A Moment in the Mind of a Mullen

Mothers Day 2011

2011-05-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

I got to see both of my mothers this past mothers day.
The one who raised me and the one who raised my precious Sevy.

Sev and I packed our bags (yet again) and headed up the road Friday evening.
We drove all the way from Columbia, SC to Asheville, NC with both dogs and a truck packed to the brim with camping gear. We were hoping to get to the Biltmore before dark, but we didn't quite make it. We ended up pitching our tent in the dark, but that was okay, at least we made it with no doggy throw up accidents!! Molly is doing so much better with her car sickness issues.
We woke Saturday morning to a gorgeous view...the Biltmore estate? NO. A field full of horses!!..and the Biltmore estates, which is a beautiful location, but I loved seeing all of the horses even better.
We cheered my mother-in-law on as she competed in a 50 mile endurance ride on her sweet horse, Elle.
It was the first ride I've ever had the chance to watch Sue compete in, she and her horse are an amazing little team.
I only wish I had taken my camera!!! I could not believe I had forgotten it!!
Molly was a little hesitant around all of the tall, strange looking, long faced creatures at first...but after awhile she seemed to just as comfortable around them as they were her.
In between ride check-ins, I took Molly for walks, we played fetch and even introduced her to her first river encounter-where she promptly charged into the water before she realized what it was and then freaked out.
She was such a good little dog, everyone wanted their turn at petting her soft fur.
Ali was no exception, he always charms anyone he comes in contact with. He is such a little ham and crowd pleaser. I think both dogs had a lot of fun and were exhausted on the ride back to Inman, SC on Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday evening, I got to see my mom! We spent the evening throwing tennis balls and a frisbee for Molly. We retired to the back porch when the sun went down and just enjoyed the warm weather.
Sunday morning we woke up and enjoyed breakfast together...breakfast that my mom cooked for us! It's okay, you can say it.....Bless her heart! I know! However, if you know my father, then you know I've never been allowed in moms kitchen. Nope. True story, when I was little I used to try and watch mom while she cooked, dad would come into the kitchen and sternly say "OUT!...out of the kitchen! No children in the kitchen!!" He would say it was because kids have dirty hands and he couldn't trust our hands being clean...but I think he was just afraid mom would make a mistake cooking his dinner if she had us rugrats running around under foot ;-)
Still, to this day, he gives us the stink eye if we're anywhere near the kitchen when mom is cooking. Therefore, mom got to cook her own breakfast. So sad. It's okay though, because I never really got to watch mom cook, I don't really know how to! So it was probably a good thing I didn't get the chance to cook my mother breakfast for mothers day.
I really do have a great mother and I thank God for her daily.
Yesterday evening our preacher spoke on the importance of mothers passing down their faith and teaching their children about Jesus.
Sometimes, in my crazy life, I forget just who it was that taught me my morals, who raised me to love the Lord, who first read the Bible to me and who wrestled me into my tights on Sunday mornings so that we could make it to church on time (or close to it).
I am blessed to have a mother who raised her daughter to know the Lord.
I am blessed to have a mother that, even when her daughter pushed every one of her buttons, threw a tantrum, insisted that she knew what was best for her life, and did everything completely backwards from the norm, still loves me unconditionally.

Happy Mothers Day Mom, I love you :-)

Tybee or not Tybee?

2011-05-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

That really isn't a question...just go with it.

Sev and I spent last weekend on Tybee Island, GA. Well, he spent last weekend...I spent a little more than a weekend, I took Monday off of work (my first vacation day of the year!) to spend a "girls only" night on Sunday.

We seriously had the best time. We ate a lot (I'm blessed with friends and neighbors that REALLY know how to cook) we lounged around a lot, we soaked up a lot of sun (some of us more than others...poor Sev, he's currently a nice shade of Red), we (us girls) read a lot and we all laughed a lot.

I also....

wait for it....

took some pictures!!

Hello!

On Friday evening, Sev and I loaded up the car and headed down the road...we were Georgia bound baby!

This would be my first trip to Savannah...it's true what they say, it looks a lot like Charleston.

When we arrived at our destination, we unloaded our car, took a tour of the wonderful house that would be our home away from home and then headed straight for the porch for some card games and relaxation with our friends.

After some time, it got a little chilly on the porch (well, us girls got chilly...the guys tried to convince us it was warmer than it felt), so we took our games and laughter inside.

This is Christie...Hi Christie!!!...her sweet parents own a share of the GORGEOUS house we stayed at and allowed our bunch to take over one of their weeks.

The house was spacious, we all had our own rooms and bathrooms...I wish I remembered to take pictures of the place...but I did remember to take a picture of the elevator! Yep, the house had an elevator and it didn't take long before we were all taking turns (like a bunch of kids) riding the elevator from the bottom floor on up.

                                                                 Aren't we sweet!?
                                             (please ignore the horrid shine on my forehead, geesh! You go through out your entire highschool carrier with not a blemish or oil slick one and then BAM! One day you wake up and reality hits you smack in the face-literally.)

Saturday morning found us lounging on the beach. We watched a group of dolphins play just a few short yards out from us. We read beachy novels. We stuck our toes in the water. Christie and I took a walk on the beach. We people watched (WHAT?! Doesn't everyone do that on the beach?) and we worked on our tan.

**The adorable basket in the picture above was my Easter basket this year. I have the sweetest Easter bunny :-)...(What? Don't all 27 year olds have Easter bunnies?!)

After our day out on the beach, the girls came back to the house and then took off on a nice-long-bike ride around the island. The bike I was on did not agree with my overly long legs and awkwardly short torso...but I really enjoyed the ride. Christie was our tour guide and along with showing us the different attractions, she kept us laughing....(and pedaling...she showed no mercy).

Saturday night we all enjoyed a huge pile of beufort stew (or frogmore stew, or low country boil, or whatever you might call it). It's one of our favorite meals anytime we all get together, so it only made sense to make it while on our beach trip. This below picture is after we had filled our plates...I forgot to take a before shot...maybe it was the bike ride that had my tummy growling.

Emily Ann made tomato pie...it was SO good!! She even made an entire gluten free one for Christie.

The guys left on Sunday while the girls packed yet another beach bag and headed for the sandy shores. Below is a picture of the Tybee pier. The beach house was located just a few short yards down from the pier, so our spot on the beach was pretty active...it proved to be a good spot for people watching.

We lounged around on the beach most of the day, as a matter of fact we only left the beach because the tide threatened to chase us into the sand dunes. However, the lounging didn't stop there, we just took up our lounging on the front porch of the house and watched the waves roll in from the safety of a relaxing porch swing.
We finally peeled ourseleves away from all of the relaxing and gave in to our bellies. We traded our bathing suits for sun dresses and headed to the closest seafood restaurant on the island.

We fell alseep on Sunday night to the news of bin ladens death.
Monday morning we woke up, and I forced myself to pack my bags...my relaxing vaca was coming to an end. We headed to a local breakfast diner. It was featured in Southern Living, so we just had to give it a try. We found ourselves waiting in a line outside until it was time to eat. The front door was plastered with signs that were very specific to what we, the customers, were expected to do if we wanted to have a meal at the diner.

On our way out of town we drove into downtown Savannah and took a quick detour on river street.

Our weekend vacation was over entirely too soon...I hope to visit again real soon!

Food Frenzy

2011-05-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

One of the best ways to wear an active dog out is actually through mental exhaustion rather than physical. One common misunderstanding in dog owners is that they have to run their dog to death in order to wear them out. In most dog breeds, it's nearly impossible to physically wear a dog out.

One old school method of dog training is to mentally challenge your dog through their own natural hunting instinct.

Basically, you take a hand full of dog food and toss it out into the backyard. The dog uses their nose to "hunt" the food and in the process they mentally wear themselves out.

After they are finished eating, you have one sleepy pup on your hands!

We use this method with Molly, only we use a Kong feeder. It's a large red, hollow, Kong shaped, toy/food dispenser. The bottom of the toy is weighted, which causes the toy to bobble around when Molly noses it or forces it over with her paws. There is a small hole cut out in the side of the feeder that dumps the occasional kibble out onto the floor. Molly knows her food is in the toy. However, she is forced to use her natural instincts and little puppy mind to extract her food.

It literally takes Molly a good 30 minutes and then some, to finish her entire meal...which used to take her all of 5 minutes. After her meal, she's ready for a nap! She is honestly, worn out from tackling the food dispensing toy.

There is one con when using this method, she sometimes sends food kernels flying all over our floor...however, between she and Ali, I've yet to find any left over after the feeding frenzy ends. (though I do swiffer a lot more now days)

Molly may be smart enough to get the Kong to dispense her food...but the real Einstein award goes to Ali. That rascal has it figured out...he sits back and waits while Molly spins and knocks the Kong around...then when the food goes flying...he's there quick as lightening. Such a smart little Brussels.

Here are some pictures that make me smile.

Little man not only steals Molly's food, but her chew sticks too. He hasn't quite figured out that Molly is larger than he is...and in some cases, so are her toys!

Wait For It

2011-04-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

I love working with Molly. She's a lot of fun to work with, one of the easiest dogs I've tried to "train".
Yesterday we starting working on the "Wait" and "ok" command.
Molly already knows "Sit" "Leave it" and "off".
I started with her tennis ball, she lovees her tennis ball.
After we played fetch for a while (to relieve some of her pent up energy) I took her ball and made her sit. I sat her ball a few feet in front of her and said "wait" while holding my hand out in front of her. She hardly moved, but when she would I would make a noise and say "NO". Before long she was sitting and waiting. I then clapped my hands and said "Okay!" and let her retrieve the ball. She seemed to like the new game, so we played for about 15min. Once she had the whole "waiting on the ball" concept down pat...I moved it up a level and grabbed her bag of treats. Below are pictures of Molly demonstrating the "wait" command.

(See the little brown dot on the floor, it's a treat)

Wait for it.

Wait....

Okay!
Trust me, the treat was gone in seconds.

I broke a milkbone in half and started all over. I love these pictures, I wish I had used the video option on my camera, but I didn't...sorry. However, you can still see the frustration and yet determination in her face.
She kept moving from side to side and would flop down on the floor some too. However, she never once tried to snatch the treat before I said "Ok".

Wait for it.

Still waiting...

Oh the misery! She flops herself down in front of the treat.
Snout inches away...but she waits. Head resting on her front paws....oh the temptation!

She scoots her way back beside me and looks up.

"Pleassse say "ok" please say "ok" pleassse oh please oh please"

"Maybe I can just stretch towards it....just a little"

"A little bit more...."

"Oh for the love of Pete!...I can't take this anymore!!"

OK!

...and it's gone.
What a good girl!!

Toy Trouble

2011-04-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

One problem with a large breed puppy....they can get to things that little dogs can't reach.

Molly has a toy basket, it is a hand-me-down from Ali (who rarely, if ever, has the desire to play with toys anymore).

Molly is all about the basket. It does not matter where I place the basket in the house, she finds it and (if she can reach it) brings it back down to her level.

I caught her in action here:

                                                     "There has to be a ball in here!"

"Where is the ball?"

"It has got to be in here...somewhere!"

She soon realizes I'm in the room. She knows she is busted.

She still has time to locate her ball...I'm too busy snapping pictures.

I get left with the mess of toys to pick up.

Don't look so smug Molly.

(PS. No I do not have a rug that changes pattern...by the time I finished picking up her toys, she had already run from the sunroom to the living room with her ball)

Puppy Problem Numero Uno

2011-04-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

**Warning: This will be nasty, if you're not a dog lover or have a weak stomach, read no more! However, if you can handle it, continue reading...you can laugh at me later.**

The day we brought Molly home was such an exciting day for me.
I got home from work, jumped into Sevs truck and we headed to the farm to pick up our pup.

After saying goodbye to the sweet breeder and Molly’s littermates, we loaded our new puppy into the back seat of Sevs truck and headed down the road. The farm where we got Molly was in the middle of nowhere. No sooner had we pulled out of the dirt driveway and onto the dirt road, Molly began to panic. I quickly realized...Molly had never been in a car before! Uh oh.
I climbed out of the passenger seat and into the back seat of the truck. I scooped my long legged puppy up and placed her in my lap. I tried to calm her down and reassure her that the world was not coming to an end. Sev eased the truck down the dirt road and soon we were on interstate 20. Sev had just signaled his way over into the far left lane and was passing a few other vehicles when I looked down at Molly and saw "the look".

The look that every dog makes when they are about to....

throw up.

She was panting, drooling and within seconds she was making the gagging noise I'm all too familiar with.

I didn't have time to stop and think, I cupped my hands together, shoved them under her nose and watched as she deposited a pile of warm, wet, digested dog food, into my hands. Gross! (I warned you).

Severyn couldn't contain his laughter, or his amazement that I knew what was coming before she actually threw up. We were still in the left lane on the interstate, switching lanes was not yet an option as we had cars beside us and directly behind us. Sev rolled down the window and I prepared to...well I can't really think of a proper way to describe what I was intending to do, but you get the picture...then I thought better of the idea. I realized one of three things would likely happen.

One-the digested dog food would fly back inside the window and I would have an even bigger problem.
Two-the car behind me would forever hate me.
Three-my wedding ring set would fly off of my wet hand as I flung my hands out of the window.

None of those options were actual options in my mind. So I sat...as patiently as I could, hands cupped together, digested dog food oozing between my fingers, and one sick puppy laying in my lap. Severyn passed the cars beside us as quickly as he could, turned off onto the next exit and pulled over onto the side of the road. I did the best I could to wash my hands with a cup of water and napkins from the glove box. Needless to say I was disgusted.

We headed home as quickly as possible.

We made it a block away from our house when I was lucky enough to be the recipient of yet another heaping handful of doggy throw up. Again, there was no time to think, cupped hands and quick reflexes left me with the prize.

It's a good thing I love my dogs...and have a strong stomach when it comes to anything dog related.

Huh...maybe I should have been a vet after all!

Stay tuned, that was just puppy problem number one...puppy hood is anything but easy.

Dog Blog

2011-04-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

Just about everyone that knows me, knows my love for dogs.

I'm not sure where my passion for the animal comes from, but I've heard stories about my mother gathering all of the neighborhood dogs up, loading them into my grandmothers car and then pretending to drive them around-while safely parked in the driveway of her childhood home. She grew up with dogs and in return I grew up with dogs, mostly labs and a handful of mutts. When my father finally put his foot down and allowed us to have no more dogs, I simply went to my grandmother and explained why owning a dog was very necessary. Between the ages of...oh maybe 9 and 20...I had talked my grandmother into bringing home over 9 dogs (possibly more...actually probably many more). I believe we had some form of every breed known to man.

As fate would have it, I married a man that shares my love for dogs. For our one year anniversary we brought home our wild man, Ali. He's part Brussels griffon, part human. Basically he's the ruler of our household, all 7 pounds of him.

Since we've had Ali, I've rescued, fostered and re homed a handful of other dogs-2 of them with the intention of keeping but ended up finding new (read: better) homes for...which was really okay with me, I knew that even though their forever home was not with me that I had still saved a pound puppies life and they were better off.

However, I always yearned for my "big dog". I told anyone that would listen that I would live on a farm someday and have my "big dog".

Well, I don't live on that farm just yet, but last month Sev and I welcomed that "big dog" into our life.

Meet Molly

I honestly can't say how many hours (read: time I should have been working or spent cleaning my house) researching breeds.
I started to feel that familiar tug on my heart every time we passed a dog on the street. I would try and squelch my "big dog" desire by walking Ali but after a short block or two he reminded me that I worked for him, not the other way around and he ended up in my arms. He just isn't all "dog"...and I wanted a DOG. A dog I could walk, train, play fetch with, take to the park, take hiking and just do general "dog" things.
Severyn came home a little over a month ago and informed me that he would be graduating (for sure!) in exactly one year from this coming May. I had tried telling myself that we would wait until he was finished with school and were tucked away in my dream farm house, before we got our big dog.
The more I tried to talk myself into waiting, the harder it became.
Shortly after my father informed me that he would be giving up our shared hobby of dirt bike riding. I was beyond crushed, words can't really even describe how sad I was (still am). I loved (love) the sport, but I knew-deep down-that my riding days were over. I just can't see enjoying the sport without my riding partner, my dad.
I decided if I was going to give up my bike, I was going to have to take on a hobby that I loved/enjoyed just as much. That hobby being hiking and camping...and that included my big dog!
I continued my research, called numerous kennels, vets, breeders, dog trainers and family members...and decided on a breed. Sev and I visited a local litter of pups on a Wednesday. I made Sev promise that we would not take a puppy home that same day, I reallllly wanted to think about everything just one last time. I walked away that evening with my heart in the palm of a puppy paw. By Friday I had written out an entire schedule proving that we could take proper care of a puppy. I could walk her in the mornings before leaving for work, Sev comes home for lunch so he could let her out during the middle of the day, he is also home most days before 4pm so she would not be left alone for long.
On that Friday Sev helped me pull the "big dog" crate from the attic, we assembled it, filled water and food bowls, grabbed a package of dog treats and went to pick up our puppy.

Molly is a Shepadoodle. She is half German Shepherd, half Standard poodle. She does not shed a bit of hair. I'm talking, you can take your hand and firmly grasp her fur, yank it and nothing, not one hair, will be left in your hand. She is a combination of two of the top three ranked most intelligent dog breeds, of course I think she's smart. She will be a big dog, but she has a lot of the "lazy" poodle in her as well, so she's great indoors. So far she has been fairly quick at picking up basic commands.

However, all of that being said...puppies are hard work! They take a lot of time, dedication, patience, guidance and attention. Molly is a lot of fun, but a lot of hard work too. She is all puppy and likes to test my patience, but luckily I prepared myself for the challenge and so far everything is going okay.
I'll probably start blogging a good bit about Molly, the good and the bad.
A "puppies first year" kind of thing. Maybe along the way I can connect with others that decide to "take the puppy challenge"...or if you're even thinking that a puppy may be in your near future....well....I can give you one trillion good reasons why you NEED a dog, just ask my grandma, cousins, family and friends. ;-)

Wouldn't It Be Nice...

2011-04-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

if I posted pictures!? Sorry, again no pictures...but if you like, you may read on to hear about my weekend.

As soon as I returned home from work Friday afternoon, I met Sev at the door (he had just returned from dropping our pups off at the kennel) and we headed next door to our neighbors.

We quickly loaded up the car, packed it full mind you (this is where pictures would really come in handy) and then five of us loaded in and headed down the road to Charleston.
We had big plans and we were ready to get the show on the road! (what does that mean exactly? show on the road?? Whatever it means...we were ready to go!)
Along the way, we munched on white trash (powdered sugar, peanut butter, chocolate chex mix) and passed the time by talking non-stop (shocked? hello-I was in the car!).

We arrived in Charleston just as our hosts were arriving home with pizza. We unloaded the car, ate pizza and just enjoyed time with our friends. We played a few rounds of catch phrase and laughed hysterically well into the night.
Christie graduated from College of Charleston and pretty much knows all there is to know about downtown Charleston. I thought I knew plenty, but she quickly proved that just being from South Carolina doesn't mean you know all there is to know. The atmosphere was fun, we stayed just a few short blocks off of King street...which meant, we got to walk everywhere. That is one thing I love about Charleston, you can walk or ride your bike to pretty much anywhere you want to go. Saturday morning we woke up to the Charleston sun peeping through the blinds. We all threw on our bathing suits and headed out the door. We had a beach party planned and the bus that would take us to the party location, the Windjammer, was scheduled to leave by 11am. We walked a short distance to the bus stop and boarded our ride.
We had the best time at the beach. It was all you could eat BBQ...and it was all I could do to STOP eating the boiled peanuts. Christie and I participated in a water balloon toss, where we lost after I managed to catch the balloon only to have it burst all over me in the process. We watched a few tug of war competitions and played a little corn hole. The girls walked down to the ocean, stuck our toes in and then ran back to the party, the water was still a bit too cold.
We had fun and I soaked up too many sun rays, by the time we returned home, I was sporting a lovely new tan line.
After the beach party, we didn't have much time before we were scheduled to attend the 2011 Charleston Affair alumni party. The girls rushed to take showers, fix our hair, fuss over what dress looked best on some of our sun kissed (read: burned) bodies, and then pose for pictures. We then rushed the guys to get ready. When the last tie had been tied and the last picture had been snapped...we took off on foot and headed to the College. It dropped all of three rain drops on us the entire walk, we were relieved as all weekend the news reports kept saying there was a possible tornado threat.
Sev and I had fun meeting new people, mingling with our friends and trying to pretend we knew how to dance. I tried to learn how to shag, but I seriously give up on ever learning that...again, just because you're from South Carolina, doesn't mean you can do everything southern.

We slept in on Sunday and then walked down to King street for some quick shopping and then lunch at the kicken' chicken. We headed home shortly after lunch, unpacked the car, dropped our luggage inside the house and then Sev and I quickly took off to retrieve our furbabies. When we returned home our sweet neighbor Rachael invited us to dinner, she is an amazing little cook and we love dinner invites from her! After dinner we hung around for a bit, trying to soak up the last few minutes left of the weekend.

Today, I'm exhausted...but I can't complain. I love spending time with friends and laughing the weekend away.

Six Hours, Twelve Months

2011-04-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

I hardly get my hair cut.
I've never had it highlighted.
I don't wear it pulled back in cute clips or tied in a fancy knot.
I don't sport the latest style either.
Yet, I spent six hours at the hair salon over the weekend...and it wasn't the first time.
Just about everyone that knows me knows that I get my hair Japanese straightened. I have this process done to my hair right around once a year. It takes forever, it costs a pretty penny, I can't wash my hair for three days after the procedure (I KNOW, NASTY!!)...but it is worth every single bit of trouble.
Usually...until last night.
Last night my hair kept me from playing in our second softball game of the season. Our team still won, but I missed out on the fun. I couldn't pull my hair up in a rubber band and I can't wash it until tonight (I'm counting down the seconds until I can wash my hair, yuck!)...so I missed the game. I have had a lot of people ask me about the whole hair straightening procedure.
Lately, hair straightening has been given a bad rap....as some treatments should! There are a number of products out that claim to straighten hair. However, they use chemicals that are so toxic not only does the stylist have to wear gloves, but the client and stylist both are required to wear masks! Now who in their right mind would allow someone to put something on their head...that they couldn't even touch with their hands or breath in to their mouth. Crazy. The process I get done is completely different. As with any cosmetic or hair care product, the products do have chemicals...but nothing that requires gloves and masks.
The worst thing about the treatment I get...is the amount of time it takes to complete the process...good gosh! The lady that straightens my hair is wonderful and by far the best person that offers the Japanese line, Yuko, in South Carolina (and trust me, I've been to many and research even more).

Aside from getting my hair smashed flat, I spent the weekend hanging out with my neighbor. Sev and I are not quite sure what we're going to do when we move out of Columbia and away from our neighbors. We've gotten to be such good friends...but we know moving is inevitable...our neighbors will be graduating this time next year and.....
so will SEVY!!!
(YIPPEEEEE, Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, please mark your calendars-there WILL be a Party!)
That's right, Sevy boy is on target to graduate May 2012!!
I never thought I'd see the day...

Something borrowed, something blue, baby brother says "I do"?!?

2011-04-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

My brother got engaged last week, last Wednesday to be exact.

I'm still not sure how I feel about it all, and maybe that sounds strange, but he's my baby brother and I suppose I just never thought he would/should/could get married. haha.

Stranger still, his new bride will have my name. Not that long after Sev and I were married, his sister made the comment that it was strange to her that I would have her last name and eventually she would not. I never really gave her comment much thought, until now. I wonder what she would have thought about sharing her entire name with me? First and last! It's such a strange feeling, for me at least.

In a way it's exciting. My baby brother will be married and that just means one thing...I will have a new sister.

Sevs sister and I are very close, I hope to share the same bond with my brothers wife.

I know one day I'll look back and feel silly for all of these emotions that I'm having over my brothers engagement...but those that know me very well, know that I've never been fond of change. My baby brother getting married is a big "change" for me. I'm already making plans to get a prescription for some drugs. I don't cry often, but when I do...it's ugly! I'm talking, red face, drippy nose, mascara running. Not pretty. I'm not convinced I can stand in front of a crowded room, while watching my baby brother get married, and choke back tears.

This is big for me, I'm having a hard time seeing the little boy that I grew up chasing around the yard on scooters, sledding down the hill behind our house with, playing Nintendo for hours with and...just to keep anyone from seeing through rose tinted glasses...fighting with until we were both out of breath, actually getting married!! AHH!

Chris was my compadre, the robber to my cop, the marco to my polo, my Christmas morning wake mom and dad up buddy, my mud pie baking, paintball shooting, creek exploring, fort building, demand taking, bunk bed sharing, trouble making brother.... he can't be old enough to get married.... can he?

**sigh**

I'm more certain now than ever that eloping is way less painful than weddings!

"Take Me Out To The Ball Game"

2011-04-04T07:51:00.001-07:00

After we play ball tonight, I'm positive my teammates will be singing a different version.... * I can hear them now. * "Take her out of the ball game, take her off the field......buy her some peanuts and cracker jack, we don't care if she ever comes back..." * **Sigh** *Tonight is our first softball game of the season. I do not feel prepared at all. On a good note, my softball glove got some practice over the weekend! I however...did not. Autumn Lynn and one of my favorite little girls in the world, Alexa Lynn, came to spend time with us over the weekend. We had so much fun catching up and laughing at the crazy things that a four year old will say! On Saturday afternoon Sev and Adam wanted to play ball with a friend from our softball team. Adam used my glove...so that counts for some practice time, right?! Whatever. * Honestly, I'm excited to see what all of this softball hype is all about. Everyone is so excited, it was all they could talk about outside of church service yesterday. The game, the game! "Are you coming to THE game!?" If I remember to take a camera, I'll take pictures from the dugout. I'm fairly certain I'll be spending a good bit of quality time in there.

Why I Don't Write

2011-03-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

I have no excuse.
I just haven't.
....too tired, too busy, too consumed with other things...you pick.

Lately, I've been too busy blowing my nose and sitting on my hands in an effort to keep from clawing my eyeballs out.
I don't know about anywhere else right now, but currently, right here in the arm pit of the state....the pollen is CRAZY! I don't mean, a little pollen dust here. I mean BIG, BILLOWING, PUFFY, DENSE, THICK, EYE BURNING, NOSE ITCHING, THROAT CLOGGING, CLOUDS of pollen. They say it's a record year for pollen here...I think they said that last year.
All I know is I can't get away from the stuff and my car...well, it's currently blanketed in a thick coating of the horrible yellow substance.

Severyn and I were asked to play on our church softball league a few weeks ago. At the time I thought it sounded like the most awesome idea!
Two weeks in to practice and...not such a great idea.
I suggested I trade my glove and ball in for a pom-pom...no I have never cheered but I've GOT to be better at cheering than softball.
I was informed there are no cheerleaders in softball and then I was directed to the outfield and told to "stand...there, right there...that's right...now look alive and be ready."
After a good five minutes I started looking for four leaf clovers.
After ten minutes I heard "HEADS UP!" and watched as a ball landed a good five feet from me with a loud THUD.
I silently gave thanks that it didn't land any closer, because then I might have been expected to catch it.

So, I'm not all that great at softball.
I'm more of the extreme sports kind of gal.
However, if anyone wants to make a bet that dirt bike riding is more dangerous than playing softball...I'll take that challenge.
I've got two bruises where a softball whizzed straight past my glove and made contact with my body.

If you need me, you can find me in the outfield...I'll be the one with the puffy red eyes, picking clover and rethinking my grand idea of playing softball in the spring.

Hot Pink

2011-03-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

My parents came for a visit last weekend.
I haven't seen them since CHRISTMAS!! Which, is funny because for awhile there we were stuffing a bag of clothes, Ali and fifty pairs of shoes (yes-all mine) into the back of our car just about every weekend, only to stay for two nights before traveling back.

It was a LOT of traveling!

At the start of this year, I vowed to stay home more. We needed to stay home more and after doing so for a few weekends in a row, we got into the swing of it and just never really felt like leaving. Well...that and the fact that we found a church home, Severyn started a new internship, and we began to feel like we fit in here in Columbia-along side our precious neighbors.

My mother did not like it.

Not one bit.

So she finally stuffed her clothes, my dad, his clothes and their two pairs of shoes into THEIR truck and traveled south.
Wasn't that sweet?
They can be.
Sweet.
When they want to be...
for instance, my mother took me out for a day of shopping Saturday, a day full of leisurely strolling the mall together, laughing in the dressing rooms, a Starbucks mid day run and lunch. We ended the day with a manicure-my fingers are now Hot Pink.
That was sweet.
On Sunday they went to church with us and then took us out for lunch.
Very sweet.
but before I get carried away-I don't want anyone thinking I'm spoiled-they still won't pay off my student loans...something about "it's good for you to work for something you want" "this is a life lesson!" "You'll thank us one day"...etc. etc.
I'M KIDDING
I'm kidding...I totally-100%-respect the fact that my parents are letting me pay my own student loans, it has definitely helped me to appreciate my degree more.
and if truth be told, I probably am a little spoiled (keep that between me and you) so I really can't complain.

We really did have a lot of fun with my parents over the weekend.
I was sad to see them go on Sunday afternoon.
I think, regardless of how independent someone is sure they are, a little bit of "homesick" feeling is good to have...it keeps you grounded, reminds you where you came from and who you are.
Right now, I'm a working girl, just trying to pay off my student loans, while sporting hot pink finger nails.

Happy Wednesday.

"I'm lovin' It"

2011-02-21T07:23:00.001-08:00

This warm weather we've been having -Spring is my favorite time of year and I'm happy it feels like spring may come early this year.

My new Mac -seriously, I may have to say this a few more times...I really adore this computer!

My church -say what?! Yep, Sev and I have officially found a new church home and we're loving it!

To learn -though, sadly this week marks the end of two of my classes. I've learned a great deal from the both of them. Furthermore, they have helped inspire me to try new things and step even farther outside of the box. I have already begun a new online class, a follow up to the writing one.

Web designing -YES!
I'm constantly starting something new, trying something different and then dropping whatever I started by the wayside. It's a bad habit of mine...or at least I used to think it was a bad habit. I've decided it's just who I am and it's NOT bad to try new things, even if you don't continue on with them...it helps you figure out what it is you DO like along the way! It also makes life very interesting.

So, back when I signed up for my online writing class, I also signed up for a web design class. I didn't blog about the class, or talk to many people about my decision to take the class. I was afraid it would be another one of those "things" that I would start and then stop...and then have to answer for (and it still could be! So don't hold me accountable).

However, my web design class ends this week and I'm happy to announce that I. LOVED. IT. I loved every second of the class! I soaked up every word, every lesson, every assignment and LOVED IT. It was just a beginners class, there is a world of information left to learn, but it has definitely peeked my interest. I'm signing up for another class, hopefully starting this summer, and maybe this time I'll post along the way.

I still don't know what I want to be "when I grow up"-but I feel like I'm getting closer ;-)
Happy Monday!

Is it a bug?

2011-02-18T07:41:00.000-08:00

I hope not.
I'm typically a fairly healthy person. If I catch a cold, it's usually once a year and it doesn't last long.
I've already had my one cold for the year, back around the first of January.

Apparently my body forgot...I woke up this morning and quickly realized that I had slept through the night with my mouth open. I always breath through my nose, unless I'm catching a cold and my nose is stuffy. I felt okay, besides a little tenderness in the back of my throat, but I brushed it off and refused to believe a cold could be coming on.
Slowly, I'm starting to feel more and more worn down. I keep sneezing and now I have a lovely roll of toilet tissue, keeping me company, on my desk. My eyes feel weak and there is an annoying little tickle in my nose.

I hope it's not a bug!
It is going to be a B-E-A-UTIFUL weekend, entirely too enjoyable to have a cold!
....excuse me while I sneeze....

I hope everyone else has a wonderful weekend!!

Random FYI

2011-02-16T08:31:00.001-08:00

There is a free online typing test that you can utilize if you ever need to know your average WPM (words per minute).
Here's the link: WPM test.

I googled typing tests and found the one mentioned above to be the most user friendly.
You know, just in case you ever get really bored and want something mindless to do...or you want to impress your friends by telling them your WPM typing speed...or you need the information for a employer...

Whatever reason you have, this was just a friendly, random, FYI.

Happy Day After Valentines Day

2011-02-15T08:57:00.000-08:00

Some people really do not like Valentines day, I am not one of them.
Show me the person that does not like a box of assorted chocolates, fragrant flowers and the feeling of love in the air and I'll show you a very sad person!! (come to think of it, a person that dislikes chocolate alone is just SAD!)

However, all of that being said, Severyn and I do not go above and beyond on Valentines day. We do celebrate it, but for different reasons than others probably do. We celebrate Valentines day as a "anniversary" because it was on Valentines back in 2005 that Severyn returned home from Iraq, 5 months after we had married and he had redeployed. Valentines day really marks the first day we actually spent as a married couple.

blah blah blah....this is getting WAY TOO mushy for me.

Let me just skip to the good part...
My Valentines Day gift...
This Valentines, I got a new toy!!!

"Hi, I'm a MAC"
...no longer a PC....
I have seen the light, the better side, the side that promises fruit and not frustration!!
I'm the proud owner of a Macbook Pro and I. Love. It.

The end!

The Lesson I Learned Beneath the Dining Room Table.

2011-02-04T07:47:00.001-08:00

Huh?
I'll explain.

I do not consider myself a clumsy person.
I don't know that I would consider myself "graceful" either, I struggle with stilettos, but I'm not usually the one that trips over my own feet when I walk.
However, last night, I managed to pull off the most ungraceful maneuver possible.
I fell down our entire flight of hardwood stairs...and I never saw it coming.

I had just gotten out of the shower and wrapped my wet hair in a towel, turban style.
My feet were cold so I put on a pair of ragged, but warm, fuzzy socks. Later I would discover that the rubber pads on the bottom, placed there to prevent you from pulling off any Tom Cruise (Risky Business anybody??) moves, had worn slap off.
Deciding that I needed a glass of ice water before heading off to bed, I made my way down the stairs.
You see where I'm going with this, don't you?
I had just cleared the first, carpeted, flight of stairs and was rounding the landing when it happened...my foot slipped off of the top stair.

First, I went airborne.
My feet flew out from under me and my arms, instinctively, flung out to the side, hands grasping for anything to prevent the inevitable crash my coccyx (who am I kidding..my BUTT) could sense coming.
It was no use.
My left hand grabbed on to the cast iron piece of ~~death trap~~ artwork displayed on the wall.
My right hand tried to cling on to the banister but to no avail, I managed to grasp nothing but air.
The next thing I know, I'm partially under the dining room table, that sits across the room from the bottom of the hardwood stairs. My, over grown guinea pig of a dog, Ali was ferociously standing over me barking his little head off. I would like to think that he was trying to protect me from the ungraceful alien that had taken over my body, but really, I think he just thought I had lost my mind and he was there to let me know he would eat me alive if I dare move.
Such a sweet dog.
Not two seconds later, Severyn is swatting Ali away from me and looking down on me with fear in his eyes "oh my gosh! Lindsey are you okay!!??" "Get up" "Are you okay? Did you hit your head??"
Part of me wanted to answer "I'm fine, I just thought this would be quicker than actually walking down the stairs"...but another part of me (probably my tailbone) was screaming "Ouucccccch!!!"
Tears sprung to my eyes and I just laid there.
I told Sev not to move me while I wiggled my toes, tried to push up on my arms and twisted my head from side to side. In the end, with the help of Severyn, I climbed to my feet.
My butt hurt, my back hurt, my head hurt and my left arm hurt. My left hand was bleeding from my efforts of trying to cling to the cast iron wall piece.
I was a mess.
Thankfully, I decided later, that the towel I had wrapped around my wet hair, had actually provided a bit of protection from the stairs...as I did manage to hit every one of them with the back of my head on the way down.

Severyn, who had been sitting on the couch and witnessed the entire thing, said all he had time to see was a white blur (I had on a white sweatshirt) come crashing down from top of the stairs, by the time he looked I was already under the table.

After I realized I would be just fine, I started to laugh...I mean, how comical it must have been to bare witness to my stair tumbling act. It brought back memories of the times I would convince my brother to climb into moms laundry basket and then let me push him, head over heels, down the stairs to our basement...."cummmonnnn Chris! Just do it! Let me push you down the stairs, it will be fun, like a roller coaster ride!!"

Today, I'm sore. I hurt. I can hardly sit down.
Daddy always said "payback is painful".
Last night, I learned that lesson while staring up at the bottom of my dining room table.

I'm Simply Wrote Out

2011-01-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

I am loving my creative writing class.
Loving every second of it.
I now carry an entirely different bag, along with my purse, filled to the brim with notebooks, pens, highlighters, pencils, my nook, a clip board, small slips of paper and my net book.
I'm a writing fiend.
I simply can't get enough of it. Crazy plots, characters, dialogue and ideas are constantly streaming through my mind.
Until....
I sit down to write a quick blog post.

BLANK

That's what my mind does. It's like it just shuts down.
I guess it could be a form of writers block, only...I have no problem writing anything and everything else.

It's such a rush writing.
I love having others critique my work, I'm learning so much...and when I get a "oh my gosh, that's phenomenal you need to run with this idea!" or "keep it up, I love this"....I'm literally on a writers high! It's fun, rewarding, challenging and keeps my creativity flowing.

Then it comes time to jot a little something down, to keep up with my blog and...
I think I'm simply wrote out!

I'm so glad it's Friday!!

Always The One With An Active Imagination

2011-01-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

My creative writing class started yesterday!
Really?
Okay, I realize if you read this blog, then you already know I started class yesterday...considering it's all I've blogged about in my past few entries.
Moving on.

So far, after day one, I love it!
It's more about the practice of writing and how to separate the creative mind from the critical mind.
Ha! and I thought I was the only one that had different voices constantly clattering, crashing and clashing around in my mind!
Alas, it turns out, I'm not the only one.

The first assignment was to introduce ourselves.
Easy enough.
After reading my fellow students introductions, it got me thinking about what it is I like about writing.

I'm still not sure!

All I know is that, from a very early age, I've always had a VERY active imagination. I always have a cast of characters running rampant in my mind, or some plot unfolding in my day dreams. I also found, again at an early age, that I liked the way writing evoked feelings from the reader. I wrote poems for friends and family to make them smile or laugh or just to make them remember a time that we shared together. For fathers day one year, I wrote a poem for my dad. I remember sitting patiently, waiting for him to open my framed "masterpiece" and read my words out loud. I couldn't wait to see him read the words that I had worked to piece together to show my admiration, gratitude and love for my dad. The moment came, he read my work out loud, my mother cried (they do that, moms, they cry at anything their children create from the heart...I've learned this over the years), my dad smiled and I was beaming with pride.
Just a few months ago, I was visiting my parents, and I happened to be sitting upstairs in my dads home office. We were chatting...well, to be honest I'm sure I was doing all of the chatting, I tend to do that (me!? yeah it's hard to imagine, huh!?)....I glanced over his meticulously organized bookshelf and spotted the framed poem, displayed beside a few other trinkets dad deems important enough to keep on display. It made me smile and it made me realize that it didn't matter if I was a great writer. It only matters that I do what I enjoy and maybe along the way, for brief moments in time, I can make someone smile, laugh, cry, or think.
I don't write because I'm a word master.
I write because it's fun.
I don't blog because I think anyone with access to the world wide web should know (or heaven forbid, agree with) what I think.
I blog because it's a creative outlet for me and maybe, as a reader, you'll appreciate (even if just a snidbit) my crazy, sometimes random, imagination.

Toodles!
I'm off to write the REALLY JUICY stuff in my PRIVATE journal!
Ha! I kid...I'm pretty much an open book and what the heck could I have that would be considered "juicy" ;-)

I Knew There Was a Reason

2011-01-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

In the process of getting my office organized for 2011, I opened my box of old college notebooks and began to sort through them.
I tend to do this once a year.
I pull them out, dust them off, reminisce...decide that there is really no point in keeping them...only to put them back in the box and stuff them back in the attic.

Well, as I was doing the above, this past weekend, I came across my old Creative Writing notebook.

I actually enjoyed sitting down and reading the bits and pieces I wrote for the class and decided I could probably benefit from keeping that particular notebook out and referring to it for my class that starts...TOMORROW! eek.

I knew there was a reason I was such a pack rat when it came to keeping old college notebooks!

It even gave me a little boost of confidence as I read the comments my previous professor had noted on each of my writings.

I think I'm ready to be a student again.

Swamped!

2011-01-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

I'm swamped at work...and I'm waiting to go completely under, no return in site.
Until then, I'm still chugging along and treading water.

My writing class starts next Wednesday! I'm very excited and starting to get a tad nervous!
I've been jotting down writing ideas all week, so hopefully I'll be a prepared student on my first day.
Yes! I realize that sounded dorky.

I'm not sure what I felt Monday morning when I got the call that there would be NO WORK....due to SNOW!!
WHAT?? A snow day? Are we even allowed to have those as an adult?
I won't lie, it was one pretty sweet day of being L-A-Z-Y.

We were also told to come in at noon on Tuesday and then I couldn't have been happier when I was told that on Wednesday I would get to sleep in AGAIN and come in at 10!
It was nice.

Then I was told that I will need to make some work time up by staying later and...
reporting to work at 7am this Saturday morning....way to ruin my good Snow day mood.

Oh well, guess being an adult really ISN'T all it's cracked up to be.

Investment Numero Uno

2011-01-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

So, in order to follow my own advice and "invest in myself", I came up with a list.

First, I came up with a list of things that interest me.
This took me awhile and required a lot of paper, lots of things interest me.
I enjoy learning and trying new ideas.
I tried to narrow the list down into things that were really interesting enough to spend my (limited) free time on.

Then from that list, I came up with a list of things that I want to try to accomplish in 2011.

Then, I sat back, closed my eyes, took my index finger and randomly placed it down on top of my list

"THIS is what I will start with! This is what I'll try first!"

I opened my eyes, I was full of enthusiasm as I glanced down at my first "investment" endeavor.

"Bring it on!"

My finger was on the bottom left portion of the page.
My list didn't extend into that area.

"Figures"

So I took my list to the computer and sat down to do a little bit of research.
I guess if I wasn't going to pick my first "investment" blindly...I was going to have to make an educated decision.

I finally concluded that my first endeavor will be to work on my writing skills.
Skills?
Okay, so I'm not 100% confident that I even possess the "power of the pen", a way with words, or the skills to succeed.
All of heaven knows I don't have a lick of grammatical or spelling sense,
but dang it, I have fun when I write.
I've kept journals, notebooks, a diary, word documents, and this blog for years.
It's a creative outlet for me.

I signed up for a creative writing class today at my local community college.
I start this month.

Investment Number One: Write more.

I'm SO, VERY Excited!

2011-01-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

and for absolutely no reason, what-so-ever.
I'm just happy.
I have been telling myself that 2011 was going to be a good year, MY year! Great things are going to happen this year, wonderful, happy, fun, interesting, different THINGS are going to happen.
Nope, I can't see into the future. Nope, I have no clue what tomorrow will bring. Nope, I don't have some, off the wall, perfectly thought out, plan of adventure that I'm about to partake on...unless you consider the plan that I do have all of the above.
My plan for 2011 is to just BE HAPPY and to INVEST in myself!

I jotted this quote down in my Moleskin (that's a journal for you non "journaling" people..I just felt super important and cooler than I really am by saying "Moleskin") yesterday and thought I would share.
So I shared it with Severyn.
Severyn laughed at me and then said "I've heard that before, where did you copy that from?!".
Well...I don't care if he laughed and for his information I did not copy from anyone or anywhere...I just thought about it and it made sense and I decided it was Moleskin worthy material, ha!

So...because this year I have decided not to care about what ANYONE says or thinks, because I have promised myself that I am NO LONGER going to allow myself to fear failure, and because I've decided that 2011 is going to be MY YEAR.....here is my quote:

"The secret to success is investing in yourself...then getting others to buy into you"

I'm dedicating 2011 a year of investing in myself.

We'll see where this year takes me!

AAAAAAhh chooo

2011-01-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

I was trying to think of a title and could NOT stop sneezing...so I found the above appropriate ;-)

Lately I have been:

WORKING my hiney off! If the economy is doing bad...my company has yet to catch wind of that! (please note this is NOT a complaint!)

On a tapioca pudding diet. Well...pudding, jello, chicken noodle soup, and ...basically anything mushy diet. It's the only thing I feel like eating with this lovely little cold I have.

Going through an entire box of puff plus (with lotion) a day! Yuck!!

Trying to organize my house for the start of the new year! It's a work in progress.

Reading on my new NookColor....LOVE it!!! I can hardly put it down. I don't know what took me so long to finally come around to the hand held reading device idea.

Researching classes offered at my local technical college. I've decided that I'm going to register for a new and exciting class to take this year! It's a small treat for myself...YEAH! I'm THAT girl, the one that really loved school and dreams about going back....so much so that I'm willing to take a class just for fun! Ohhhh if only my highschool self could see me now.

okay...well that is all I've got for now. The pile of work on my desk is starting to block my view, I better get back at it.

Like Death Warmed Over

2011-01-04T05:42:00.001-08:00

THAT is exactly how I feel!!!

UGH.

Not exactly how I wanted to start this new year...but what do you know? Here I am, nose stuffy one minute and the next I can't find enough tissues. One minute I'm coughing my head off, the next I can't see straight I'm sneezing so hard.

Yuck.

Regardless of how I feel welcoming in 2011, I am positive this is going to be a good year!
I have my list of resolutions, maybe I'll get around to posting them later...
if I survive the first week.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

2010-12-22T09:02:00.000-08:00

"The Grinch hated Christmas - the whole Christmas season. Now, please don't ask why; no one quite knows the reason. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. Or it could be that his head wasn't screwed on just right. But I think that the most likely reason of all may have been that his heart was two sizes too small." or maybe, he knew not how to bake and no one had ever gifted him with his very own cake!!! (yeah, I went there, haha)

~*~~*~MERRY CHRISTMAS FELLOW CAKE LOVERS~*~~*~

(I have more pictures and will update later, I just didn't want to let too much time pass before I shared my latest creation...I wasn't wanting to wait on Christmas, you know ;) )

***If anyone can spot the picture that is just a little off, something just isn't quite right, post a comment and show off just how observant you are!***

I'm glad it's Friday

2010-12-10T10:41:00.000-08:00

because I'm tired.

I'm always tired, but that is besides the point...I think I have low iron, again, besides the point.
I'm tired because I stayed up entirely too late working on a cake.
Then I crawled out of bed (after hitting the snooze button no less than nine times) and spent the morning stuffing Christmas cards into envelopes, addressing and stamping each one.
No, not my Christmas cards, I don't do Christmas cards...not that I don't think they are lovely, they are...but they take up too much time.
They also cause nasty paper cuts!
and dry hands...
I have both now, nasty paper cuts on my fingers and dry hands!
However, last night, before I started on my cake, I painted my finger nails a pretty taupeish/greyish..maybe even slightly purpleish color. So at least my nails looked nice while I stuffed envelopes.

(please ignore the random website in the bottom corner of that picture...It was the first image that popped up when I googled the color)

That's it, that's all I've got...have a happy Friday! I hope it's loaded with Holiday cheer and no Christmas card stuffing!

I can't think of a good title...

2010-12-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

but I wanted to share a link to a National Geographic documentary that Sev and I watched last night (you can order it off of Netflix if you're interested).
It was....humbling, eye opening, heart wrenching....I can't think of how to describe it.
http://movies.nationalgeographic.com/movies/restrepo

I won't go much into it, in case you have the guts to watch it, but ya'll...it brought back so many fears, memories, and feelings. As I sat and watched, my stomach churning, I glanced over at Sev and it hit me "what is HE thinking??".
Most everyone knows that Sev spent over two years of his life as an infantry soldier in Iraq. Sometimes I wonder what he saw and experienced that he will carry with him for the rest of his life. Thankfully, Sev was blessed with the type of personality that the Army needs and he was able to carry out his time in the service with little to no signs of PTSD, but after watching this movie...I can't imagine how hard it is to be a soldier in the United States Army. The things they see, smell, taste, feel, remember and try to forget.

I've watched a few different documentaries, movies and clips featuring deployed soldiers, but this one by far hit the hardest.

If you get the chance to watch it, let me know what you think! I promise you will gain an even greater appreciation for our veterans. I'm sure some will think this is too graphic and many will probably say it should not have been shown on national TV, I personally wish everyone in America was required to watch documentaries like these. This is not "the movies" there is no sugar coating, this is real life.

Here is a brief description found on the National Geographic website:
"RESTREPO is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, "Restrepo". It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment. This is war, full stop. The conclusions are up to you."

and

"The war in Afghanistan has become highly politicized, but soldiers rarely take part in that discussion. Our intention was to capture the experience of combat, boredom and fear through the eyes of the soldiers themselves. Their lives were our lives: we did not sit down with their families, we did not interview Afghans, we did not explore geopolitical debates. Soldiers are living and fighting and dying at remote outposts in Afghanistan in conditions that few Americans back home can imagine. Their experiences are important to understand, regardless of one's political beliefs. Beliefs are a way to avoid looking at reality. This is reality."

~Remember, we live in the home of the Free because of the Brave~

EXHAUSTED!

2010-12-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

I'm back from Texas!
I arrived at noon today!! Finally! It has been a longggg 24+ hours.
We had the best time, spending time with family and meeting our brand new nephew. He is a doll and it was very hard to leave him...maybe that's why I ended up staying an extra day!? (not really, I had NO intention of staying an extra day).

Sev and I took two different flights to and from Houston this past weekend. He flew from Raleigh, NC and I flew from Charlotte, NC (long story, I'll spare you).
His return flight home was scheduled for Monday, he made it home safe and sound.
My return flight home was scheduled for Tuesday, I...just now made it home...it's Wednesday.

At 4am on Tuesday morning I crawled out of bed, packed my belongings, dressed, kissed my nephew goodbye and headed for the airport. We knew something wasn't right the second we pulled into line at the airport, the line was long. I jumped out of the car, grabbed my bags and high tailed it to the check-in counter. I stood in line. I made it to the front of the line. My bag was two pounds over weight, ugh. I fumbled with the zipper and removed the first two items I could grab, my hair straightener and a blouse. I was handed my boarding pass and off I ran to the Security line.
I waited.
I waited.
I shifted my weight from one foot to the next.
I waited.
I checked the clock.
I waited.
Oh my word, I have NEVER stood in a security line this long.
I made it! I tried to rush through security, but you don't RUSH through security by any means...and you don't try and rush through security with your jacket on either. I learned this the hard way.
I had my bags, I was running.
My gate was the last gate in the terminal, the one at the FAR end of the hall.
I dodged, swerved, apologized and ran all the way to my gate.
The door was closed.
I missed my flight.
I was not the only one to miss the flight, whatever the hold up was in security had caused a good handful of passengers to miss that flight.
I waited until they could find me another flight.
I was booked to leave at 10:45am, it was 6am.
My sister-in-law insisted she come and take me to breakfast. After breakfast I went through the whole ordeal all over again (only I gave myself more time to get through security-the line was still beyond ridiculous) I finally made it to the end of the security line, only to have the lady checking my id stop me in my tracks, look me in the eyes and say "and who is ceicilia?"
"huh?!" I don't have time for this! I've got a plane to catch!
Again she says "where is ceicilia??"
I want to cry.
She holds up my boarding pass and shows me the name printed across the top, I read it "Ceicilia Jones". Now I'M asking "WHO is Ceicilia!!??"
I explained that the boarding pass had been given to me earlier that morning, at the gate, when I had missed my first flight.
I was escorted back to the ticket counter and then, for a third time, made my way through security.
I made my way through the metal detectors, grabbed my bags, pulled one arm into my jacket, I pulled my shoes on while I ran for my gate.
My flight was delayed.
I was now scheduled to depart at 12:41pm.
I sat down and started to make myself comfortable.
"Any passengers with final destination to Charlotte, NC please make your way to the counter"
I made my way to the front counter.
I am told that my connecting flight from Atlanta to Charlotte has been cancelled and all though they now have me a flight out of Houston and arriving into Atlanta at 1pm, I have to wait in Atlanta until the next available flight to Charlotte, which...is at 11:30pm.
This would have me arriving to Charlotte around 1 in the morning, only to have to drive all the way to Columbia.
I made the decision to stay in Houston for the night and just catch the first available flight out in the morning.
I woke up at 3:30am this morning. I felt a bit like I was trapped in that movie ground hogs day.
Only this time I made my flight!
Only to sit on the plane for 45 minutes past original take off due to FROST!!
I still managed to make my flight out of Atlanta and land in Charlotte on time (only a day later).
My checked bag, which made the flight that I had missed yesterday morning, was waiting for me.

Here I sit, at work, after I rushed down I-77 after landing a full day after I was originally scheduled to arrive.
I won't complain though, I got to spend an extra day with the sweetest, baby nephew in the world!
Pictures to come!
Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

...and then there were crumbs.

2010-11-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving over the weekend with my side of the family, therefore I ate way more than should be legal. We're talking turkey, two different potato dishes, casseroles, my favorite strawberry jello salad, rolls, mac and cheese, creamed corn, three different pies...and much more.

Today, I decided I needed to scale back at lunch, so I headed to Zaxby's for a simple salad. I found comfort in my plan to eat healthy the rest of the week, to offset the crazy amounts of food I've already consumed and will consume again with Severyn's side of the family this coming weekend. I drove away from the drive-thru with visions of crisp green lettuce leaves, ripe red tomatoes, carrot strips and grilled chicken. The ultimate "healthy" lunch. I felt the feeling of success!

I parked in my usual "lunch time parking spot" and cracked open a bottle of water while I dug my salad out of the bag.....

Guess what the lovely, obviously out to sabotage me, drive-thru attendant at Zaxby's gifted me with??

Curse it!
The cruelty of it all...

Excuse me while I lick chocolate off of my fingers.

Winter Weather and Christmas Wish #2

2010-11-18T07:35:00.000-08:00

I'm married to a weather man.

Really.

No he didn't major in meteorology (though, he decided last week that he wants to minor in that! HELP me Ronda!)

He is just REALLY into the weather.

Do you want to know what the temperature is in Algona, WA? Ask Sev.

Planning a trip to Chula Vista, CA? Sev's got your "what should I pack" covered!

Is it snowing in Billings, MT? ...Puuulease! He has that exact weather application on his phone! Watch out! (I hear you! and I have NO clue!)

He's obsessed.

So, when my weather man told me that it was looking like a white winter this year, I added the following to my Christmas wish list:

These aren't your typical rain boots, these are Hunter Boots and while they are an investment, they will last forever (read: possibly outlast the Dansko's I've had since my junior year!)

I NEED these...mom, MOM are you out there?!

These would be perfect for the winter weather Sev is sure we'll get.

Football, Friends and Fire

2010-11-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday morning, Sev and I woke early and spent the better part of the morning riding with dad (I'm still paying for it! My body hurts).

When we got home our favorite people in the world were at our house. Kyle and Kennedi had come to spend the evening with us. It was the first time we have gotten the chance to see the "newly married" couple since their wedding.

Kennedi and I spent the afternoon browsing a few shops downtown and then we picked up groceries for dinner. Later that night, we had our friends over for a football/bon fire party.

It was a success, we had so much fun! We got to watch the gamecocks STOMP the gators and claim the eastern SEC title and we got to spend time around a camp fire roasting marsh mellows and making s'mores with friends, it couldn't get much better than that!

Here are a few pictures from the night.

I don't know how my "little" brother grew SO much taller than me!

(No I still do not have My Boots...the ones pictured above are old, cheap and too peter panish but they are all I have)

We also had a little party for Ali and his four legged pals! We had a house full of dogs! Ali was worn out. You can see Layla, one of Ali's new friends, and Ali's cousin Bean (Chris' dog) in the picture above.

Our sweet neighbor, her boyfriend and our roaring fire!

Sweet friends make for Sweet memories!

Fall Favorites

2010-11-10T13:36:00.001-08:00

Here are a few things I'm loving lately.

So much so that I thought it warranted a post!

Benefit Cream Eyeshadow. I Love this stuff! My favorite color is birthday suit, but I have a few different shades (including the one pictured below, RSVP). This stuff is soooo easy to apply and it stays on ALL day. It's perfect for me, I'm low maintenance (when it comes to getting glammed up) and typically have little to no time for makeup, but this stuff is super easy and quick.

One of my favorite holiday items. Enough Said.

THE boots. THESE are them. I keep looking at them and I just KNOW that these are the boots I want on my feet this season. However, I can only get these online (if I want the super discount I found!) and I have commitment issues...I keep waiting...just to make sure these are THEM!

This eternity scarf is so pretty. The jeweled broach can be removed so you can dress it up or down. I have it in this color but it comes in three other shades too. I like that scarfs are pretty popular, they are easy and don't require a lot of work (like necklaces or earrings...YES there are many days I go sans jewelery because I didn't have time to undo, unlatch, re latch, or untangle a piece)...and once again, I like easy!

There are a few more items that I'm loving right now, I'll add those as I find pictures :)

Happy Friday!

Walking in a Winter Wonder Land

2010-11-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

Pppssssht anyone can walk in a winter wonder land. Try CAMPING in one!
That's right.
We spent last weekend camping in Tuxedo, NC.
It was cold.
I mean REAL COLD.
Not quite as cold as Yellowstone National Park in the middle of February cold...but pretty dang close!
As a matter of fact, we woke up to snow on Saturday.
I think I cried, but it could have been a snowflake on my eyelid.

I spent the weekend looking like this.

Ali spent the weekend looking like this.

That's little man zipped up in three layers of my coats! He stayed there pretty much all weekend.

We stayed around the campfire mostly, but for a brief couple of hours we rode dirt bikes and four wheelers out on the trails. My hands stayed frozen.

My feet...I'm just now getting the feeling back.

It was cold, we had no running water (unless you count the creek), nor electricity, but it was peaceful.

The stars were bright and the campfire was cozy, we enjoyed a big pot of homemade chili Saturday night and all went to bed with our bellies full.

I don't know that I'll go camping again until the Spring, but I'm thankful that we got the chance to sleep under the stars one more night during 2010.

The Boot Debate

2010-11-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

I have been on the hunt for a nice pair of brown boots for...forever.
I'm not exaggerating either. I've really been on the hunt for forever.
Okay, well, it seems like forever...it might have only been a year or two.
I'm really funny about shoes.
You see, I have really big feet. So large, in fact, that most all shoes, regardless of how cute they appear to be on anyone else...turn into giant skis on my feet.
It's true, ask anyone that knows me.
Therefore, I do not own many pairs of shoes. The few shoes I do manage to run across, like and then purchase...end up staying with me for years and I tend to own several of the same pair of shoes, just in different colors.
The shoes on my feet now? Danskos...that I have proudly owned since my junior year.
My junior year in HIGH SCHOOL.

So it comes as no surprise that while I adore the boot look, I just can't find THE boots for me.
Here are a few of the boots that I've looked at, tried on, stuck my tongue out at, sighed because they cost way over my budget, turned my head sideways at and then ultimately decided against or put on my list of "maybe".

I like everything about these, except the funny little tie in the back. It's just weird.

I actually purchased these! Part of me thought they might be a bit too pointed, but I talked myself into them and took them home! That night, I got on skype with my cousin and the first thing she said? "WHAT have you got on your feet? Those things look huge!"
They went back the next day!
Pointed toe, OUT!

These look okay online, I'm just afraid that they will be too slouchy in person. Once again, they have a pointed toe.

These are the ones that I looked at, turned my head sideways and then thought better of. I'm glad I did, I showed them to a friend whose opinion I trust and she nixed them right off the bat! (and honestly, now that I look at them again, I'm embarrassed to say I considered them!)

I currently own these! Yep, I bought them on a presale from Belk's. I'm suppose to pick them up today. I still can't decide 100% if THESE are THE boots...but I thought I better buy them while they were on sale and then decide later. I just don't know if they are too clunky for the look I'm going for.

There are MANY more...many. many. many. more boots that I have looked at while on my hunt.

I don't know what it is about riding boots, but I really love them and I'm glad they are currently in style. I just hope I run across the pair that are meant for me.

Wish List take 1

2010-10-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

I realize this could look really tacky, putting my "Christmas wish list" up on my blog.

Then I remembered it's MY BLOG...and really, I just found the cutest thing that I need and I knew I would forget if I didn't post the link somewhere.

So, on my Christmas wish list, we have item number one:

Please do not think I would not drink out of this mug EVERY day.

Love it!!

and just a little something to show off my little Brussels Griffon....

The cutest pumpkin in the patch!!!

"It's tough being so cute guys, really it is!"

"What's in a name?"

2010-10-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

Kennedi and Kyle got married this past weekend!

The wedding was so much fun, it was beyond gorgeous. I had a blast getting to know the other bridesmaids and it wasn't long before we were all friends and taking pictures together that looked like....

They had a photo booth at their reception and I have to say it was a GREAT IDEA! Everyone seemed to really enjoy the photo booth...I know Sev and I did!

My sweet mom and aunt Jackie made the drive from Spartanburg to Rock Hill, just to be present at the wedding. We couldn't let the opportunity for a family photo pass us by!

..and I have to say, I think that picture captures our personalities perfectly, ha!

They held the rehearsal dinner at a WONDERFUL little restaurant in downtown Charlotte, Del Frisco's. The food was amazing and I was honored to make the grooms cake. Kyle and I have been friends for many years and when he told me that he really wanted his grooms cake to be a UFC themed cake, I gave it my best shot. I even added a little poem (it's written on the scroll of fondant going down the side of the cake).

Here is Kyle with his cake.

Just a snap shot of Sev and I at the rehearsal dinner. We really enjoyed our time with our sweet friends and were very excited to celebrate with them.

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Christopher!

Just a funny little side story. Growing up, and still to this day, my best friends last name was Christopher. Kennedi is now Kennedi Christopher and I consider her one of my best friends. Not to mention my favorite little brother's name is Christopher too (yes, he's my only brother)! So "what's in a name?" I still don't know...but the name Christopher sure is sweet to me! It has proven to bring wonderful people into my life.

Last Weekend

2010-10-12T05:31:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was "date night" for Sev and I.
I rushed home from work and met Sev in the driveway. We jumped in the truck and took off to our destination, the drive-in movies!
First we stopped and grabbed a bite to eat. Then we made the 45min drive to Monetta, SC to the Big Moe .
We had the best time! Thankfully, Sev packed lots of blankets and even pillows...it was COLD! We had a cooler packed with soda and bags of chocolate! The best movie combination there is!
They actually play two, new release, movies in a row. There is a small intermission between the movies and if you decide you don't want to stay for the second one, that is when you can leave...Sev and I decided to stay on for the second film....and then I promptly fell asleep. oops.
Here are some pictures from our date night! I tried to get a picture of the screen, but it was already too dark. Just picture a big, white, billboard. I will say, both Sev and I were very impressed with the picture quality!! To hear the sound, you just tuned your car radio to the station they provided.

It was sooo cold, so this is what I looked like most of the evening. However, Sev made me sit up for a "proper picture"...I quickly dove back under the covers! Burrrr!

Here is where I tried to get a picture of the screen behind Sevy, but...alas no picture of the screen.

On Saturday we woke up and drove downtown Columbia for lunch. We stopped by the USC campus to watch the ESPN Game Day being filmed, that was neat, and I managed to only get one picture. oops.We all know the rest of this story...USC goes on to STOMP the #1 ranked team in the Nation, Alabama!! It was a fun game to watch!

After the game we went out for dinner with some fellow Gamecocks fans. We enjoyed dinner and then headed home, I had lots of things I needed to do on Sunday and for ONCE we were going to be in town and could actually attend our own Church!

Not. So. Much.

I woke up early in the am on Sunday and was SICK. I have not been this sick in a long time. I could not move on Sunday and ended up spending the day in my bed. Thankfully, I had Sev to take care of me...until he left to go fishing, ha. Actually, I told him to leave, watching me complain about being sick when there really wasn't much he could do, wasn't very fun for him. Plus, I didn't want him to catch whatever I had!

Turns out that the friends we went to dinner with on Saturday were also sick! So I'm going to say it was some kind of food bug. I took half of work off yesterday, but I'm back today. I still feel weak, but hopefully I'll be over this bug soon!!

Kennedi is getting married FRIDAY!!! I have to be well because I can't WAIT to celebrate with our friends on their wedding day!!!

Happy Tuesday everyone, hope you all stay bug free this fall season!

Living With No Regrets

2010-09-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

I contemplated blogging about this, because honestly it's something that I'm still struggling with, but then I thought "maybe, if I blog about what I'm currently dealing with, maybe it will help someone else in the future." So I'm going to give this my best shot.
First, I am a Christian, I know Jesus and I have a personal relationship with him.
However, that being said, I've never been good at witnessing.
I try to lead by example, but I'm still a sinner and I know I fall short time and time again.

My brother began dating a sweet girl in 2002. She was sweet, humble, kind, patient and beautiful. It wasn't long before she was going on family outings and spending the holidays with us. They dated for a good length of time, on and off, but she was always around and I guess part of me thought that she would always be around. I didn't think about how critical it would be to witness to her, because in my mind...there was always tomorrow.
She was killed in a car accident this past Saturday.
I will never know if she was saved.
While she was in a relationship with my brother she would call, come by, or email and we would talk and talk and I had no problem dishing out advice about their relationship, or other issues that were going on in her life.
We spent many moments together were I look back now and think "it would have been so easy to have witnessed then..." or "I should have said that when...". But I didn't.

As a Christian I believe in heaven and hell. I believe that while you may be one outstanding citizen here on earth, if you do not confess that you are a sinner and ask God for forgiveness, if you do not put your faith in Jesus, you will go to hell. That sounds so harsh and cruel...and maybe that is why I have a hard time talking about it. However, on the other hand, I also know how forgiving our Lord is and that all he really wants is for us to spend eternal life with him, in heaven.
Now why couldn't I have said all of this to Lexi when I had the chance? I don't know...all I know is I will carry this burden and regret for as long as I live. Now, I'm not saying I "know" she went to hell, I don't, I really don't know what was in her heart (because I never brought it up...) but because I don't know for sure, I'll always wonder and I'll hurt for her because of the unknown.

It is SOOOOO hard for our human minds to wrap around the thought of "eternity". We can not imagine what "eternity" REALLY means.

eter·ni·ty noun \i-ˈtər-nə-tē\
plural eter·ni·ties
Definition of ETERNITY
1
: the quality or state of being eternal
2
: infinite time
3
plural : age 3b
4
: the state after death : immortality
5
: a seemingly endless or immeasurable time

It seems that even Webster can not REALLY define what ETERNITY means.
It's just hard for us to grasp.

In the past three days I have cried, I have gotten really angry at God, I have questioned, I have sought advice, but above all I have struggled with regret...and let me tell you, it is NOT a good feeling.

I've decided that this will have to be a lesson, a hard lesson, but a lesson. I have vowed to work harder at speaking up about my beliefs. I'm scared...crazy, I know. However, I know that regardless of being scared of what others may think of me...having regrets is much scarier!
Someone can call me crazy for my beliefs and while that will sting...feeling like I let someone down in eternity hurts a LOT worse.
I will carry a scar on my heart for Lexi, and this may sound plain crazy, but I hope God uses this scar as a reminder, time and time again, that I should NEVER miss the opportunity to share his Word....because....you REALLY never know, when it will be too late.

He Had Good Intentions...

2010-09-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

I adore him.

Severyn.

Seriously, I do. With every fiber in me, I simply adore him.

When it comes dinner time, Sev has basically been fending for himself this week (please see post below for reasoning).

However, on Monday I ran across this recipe. I LOVE my aunt Jackies meatloaf, therefore this recipe brought back memories and before I knew it, my mouth was watering.

I emailed the link to Sev.

On Tuesday I was sitting at work when I received a text that read "What is a broiler pan?"

Huh? ...thinking, thinking, thinking...OH!! He must be attempting the meatloaf!!!

I text back a brief description of a broiler pan and tell him where he can locate one in our kitchen.

Later on that day I receive another text, "Can I use wheat instead of white bread?"

Uhm..."Sure hun".

Bless him.

Later, another text "how about skim milk instead of whole??"

Sigh...."that would be fine hun".

and later "What is DRY MUSTARD??!!"

....oh good grief "just leave it out babe, don't worry about the mustard!"

..."hey, do you know where they keep the bacon at publix? I can't find it"

..."you didn't respond so I didn't get bacon"

I walked in the door after work and Severyn meets me with a smile.

"Hey babe! I made the meatloaf you wanted!! I was still confused about the broiler pan thing, and the ingredients wouldn't fit in a bread pan...so I improvised...oh and you never texted back about the bacon, so I left that out...but it smells good!"

He retrieves the "meatloaf" from the oven.

He had substituted the broiler pan for a cookie sheet and tinfoil.

I dubbed this creation "Meatpile"

He was right, it smelled good...

but...well....

Sev served up the meat...
We sat down at the kitchen table and Sev was beaming.
"I cooked dinner honey! Aren't you proud!"
I smiled back "Yep, but uhm...what are we having with this meatloaf babe?"
"Huh??"
I suggested "potatoes?"
"uhm, no"
I tried again "green beans!?"
"uhhhhh...nope."
I thought I would humor myself at this point "how about a can of peas!?"

We had meatloaf for dinner on Wednesday night. We had meatloaf with a side of meatloaf.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-09-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I'm really good at biting off way more than I can chew.

I constantly toss around the idea of getting my masters. It's something I've always wanted, but it's something I also have a hard time justifying (maybe one day I'll blog about why this is hard for me to justify-if it isn't already obvious!). However, while tossing around the idea, I decided that regardless...I needed to get more experience and volunteer more. I love to learn and I yearn to make a difference in this world. So, after much research, I decided...why not become a guardian ad litem?! It's a step in the direction of helping others! So I started the application process, I filled out and filed the proper paperwork, I called, faxed, and visited the different locations and counties in need of volunteers. Finally, I decided to volunteer with the Lexington county CASA/GAL program.

Last night started the first night of volunteer class. The class is from 6pm-9pm and it's 45min away from my house. This has me going to work at 7:30am, working 8am-5pm, driving to class, class from 6-9pm and returning home just before 10pm. I. am. exhausted...and it's day one! This is on top of cakes I'm working on, cleaning my house, keeping Sevy fed, and general every day chores. I need more hours in the day!!

The class lasts for three weeks, and I know it will soon be over, but man...I have to admit the thought "what did I get myself into" crossed my mind last night. Then I sat through the first hour of class and realized just how sad our world really is, how unfair life is, how cruel people can be and I decided that even if I have to walk around like a zombie for the next three weeks...it will be worth it if I can make a positive difference in the life of our future generations.

I'll keep you posted!

It's a Boy!!

2010-09-14T05:17:00.001-07:00

Davis Paul Lundgren was born at 8:37 central time, last night.

He weighed in at 7lbs 11oz.

Both momma and baby were doing fine when Don called to let us know our nephew was born, we could hear Jessie in the background and she sounded happy and tired =)

We are very excited!

Sev and I will meet baby Davis on Thanksgiving day...we can hardly wait!

We love you Davis!!

September 13th

2010-09-13T12:16:00.001-07:00

28 years ago, Severyn Robert greeted the world with his sweet grin, smiling eyes, and goofy personality. Happy Birthday sweet Sevy! We are celebrating his birthday tonight, with dinner at his favorite restaurant. He wanted a bicycle for his birthday, so I got him one last week. He took his new bike out for a spin on Saturday, where we rode 28 miles with his dad, my parents and our good friends Neal and Tammy. Sunday we celebrated his birthday with his family, where we enjoyed a wonderful, homemade, cheesecake (his mom let him pick his birthday dessert). So as you can see, I think he's had a pretty nice birthday weekend thus far! and to top it off....

Today, 28 years later, Severyn and I will soon welcome our new niece or nephew into the world!
My sister-in-law is in labor as I write, she was admitted into the hospital yesterday morning and has been updating us with texts on a regular basis. Severyn is beyond excited that he may share his birthday with his niece or nephew. I just can't wait to meet the little squirt. Soon "baby bambino" will have a name! We love you already baby bambino and we can't wait to meet you!!

And it was Good

2010-09-10T08:50:00.001-07:00

I just polished off a chicken salad sandwich.

It's only 11:30am, my lunch is usually around 12:30pm, but I could not wait another minute.

Why?
Oh I will tell you.

It was no ordinary chicken salad sandwich, oh no.
This chicken salad sandwich was made by....

and it was good....it was so gooood.

I was at Bi-Lo last week, preparing for our big labor day weekend ride, when there it was...an entire refrigerated shelf full of Duke's sandwich salads! Oh yes. They had chicken, tuna, egg, and pimento! I tried to refrain from taking my arm and swiping the entire contents on the shelf into my buggy, it took some self control, but I left one container on the shelf.

I could barely stand the wait, the minute I walked in the house I made a bee line for the silverware drawer and peeled open a container of chicken salad. It was just as I suspected, perfection. I packed the cooler we were to take with us to durhamtown and secretly smiled to myself, I was going to be the envy of all! Everyone was going to want to be my lunch buddy...I had duke's!

After riding all morning Saturday, we returned to our cabin for lunch. I got my bread, paper towel, knife and went to get my Duke's, I couldn't wait to see the jealous faces!

Jonathan took one look at the container I was ~~guarding~~ holding and said "yeah man, Steph gets that stuff all of the time, it's so good!"

WHAT!?

Apparently Bi-Lo has carried Duke's brand for some time now....Where have I been?? If you haven't enjoyed a Duke's salad sandwich before, try one, and if you have been living under a rock like I have, check your local Bi-Lo....you can thank me later.

What do you think?

2010-09-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

Does it say "FALL"??

If I get a Starbucks gift card, I'm likely to use it on my favorite Starbucks beverage, pumpkin spice latte. If I drink a pumpkin spice latte I start to have dreams about leaves, scarves, boots and jackets. If I start to have dreams about leaves, scarves, boots and jackets I start to feel festive and if I start to feel festive, I might just have to paint my finger nails to match. If I paint my finger nails to match fall, it might lead me to paint my finger nails a brownish/copper color. If I paint my finger nails a brownish/copper color, I might decide that I should take a picture. If I take a picture, I might decide to post the picture on my blog and if I post the picture on my blog....I might look at the picture and think "oh my gosh, those are my MOTHERS HANDS!!"

It's starting to happen...I'm turning into my mother, only my mothers child would write a post to the beat of "if you give a mouse a cookie!".

It's almost fall!! I can feel it in the air, and even though it is 97 degrees today, I wore a crocheted, short sleeve, top to work today. Do you know who LOVES crocheted tops? My MOTHER!!

I can't believe another season is just about upon us! I'm still trying to savor the long summer nights, but I know, it's inevitable...fall will be here before we know it, just like I'll always be my mothers child.

**Edit to say: I have a wonderful mother =) So I can't complain, it just amazes me how I can see her in myself more and more...**

2 Pictures

2010-09-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

From this past weekend....sorry, but I never once took my camera out of the bag. I just couldn't find the energy it took to find the camera bag, retrieve the camera bag, open the camera bag and then use the camera....but here is our group:

and take a closer look at those faces!!!

Labor Day Weekend Recap

2010-09-07T06:15:00.001-07:00

I hurt.
Every. Single. Muscle in my body HURTS!
Walking up stairs...can't do it.
Picking things up off the floor, can't bend to grab it.
and even though not one person would care to know this little fact,
just using the bathroom takes some form of gymnastic maneuver!
(picture: hands firmly grasping toilet seat, arms extend then slowly bend to allow body into the seated position)

We spent Labor Day weekend in GA for a three day dirt bike ride extravaganza!
I had Thursday and Friday off last week. I spent Thursday cleaning the house and packing for the weekend.
Thursday morning 6 roses were delivered to our house. One rose for each year Sev and I have been married.
Thursday night Sev surprised me with dinner at the melting pot, one of my favorite places to eat.
Friday morning I went grocery shopping for our weekend trip and packed last minute items. By 2pm Sev and I were on the road.
We pulled into Durhamtown park around 4:30 and unloaded our gear.
By 6pm everyone had arrived and not long after we had our camp fire blazing, steaks grilling and excitement building.
We tried to go to bed early but between the hard-as-a-rock mattress and the excitement, I don't think any of us slept soundly.
We were all up bright and early Saturday morning.
We enjoyed a big breakfast and then scattered about the cabin, pulling on gear, filling up camel backs and dusting off helmets.
We were on the trails by 9:30am.
We did not get off of the trails until around 12pm and that was for a quick lunch and then we were back out again.
We raced down roads, climbed hills, zipped through the trees, splashed through the mud and breathed in more dirt than I thought possible!
We pulled back up to our cabin when the trails were closed and no more riding was allowed. We scarfed down a big dinner of pork chops and bratwursts and fell asleep....more soundly than the night before.
Sunday morning I woke up, feeling like a train had run me over the night before. I was hurting.
I stumbled down the stairs and looked at all of the other eager faces...ready to ride....they were ruthless! By 9am we were back out on the trails. With every jump, bump, rock, and root...my body screamed. I finally began to feel back in the groove and was getting back into the swing of things when it hit me....or better yet, I hit it.

A tree.

A tree smack dab in the middle of the trail.

I never saw it coming.

I was following closely behind one of the guys and he had turned up a bunch of dust. It was hard to see and I was trying to hang on and just follow the leader when we hit a dip in the trail. I was focusing on landing the jump when the air cleared long enough for me to see the tree. There was not enough time to turn or even bail...I slammed, smack dab into the middle of the tree. The bike stopped. I went air born. My helmet kissed the tree, I slid down the tree found myself straddling the front fender of my bike and as if in slow motion the bike and I toppled over and I watched a few stars form in front of my eyes.
I was fine, the tree was fine, the bike was fine and after a minute or two I was back on the trails....I was just a tad more aware of the trees and tried to give them the respect they deserved, ha, because if I learned anything it's that trees do not move, for anyone.
By the end of day I was feeling my best yet and raced my brother out of the woods on the last trail. Victory was mine!
We headed back to the cabin and watched a few guys do some stunt riding before grilling up our last dinner of the trip. We calculated that in 2 days, we had ridden over 110 miles.
Monday morning, I felt every one of those miles.
I hurt.
It took everything I had to pack up our gear and head home.
Sev and I unloaded the truck, washed our bikes and gear down, did numerous amounts of laundry and then I hit the shower...where I washed off 2 inches of dirt, if not more.
Feeling clean and refreshed, I went to sleep, at 7pm.
I woke up this morning at 7am and I hurt.
My body hurts, but even with the stiffness and the sore muscles I would rather be sitting on the seat of a dirt bike then this seat behind my office desk. It's a crazy sport, but I love it and the only thing I would change would be that there were more female riders...I spent the weekend with 8 guys and if I learned anything, it's that men are nasty, nasty creatures! Ewww.
That is how we spent our labor day weekend.

I really hate it when I do this...

2010-09-01T11:59:00.001-07:00

and I do it often.....but sometime I just get in a blog funk.
I just don't feel like I have anything to blog about, worth talking about or the energy to even try.

August flew by! I turned 27 and now, tomorrow, I'll be 27 and one month old!

August was pretty much a blur.

I did birthday things, I planned a wedding shower for Kennedi, I rode my dirt bike, I painted airplanes on one of my favorite little boy's wall, I visited with family and friends and I made cakes!

So...pretty much...I did what I'm always doing and that's running all over the place.

This weekend is my wedding anniversary!! On September the 3rd, this coming Friday, I will have been married to Sevy for 6 years!! That just seems crazy to me, I don't feel like I've been married for six years. For six years I have:
* Fought the battle over the covers.
* Checked the toilet seat before sitting down during a middle of the night bathroom run.
* Fallen asleep to the sound of snoring.
* Washed clothes that I swear could not hold one more ounce of dirt.
* given over the command to the remote control.
* spent the majority of my time in the passenger seat of the car instead of behind the wheel.

and really, I don't mind any of those things. It's the price you pay for living with your best friend.

"Awwwwwwww"

No really, Sev drives me crazy and it's no secret he can make me madder than a hornet...but when it comes right down to it, he's pretty much the one person, that I know, I can count on to pick me up when I feel down in the dumps and make me laugh harder than anyone I know. He is also one of the most patient men I know...and if you know me (at all) then you know I NEED someone with a lot of patience.

Six years ago...TODAY....actually, Sev took me to Fence (a little equestrian farm in NC) and we ate Ben and Jerry's ice cream, straight from the carton, on top of a little hill, over looking miles of trees and meadows. I picked Gerry Garcia Cherry flavor and didn't like the whole cherries that much, so instead I would suck the ice cream off of the cherries and when Sev wasn't looking I would dump the cherries into his carton.
Sweet of me, I know! ( I told you any man of mine would need patience!...not to sound like Shania Twain or anything)
In the middle of sucking ice cream off of cherry chunks and sneaking them into Sev's ice cream, Sev kindly informed me that I had a bug on my shirt and I should stand up to brush it off.........yep, that's the man I married!........basically, he wanted me to stand so that he could be on one knee when he asked me to marry him....and THAT was the best idea he could come up with. I'm happy to inform you that his creativity has not changed, one bit, over the past six years.

Tomorrow night, Sev has informed me that we have plans...he just won't tell me what the plans are. That's okay, if I know Sev we will end up doing exactly what I least expected us to do....and that is what makes our marriage so much fun.

!!HAPPY 6th ANNIVERSARY SEVERYN!!

My Favorite Colors...

2010-08-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

Grow in Grandmas Garden.

Yellows, pinks, purples, blues...

all different shades, different hues.

My favorite colors,

Grow in Grandmas Garden.

With weathered hands she will grow,

My favorite kind of rainbow.

My favorite colors,

Grow in Grandmas Garden.

One of my favorite sites,

is watching a butterfly take flight.

Grandmas garden has a few,

bumble bees, hummingbirds too.

My favorite colors,

Grow in Grandmas Garden.

With her loving, tender care...

She's grown all of this for me to share =)

Enjoy!!

Happy Birth..uh..Month...to Me!

2010-08-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

We celebrated my birthday last weekend!
Not a cake one to be found in all of the celebration either...I had only one request and that was for my moms lemon pie!!

We spent Sunday white water rafting...well, we actually ended up renting small raft/blow up kayak type vessels called "duckies". Sev, Dad and Chris all got their own, mom and I decided to stick together and got a two man ducky.
We had a blast! Mom screamed every time we went through rapids and I laughed until my belly hurt. We only had one man over board, and that was Chris. Mom and I made it over some rapids and right when I turned around to watch the guys come through, I was able to witness Chris flying out of his raft. His facial expression was priceless. That water was COLD. I don't mean, toe in, shiver and then get used to it cold...I mean, it was so cold it HURT!! I could not stand in the water long enough to put my life vest on without hopping from one foot to the other and wincing in pain!
Dad was right behind Chris, so he bent down and scooped Chris up by the life vest...they floated like that for a little ways until Chris smashed into a rock and, like a frog, he jumped clear out of the water and perched himself right on the back of dads raft. Sev caught Chris' raft and soon they had Chris transferred back into his own vessel and the trip went on with no further delays.
I have to say that white water rafting is one of my favorite activities! I try to get my family to do it every year for my birthday....that's usually the only time I can REALLY convince mom to submerge herself in freezing cold water, while braving the fast moving waters.

I also spent a good deal of time with my grandmother over the weekend. We...well, she...pickled okra, went shopping, and took a stroll through her garden. I have some AMAZING pictures that I'm going to post later today.

I also received some very nice birthday gifts!! My mom gave me flowers...I love getting flowers. I also got:
A pretty, white, samsung Netbook
A book
Some clothes
A bracelet
A necklace
A pretty, cosmetic bag, with my initial on it.
and money!!
I loved my gifts and the sweet gift givers =)

Overall, I had a very nice, relaxing, adventurous birthday...just how I like it!!

Call Me Crazy

2010-07-30T07:55:00.001-07:00

It's Friday and I have a nice long weekend to look forward to!
I took Monday off because...it's my birthday!

Okay, I realize that a lot of people are going to think I'm beyond crazy for even admitting this...and that's okay, you can think I'm crazy.
However, I woke up this morning and felt old! I'll be 27 Monday! 27 is NOT old! 27 is still...well, in your 20's! I can't explain it though, but I just felt old. I realized that I'm not far from my 30's and...no 30 is not old either, but 30 is not 20 and it's also not far from 40.
I guess I'm just not ready to be 30 and 27 is too close for comfort.
I always thought I would have kids (if I ever) by 30...but now I don't know.
I always thought I would already be settled down by 30...but now I don't know.
I always thought I would FOR sure be finished with school before I'm 30....but now I don't know.
I always thought I would be in the job that I would retire from by 30....now I know I'm not!
I always thought that you pretty much had life figured out by 30....now I know I won't!

I know that in the big scheme of things age is just a number.
This is honestly the first time I've struggled with turning another year older. Weird. Is this what it's like to start dreading birthdays!?
and if I have one more person ask me how old I am and then "oh, so do you have kids" I'm going to scream.
I also don't want to hear anything about how I need to enjoy what I'm eating now because I won't have the same metabolism when I'm in my 30's (which REALLY stinks, because I wouldn't consider the metabolism I have now, in my 20's, anything to rave about! haha).
I also really want to go back to school....but I don't even want to think about still paying on student loans when I'm in my 40's!
Nope...27 is NOT cool with me!

I guess I just feel like there is still so much left to be done in my 20's, before I turn 30, and the sand in my hour glass is quickly running out!

I am volunteering with "Building Dreams" to be a mentor here in Richland county. I had a training meeting on Tuesday. The girl directing the class was talking about how we should, as mentors, try to relate to our mentee. She looked at the other two individuals in the classroom (this is after we had introduced ourselves and they both said they were juniors at USC) and said, "you guys probably won't have a problem with this, you're still young, hip, cool and "down with it""...then she looked at me and said "you're kind of in the same boat I am, we don't "get it" so we have a little more trouble in this area".
**crickets**

I just got lumped into the age category that "doesn't get it"...

Nope, 27 is not fun! However, I'm so thankful for all that I have and all that I have accomplished thus far...so I won't complain (anymore!okay!)...bring on the birthday celebrations!!!!
I'll just remind myself that as much as I don't like turning 27, my poor mother has to deal with the fact that her child is turning 27!!! That has got to be even harder!!.....
I wonder what age category they would put her in....
KIDDING MOTHER, I'm just kidding!

Happy Friday, I hope everyone has wonderful weekend...regardless of age!

Country Livin' is Where it's At!!

2010-07-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

I've known ever since I was knee high to a grass hopper that the country is where I belong.
I love the smell of the country, unless the wind is blowing a certain direction and a field full of cows is near by.
I can see, hear and feel God even better in the country.
Call me crazy.

This past weekend Sevy and I took full advantage of the country lifestyle!
I had a cake to deliver on Saturday morning (please see the latest cake here, LOVED making this cake!).
Then we headed on up to the upstate. We had plans to stay at Sevs parents farm. We are dog sitting for them and we thought she (the dog) would appreciate a little time back on her farm. I think she hates the city life just as much as we do, the second we got there she bounded from the truck and took off to the fields.
That afternoon we enjoyed a pizza dinner with my oldest friend, Aud. I rarely get the chance to see Autumn and Alexa. So it's always a treat when we do find the time to see one another.
Alexa is growing like a weed! I tried to hold her and cuddle on her and at one point I got all nostalgic on her and tried to rock her and tell her about how little she used to be...and then I realized how OLD that made me sound and I recognized the blank look on her face...the one that says "hey, let me go lady...you're squeezing the life out of me and I don't care how small I used to be! I've got things to do!" When did I get into this phase of life??
Later that night I got the chance to read Alexa her nightly story and then tuck her into bed. It was a precious time and I loved every second of it. However, because I'm her god mother and not her mother...I found the act of actually making her go to sleep really rather boring! So...I decided to entertain her and so (as any good god mother would) I squeezed myself into a little tutu that was laying on her bedroom floor. We both giggled and laughed as I danced around the room, until her mother came in (fun buster!) and told her to go to sleep. I was walking out of her room when Alexa said "lou lou" I turned around and she said "next time I see you, will you give me my tutu back?" ....I assured her that I was not taking the tutu home with me and that I would leave it in her room......just as soon as I figured out how to squeeze my adult butt out of her toddler sized tutu!!

We left Autumns and ended up stopping by another friends house on the way home. They were out of town but another friend of ours was house sitting. They live in the middle of the country, in a little log cabin, with a lovely front porch and delightful wooden front porch swing. We swang, swung...whatever...until late in the evening. It was a full moon, the temperature was perfect and the crickets were playing my favorite song. There is no better place than a front porch swing, in the middle of the country. Serenity.
We headed back to the farm sometime later and slept soundly.
Sunday morning Sev did some work around his parents farm and then we met another set of friends for some good ole' pond swimming!
Oh. My. gosh....I wish I had taken pictures of the little place we ended up spending most of our Sunday. We had to do a little off roading and then a little hay bale dodging as we drove through the middle of a pasture and then down a dirt road to...heaven. A pond in the middle of nowhere with the perfect rock to jump from. The guys did a little fishing and we swam and jumped from the rock until late into the afternoon. The land where we found the pond is actually for sale. I know that in time the entire place will probably be developed and the little pond, smack dab in the middle of a hay field, out in the middle of nowhere, will be surrounded by houses....I tried to soak in as much of the peaceful day as I could. The only thing that ran us off was the distant thunder. We loaded up and headed back to the house to fire up the grill. We spent the rest of the evening lounging on the back porch of Sevs parents house, just talking and enjoying the country setting.
I was so sad when we had to pack it all up and head back to the city.
That was how we spent our weekend and that is how I decided that home is where the heart is and my heart is in the country...right along side the crickets chirping, the water hole swimming and the front porch swinging!

What I've Been Doing

2010-07-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

I'm very disappointed in myself. I have not blogged in a few weeks and I was doing so well too! Then life got me...eh' it happens. I am still here though! I've just been busy...there, that sounds like a good excuse! I've been busy!

Honestly, I've just been living life and haven't found the time to blog...or really, found anything worth blogging about.

Our July 4th weekend went off with a bang...or up in flames really. We managed (I shouldn't say "we" because I had nothing to do with it) but the group I was with managed to catch $2000 worth of hay bales on fire. That was a site! 911 had to be called and firefighters worked into the wee hours of the morning putting out the fire. Something about fireworks and dry hay doesn't mix(...who woulda' thought!? **sigh**) As a matter of fact, the fire kept burning for a week straight. I'm pretty sure a great lesson was learned by all involved. I was tempted to pull out the marshmallows and Hershey chocolate, but I didn't think firefighters would be amused.

The following weekend I missed a very precious little boys 3rd birthday. Perrin turned 3 on July 11th. I spent time with him over the July 4th weekend and could not make the trip back to the upstate the following weekend for his birthday party. He is growing so fast, it's crazy. It amazes me how quickly he picks up on things and how fast he learns!

Here is pbug and I over the July 4th weekend (we are having a very in depth conversation, can you tell?):

Then, on the following weekend, I missed ANOTHER very special, very important, very big birthday. I missed Henrybaby's first birthday! Henry lives in Raleigh though...his parents are selfish and do not like to share, so they keep him far away from the rest of the people that love Henrybaby (I am totally kidding, Henry's parents are my cousins and they live in Raleigh because that's where life currently has them...I just feel the need to give them a hard time, it's payback for the fuss I dealt with while living in Hawaii and missing all of our family Holidays!). Henry also happens to share a birthday very close to my own father, therefore I ended up spending last weekend with my family. We enjoyed a sweet, little, mini vaca at Litchefield beach. We spent the nights playing card games and the days lounging on the beach. On Sunday Mom and I beat Dad and Sev at putt-putt...I think...okayyy I don't remember...but who was really counting?!....okay! The guys won. geez.

We sang happy birthday to my dad, three times. In the morning, at dinner and then later that night while serving up his birthday cake.

I missed out on making 3 birthday cakes!! Though, when we went to pick my dads birthday cake up from piggly wiggly (I know, cut me some slack, there was no way I could bake a cake at the beach!) The grocery store baker was not in, they had no one to write the "happy birthday" message on the cake! Never fear, I spoke right up "I've got this!" and demanded a bag of icing! I got a few strange stares as I leaned over the counter, right smack dab in the middle of the grocery store, and put the final touches on dads birthday cake! For a minute I felt my calling...but then it faded a minute later when I realized the people behind the counter had to wear hair nets...no thank you!! I'll stick to my desk job for now.

We had a great time.

Oh, I did get stung by a jellyfish! Ouch!!

When I was telling Kennedi about the jellyfish sting she admitted she was disappointed when I told her that "NO, no one peed on me to stop the sting!". Who comes up with this stuff? I want to meet the person that first suggested, "hey...somebody...HURRY...pee on me!!! Lets see if this will stop the stinging!!"....weirdo! Sorry guys, if you're like Kennedi and thought I would have a better story about the incident...I don't, I just used a cold water bottle and sat through the pain. The end.

I am currently working on finding a place to volunteer some of my time. I've begun to realize that even though I seem to have a hard time finding any spare time, what spare time I do have could really be put to better use serving others. I'm applying to volunteer as a guardian ad litem for Lexington county. I really hope that I get the chance to volunteer for this, I honestly hope to make a difference. It's something I've been praying about and researching for some time. Can you imagine, me as a "mentor" figure....HEY I heard that!!

Really though, keep me in your prayers...pray I find whatever it is God is calling me to do with my time.

I am currently working on a Dr. Seuss cake!! I will be honest and say that THIS cake is something I have been hoping and waiting on someone to request!! I'm stoked, I've been drawing the design for some time now, I hope it turns out exactly as I imagine! I'll share pictures when I'm through. I was contacted by a casting producer for TLC, she wanted me to apply for a TV series they are getting ready to run all about cakes...that too has been something I've been working on. We'll see how that goes, I'm not sure it's something I could do but man it's fun to dream! I have my doubts, but it's sure been an experience thus far.

Well, this post has gotten fairly lengthy. I'll end it now!

Happy Friday everyone!!!

Just Some Things

2010-07-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been eating the heck out of some.....yogurt....betcha' thought I was going to say ice cream, didn't you?! Well that too but I've also been consuming a lot of yogurt. Not just any yogurt but FAGE Total 2% greek yogurt, with honey. It is divine!
It seems that when it's hot out, I crave cold, quick, easy foods. That pretty much leaves me eating ice cream, Popsicles, yogurt, cereal and cold fruit.

I stopped by Publix on my way home from work yesterday, to grab some more yogurt, and saw some really yummy,fresh looking zucchini and squash. I picked out a few of each. When I got home I turned the oven on, sliced the veggies, tossed them into a pan, sprinkled them with a little salt and a little pepper and then covered them in Newman's Own salad dressing, the organic Italian flavor. I just let the veggies saute' a bit and then...oh my gosh...tried to stop myself from eating every single one of them before I had a chance to pile them on a plate and cool off!!! Sooooooooo good. I made an extra batch just for lunch today.

You may remember this story I posted about awhile back? You may have gotten a few giggles from that post, you may have felt sorry for me after reading the post, you may have thought "Bless her heart"! However, I highly doubt that ANYONE would have thought that it was something that would happen AGAIN in the Mullen household. I was one of those people too! I sure learned my lesson! I was still scrapping potato skins out from under random pieces of kitchen furniture weeks later! It was a lesson learned the hard way and as far as I was concerned I would never have the need to learn that lesson again!

However, my better half, well...bless him...I guess he needed one more reminder.

When I got home last night, Sev had cooked up a batch of sweet potato fries. He was so proud of himself. He sauntered to the door, right as I was coming in, handed me a fry, smiled and said "Taste this, taste this, I just made them!"...he was beaming.
After dinner I went to ~~do laundry, clean the bathrooms, make the beds, mop the kitchen~~ OKAY! I know my mom would see right through that one...I went to lay on the couch for a bit.
ANYWAYS...as I'm resting, Sev is in the kitchen and I over hear him say "..." well I won't write what he said, but it wasn't good. I looked up just in time to see him turn on the disposal. I watched bits of potato peels cover my dear husband. I watched my husband, in return, grab the top to one of my calphalon pots and use it as a shield. Then I watched my husband turn the disposal off, look up from the sink and shake his head at me. Then he went on to say "DO. NOT. SAY. A. WORD!".
Ya'll I didn't say a word!
I resumed my resting and listened from the living room as my husband battled the clogged sink. I wanted to mention that after I had posted about this incident last time, that I had received advice on how to handle the situation in the future, (AS IF I ever thought we would have this problem AGAIN in the future...) but every time I went to say "Honey....."...or "Honey, if you..." or "Wait a minute I know..."....I got the stink eye.
I kept my mouth shut.
I didn't go into the kitchen until later that night.
I surveyed my surroundings.
I saw no potato peels stuck to any kitchen appliances (though I did see a wire coat hanger that had been stretched out...that will remain a mystery).
I breathed a sigh of relief, turned the kitchen lights off and went to bed.
I think it's safe to say that NOW...Sev has learned his lesson....and that lesson, according to him, is....we will never eat potato's, in any form or fashion, again, in our house, as long as he lives.

This Just In....

2010-06-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

It appears that the Mullen residence now has air conditioning!!

WE have AIR!!

WE have COLD AIR!!

They ended up having to replace the entire unit. Apparently, the compressor was busted and when the compressor goes out in an air conditioner...it's just time to replace the whole darn thing. I'm very glad we are not currently home owners! Yikes, I hate to think about that bill!!!
BUT it's over! The wait is over! We did not melt! We can now breath in cool air again without feeling like we're suffocating!!!!

Now what to do with all of this ice cream?!?!
.
.
.
.
.
Ice cream social date to be announced, stay tuned ;-)

Guess What!!??

2010-06-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

The air.
The cold air...

is still not fixed.

Nope.

We are going on week 2 of having no air conditioning.
I don't curse, but I could! Oh I could.
It. is. HOT.

We took off to Rock Hill Friday evening. We had plans to spend the weekend with Kyle and Kennedi and were we ever grateful that they have cold air...and aren't afraid to use it!
So, we stayed nice and cool over the weekend.
We came home last night to a furnace!
I was closer than an ants eyelash to sleeping on the floor in the sunroom, the only room that has any form of air flow, last night.
I managed to open the window in our upstairs bathroom.
It had been painted shut.
I worked at it and worked at it, I pushed it, I kicked it, I used all of my might and FINALLY got the window to slide open, only to come to the conclusion that the inside of our house was the exact same temperature as the outside...therefore, the open window provided no relief....apparently, there is no such thing as "evening breeze" in Columbia.

Sev called to see when we could expect someone to come (BACK) out to fix the air.
He was told that it was going to cost a lot of money to have the unit fixed, so they were waiting to hear back from our landlord as to what they wanted to do about it.
.....I'm checking into a hotel TONIGHT if my landlord thinks I can survive any longer without air...in the middle of summer!!

Is it obvious I'm getting cranky?
I can't help it...there is no more room in our freezer for another pint of ice cream and I'm sick of the flavors we have!
Ice cream boredom would cause anyone to be cranky!
;-)

BAD NEWS!!

2010-06-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

You guessed it!
The air is STILL not fixed! **sigh**

I made the decision to go to the gym after work yesterday. Bad decision if I've ever made one. I made the decision with the belief that when I came home, I would have a nice, cool, comfy house to relax in. I came home to quite the opposite.
The sweat never fully evaporated from my skin.
Misery.
Pure, 100%, misery!

Here are some tid bits for you:
Ice cream is all I care to consume when our air goes out.
You can only eat so much of one flavor of ice cream before it gets boring.
I started off with 1 carton of Edy's, slow churned, less fat, less sugar, frozen yogurt.
I now have 4 cartons of ice cream in my freezer.
That is 4 cartons of ice cream on top of the carton of frozen yogurt.
That is FIVE cartons of frozen pure evil in my freezer!
The time I have spent in the gym...amounts to nothing.

The thermostat read 91 degrees when I went to bed.
The thermostat is downstairs.
Heat rises.
Our bedroom is upstairs.
This has me draw to the conclusion that our bedroom must be....
HOTTER THAN HAITI....

I'm off to find a new flavor of ice cream.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and stays out of this heat!! It's brutal....just ask my waistline.

**PS. Yesterday I referred to the leak in our air conditioning unit as "anti freeze" I meant "Freon"....apparently there is a big difference...which I didn't know, but now I do...and it's filed under "useless pieces of information I never wanted to know but now I do...thanks Sev".**

Good News!!!!

2010-06-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

No, the air conditioner is NOT fixed.

BUT

We did survive the night without air...well...cold air anyways (obviously we had to have air to live). ANYWAYS...
We survived!
The good news is, I do not have to change my address. I don't believe that it is going to come to me moving into the freezer.
They came today to look at our unit, they "hmmm" and "huh" and then "ah ha!" and ultimately came to the conclusion that we have (well "had"...we had a leak, we no longer have any antifreeze left to leak out) an antifreeze leak. My first thought went to my little man, Ali. I immediately asked "if we have(had) a leak, then uh, where did the antifreeze go?".
I was assured that the antifreeze was inside of the air conditioning unit and nowhere on the ground. Ali man was safe!
My next thought, "GREAT! Now...when can this be fixed?".
They hope to have it fixed today!
Hallelujah!

I'm sick of Popsicles!

In other, non related, news...
I'm getting new tires on my car today! Hurray! I was centimeters away from riding on rims!

okay...I realize that last bit of news was really boring...sorry. That's really all I've got.

H-O-T

2010-06-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning on venting about how hot it is this summer.
I see way too many facebook comments, twitter updates, and blog posts...complaining about the heat. I don't like to complain about things I can't control. So I was staying away from any discussion on how HOT it is....

that is...

Until our air conditioning went out yesterday.

OUT.

CA-PUT.

No Warning.

No cold air!!!

It huffed, it puffed one little spurt of cold air and then nothing.
Worse yet, the air coming from the vent is no colder than the air I can blow from my mouth.
It's like its teasing me. Mocking me, saying "I'm blowing, I'm blowing...I'm just not going to blow cold air! and you can't make me!!"

Being hot and coming up with ways to prevent a heat stroke are all I can currently think about, so forgive me.
I just wanted say it's HOT. That is all.
If you need me, I'll be taking up residency in our freezer.

Just In Case

2010-06-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

I took two semesters of Spanish in college.
It was required.
At the time I had no interest in speaking Spanish. What-so-ever.
I walked away from my classes with minimal Spanish speaking skills.
As a matter of fact, the only sentence I remember is, "Yo no hablo espanol".
I'm so proud of that sentence.

My mother decided that she wanted to learn Spanish this past school year (she's a teacher).
She decided there were a few sentences that she thought would be necessary, you know, just in case she is ever trapped in a Spanish speaking country with no one around that understands English.
Her list?
"Where is the bathroom"
"Can I have some water"
and...
"wait a second"
I'm not kidding. That is the list of sentences that my mother thought were THE MOST important sentences to know in Spanish.
You know, just in case.

After deciding on her list of must know sentences. She enlisted the help of a Spanish speaking individual.
Her help?
A 5 year old boy that recently moved to SC from Mexico.
She gave her list of sentences to her 5 year old student and asked him how to say them in Spanish.
She wrote down what he said, exactly how he said it.
She was so proud.

My mother and my grandmother came to spend the night with me this past Tuesday. Mom decided to take us all out to dinner. We decided on Mexican.
Soon after being seated, as the waitress was delivering the chips and salsa, my mother pulled a piece of paper from her purse. She unfolded the slip of paper, looked at our waitress and said, very slowly and deliberately, "on da est ah el ban oh".

You see, my mother had been telling us about the Spanish that she had learned.
She was so proud.
Severyn informed my mother that "where is the bathroom" in Spanish is "Donde esta el bano" but my mother insisted that her version was correct because "My little Spanish speaking student taught me! and he KNOWS Spanish!"
I love her. My mom.

I added "learn Spanish" to my bucket list.
I think I'm going to ask for a Rosetta Stone set for my birthday this year.
Really, it's something I would like to learn more of. Make up for the two semesters I wasted in college.
Help my mother learn the sentences that she thinks are very important to know, you know...just in case.

There are days...

2010-06-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

When I get out of the shower,

look at my reflection

and sigh.

My hair is a mess.

My arms are too flabby.

My legs have spider veins. (I do NOT know what those are, but my mom likes to point them out and say "you are going to regret being so rough and getting so bruised up when you're older and those spider veins are very noticeable!" therefore I stare at them when I'm looking at myself and think "I really regret being so rough and getting so bruised up when I was younger!")

My ears stick out.

My eyes are too close together.

My stomach is not flat enough.

I have one too many freckles.

and then I take a look at this guy.....

and realize that he and I are both perfect in every way! ha! no matter what the mirror says!!

Have a great weekend and even if you think your butt is too big, be glad you can keep your tongue in your mouth!!

Another Post Without Pictures

2010-06-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was just what Sev and I needed.
We spent Friday night just hanging out together.
On Saturday we slept in and then got ready for my mom and Sev's parents to visit.
My sister in laws baby shower was scheduled for Saturday at 2pm. I put the finishing touches on the cupcakes I made for the shower and my mom arrived just in time to wash all of the cupcake dishes! Man, what are moms for!! Less than an hour later Sev's parents arrived. We gave them the grand tour of our new place and then the ladies headed out to the shower. We left Sev and his dad back at the house to do a few chores.
After the shower we came back to our place and within an hour everyone had left, I was asleep on the couch and Sev was...well, I don't know what he was doing, I was asleep and he was outside doing "guy" things.
I woke up about an hour later, just as Sev was coming inside. We sat and stared at each other for a few minutes, neither of us could decide on what we wanted for dinner, there was nothing on TV, there was nothing really to do around the house (okay, there was nothing either of us wanted to spend our Saturday evening doing). Basically, we found ourselves with no plans! This rarely happens for us. We were lost, we didn't know what to do with ourselves. So, we called up our best buddies to see what they were doing and within an hour we were on the road and headed to spend the night in Rock Hill.
We enjoyed a late dinner with Kennedi and Kyle.
Sunday morning Kyle, Sev and I slept in and then went and had Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast (it's kind of our "thing" dunkin' donuts for breakfast before church). After breakfast we headed to church. Sev and I LOVE North Rock Hill Church. We can not find a Church that we like better, which is sad, because Rock Hill is a good hour away from Columbia...though don't think we haven't thought about making that drive every Sunday morning. Kennedi sings in the Church band and that is just the cherry on top for us. We enjoyed the service and afterwords we had Chinese before heading to the lake. We spent all of Sunday afternoon on Lake Willie, riding jet skis and meeting up with friends on their boat. It was a perfect day. We ended the weekend with some Mexican food and then Sev and I made the one hour drive back to Columbia.
After sitting in silence for the first 15 minutes of the car ride back, we each spoke up at almost the exact same time and said "Man, I wish we lived in Rock Hill".
There is something to be said about great friends, an awesome Church and good food.

Alligator Park

2010-06-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to Brazos Bend State Park, aka: Alligator park.

It was so hot you seriously could have fried an egg on the sidewalk!

We have gators in SC, so seeing an alligator was nothing new, but the park was still a great spot to visit and no matter how many gators you've seen, there is still something spooky and yet intriguing every time you get the chance to see one. Therefore, I was all about visiting the alligator park.

We grabbed some subs and had a delightful picnic lunch when we first entered the park.
The park entrance (I realize this is a poor picture, I'm sorry. It was the best I could do as my brother in law was speeding through the gate):

After lunch we went inside the ranger station.

That is where we got to see the baby gators and other creepy reptiles that I don't mind behind glass but would hate to come up on in the wild.

I love the way alligator skin feels.

Look at that baby alligator tooth sticking out...bless him, he sure was cute!

I worried for this birds legs. Didn't he know he was standing in alligator infested waters!?

Just some swamp photos:

This here, well these here smiling faces are my family. Brother in law, husband and sister in law.

This guy here is not related, thank you! Even if Sev does claim I can be as mean as an alligator...or maybe that's snake. Whatever. Aren't those eyes eery looking!?

I spotted this very impressive tree vine and just had to have a picture. It was actually growing from one tree to the next.

Then the guys decided they just had to have their picture taken while swinging on the very impressive tree vine.

Then my husband...bless him, must I claim him??...pulled off a very impressive backwards dismount.

Not to be out photographed, my sister in law and I just had to have our picture taken too! However, we posed very gracefully and tried to show the boys how ladies swing on a very impressive tree vine.

(side note: PLEASE ignore my blinding white legs!! **sigh**...they were so bad Sev asked if he had to claim me!)

Then my sister in law had to blow the whole "graceful" thing out of the water and pull off this bit of randomness. ....it's scary really, how similar our personalities are.

So in an effort to take some actual pretty photos...with out all of the blinding white legs, acrobatic maneuvers and family randomness, I snapped a few shots of the flowers growing around the park:

(Please do not ask me what these flowers are, I have no clue. Me and flowers...well we all know how that goes. I'm about as knowledgeable on flowers as I am with self tanning lotion)

Hmmmm, wonder what gave them the idea that annoying an alligator would be a bad idea??

How I spent my Hours in Houston

2010-06-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well, not all of my hours, but it was one of the projects that I went to Houston to work on.
My sister in law does not want to find out the sex of her baby. I don't blame her one bit. I think there is something magical and sweet about not knowing, call me old fashioned, but I like it.
Anyways, one of the hard parts about not finding out your babies sex is that it makes decorating the nursery "tricky tricky tricky" (if someone can tell me the movie that this line comes from I'll seriously be impressed!! I myself had to google the words because, although the line popped into my head, I could not figure out what movie it came from!!).
Jessie (my sister in law) came up with a cute tree theme. She found girl and boy bedding to match. All she needed was one willing and able sister in law to help bring her creation to life!

We started by painting the tree onto the wall. At first I tried to draw the tree in pencil, then I decided it would actually just be easier if I free styled it.

We then cut different shades of green wallpaper, into the shape of leaves. We painted the backs of each leaf with wallpaper glue and stuck them onto the tree.

This process took fooorevver.

I cut strips of wall paper to make the grass and applied it the same way we did the leaves. Again, this took forevveeer.

I had to add my own little touch...can you see it?
A lady bug!!
I'm sorry I did not get a final picture of the tree. I'm going to get Jessie to send me one and I'll post it here! I was thrilled to get the chance to help decorate the babies nursery. I can't wait to meet the little bundle of joy.

"Don't Mess With Texas"

2010-06-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

I will admit, I had to google where this phrase came from. My thoughts were that Texans got picked on by the other states, kind of like the smaller kids did in junior high (I was a smaller kid, I know! Junior High was brutal!). However, it appears the phrase actually comes from a "no littering" campaign. (just a bit of random fun facts for you! Thank me later when you're on "who wants to be a millionaire").
Here are a few pictures to document our first day in Texas.

Our first peek into downtown Houston:

Texans are all about some Texas pride!

(us South Carolinians can't say much, 9 out of 10 cars sport the palmetto tree sticker)

These flags hung on every other light post in downtown Houston:

Here we are! On our way to lunch we stopped to take a quick picture. As we were pulling our cameras out a nice gentleman stopped and asked if we would like for him to take our picture (if we learned anything while in Texas, it's that no one is friendlier than a Texan!). We thanked him and posed for the camera. As we broke from our pose and were retrieving our camera he said "wait a minute! We're not done just yet!" He proceeded to remove his own camera from his jacket pocket. What? Jessie said "uhm, you don't want a picture of strangers do you?" and in fact that IS what he wanted. I'm not quite sure what facial expressions his camera captured, we had our arms around each others back and we were squeezing each other as if to say "really, is this stranger taking a picture of us with his own camera? who does that?"

but I guess one could ask, "who lets a stranger take a picture of them with his own camera?"

(ps. can you see the baby bump?....that's baby bambino! My future niece or nephew!)

Just some downtown Houston shots:

Our first stop was to eat lunch at Sambuca. It was scrumptious!

After lunch we headed to Sugarland. Isn't that a lovely name for a city? Sugarland. It just sounds happy and hyper. Not to mention I think it would make a lovely name for a country band.

Look what I spotted!!

We took a few hours to relax and refresh ourselves from the flight before heading out to meet my brother in law and some friends for dinner. We ate at a little British pub in midtown Houston. The friends we met were beautiful people, from England. I decided if I could have any accent I wanted I would choose to have an English accent, because..well...it was marvelous really, just marvelous. ( Please say that last line with an English accent....SEE...isn't it lovely?! ha.)

(Please ignore the slight oil slick on my forehead! Holy cow it was HOT in Texas!! Heat does nothing pleasant with my face **sigh**)

After dinner we went back to the house and relaxed. Jessie and I took an evening stroll around her neighborhood and then called it a night. We both needed our beauty sleep. We had plans to visit the alligator park the next morning.

I Never Saw One

2010-06-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I did not see any armadillos while in Texas.
Not one. Not one stinkin' armadillo, the entire time we were in Houston.

However, apparently they are fairly common in Texas. Either that or Texans just love the little fella's because everywhere we looked there was some sort of armadillo paraphernalia.

I saw these guys in the Houston airport:

This guy was hanging out at the airport too:

This little guy was in the rangers station at the alligator park:

and this one was hanging on the National Museum of Science wall:This was also a picture that was hanging in the Museum:

Texans must love these creatures, even though they are not wandering all over the place like a non Texas native would believe. I was a bit disappointed.

I've also come to the conclusion that maybe SC is missing out on a valuable tourist money maker. Squirrels! I can see it now...squirrel souvenirs!! I think there is a market for it, don't you?

We're Back!!

2010-06-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Safe and Sound.
We left Houston yesterday morning and arrived back in SC mid-morning.
We had a great time and were sad when the weekend came to an end.

While we were there we visited an alligator park. We ate Texas BBQ (not to be confused with East Coast BBQ). We ate Tex-Mex. We visited the National Museum of Science. We watched an IMAX movie. We attended a lovely pool party in downtown Houston. We ate my sister in laws awesome cooking. We painted a tree mural on the nursery wall. We felt the baby kick. We shopped. We saw numerous cows...lots of them, longhorns too! Jessie and I even started a stampede! I saw boots, I saw lots and lots of boots. I also saw cowboy hats. I'm sad to report that I saw no live armadillos. We enjoyed spending time together before a baby enters our world. We really enjoyed our time in Texas and can't wait to visit again.

I took tons of pictures and have plans to share them. I just can't seem to find the device to download them with. I will work on that and share them asap!!

Leaving On a Jet Plane...

2010-05-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

We are leaving in the morning to go to Texas.
Houston to be exact.
I've flown in and out of Texas quite a few times, but I've never seen outside of the airport.
This should be fun.
I wonder if I can take home an armadillo as a souvenir?
I think that would be an interesting pet.
What are armadillos anyway?

Funning looking creature.

I'm hoping to see lots of cowboy hats and boots...not the kind of boots you see in SC (you know the ones the girls try to pair with a itty bitty skirt. Taylor swift style.). No I hope to see chaps, wranglers and boots with spurs on them! Open fields and wild horses too!!

I probably won't see any of that.

We're going to be staying in the suburbs and I'll be spending my time helping to paint a baby nursery.

Baby Bambino is on the way and Uncle Sev and Auntie Linds want to help prepare for the little rascal before it gets here.

That is why we're headed out to Texas!

I hope to take pictures and share them soon!!

Adios blog world!
I'm leaving on a jet plane, I'll blog when I get back again =)

I DID IT!!!

2010-05-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

I grew some herbs!

They may not be fit to eat once they reach full size, but I did it!!

I really didn't have much faith in myself.

I didn't have much hope in the herbs growing after I was informed that I had waited too late in the season to start them from seeds.

Then, after we had a huge rain storm, I walked outside and realized that my herb pots had been sitting too close to the house and the rain had run off of the roof and dumped right into my herbs, causing the soil and seeds to splatter all along the house siding. I scooped off the dirt, as best I could, and dumped it back into the containers. At that point, I had no hope left.

Though low and behold....look what I saw the other morning!

Those are chives you're looking at!! Baby chives! How cute are they?!

Well, at least I think they are chives, after the rain washed all of the soil and seeds onto the house, I really didn't know what was what after I scooped it up and tossed it haphazardly back into the pot. However, I'm fairly certain those are chives. I guess technically it could be parsley or oregano...technically...but who cares, I got herbs to grow!!

Is that not the cutest little parsley you have ever seen?

So far I have baby chives and baby parsley. Yesterday I looked and could actually see baby oregano poking out of the soil!

Below are my cilantro and dill plants!! I grew the cilantro from seed too. You're impressed, I know you are!!

The dill was already in plant form when I planted it, though I still have just as much love for it.

I'm a proud herb mamma.

Here we have basil and sage. How pretty are those babies??

I have absolutely no idea what to do with these herbs. We all know my cooking skills. I just wanted to see if I could grow them! and I did! I grew some herbs...and aren't they darling?!

Commitment Intervention

2010-05-24T05:46:00.000-07:00

This past weekend went by so quickly, they all do.
However, this weekend I was actually productive! (just don't ask my mom if she agrees, she will probably tell you about the times I spent fussing about all the work she had me doing and then she will tell you about my commitment problem).
So, I'm going to go ahead and blog about my commitment problem.
I have a commitment problem.
When I make a purchase, I have a hard time removing the tags. Removing the tag means I HAVE to keep the item purchased. It's so final. After the tag is removed, there is no going back! I lose the feeling of "I can change my mind at any moment!" and move into the "I'm now stuck with it!" stage.
I once kept tags hanging from a brand new couch for 3 months. True story.
Who does that?
Me, that's who.

Mom and dad came into town on Saturday. My dad came to go fishing with Sev (imagine that) and my mom came to hold a commitment intervention. Well, she thought she was coming to help decorate and add the final touches to our new living quarters. Really, she was there to help me remove tags, finally decide where to hang pictures (after the pictures had been sitting on the floor below the spot where I was pretty sure I wanted them for over a month) and pick out items such as rugs, lamps, bedding and towels (because every time I thought I had found the item I needed, I couldn't commit and never made the purchase).

It took me over a month to finally decide on the furniture I wanted for our new living room.
We sold our living room furniture when we sold our house. For over a month I had a futon sitting in our new living room, serving the purpose of a couch.
This proved to be very inconvenient when we had guests over.
Something about four adults trying to share a futon just doesn't work.
Mom, with a huge push from Sev (basically he said "get in the car we HAVE to find a couch and chair today!!"), helped me pick out furniture.
Furniture shopping is hard for me. I'm afraid I'll decide on something and then run across something a day later that I like better. Therefore, I just don't buy anything...I'm always waiting on the best thing to come along. It's really just a commitment problem...have I mentioned I have one?

Saturday we got our new mattress and couch.
Mom made me remove the tag from the mattress, though I still think it's illegal (it says so right on the tag!).
I struggled with removing the tags from the couch.
I just couldn't do it. I was in commitment overload.
Just like with any disorder, you have to handle it one small step at a time people!
Mom finally had me hang all of the pictures, mirrors and decorations that had been adorning my floors. We had a minor set back in my intervention when we hung something and then gasp!!decided we didn't like where we had hung it! I knew it would happen! I'm just now getting over the nervous twitch it caused me to have ;-)

My problem runs deeper than with just house decorations and furniture.
Oh yes, it runs much deeper.
I also have a hard time committing to clothing!
I am notorious for buying clothing and leaving the tags on up until the second I'm actually running out of the door WITH that article of clothing ON!
Mom and I were actually in the parking lot of target when I had her remove a tag from the blouse I had on.
Oh yeah, it's that bad.

Mom and I accomplished a lot this past weekend.
I think the intervention went well.
The final test came when mom had to leave right after we picked out, purchased and placed the rug in my living room. My crutch had left. I had no one to help me make a commitment to the rug. I sat on the couch (the couch that still had tags hanging from it) and stared at the rug. I wrung my hands, I tilted my head from side to side, I squinted my eyes, I thought long and hard about it...and finally....I allowed myself to throw away the tag that was my ticket to returning it if I changed my mind. I made a decision to keep the rug. I was free! It was liberating! I had made a commitment!

Mom called awhile later and told me to keep the tags for the rug, just in case we ran across one we liked better....

**sigh**

I have a commitment problem, I think I got it honest.

I am no food blogger...

2010-05-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Nor will I ever be.
Well, I've already stated that I can not cook.
I've also made it known that I'm horrible when it comes to picture taking....oh I can take pictures just fine, I just forget to upload and share them.
I tried to make this recipe for dinner two nights ago.
Here is why I could never make it as a food blogger.

First, I forgot to take a picture of all of the ingredients that went into making the meal. I had already begun cooking the chicken when I realized that first important step...so I tried to hurry and catch up...

but how dumb and unorganized does that look?! **sigh**
Moving forward, I remembered to take a picture of the chicken during the cooking stage! But look at that chicken!! My chicken even looks yucky and all I've done is tossed it in a pan!

Then I tried to take pictures of the chicken as it was being cut into nice, thin, strips! However, someone (not naming names, but there are only two humans in my house and my arms are NOT that hairy!) kept stealing the chicken...

but then, even when I did get a picture of the chicken I had managed to cut...I realized that some things never change. Like the fact that I can-not-for-the-life-of-me cut meat! I can't do it. The night of my senior prom I actually had to have my best friend cut my steak for me, thankfully she and I had talked our dates into double dating, and she knew my lack of meat cutting skills. True story. I, obviously, still don't have the skill. My chicken just looks sad.

and the finished product!!!

Yeah, I forgot to take a picture of that....
it's why I'll never be a food blogger.
I skipped ahead and took a picture of the root beer floats we had for dessert instead...and even then I messed up the order of float making...I thought the ice cream went first. Sev informed me later that it goes in last, that is why I ended up with such a creamy mixture of foam. Whatever. The End.

PS. You may have noticed that the original recipe calls for GRILLED pineapple...don't judge me, okay, I'm trying!!

This Makes Me Smile

2010-05-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

He is not ashamed.
He even sleeps with his tongue out!

Good Eats

2010-05-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

I can't cook worth a flip.
I can't.
It's just not in my genes.
I love to look at pretty pictures of foods.
I love to flip through cookbooks and read all about different dishes.
I even look at some blogs that talk all about cooking.
I'm just no good at it.
I've come to terms with that fact. I'm OKAY with it.
So, if you read a recipe on my site or see me writing about some meal I have prepared, take my words, opinions, reviews with a grain of salt.

I came home from work yesterday and realized that I had not planned for dinner, haha..I'm laughing because I actually NEVER plan for dinner. Dinner just sort of happens for us. One of us finally gets hungry and starts to cook something or we each grab a bowl and pour some cereal in it. I've tried to follow the whole "cook every meal in" thing...I've blogged about trying to cook more...I have good intentions, it just doesn't happen for me.
Last night was really no different.
However, last night I had some veggies that HAD to be cooked, they were looking a little limp.
So, for dinner, I chopped up some green peppers, red peppers, potatoes and onions. I happened to have some left over sausage that we grilled last week, I cut it up too! I threw it all in a pan and warmed it up. Then I transferred the pile of chopped up yumminess onto a plate and beat together a few eggs, with milk, I don't know why I put milk in with the eggs I've just heard somewhere along the way that you're suppose to do that. Then I poured the eggs into a pan, I let them cook for a second and then dumped the chopped up goodies on top. Then I sprinkled on some cheese.
I had every intention of folding the eggs over nicely and creating an omelet of sorts, only, my egg didn't fold. My egg kind of creased, cracked and crumbled. Whatever.
I threw it all on a plate and handed it to Sev.
He smiled. He ate. He smiled again.
He called it "a whole bunch of good stuff wrapped in an egg".
It was a hit!

Does anyone out there have any yummy omelet recipes they want to share??

Mothers Day Weekend

2010-05-10T05:30:00.000-07:00

Sev and I had a very nice mothers day weekend.
We spent Friday afternoon furniture shopping. We enjoyed dinner at the olive garden and then we came home and went to bed early.
We got up Saturday morning, before any normal person would willingly get up on a Saturday morning, and headed to the upstate.
We got to my parents house, after a quick stop at starbucks for me, just in time for Sev to hop in the car with my dad and take off to the lake for a day of fishing.
I can't stand fishing. It's too quiet of a sport. It's boring.
If I'm going to be out on a lake, strap me to a tube or ski's or a wake board...but pleasssse don't strap a fishing pole in my hands.
Something about waiting, quietly, for some slimy, bug eyed, scaly, fish to bite my hook...does nothing for me!
Now when I was younger, because I'm such a big daddy's girl, I would go fishing...JUST to spend time with my dad.
I hated every second of it, but I would go.
Strangely, the trips never lasted as long as the fishing trips dad took with my brother.
Our fishing trips typically went something like this: Dad would find himself unloading the boat by himself. 5 minutes after sitting quietly with our lines in the water, I would ask him a question "why is the sky blue?". He would tell me to "shhhhhhhush". 5 minutes later I would ask to go to the bathroom, dad would maneuver the boat to shore and try and hold the boat steady while I hopped out and "dad I can't find a good spot...dad what if a snake bites me...dad is this poison ivy?". 5 minutes after we got back out onto the lake I would ask him a question "why is the water green?". He would tell me to "shhhhhhhhush". 5 minutes later I would tell him I was hungry. I would sit and poke at the can of vienna sausages that dad had just handed me. 5 minutes later I would tell dad I didn't like vienna sausages. He would say "shhhhhhush". 5 minutes later I would be watching the little fish swim to the surface to eat the vienna sausage pieces I had begun to toss into the lake. 5 minutes later I would ask dad a question "Why aren't the fish biting?". I would get another "shhhhush" sometimes he would throw in a "you're scaring the fish away!"...which was silly because there were still plenty of fish eating on the vieanna sausage pieces. 5 minutes later I would tell dad I needed to go the bathroom again. This was usually when we would head back to the dock and load up to go home.
I can't stand fishing.
Severyn loves to fish. So Saturday he and dad went fishing while I got to spend the whole day with my mom and grandma.
Sometimes even daddy's girls need there mommy days!
Mom and I had a blast, just hanging out and shopping, talking, laughing, driving, eating and talking some more. Never once did she tell me to "shhhhhush".
Fishing is so overrated.

We slept in on Sunday morning and then went to my church with my grandma. It's one of her favorite things, her kids and grandkids going to church with her. She loves to tell everyone that "these are my kids and these are my grandkids...well no, that one is my granddaughters husband, you know he spent two tours in Iraq, it's sad you know the country is in a bad shape. You know I watch the news every night and it's just bad. These are just half of my kids, the other ones are with their other family. I'll see them later today with my great grandkids. You know I have great grandkids! I worry about the bad shape the world will be in when my great grandkids grow up. Did you hear about.....". Thankfully, everyone at grandmas church is very patient and very sweet. They all appeared to be very interested in who grandma had brought to church and they all agreed that the world was in bad shape. They all looked shocked that grandma could have great grandkids and still look so young, and usually they had even heard about whatever it was grandma had asked them if they had heard about ;)
I'm also a pretty big grandma fan. I love that I still get to spend mothers day with two women in my life that helped make me the woman I am today.

I'm definitely blessed and thankful that God gave me the mom he gave me, I know he hand picked her just for me!
I'm a day late but Happy Mothers Day to all of the mothers out there. I pray you had a wonderful weekend and I hope you got to spend it doing whatever it was you wanted to do....even if you spent if fishing (which I just don't know why you would, fishing is so overrated but whatever)!

The Person I Am

2010-05-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

Just some random rambling, if for no one else but me. Just to keep my fingers busy and my eyes open.

It is currently slow at work.

That happens from time to time (ya think!? how else do I blog, the little that I do) slow moments at work.

I. Hate. Them.

I'm too much of a day dreamer. If I can't stay busy, I start to day dream. It's not healthy, at least, it is not healthy when you're suppose to be focusing on work.

Therefore, if there is a dull in my work day, I'll start to day dream, if I start to day dream and suddenly there is something for me to focus on, it is hard for me to get out of the day dreaming daze! **sigh** I realize now that I'm not a very good desk sitting-office dwelling-phone answering-order placing-computer staring person, it's just not me.

BUT I don't know exactly what kind of person I am called to be...so office dwelling person I'll remain, until I figure out what kind of person I am. ha.

ANYWAYS....

Sev and I planted a small garden, a little over a week ago.

We now have two tomato plants, one green pepper plant and one red pepper plant. We have room for a few more plants, but I can't decide what I want. I only want to plant what I know we'll use. I'm thinking, maybe, a strawberry plant.

I also planted some herbs; basil, dill, sage, chives, oregano, flat parsley, and cilantro...I ADORE cilantro. Sadly, I started the chives, oregano, flat parsley and cilantro from seeds and I heard (okay, my cousin actually informed me, after she laughed at me for not knowing) that if you're going to start from seed, you need to start earlier in the season...and start the seedlings indoors. We'll see how well my herbs grow...I have hot apple pie in the sky hopes! (I do not know where that came from, it's been years since I've heard that song...it's crazy how my mind works,lol)

I was also doing so well saving up for my compost! My only problem, I was doing great when it came to saving the scraps...just not so great at finding a compost bin...and you can't let fruit rinds and veggie clippings sit for very long before you get gnats! Therefore, all of my compost savings went directly into the garden. haha. Severyn put up a bit of a fuss, but then, when he realized there was no arguing with me, he just tilled the garden up...soil, fertilizer,fruit rinds, veggie clippings and all.

I looked out the window this morning, after we had a nice little rain last night, and thought someone had thrown toilet paper in my garden!...alas it was the corn husks that had come unearthed. **sigh** I should really save the gardening for someone else! I'm definitely NOT a garden person either.

I attempted this recipe last week.

A baked lemon pasta maker...I am NOT.

It did not turn out, whatsoever, as delicious as I had hoped.

Though, the recipe has received very high ratings...therefore, I think maybe it was just me and maybe the way I made the pasta, that turned out not so delish.

I was sad, I LOVE lemon! (just about as much as cilantro, possibly more). A cook, I'm not. A lemon lover I am!

I purchased this ring, in the below picture, over the weekend.

At first I thought it might be a bit too...I don't know...over the top.

I even had to ask Stephanie 3 (or 4...maybe 5) times "are you sure it's not too much?" before I would commit.

However, I must be a blingy-on-the-verge-of tacky ring wearing person...because I like it!

(note: the ring is actually prettier in person, I think anyways)

I am also addicted to Starbucks...yes, I'm definitely THAT kind of person. It's sad really, the level of my addiction, but everyone has a vice! I'm working on mine, promise! okay not really...but I've thought about it!!

So, there is a little bit of random information on the person I am =) Happy Tuesday!!

Cousins, Camera phones and a Concert in Columbia

2010-05-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

Sev and I had a great weekend, well aside from the fact that Sunday afternoon Sev took a nasty little spill off of his dirt bike, and now has pretty nasty strawberry on his arm....other than that, we had a lovely weekend!

Friday night Sev and I grilled steak and corn on the cob for dinner, it was delish. After dinner, I tried to rush around and pick our house up as best I could. We have yet to get everything unpacked, but we were expecting Jon and Steph to come in sometime Friday night.

I went ahead and prepared the first part of baked french toast, a recipe I stole off of my cousins blog. We stayed up fairly late on Friday night, ust chatting and hanging out. For some reason, Steph and I never run out of things to talk about when we're together. We found ourselves crawling in bed @ 2am!!

The next morning, I got up and prepared the praline topping for the french toast before popping it into the oven and then the four of us went outside to lounge on the back deck. We had been on the back deck for no longer than 10 or 15 minutes when Sev went to open the door, to go back inside, and realized.....we were locked out!!

Here we were, Steph and I in our PJ's, and barefooted. For a split second I panicked. WHAT were we going to do!? Then I remembered leaving a window open, just the other day, for no reason what-so-ever only, when I went to shut and lock it I thought "I should leave this window unlocked, it's up high and it will come in handy if we ever get locked out of the house!" (No I can not predict the future, I just got lucky on that one!).

Sev and Jonathan were able to get the window open, then I crawled onto Sevs shoulders and he lifted me into the window. It was a SITE!! We were all laughing and I was so thankful we did not have a camera!! That is...until I realized that Stephanie DID have a camera phone....and she DID take pictures...and that was the moment I cursed camera phones!

We enjoyed or breakfast. I was pretty pleased with the new recipe! It reminded me of a cross between french toast and cinnamon rolls. YUMMY!

Steph and I took our time shopping on Saturday. We met the boys at the mall and shared a food court lunch. Then the guys left and Steph and I continued picking out clothes to wear to the concert that evening. We headed home around 5pm, got dressed, and headed out the door around 6pm. We had a quick dinner at Wild Wings and then walked to Colonial Life Arena, in downtown Columbia, for the Carrie Underwood concert.

Steph and Jonathan right before the concert started:

Craig Morgan:

Craig Morgan walked directly in front of us, on two different occasions. It was pretty neat, I just wish I would have gotten a better picture of him when he was right in front of us. The below picture was after he had gotten a few rows down from us.

Sev and I right before Carrie came out! (I don't know why I have that silly look on my face, but it's the only picture I got of the two of us.):

Carrie Underwood!!! I can't blame Sev for having a crush on her, she really is a beautiful person and her voice is amazing!!

Sevy, blowing Carrie a kiss, hehehe.

We really did have good seats!!

Carrie changed outfits...a LOT! Here she is swinging from a huge tree limb (sorry I didn't get a better picture of the tree limb she was swinging from).

This was probably the coolest part of the concert. She got into the bed of a truck and was lifted out and above the audience. She flew right above our heads, we could only see the underside of the truck, it was pretty neat:

Carrie really is a talented singer. I love how real she is and how she really appears to be grounded in her faith, even with all of the fame. My favorite part of the show was when she sang "Temporary Home" and "Jesus Take the Wheel". I think it takes a lot of guts to sing songs like that, in today's society, and Carrie belted those songs out perfectly, obviously not a bit afraid of what people might think of her! (of course it probably helps that she could sing "I'm a little tea pot" and people would still adore her, ha).

It was a GREAT weekend! We had a blast spending time with our cousins/friends. Sevy said he can now die a happy man, LOL. I wish I had gotten more pictures, but my camera died before the show was over. Sev, however, used his camera phone to capture a few more pictures and videos...and that was when I decided camera phones weren't all that bad.

26 Years Old

2010-04-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

I had a mole removed from my chin last Friday.
I actually took pictures and will share, once everything heals over.
I currently look like one of those kids that takes their hands off of the bicycle handlebars, yells "look at meeeee!!" and proceeds to face plant on the sidewalk. Not a cool look at 26 years old.

It's a pretty common known fact that I faint. I faint when getting my blood taken, I faint when I have to have any sort of surgery, shoot...I faint at company Christmas parties when someone is talking about their job as a kidney dialyses nurse. Another thing that is not cool at 26 years old!
While waiting on the doctor to come in and remove the mole on my chin, I was being prepped by the nurse and was given the run down on what to expect. I heard "needle" and "slight prick" and I thought "speak now or forever hold your peace Lindsey!". I mentioned that I was a little nervous about the needle part of the removal process. I casually admitted to sometimes fainting. I tried not to make it sound like a big deal, I just wanted to let her know. The nurse was very sweet, she finished answering my questions and getting me ready for the doctor. She then told me to "go ahead and lay on back honey, the doctor will be in shortly". Thinking this was common practice, I laid back, got comfortable and waited. The doctor walked in and said "oh, you can sit up, this is not a big deal, we can do this with you in the seated position." That's when the nurse leaned over towards the doctor, kind of shielded her mouth with her hand and whispered (loud enough for me to hear) "but.....she's a fainter!" **sigh** Then they both looked at me like I was that kind of girl...whatever that kind of girl is...and whatever it is, it's not cool to be one at 26! and I know this, because short of them both saying "well, bless her heart" I could tell they thought I was a 26 year old weenie.

I had a dentist appointment this morning. Dentists rank right up there with doctors, needles and things that make me faint. However, going to the dentist is just one of those things you know you have to do...so I just do it.
The dentist informed me that I needed to have one of my fillings replaced. Then I heard him say the word "small needle, slight prick" and I thought "forever hold your peace Lindsey!!" I was NOT going to let the dentist think I was a weenie! Then he says "and I see here, on your chart, that you have a tendency to get squeamish around needles"...ugh. They have offered to give me nitrous when I go back. They don't want a 26 year old "fainter".

After my dentist appointment I ran to Plato's Closet. I have had a stack of clothes, riding around in the trunk of my car no less, waiting to be dropped off at a consignment store (I first typed convenient store...haha..."yes would you like these old, size 10, women's, shoes to go along with your gas purchase?" geesh...) for forever now! The girl behind the counter looked at me and informed me right away that they only accepted clothes that were less than 2 years old and from teenage clothing stores such as abercrombie and fitch, hollister, forever 21 and express. Well missy, I might be 26 but I still own clothes from some of those stores!! ha!...............
........She bought 3 pieces of my clothing...3 out of the over 30 pieces of clothing that I brought in.
Apparently, a 26 year old (that incidentally looks like she face planted off of her bicycle) is no longer "cool" when it comes to teenage fashion.

**sigh**
Hello, my name is Lindsey. I'm 26, do not have very good fashion sense and I'm a fainter.

but it's WEDNESDAY and we're only 2 days away from Friday!! and no matter how old you are, Fridays are soooo cool ;)

Days of the Week

2010-04-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad Monday is over.
I HATE Mondays.
I'm usually a little bit sad when Sunday comes around, because I know I'm that much closer to Monday.
Today is Tuesday, and while it's still a good ways away from Friday, it's still not Monday!

Am I the only one that hates Mondays?

Oh, I try to remain positive when Monday comes around. I try to remind myself that I'm thankful for a good job to wake up to. I try and tell myself that this Monday is going to be different and I'm going to have the best week...EVER! It hardly ever works. Mondays stink!

However, today is Tuesday, so I'll stop whining about Mondays! Tuesday means I only have 4 more days until the weekend. This weekend we are going to a concert (Sevs first ever concert). Steph and Jon are coming to spend the weekend with us and attend the concert with us. We're going to see Carrie Underwood. Severyn has had a crush on her since before I can remember. I'm excited to enjoy this coming weekend!
but it's still 4 days away, today is only Tuesday and Tuesdays are only one day away from being as bad as Mondays!

Can anyone tell, I live for the weekends??

Last weekend we celebrated my brothers birthday with a camping trip. If you want to see pictures of the camping trip my family took, you'll have to visit my cousins blog. Steph is the only one that took any pictures last weekend. I didn't pull my camera out for numerous reason. I was busy riding all day Saturday and there is something very difficult about riding and taking pictures. Then I spent the better part of Saturday evening under a tarp, trying to stay dry, and not feeling all that glamorous or picture worthy. Regardless of the lack of pictures, we had a great time. My only complaint, Monday came way to quickly!!

I hope everyone has a great week! Tomorrow is Wednesday and Wednesdays mean we're half way to the weekend!! and I LOVE weekends :)

1025 East Prince Road

2010-04-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

It's not something I do often...cry.

It's just something that I don't like to do. I don't know why. I just don't.
My mother will tell you that when it comes to crying, I'm pretty dang stubborn.

Well I couldn't find a tissue quick enough when I heard this song first play on my radio.

Miranda Lambert-House That Built Me (click link).

For those that don't know me very well, I had the hardest time accepting the fact that my parents had sold "my home" a year after I moved to Hawaii. It was the home that my brother and I spent our entire childhood in. It's the house I learned to ride my bike at. The house that I got ready for my first day of school in. The house that I woke up, entirely too early, on Christmas mornings in. The house that I spent every summer swimming in the backyard pool. Just about every single one of my childhood memories involves some part of that house.
When I came back to SC for the first time after I had moved to Hawaii, after the house had sold, I made it a point to go by our "home" one last time.
It just felt right.
The man that bought our house must have thought I was a loon, some crazy girl blubbering on about his house being her childhood home and could she please see it one last time. If he thought I was a loon, he didn't say it (thankfully) he just let me in and let me walk through the house one last time.
It was the last time I would see the inside of the house that built me.

Listen to the lyrics and if you've ever had to say goodbye to a childhood home, maybe you'll cry too.

We Stuck Our Big Toe In...

2010-04-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

and then proceeded to submerge our feet!

...then our legs

...and some, of the more daring, even submerged their entire body!

and it was COLD!!

However, after we ~~lost feeling~~ got used to the water temperature, it wasn't THAT bad. Honestly. Though we did get a few strange looks from river by-standers.
Here are pictures of Kennedi, Kyle and Matt on our way to the river. See the green tubes in the back? See the smile on their faces?....they know what fun is! .....or maybe they just really trusted me, and honestly believed me when I said "come on guys! It won't be THAT cold! Cross my heart!"

So, I might have to work a little bit harder for their trust in the future, but they all admitted to having a great time :-)
It took about 3 hours to float the river. We saw a few turtles and thankfully no snakes (perhaps they knew just how cold river water is in April!). The best part of the entire adventure was when we made it to our destination and climbed out onto the shore. I knew we were a site to be seen. I knew that before we were out of the water, the look on the faces of the by standers told me that. I just didn't realize the audience we would have when we finally made it to land. As we filed into a single line and began to walk up a steep flight of stairs to the parking lot, we heard music. We stumbled up the last part of the stairs, each of us dragging a large tube and a life vest, and found ourselves directly behind the back of a singer, performing in front of a fairly large crowd. Apparently, there was some sort of river festival going on. I think we ended up being one of the main attractions! All eyes were on us! We couldn't help but laugh and Kennedi even wished out loud that we "could at least be carrying something cool, like a kayak and not these crazy tubes!" as we made our way across the front of the audience and up the side walk to the truck.

We had a great weekend with our friends and like every weekend, it went by way too fast! It's back to a week full of unpacking and organizing for me. Sev and I did manage to find a good deal on a brand new washer and dryer on Sunday! We had a big day, we did some shopping at Lowe's and then made a quick stop by Sears, we even considered stopping by Home Depot but we opted out for lunch at Apple Bee's instead....we know what fun is!!! ......**sigh** when did I start sounding like my parents??

Day Dreaming...

2010-04-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

I do that. A lot.

Day dream.

I used to get in trouble for it in college. Wait. I still get in trouble for it at work! I suppose some things will never change.

This is just a random post. why? because I haven't posted in a few days...mainly because I lead a really boring life and I've already blogged enough about all of the packing/unpacking that is my current life.

I wore capri pants to work today. BIG mistake! Not only am I so white that it looks like I have on white stockings...but I just went to scratch my ankle and realized, I really need to shave! really. I'm so bad about remembering to shave in the winter (**gasp** did I just admit that?) No, I'm not a hippy, tree hugger...I'm lazy. Honestly, just lazy.
So, while I really need to work on getting a tan and stop being so lazy, I'm still REALLY enjoying this spring weather!! I really believe that the weather can make a persons mood. I'm typically, deliriously happy in the spring. Plus, tulips bloom in the spring, and tulips make me happy.

Maybe my mood is elevated even higher by the fact that it's Friday! Lately, I feel as if, I'm living for Fridays.
This weekend, Sevy and I, have two of our best friends coming into town. We love getting to spend time with Kennedi and Kyle. They have a wedding to attend tomorrow afternoon, here in Columbia, so they are spending the rest of the weekend with us! We have tentative plans to float down the Congaree river. Please note I said "tentative" we may get out there, put our big toe in the water, chicken out, toss the "floating down the river" idea to the side, go home and be lazy! It's how we roll ;-) (okay, I've just really been wanting to say that, lol).

I really want to plant a small garden this year. I realize it's getting later into the "planting season" but I think Sev and I are going to attempt a small garden as soon as possible. I'm really craving some fresh veggies, herbs and maybe some fruit! I've done a little bit of research and I'm even considering starting my own little compost pile, we'll see how far my idea goes. I'm GREAT at planning things, even better at starting things.....I'm just not so good at finishing things. It's how I roll. (okay, I'll stop that now).

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!
I found my camera last night and I'm really planning on taking pictures of the new place and posting them soon!! I know I say "I'm posting pictures soon!" all of the time, but really I have every intention to do it....it's just, well, read above paragraph. Again, it's how I roll (okay, I lied).

Happy Friday!!

I Can. Not. Find. A Thing!!

2010-04-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

because we are currently, really, living out of boxes!

I thought that I couldn't find anything when we packed our stuff and put most of it into storage...but now, I really can hardly find a thing.

Sev and I began our move on Friday afternoon. On Friday morning, I was sick and ended up having to go the doctor so on Friday afternoon, Matt and Sev handled as much moving as they could.
They were able to get the master bedroom furniture in the new house along with a couple of boxes. On Saturday morning I was still not feeling well, but I had my hair straightening appointment that I refused to miss! (remember, my hair was SCARY!! well, that and I knew it would be way to difficult to try and reschedule...so I just sucked it up and went). I got to my appointment at 10am....I left there sometime between 5 and 6pm!!!! Not only was I tired of sitting by that point, but I was feeling pretty puney.
I left, with head full of straight hair, and met Sev, Matt and my mom at the new house. My mother, bless her sweet heart, had already started cleaning! It is times like these when I wonder how children grow up without a mom. Mom cleaned, I unpacked boxes and the boys worked on building the storage shed out back. Finally, my body had had enough. Mom and I went to get dinner while the boys went to get the spare bedroom furniture from Matt's house (wow, that sounds weird to me..."Matt's house"). By the time mom and I got back from eating, the boys had already put the spare bedroom furniture together. I tried to dig through some boxes to find sheets and blankets. I managed to find two sets of sheets, for each bed and a handful of pillows. I could only find two small lap blankets for the spare bed and I did find the comforter for the master bedroom. Matt went home and Sev, Mom and I fell asleep fairly quickly. Mom insisted on letting Ali sleep at the foot of her bed, so we allowed him to sleep there. I'm pretty sure she was rethinking that decision when Ali decided that he wanted to bark at every little, strange, new house, noise! Mom was a trooper though and she was up and at em' early on Sunday. She rounded the troops, gave orders and we all got to work!
She and I unpacked, hung pictures, cleaned, got two car loads of stuff from Matt's house, furniture shopped, unpacked, and cleaned some more. The boys helped get the big furniture items moved and set up, but for the most part they worked on the storage shed.

Mom left last night at 9pm. I left Matt's house with one last car load at 10pm. Sev and I dug through some boxes for our pj's, shower supplies, and alarm clocks. We were fast asleep by midnight.

This morning I woke up in a new house, I dug through a box at the foot of our bed for something to wear to work and I headed to work...I found out that I am about 5 minutes closer to work, that moving is not much fun and that moms really are hero's in disguise!

A Home, An Update, And Allergies!

2010-04-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Gosh time sure does fly!

A HOME:

I just realized that I have yet to come on here and post about Sev and I finding a new place to call home!!

Well we did. We found a place and we move this coming weekend.

We are excited and stressed...as with any move.

We are downsizing, not by choice but by "we finally found something we both like, can afford and it happens to be small!!"....like really small. However, I told Sev, I think I can be a minimalist for a year or two. I like this place that much. We'll see just how well I can put my organizational skills to use! I'm going to have to make the most out of every space. I'm sure this will bring posts along the way!

I'm also relieved that our house search is over! For a year or two...I can't stay in one place long :)

After our house sold, Sev and I talked and, we decided to rent. It just made more sense. We don't want to be in Columbia any longer than we have to. We want to have the ability/flexibility to ~~get the heck out of dodge~~ move as soon as Sev completes his degree.

What we didn't expect was how expensive it is to rent in Columbia! Geesh! Therefore, we took forever and a year to finally find a place we loved and could see spending he next year or two of our lives.

We fell in love with a little area in Columbia, called Shandon. It is the oldest and most historic neighborhood in Cola. The streets are lined with huge trees. The majority of the houses are brick, small and surrounded by flower beds. Every afternoon the side walks are filled with people walking their dogs. It's and old neighborhood, but it has charm! I could see the potential and I immediately made it my mission to call that neighborhood home! I'm so excited to decorate, organize, call this place home and have friends and family come visit!

AN UPDATE:

Sev and I spent last weekend in the upstate. We had a wonderful Easter! We got to see my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew. I adore my nephew. He is loads of fun and I treasure the times we get to see him. I met him when he was 2, and like all kids, he grows so fast! He is already 10, in the 4th grade and "almost as tall as you aunt linds!" (quoting him). He rides dirt bikes so we spent time talking about dirt bikes. He loves reptiles so we spent time drawing pictures of lizards, and naming his latest rubber lizard "taco". We looked for turtles in the pond, fed the horses carrots, had a scavenger hunt for his Easter basket, and he and I rode in the "trunk" of my mother-in-law's suv, on the curvy road to Saluda, NC....he thought that was just AWESOME!....I thought the ride would never end and got car sick! LoL.

In a nutshell, we had fun and I can't wait to see he, his mom and dad again! Hopefully soon, Sev and I are trying to plan a trip to MT, in the upcoming year, to visit them.

On Easter Sunday we got to enjoy lunch with my side of the family, at my grandmas house. I LOVE my grandmas cooking. This year I loved my cousins keylime pie too!...which I cut a big piece of to take home...and then left it at my grandmas! Ugh.

I also got to spend time with the sweet baby boys in our family. This year I even found it in me to share an Easter egg! This is rare, as I'm known for stealing the eggs...not sharing them. Can you see the egg I shared??

I was sad when our weekend came to an end, but happy that it was spent with family!!

AND ALLERGIES!!

Columbia is currently a sea of yellow. My black car looks yellow, the grey roads look yellow, the blue sky looks yellow...pretty much any surface, on any item, that goes outside, for any length of time...is yellow!!!! I don't believe I've ever seen pollen this bad!! It is EVERYWHERE!! and it is giving me one heck of an allergy attack! Bring on the rain!!!

That is all on allergies...I just thought it was necessary to post about the pollen, since it seems to be all that I can ~~sneeze~~ think about these past couple of days.

Spring has Sprung

2010-03-26T05:22:00.000-07:00

Please ignore the dead grass, the weeds that need to be pulled and the fact that the flower bed really needs a fresh layer of pine needles.

I took this picture a few days ago, this morning every one of the tulips had bloomed! Tulips are my favorite flower and seeing them bloom just brings a smile to my face!

Sev and I are going to look at more potential homes this weekend. I'm tired of looking, but we can't really stop looking until we find something...though I have threatened to just live in a cardboard box!! It's stressful, but my fingers are crossed that we'll find something soon!!

I met with Marcy yesterday (the lady that does Japanese straightening) and she was GREAT! I'm happy to report I scheduled an appointment with her and my wild hair days will soon come to an end! She was also very professional, very sweet and very reasonably priced! Woohoo!

I stayed up late last night working on my latest cake creation. It was a task that proved to be harder than usual. Matt and I have begun the process of taking all of my kitchen items out and putting his items in. It's a slow process (we both work full-time and only have about 1 hour in the evening to pack and unpack) and therefore we have a lot of items strewn around the kitchen, laid out on the counter tops and sitting in boxes. Basically, I don't know where anything is and I realized just how frustrating not know where anything is can be! I managed to make do and fell asleep around midnight. I've decided to put all cake making on hold until we have found a place to live and I can unpack...I never really thought much about the layout of a kitchen, but that seems to be one thing I'm paying more and more attention to as we house hunt. "Gourmet kitchen" Yes please!

Here is a picture of the cake I made last night:

That's all for now!! Have a great weekend!!

On An Upbeat Note

2010-03-24T05:48:00.000-07:00

I realized I've been kind of whiny in my last few posts.
So this post is going to be about the things that are currently making me happy.

Someone please look at my cake blog http://4theluvofcake.blogspot.com/ , notice anything new?! How cute is the new design!! One of my best friends, Kelly, is a graphic designer...and I pretty much adore her work. I finally broke down and asked her to work her magic on my cake blog, I flat gave up! I can design a cake but heaven help me when it comes to computers!! My computer designing skills go as far as the "paint" program that comes standard on any computer...yeah, it's sad.
I love it! Let me know what you think. Also, check out her blog http://www.kellykguk.blogspot.com/ , she can design just about anything for any occasion!

I don't know if any of you have seen me in person lately, but my hair is between "oh my gosh, did you see her hair..that is sad, bless her heart!?" and "runnnnnnnn it's a wild, crazy, hairy thing!!" Uhm, yeah, it's pretty bad. I have had my hair Japanese straightened since...well, since the first year I lived in Hawaii, so almost 5 years now. I can. not. express. how amazing the transformation was! I vowed then to NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER not get my hair Japanese straightened. It was worth every, single, little, very expensive, penny!! My long time friends and family can vouch for this. When I moved back to Columbia I had a hard time finding a very reputable, professional, years of experience hair stylist, that offered Japanese straightening. I went through two, very sad, process with a hair salon in downtown Columbia, that while they DID straighten my hair, they also managed to break off lots of hair around the nape of my neck and in the bang area. It was sad, but thankfully I have VERY thick hair, and could cover it up easily...so I actually went to the salon twice before I finally decided enough was enough and I NEEDED to find a better salon!! It has taken me months of research but I think I have finally found her! http://www.straightasstring.com/ . I have an appointment with her tomorrow and, fingers crossed, I will FINALLY be on my way to a much calmer, smoother, silkier, non-frightening for small children, hair style!!

My mother bought me a few bags of tulip bulbs last fall and Sevy graciously planted them. Today, we have the most amazing tulips around Matt's mailbox. I LOVE spring, it is my favorite time of the year! I'm ready for green grass, flowers in bloom and birds chirping!! For me, it's the most inspiring time of year!

Just Some Stuff

2010-03-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

Tell me that is not cute! That's little man, Ali. He likes to hide under beds and stick only his head (and tongue) out.

Currently I am:

* Uploading cake pictures to my cake blog!

* Hanging on to the last strands of my sanity!

* Drowning in boxes and packing materials.

* Getting sick and tired of looking for a place to call "home".

* Trying to be patient and understand that everything will come and happen when it's suppose to!

* Getting tired of people telling me to be patient, lol.

* Watching mindless TV shows (like Dancing with The Stars, that I'll admit I watched last night and lost 1hr of my life on) just to keep my mind from going crazy with planning...or not planning.

* Designing a cake for a 1 year old, the son of a SMC college friend.

* Going through my camera and uploading, deleting, and storing pictures...I think I just heard a "it's about time" somewhere in the distance.

Here is one of me and the only other female rider, Kellie:

Ohhhh and look at this one!! This is a perfect example of what my world currently looks like!!! (Disclaimer: No furry, long tongued, creatures were harmed in the taking of this photo).

Okay, that's enough random stuff for today!!
Happy Tuesday!!

oh and ps. I'm sick of hearing about the new health care bill...it makes me sad for America :(

Still in the Process of Packing

2010-03-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

Sev and I have officially moved out of our old bedroom. We did that this past Saturday. Oh, how weird it is!
We moved all of our bedroom furniture into storage Saturday, along with the rest of our dining room furniture. I managed to minimize my closet down into a small, itsy,bitsy, teeny,weeny space and put the rest of the clothes, shoes, purses, belts...etc.etc. into storage.
I feel like I know the true meaning of "like sardines in a can"! Though, I can't complain. I have a bed to sleep in every night and a roof over my head!
We are still in the process of packing up our kitchen and all of the items we had stored in our attic, garage and office. It's a slow process, mainly because I demand that I have a say in where everything goes, how it is packed and how it is handled...it's the OCD....but the process is slowly coming along.
I have managed to loose my camera in all of the disarray, but I know it's not packed up, just stuck somewhere (presumably in a place that I deemed "safe" at one point) and waiting to be found.
I hope to find it soon, I have pictures I want to take and pictures that I want to post.
Matt is getting the cable and internet hooked up today. We cancelled our service with time warner last week. They came out last night to turn it all off...just to come back out today and turn it back on for Matt. Seemed pointless to me, but whatever.

It is a very weird feeling to no longer be home owners. I feel a bit sad and then again a bit of relief.
This weekend we're taking a break from it all and going to spend some time with my dad.
I'm sick of house hunting...it is seriously, slowly, driving me crazy (and no I wasn't already crazy). So I hope this weekend will help to get us refreshed and ready to start it all over next week.

Happy Wednesday!

Just some things...

2010-03-12T07:24:00.000-08:00

I've got that antsy feeling that I get, probably, a little too often.
That feeling that I'm not doing what I'm suppose to be doing and I'm not where I'm suppose to be.
It's really a frustrating feeling.
It's that feeling that has kept me from keeping one job for more than one year at a time. Which, by the way, can I say how excited I was when I realized that I only have one W2 to use when I file taxes for 2009 (yes I said "when". I have yet to do our taxes...please refer to all of the other posts where I mention my slacker tendencies if this bit of information was at all shocking to you). I'm almost embarrassed to admit that my record is 5 W2's in a year (in my defense that was back in my college days when I held multiple part time jobs throughout the semesters).
So I'm starting to get that antsy feeling again...maybe because we sold our house, I feel a bit of "what's next" syndrome...or maybe it's the weather.

I'm pretty exhausted. This whole house selling process was pretty draining. It had not quite hit me, until last night, that we no longer owned our house. We moved all of our furniture out of our bedroom and I was a little bit sad. It is all going into storage until we decide where we'll be living next. I stayed up until midnight packing. Now, don't think that I waited until last night to pack! No, for once I did not slack, I have been packing since we first put our house under contract. However, last night was the big bulk of it and I'm such a perfectionist that it tends to take me a longgg time to get things packed and organized just the way I like it.
I do not like this in between stage feeling...it makes me feel like I'm constantly missing something, and that is not referring to actually loosing stuff in the whole packing process (like Ali or the packing tape when "I JUST had it! Where did it go guys??" or Sevs keys, this morning, when he realized he had laid them on the coffee table...the coffee table that is now covered in 3 feet of stuff to be packed and impossible to even get to from all the boxes stacked around it.) No, it makes me feel like I'm missing a part of me, my home, my place of being. I feel upside down and off my normal everyday course.

I'm also exhausted from house hunting. I have come to despise HGTV "house hunters" or "property virgin"...those people just walk right into a place, two...three tops and find the "perfect place! Oh this is exactly what we're looking for!"....it does NOT happen like that in the Mullen household. Nope. We can't find hide nor hair of our perfect home! **sigh**

I'm tired and I'm ready for this stage to be over with.

Oh look the suns out!! I hope my mood changes :) Have a lovely weekend ya'll and if you feel like packing, head my way! I have a few boxes and some packing tape (somewhere, I'll find it!) that has your name allllll over it ;)

Finally Finished with another First

2010-03-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

Sev and I sold our very first house today.
We started talking about putting our house on the market last fall.
We have known since we moved to Columbia that this was not "home". We were aware that the economy would not be in our favor and we thought it might be best if we put our house on the market before the whole "tax credit" program expired. We talked about how the house had a good chance of not selling and being on the market for quite some time. The holidays quickly came and we decided to put off listing our house until after the New Years. We met with the realtor, we had decided to use, on Tuesday, February the 9th and decided on a listing price. I was still unsure of everything, something was telling me to wait, so I asked him to leave the paper work and we would sign it and return it to him on Thursday.
On Wednesday we met Matt for a "welcome to SC" dinner. He told us he had been house hunting all day, was exhausted and had not found a thing.
Of course, the sales person in me jumped straight to "Well, Matt we're selling our house, why don't you check it out?"
I seriously did not expect anything, we were asking a price above what he wanted to spend and really...who gets that lucky?
He agreed to come by the house after dinner "just to see".
We came home and I put every bit of my marketing skills to use, ha...no really.
He left that night after asking if we would wait until Friday to list our house. Who wouldn't agree to that?
I can not even begin to explain the pins and needles I was on until Friday evening. Matt went house hunting all day Thursday and all day Friday. Friday evening he called me and asked if we would meet him for dinner, he wanted to let us know what he had decided.
Can you believe he made us wait until after the appetizer before he said "Hey, let's do this, I want to buy your house!"
I've heard there is no such thing as "luck" only "Gods plan in action"...man did he throw me for a complete loop, that was honestly the last thing I expected.
The following Monday we met and signed the contract.
I refused to tell anyone for fear that it was all too good to be true.

Severyn and I had no clue what to do! Our house was under contract and we had no idea what to do or where to go. We were one month away from being homeless! We fully expected the house to be on the market for awhile, but never for it to sell so quickly.
That's when I had a Eureka! moment...Matt was staying in a hotel until closing...but what if we let him move in with us? Then...when we closed, we could just stay with him until we found a place to go! This would buy us some more time to find a place and give us a month or two to save some money! Matt quickly agreed (who wants to live in a hotel??!!) and the plans were set. Matt moved in with us the week he signed the contract.

We closed on our house today at 2pm. Sev and I are no longer homeowners. We thought we wanted to jump straight into buying another house, but could not find anything that made us want to commit more years to living in Columbia. We are now looking to rent until Sev graduates and then....we'll decide where we want to call home.

We're excited, I was a little sad...it was our very first home! and I keep thinking about all of the fun I had decorating the house and making it into a home. However, I am very ready for the next chapter in our lives.

At 2pm Today

2010-03-10T10:04:00.001-08:00

Sev and I will experience another "first" in life.
I will write more on this later.

Currently I am nervous, scared, excited, sad, happy, ready, not so ready, curious, and interested.

It's not a huge deal, but it's fairly big to me and Sev, so if you want to say a quick little prayer we would appreciate it :)

It's been a while...

2010-03-09T07:02:00.001-08:00

and I realize that. I actually started a few posts...they are in my drafts to prove it...but then I get distracted, or busy, or bored (it happens,ok) and I never finish them. Which is something I'm GREAT at (hey everyone needs to be good at SOMETHING!). So...forgive me.
Actually...my last post, in my drafts folder, is all about how I can never seem to accomplish anything....which includes the ending of that post, hence the reason you never read it ;)

Onward...

I have been CRAZY BUSY lately. Please note: not just busy but crazy busy, there is a difference!
My house looks like a bomb exploded...and I'm not like my mother when I say that (mom says that when she has a small pile of laundry to put away and maybe a dish in the sink)...I'm being 100% serious, if anyone were to see my house I'm certain a team of search and rescue would be sent in to find missing people! Though, the only family member we have lost was Ali. I really panicked at one point and thought he may have gotten scooped up with the mounds of clothes and thrown into the laundry or tossed in a box along with items that were being donated. I found him outside, apparently someone had let him out and I didn't know it....there is no telling how long he was out there (another reason I don't have kids!).

Why am I on such a cleaning spree? Well, the main reason I'll share tomorrow. However, another reason would be the fact that I'm TIRED of JUNK! I HATE disorganization, it makes me cranky! I hate not being able to find things in my house! I hate things falling out of closets when I open doors (okay, it was never THAT bad...but to me, it was bad!). I start to panic when items are not where they belong. I am a firm believer that everything has a place and it drives me nuts if I don't have a place for something. I get all of this honest. My father is organized to a T and my mother...well, we joke that she keeps her home ready for Better Homes and Garden to come in and start snapping pictures.

Last Friday I pulled up to Goodwill (the location near my work has a drive up drop off!!! really cool and convenient) and unloaded a trunk load of stuff. It. felt. GREAT!
I have not had the urge to buy one item in the past month (or more). All I can see when I step into a store is JUNK.

I don't know how long this current attitude will last, I hope it lasts long enough to actually FINISH the entire organizing/cleaning/purging process!...but we know how that goes ;)

It was a winter wonderland!!!

2010-02-17T05:49:00.000-08:00

...for all of about 12 hours.

I was trying to hold off on my posting until I could add pictures...but we all know how that goes (me and pictures and waiting...).

So, we got snow last weekend!!
It was beautiful. They said we got around a total of 8" here in, the smack dab middle of, SC.
Severyn was beside himself with excitement.
He and Matt built the largest snowman I've seen. I believe they were trying to out-do the neighborhood kids. Actually, there is not a stitch of snow left, but "fluffy" (what the boys named our snowman) is now just a smaller version of his larger self.
The snow started around 4:30pm on Friday. By the time I got home Friday night, the roads were already covered in a good inch of snow. By 8pm you could not even see the roads. By 8:30pm Severyn could not stand it any longer and he just had to get out and drive in the snow....yes, the exact opposite of what they tell you NOT to do...but whatever.
Sev swore up and down that we did not have anything, at all, nothing, whatsoever, to eat in the house (though, I had just gone grocery shopping on Thursday). So, we headed out to pick up pizza (obviously, I lost that battle, ha). The drive to get the pizza was not all that bad. On the ride back, we missed the turn into our neighborhood completely. We could not stop. We just slid right on by! By then, the roads were ice and snow.
We pretended like we totally meant to miss our neighborhood and just kept on going up the road. On our way to the closest spot where we could turn around, a church parking lot, we passed a car, in a turn, and watched as it slid right out of the turn and down into a ditch. Again, we could not stop. We made it to the church, turned around and started back towards our neighborhood and the car in the ditch.
Sev was able to turn into our neighborhood and we stopped, jumped out of the truck and ran/slid back down the icy road. The driver was fine, she was just stuck and her car had no hope of coming unstuck on its own. She was on her phone and looking pretty nervous when we approached her...I later realized that I too would have been a little spooked by two strangers, running down a dark, snow covered road, towards me. Sev and I tried to help push her car out of the ditch, that only managed to cover me in mud and snow. Then I remembered the tow straps we had in our garage. I flagged down a guy that was in a 4x4 SUV and asked him if he would be willing to pull the girl out if I got our tow straps. He kindly maneuvered his car around her car and positioned it to start pulling. I ran, on foot, to our house and dug through boxes, finally finding our tow straps (do not ask why we have tow straps...doesn't everyone??). I ran back and Sev tied the cars together, the guy was able to pull the girl out of the ditch and the day was saved ;) The girl was so thankful and kept asking me for my phone number...I guess it didn't occur to me that Sev and I had done anything out of the ordinary...later we found out that in the time it took us to turn around and come back to her, 5 cars had passed her and not one had stopped to see if she was okay. Severyn has now added another reason to his list of "why we need a 4x4"...because....it snows so often in Columbia ;)

Saturday was spent sledding down a hill behind Lowes in rubbermaid (you KNOW I love my rubbermaid!) boxes, because not one place sells a sled here in Columbia! We had a blast and tried to enjoy every last inch of snow before it was completely gone by Saturday evening.

We are looking forward to enjoying even more snow this weekend while skiing!! I love to ski and I can't wait to spend time with my family and friends on the slopes!

House Guest & Fish

2010-02-09T07:02:00.001-08:00

My mother always told me that house guests are like fish, they are just fine for a few days...but give them a little while and they start to smell. ha!

Sev and I have a house guest. He has been with us since last Friday. Technically we have not shared a living space with him until Monday, since we were out of town over the weekend.
However, I am finding it hard to think that this house guest will ever be "smelly".
His name is Matt, he was a friend of ours in Hawaii. He just recently got stationed at Ft. Jackson. The Army put him up in a hotel room and his last night there was last Thursday. We offered to let him stay with us for awhile. Sev has just been beside himself with excitement, he has a guy to talk "guy" stuff with, whatever ;-)
The best part? He likes to cook! He cooked brunch on Sunday. Last night, Sev and I walked in from work and there was dinner on the table!!! Like, real dinner. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes (REAL mashed potatoes!) and corn! When I went to retrieve water from the fridge, I saw where he had already written in a meal schedule on our fridge calendar! It looks like baked chicken and veggies tonight! (I'm eating dinner with a friend, but hellloooo left overs!)

I think I like the smell of fish!!

Oh-he even cleans!
Yeah, I think we'll keep this fish around :-)

Weekend Review

2010-02-08T06:35:00.000-08:00

Sev and I have been pretty busy lately.
When I am busy, I usually get stressed. I don't know why.

I worked on a cake late into the night on Thursday. Friday morning was "shadow" day at work, this resulted in a couple of kids wondering around my work place all day. I forgot how many questions kids can ask in a matter of seconds, geesh. All in all it was an interesting day. Though, I will say, I'm afraid for our future. Seriously.
I headed home from work, packed my bags, picked up the house, changed clothes, grabbed the cake I had worked on the night before and hit the road.
We met Kennedi and Kyle at a cabin on Lake Wateree. We were there to relax and celebrate Kyles birthday! We had a great time! We stayed up late Friday, eating cake and enjoying time with friends. We slept in late on Saturday. Once everyone was up and moving, we headed to the closest, hole in the wall (half restaurant half gas station kind of joint...one of those places you might hope to see Brittany Spears walking barefoot out of, lol) to grab breakfast. That was the only time I saw the outside of the cabin all day. It was dreary and cold. The cabin had a fire and TV...why would one even want to venture outside? We were lazy all day. It was just what I needed! Funny how the lazy days are the days that go the fastest.
All too soon it was time for bed. Sev and I were up before anyone else on Sunday morning. Poor Sevy came down with a cold of some sorts and could barely sleep, therefore once the sun began to rise on the water...he was chomping at the bit for me to get up and go! **sigh** relaxing weekend had come to an end. We said goodbye to are friends and headed back down the road.

Then we decided to go house hunting. I am officially at the stage of "I hate house hunting" and our house isn't even sold yet,ha. Putting our house on the market has been something that Sev and I have talked about, for some time. We just never actually got around to doing it. We weren't sure why or if we should...we just thought we wanted to and kept tossing the idea around. Things have been crazy lately ... but let me tell you, if you want a clean/organized house...start thinking about selling your house! ha! I kid you not (and Sev would agree) our house has never been..er...uh Stayed so clean in the entire time we have owned our home! I keep waiting for Mr. Clean to appear and give me major kudos! or maybe even the pine sol lady to pop up and say "now that's the power of pine sol!"....I have not even seen so much as a crow fly into our Windex windows...but I'm still waiting!
Sev and I are not sure what our next step in life holds...we're struggling with where to go from here. Needless to say, all of our faith is in God and we know he knows exactly where we're suppose to be...sometimes I just wish he was in the business of billboards. Sometimes...I just want a sign, ha.

Just Some Thoughts

2010-02-02T10:30:00.000-08:00

-I have yet to hear if Love and her family are okay, however, I did receive another email that said that the Compassion project that Love is a part of was not one of the locations that was damaged by the earthquake. They promised to keep me informed and would let me know as soon as they found Love.

-A friend of ours, that deployed with Severyn, was stationed here in SC this past week. It has been fun catching up with him and talking about "Hawaii days". He actually deployed again, a year after Severyn got back from his last deployment, and just returned from that deployment this past October. We are glad to have him back, safe and sound. He does not know if he will deploy again, but for the time being, it's nice to have another friend in SC.

-Sev and I are spending time with Kennedi and Kyle this weekend. It is actually Kyles birthday and I'm trying to find the time to make a cake to surprise him with this weekend! I have decided my next house, needs a MUCH bigger kitchen, ha!

-Speaking of kitchen, I was sooo excited to have Rubbermaid pick me to be a "try-and-blog" participant for one of Rubbermaids organizing items!!! Hello! Have I said how much I love Rubbermaid?? I can't wait to see and blog about the item they send me!!! I know where it's going to be used too! In the kitchen!!! To top it off, they are sending me 2 of the items...so once I've reviewed the product, I get to give one away!

-I can not stop watching the video of my cousins little man (on my cousins blog). I know I've said it a million times, that I don't want kids, but this little guy cracks me up and I would take him home in a heart beat! He just recently learned how to crawl onto his parents headboard and free fall backwards onto their bed. I don't know why I find the video of him doing that so funny, but it makes me smile. I think it brings back memories of my childhood and the summers I spent crawling along the tops of the refrigerators at my grandmas appliance store.

-I use a daily agenda to keep up with all of my life's schedules and I found a great one to use this year. It is a daily inspirations calendar and every day has a small bible verse and quote to go along with that days schedule page. Yesterdays bible verse was Luke 22:42, "Not my will, but yours, be done." I don't know why I find it so hard to just trust God and his timing. I'm always trying to do everything on my own and I needed that reminder yesterday.

I guess that is enough randomness for one post. Hurry up weekend!

Love Letters

2010-01-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

My heart skipped a beat yesterday when I began to sort through my daily stack of mail.
There was that familiar envelope.
The front was stamped "Message from you sponsored child".

I thought "I can't believe Iliana has written again so soon."
It wasn't from Iliana, it was from Love.

She had written the letter back at the end of October. It must have been sent out of Haiti before the earthquake (because no mail is going in or out of there right now) and been sitting in Denver (where the letters get processed) when the earthquake happened.
It was a mix of emotions, reading the letter.
I was happy to read her words, but I was also sad not knowing when/if I would get another letter. It is so weird, being so attached to someone I have never met.

Anyway, I thought I would share her sweet words:
(She does not write the letters herself, she is still too young. The first letter was actually written by her mom. I believe this letter was written by a Compassion staff member as Love told them what she wanted to say. Reminder: the letter is actually in French and another one of Compassions staff translates)

Lindsey,
Woodshaina feels very glad to write you in Jesus name. She greets you and she asks you how you and your family are doing. She and her family are very fine. This year, she got in primary school and she's learning social science and applied science. She tells she's glad to receive your letters, you often write her, that makes her happy. She tells she likes dogs so much and she has a red dog, white forehead. She usually draws, where she lives is very nice, there are lots of trees and good wind. She tells that her mom teaches her how to pray and she knows Pslam 23. Do you know Psalm? Her friends at school are name Bivlive and Wanchise. She is praying so God blesses you, help her to pray for her school.
Love,
Woodshaina Love Joseph

Just re-writing the letter makes me smile and get a lump in my throat all over again.
Please remember to keep praying for Love, her family, friends and everyone in Haiti.

If you asked me today...

2010-01-26T11:42:00.000-08:00

What I wanted to be when I grow up (and don't tell me I'm already grown ;-) )...
I would say:
A professional organizer.

Laugh if you want, but at least it is a step up from the answer I gave when I was in preschool...I don't believe I could have made it as a Blue Carebear. Yes, while other small tots were making their mothers proud by saying "I want to be a doctor/lawer/teacher when I grow up!" I was telling everyone I wanted to be a blue carebear. At least I didn't want to be a trash truck driver, no, those were my brothers dreams! ha! We were creative little kids, if nothing else.

Anyways, today...I would like to be a professional organizer. I wonder how much they make? hmmm.

I have jumped on the organizational train people! It's crazy.
I watched the show "Hoarders" last night. Oh. My. Gosh.
Those people, well, they just need to be hit by the organizational train! Yikes!
I realize that it is actually a mental disorder and when you get down to the root of the problem, it is actually sad.
Then, the more I started thinking about it...I think I have mini hoarder syndrome. Really, I think there is a little bit of that in a lot of us!
Why is it so hard to throw THINGS away? or donate them? or recycle them? Why do lots of us feel so attached to things?
You would think I grew up in the depression era. I find myself keeping the most random items. Empty jars, butter dishes, pringles cans, shoe boxes....I see a jar for buttons and beads, a dish for future left overs, a pencil holder, a box to stuff things in. I end up with more of these containers than I'll ever use. Sure, you could turn these items into useful/practical items...but if you haven't turned it into the item you saw it to be, toss it! I'm giving myself a week and if I don't use the item, it's trash!
One of the biggest problems for hoarders is the sentimental value they put on things.
I do it too! I am horrible when it comes to tossing something that "means" something to me, and the biggest problem...lots of things "mean" something to me.
Like, for instance, I can not for the life of me toss out the clothes I wore the day I got married (no it wasn't your typical white wedding gown-remember, I don't do things the way others do them, ha!). I have the white capri pants and hot pink polo shirt still taking up room in my closet. I. Can't. let. them. go.
I also have a headboard in my GARAGE (no, it is not attached to a bed and no we do not make our guests sleep in the garage). My grandfather made it. It wasn't even mine! It was my brothers. My problem? My grandfather signed it and it was one of the last items he made. I. Can't. Let. It. Go.
I will never wear those clothes again. I will never use that headboard.
Why do I keep these things?
After thinking about this question for a bit, I realized that, the longer I keep an item, the more attached to it I become. Like the headboard, if I had gotten rid of it years ago, I probably wouldn't even remember it existed.
My solution, I am tossing things out before I can even get attached to the thing. I started this when I began to organize my hobby closet. I threw away hand fulls of cards and letters that I had received over the years. I kept the ones that really meant something to me. I tossed the cards that were just signed or had a short message of no real value.
My precious mother, recognizing my mini hoarding dilemma, even wrote "throw this card away" on the back of this years valentines card from her. ha! Go mom!

What it all boils down to, is this one simple fact, all of the above mentioned things are just that! Things!!
When I'm long gone, some one will find these things and never see the "value" I saw in these things. These things have no purpose in my actual purpose in life. I would like to quote Carrie Underwood "This is my temporary home It's not where I belong Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through This is just a stop, on the way to where I'm going..."
I can't take these things with me to the place I'm going, why keep them here in my temporary home?

If there is some thing or things that you have/had a hard time parting with, tell me about it/them? I would like to know what things others find valuable.

A Freezer Full of Deer Meat

2010-01-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

I currently have a freezer full of deer meat.
No, my husband does not hunt.
No, I do not like deer meat.
No, I do not know anyone that lives near me that likes deer meat(besides the person that gave us the deer meat, and well...how do you "return" something, some proud hunter, gave you?).
No, I do not want to waste.

I have been cleaning like mad, lately.
So of course my cleaning craze has led me to the fridge...and ultimately to the deer meat.
As I stand there, scratching my head and struggling to think of a good place for this meat, it hits me! Eureka! Grandma!
Grandma...well, for one, she can't taste, so she'll eat anything. However, even when she could taste, she would eat anything, lol. So I decided the deer meat was going to grandma.
Oh happy day! The deer meat has a home!
Here is the thing, my grandma, because she can't taste, likes to cook for everyone she knows.
If you know my grandma and you do not like deer meat.
THIS IS YOUR WARNING!
Please do not come to me and complain that grandma fed you beef that did not taste exactly like beef. I have warned you.
I am making up for the time I didn't tell everyone that she was putting unmentionable chicken parts in her gravy ;-)

I have been obsessed with organizational products, information, ideas, blogs, and TV shows lately. It must be a sickness, but I was overjoyed when I found THIS blog yesterday...an entire blog about Rubbermaid. love it.

Haiti Update

2010-01-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest email I've received:

Dear Lindsey,
As the heartbreaking crisis continues to unfold in Haiti, I want to express my deepest gratitude for the outpouring of love, prayers and donations we have received from sponsors and friends worldwide. We are so thankful. Here is a brief update of what we know so far:
Many thousands of Compassion children have been significantly affected by the earthquake.
Many have lost family members, homes and all possessions.
Sadly, we now know for certain that some of our children have been killed or injured.
Our Haiti staff members are working tirelessly to locate Compassion children and determine each child's personal situation and needs.About 75 of Compassion's Dominican Republic staff have joined the relief effort and are now bringing food, water and medical supplies across the border into Haiti.We know you care deeply about Love Woodshaina K Joseph. Be assured that we share that same love and concern, and we are committed to providing you with specific information as soon as it becomes available. This will be a long road, and we will be there every step of the way, providing Compassion children with everything from the most basic and immediate care to longer-term recovery, such as rebuilding homes. We are so thankful for the faithful support of sponsors and friends like you. May God bless you!

I'm very ready to hear about Love and her family, but it breaks my heart to know that regardless of how she is doing, other children have been killed and some orphaned.
I do believe that God is at work.