Catalogs, Newspapers and Real Estate Magazines. . .Oh MY!

I am supposed to be cleaning my house so that it looks halfway decent when my BEST BUDDY arrives on Thursday.  But what am I doing instead?  Sitting in front of the computer, writing another post.  I figure I still have tomorrow and Thursday. . .
So I hope you are all doing well.  I wanted to say that, before I get started, my friend Joel is really a popular fellow these days.  He has been on all the major news networks, including the TODAY show, and now I have found out he is going to be on Ellen DeGeneres tomorrow!!!  Tune in to watch.  I totally hope he gets to dance with her.  Oh and his mom is going to be on too.  How awesome is that?  Very proud of you, Joel Burns!

The mail was here when Joshua and I got home.  He asked if there was any mail for him.  I pulled out a toy catalog out of the stack and handed it to him.  He looked at it while he was eating his lunch.  Very cute.  We've gotten three of them in the past few weeks.  It brought me back to when I was a kid.  I know it is a little early for this memory, but I can't help it.  I can remember poring over the JC Penny Catalog, the Sears Catalog and the Best Catalog at all the toys when I was a kid.  I loved looking at all the different things in the catalogs.  And as I got a little older, I started looking at all the sections of the catalogs.  Not just the toys.  I'd look at the jewelry.  The pots and pans.  The appliances, the dishes, really just about everything in the catalog.  I think that's why I was so terribly excited when we got to do our bridal registry.  It was like looking through those catalogs all over again, except this time, it was in person, and better yet, when I picked what I wanted (notice Jamey is not included in this.  I wonder why. . .), I was going to be a lucky duck and get it as a present!  Sigh (reminiscing wistfully).

Thinking about those catalogs reminded me of two other things I always really liked to look at, even as a kid.  One was the newspaper.  I loved looking through certain sections as a kid.  I can tell you what they are, because they are still my favorites.  Of course there was the mini page - does anyone else remember that?  I don't think they do that anymore and it's a real shame.  It was just for kids.  It goes without saying that the comics were a must.  I also liked looking at the Flair section.  At the time, the brides were in that section.  As a little girl, I loved looking at how pretty all the brides looked.  I also liked the classifieds, believe it or not!  I liked looking at all the stuff for sale, especially the animals!  And on Sundays, I also loved looking at the ads and the Parade magazine. 

We don't get the newspaper.  Part of the reason for that is my affinity to keep paper in the house.  I would probably never throw any of them out, and then one day, one of you would wonder why you haven't seen a post from me in so long.  So you'd come over to my house, only to discover I'd gotten trapped under a pile of newspapers that fell on me.  Just like on Hoarders.  Oh dear.  But I do like to read the newspaper whenever I can get a hold of one.  I get excited when my next door neighbor tells me I can have theirs when they are out of town.  Sad, I know.

Anyway, the other thing I always used to like to look through, and still do, are the real estate magazines.  Oh man, when I was a kid, I'd pore through those just like my dad.  He'd look first, and I'd practically be in his lap trying to grab it away.  It's an addiction, I am sure.  Again, very sad.  I just can't help it.  I love looking at all the listings and look for "deals", etc.  In fact, it's how we found the house we are in now.  Have I mentioned we weren't actually in the market for a house?  I am not sure Jamey has ever really gotten over how we ended up in this house.  In fact, he won't let me bring those magazines home anymore.  So I have to satisfy my addiction when I go over to my parents house for mommy weekends.  My dad always makes sure to get two copies now.  One for him and one for me.  He's totally being an enabler.  Isn't that funny?  No?  You think it's weird?  I probably will think it's weird when I go back and read this post.  I wonder if I'll be embarrassed that I wrote it after I read it again later?  Oh well.  I'm totally posting it anyway.

So those are some fun things I used to look at (besides books) when I was a kid.  What kinds of stuff did you all like to look through?  (Um, excuse me.  People.  Men in particular. . .  Let's be clean here.  I'm not interested in which smut magazines were your favorites.  'Nuff said.)