a party when I hit 100. I wonder how virtual cake tastes?

So I'm using this post to put out a notice to anyone and everyone, even though this probably doesn't pertain to anyone who reads my blog...

ATTENTION!!! I am no longer accepting any forwarded emails that are not either verified by the sender to be true (snopes.com or another similar site will do) or have the ORIGINAL source/author included in the email. No more "my sister told me about this...", or "I was in Kroger/Lowes/etc. and saw...", and especially no more "If you believe in America/are patriotic/are Christian..." do such and such. And I'd really rather not receive any forwarded jokes, videos, or funny photos unless they are of someone I know. I currently have over 2700 messages in my inbox because I can't even keep up with organizing and deleting the ones I get that I want to read! And let's not get started on all the piles of papers that are sitting on any and every flat surface in our house that need my attention far more than anything virtual that isn't even taking up physical space.

Can you tell I'm feeling a bit frustrated and possibly overwhelmed? Mostly, it's just that I received yet another of these today and must have hit my forwarded emails tolerance threshold. Also, it's become more obvious that we have too much stuff, since it is now piled nearly to the ceiling in the basement and my bike is in the living room and we have no fewer than 6 recyclable grocery bags that I trip over constantly but never remember to take with me TO the grocery store. Oh, and I'm teaching a graduate level course for the first time ever and there were no notes or slides to go from, so I'm making all the lessons from scratch. For a topic that is not actually my strongest area of epidemiology. And I'm supposed to be getting all the rest of my work done and keep ahead of the bills and remember to buy the correct sized lightbulbs (I think we have 8 different lightbulb types in this house) and find pants that fit Greyson in both the waist and length and grocery shop for only "whole foods" that are from local sources and plan healthy, balanced meals and lunches that can be packed.  GAAAA!

OK, I feel much better now. On the plus side, the weather has been gorgeous, work is progressing nicely on the house, I'm actually saving money on groceries by mostly shopping at the farmer's market (and, seriously, the food tastes better), and Reece hasn't thrown a tantrum in probably 2 months. And what's really keeping me going is that Dan and I are going to Hawaii in October. I can safely say that here because 1) I'm not saying WHEN in October, and 2) my mom will be here with the boys to both supervise the construction and beat off anyone who tries to steal anything. Nobody messes with Mom.

Thank you for your time - I promise the 52nd post will include many pictures and many fewer words.