This is My Life

I love camping. I love the smell of a campfire or bonfire. I love sitting by a bonfire bundled up in a blanket with hot chocolate. I love sleeping in a sleeping bag...especially when it's really cold. I love turning back the thermostat at night and sleeping under an electric blanket. I love the feel of a new toothbrush...like, that first week out of the package. Wonderful. I love the smell you get when you turn on the heater for the first time in the season. I love how blue the sky is in the winter time. I love the sound of rain on a tin roof or a skylight. I love taking a shower in the middle of the day when it's cold and in the early evening when it's hot. I love sleeping on the floor and on raised beds. I love taking naps when it's raining outside...light thunder is a plus. I love emptying a spool of thread. I love being in the hammock and listening to the wind blow in the trees. (Bring on the drool.) I love listening to the radio REALLY LOUD at night while in the ca

Today was Sebastian's birthday. Usually we take him to Sonic for an ice cream treat (which he thoroughly enjoys), but this year I decided to do a little something different. I baked him a cake. A birthday cake. Would you believe they actually have recipes for birthday cakes FOR DOGS on the internet? Yeah...they're there. This afternoon I baked him a Peanut Butter Carrot Cake. Here's the recipe if you're interested: Ingredients: 1/4 cup peanut butter 1 cup of flour 1/4 cup cooking oil 1 cup shredded carrots 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/3 cup honey 1 egg Directions: Mix all dry ingredients together. Add the remaining ingredients and mix. Bake in a greased ring mold at 350 F for 40 minutes. Frost this cake with cottage cheese and decorate. Store in the refrigerator. Now, I read somewhere that if you wanted them to actually be able to eat it (then why the heck make it, I ask...) to leave out the honey. Since we didn't have any honey, I substituted ap

Today I had the pleasure in coordinating a wedding at the church. This was the first wedding I've had in about two years and it proved to be quite chaotic, however it turned out to be a beautiful service and the bride and groom were both thrilled and pleased. (Whew!) What I noticed today is that there are some consistencies with all weddings...things that are just about always going to happen no matter how much planning is done or nerves are shot. Here's a brief list of what I realized today: (Yes, it's 3:00 am and no, I can't sleep...) 1. Something is going to go wrong. Let me repeat: SOMETHING IS GOING TO GO WRONG. It may be huge, it may be trivial. But something is going to go wrong. A unity candle won't light (S & A), a bridesmaid can't find her shoes (R & C), the scriptural reader loses her bookmark and butterfingers aren't allowing her to find her place (my own parents), or the groom's mother has an allergic reaction to shellfish and

In February I decided that I wanted to do something special for Ryan's birthday. I knew we'd most likely do a party of some sort since it was his 30th, but I also wanted to give him something special. About a year ago he saw a Mario quilt online with directions on how to make it. This was about the same time he bought my quilting machine and frame and some comment like, "Hey, here's something you can make me..." was made, which I responded with a "Yeah right. Keep dreaming." Well, in February I thought, "Hey.....why not?" I've been sewing for quite a few years and I'm getting better at this quilting frame so...yes, I'm gonna do it. The crazy person in me looked at the quilt on the lady's website and decided that it wasn't exactly what I wanted to make for him. I started looking for various pictures of the original Mario Brothers game characters and drawing them on graph paper. The ladies in my craft group can verify, it

As you can guess by the title, this post is actually written by Ryan. We had a revelation tonight - an awakening if you will... Now, I know my wife pretty well. I mean, we've been married for three years now, and dated for a couple before that and all, so I think I know a lot about her - including her love for the mayonnaise. This isn't really a surprise. She loves the stuff. On a hamburger? Both pieces of bread. Hot dog? Both sides (mayonnaise at all on a hot dog is weird, but smothering it on there enough that the hot dog refuses to stay in the bun is the level to which the mayo is applied). Grilled cheese? YES (and I mean before it gets grilled ::shivers::). All this is old hat. I've come to terms with it. What I hadn't realized was that mayonnaise is apparently the great life-giver -- like water! It soothes the sole, cures what ails you! At least that must be the case, because we have a supply the likes of which Publix would be jealous of... How about a

Have you ever been cleaning out the closet or garage and found something that you knew had had an "issue" but you couldn't remember what it was? I'm often finding shoes or clothing that I've set aside for a reason, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is. When I get to work and the flawed zipper keeps sticking me in the butt or the super cute shoes (also known as 5-minute shoes) start cutting into the back of my heel exposing the BONE... it suddenly all comes back to me. Funny how that works, isn't it? Yesterday I was in the garage trying to clean up a little and found a pair of flip flops that used to be my absolute favorites. They were a Target find at half price and I loved the colors and...they were perfect. PERFECT, I say! Well, I found them yesterday and looked that them (covered in dust) and thought, "Now, why did you get placed out here again?" Hmmmm......just couldn't remember. So, I thought, "Well, maybe I wasn&#

Sebastian has a certain toy that is absolutely his favorite. He loves his green fishy, adores his string rope (although we don't because it usually requires an "assist" later on), and cherishes his orange squeaky "animal" (we're not sure what it's supposed to be). But, the toy he holds most dear is his cow. It's a stuffed cow with long arms and legs (I guess they should technically all be legs), a small bubble body, and a huge head. It once had a squeaker, but he chewed it out. It also once had eyes, but yeah, he got those, too. For some reason, when given a stuffed animal toy, he always chews off the eyes first and the crotch is soon to follow. But back to his cow. We've appropriately named him "Mr. Cow"...not sure why, but that's his name. Mr. Cow has seen better days, that's fo' sho'. Soon after his eyes went, we tried just taking the toy away and hiding it, but Sebastian would always find it or would see it s

Day 2 of our vacation/anniversary trip was pretty fun. We're exhausted, but were able to cram a substantial amount into the day...even with rain in the morning. Our day started out with the hotel totally redeeming itself. First, the shower head in this place is amazing. Maybe it doesn't take much to make me happy, but I love a good shower head. You'd think a CE with quite a few hours of environmental classes under her belt would be in favor of "water saving" items, but heck no. I want a true five-gallon flush and there better not be a washer in that shower head. When I'm showering, I want the water pressure to just about take my skin off. And this morning, the hotel totally delivered. All I can say is it was WONDERFUL. Next, we went down for breakfast. Again, we were happy to see that they weren't sticklers on the time frame for breakfast as we showed up about 15 minutes before shut down time. Even as more people came in, the lady kept stocking. A

This morning we set out for St. Augustine for our anniversary vacation. Wednesday will be our third anniversary and we wanted to do something fun this year and "get away." We made pretty good travel time, even with only driving two miles over the official speed limit due to the 13 cars pulled over by state troopers (yes, 13...we actually started keeping track after the fourth). We hit rain (steady rain) right outside of Jacksonville, but we still made it to "The Oldest Florida City" in good time and spirits. Upon checking in at the hotel, we quickly began racking up juicy blog material. Here's what we got to experience the first day of our vacation... 1. We checked in, the reservation was all good, and we took our things up to the room. Ryan went into the bathroom and came out asking if I'd hung up anything on the back of the bathroom door. I hadn't, so I asked why. He said, "Oh, no big reason...other than the fact that there's a pair of

So…I’ve been sick for a week now. Last Monday I woke up with the “throat junk”, went in, got an antibiotic and a shot (in the booty), and went home to sleep. I started feeling better by Tuesday, but by Wednesday and Thursday I was actually starting to feel worse. Friday and Saturday I felt like death. I even yelled at Ryan Saturday for asking me if I was going to take a second nap (Hello! I’m sick!) He got over it (and I took another nap). Sunday he had to play at church and I was planning on attending the 11:00 service. I got up, showered, dressed, and took care of the dogs. As I kept wandering around the house, I started feeling worse and worse. I was SO sleepy and congested and all of the above. I just felt terrible. So I did what I should have done; I got a pillow and a quilt, got the dogs situated on the couch with me (we kept Phoebe for the weekend while the ‘rents went on a vacation), and…took another nap. Slept for two hours. I woke up just in time to get the bedspread lines of

We went camping this past weekend with Ryan’s brother and his family. We had a great time…even with nap-deprived kiddies with yucky stomachs, we really enjoyed ourselves and were able to visit and relax (although I’m not sure I can speak for J, J, S, S). J and J often get cracked up at how much Ryan and I shop at Sam’s. I’ve never really thought about it much but this weekend I realized that we really do shop there A LOT. We actually go there…and I’m a little embarrassed to admit this…about once a week…sometimes twice. Most of the normal things we get there we buy because they are way cheaper than buying in a normal store or because I get tired of constantly having to buy more to keep from running out. However, we also buy quite a bit of “stuff” from Sam’s. (Even as I’m typing this I’m laughing and thinking about even the most recent items we’ve picked up…holy cow…we’ve got it bad.) My SIL said that I needed to have a blog post about what all we buy there, Ryan suggested a separa

So it’s been a busy couple of weeks. I feel like I’m falling back into the working schedule as well as the gym schedule, Bible study schedule, and various other schedules for groups I’m involved in. Lately I’ve been very tired and worn out and…well, blah. I actually didn’t go to the gym today because I feel like I just need a break. At some point in the future, I think I might have to start pulling on the reigns and quit signing up for things. Last Saturday Ryan and I traveled to AL (or LA) to attend my grandmother’s side’s family reunion. I know that for most people a family reunion seems like the most boring thing to do on a beautiful Saturday or possibly just another event to hear “I used to change your diapers!” or “Have you been eating fertilizer?” and my favorite, “The last time I saw you…!”. However, this was not the case on Saturday. We went, visited, ate, told stories about relatives already gone, visited some more, and finally headed home. This was the first family re

For various reasons the band Ryan plays in at church is having to practice today at 2:00. Since it kinda puts a little damper on the day's activities (since it's in the middle of the day) last night he suggested that we maybe go to yard sales and "run the road" Saturday morning...so I could have some fun. (Isn't he the BEST?!) I took up the offer (of course) and this morning we got up early, bought a paper, and hit the road. Yard sales were pretty scarce...we only hit two. However, the second one we hit was awesome. This lady had tables and tables of clothes all priced at 50 cents. !!! Apparently, her daughters (all about my size...how convenient!) had a true love of clothes and when they left for college, they left all the stuff they didn't want. Again, how convenient. I bought $10 worth and was SO excited. The lady had run out of bags so as I was carrying them to the car, I was dropping pieces in a breadcrumb-style trail and cracking up at myself. Aft

So...two weeks, no post. That's okay, though, 'cause I'm not really sure anyone's listening/reading. :-) Nothing big has been happening lately (mainly the reason for no new post), just life going on as normal. This morning, however, I saw something that really got me to thinking...and I had an idea for a post. Eureka! Not really...like, please don't be expecting a lot...'cause you'll be SO disappointed. So I cross the bridge (if you don't know which bridge I'm talking about you obviously are a transplant...and will understand this lingo later) this morning and veer to the right to turn left onto Thomas Drive. There's this new (semi new) concrete median separating left-turners and go-straighters that seems to be the hot spot lately for people holding cardboard signs. Yesterday there was some guy holding a sign that said something like, "Went to shelter and left due to...." and I couldn't read the rest. He had a fish bowl with

Last night was the last night for our small group acting as a “medium group”. We finally made the decision to “rip the band aid off” and birth off the new group. I personally have been ready for this for a month or so now. Although I have loved this group with every fiber of my being (and I honestly do mean that), I’m ready to make room for new people, share lives with others and continue to grow in Christ with these people. With the increasing size of our group, I’ve been a bit concerned with us not being as “gelled” as we used to be, not allowing our true selves to show, and even becoming stagnant in growth (and in that I mean growth in Christ, growth with each other, and even growth in numbers). And so last night was it. I’ll go ahead and openly admit that I’m somewhat of a mess this week anyway with other things going on so it was no surprise (well, maybe a little) that I was crying off and on all day yesterday. It reminded me of when we built the new church and had to say go

What I’ve learned so far at my new job: Hyperlinks. I’ve learned that there are absolute and relative hyperlinks. When using an absolute hyperlink, it’s easy and will most definitely work…unless you’re making a webpage and then all bets are off. When using a relative hyperlink, it will most likely work…unless you’re holding your mouth a certain way on the third Tuesday of the month while wearing black shoes with nude knee highs and then all bets are off. Microwaves. I’ve learned that unless you wish to take your life into your own hands you NEVER use the microwaves on the first floor. They are disgusting and both are in the same condition. After asking if there was one that was somewhat clean, I was told, “Oh your poor thing. I forgot to tell you about that…” and shown the microwave in the “kitchen” on our floor. Although it is cleaner than those downstairs, it does seem to be on its last leg (or rubber knobby thing) and I therefore do not recommend standing in front of it while in ope

This past Wednesday night at small group, a friend of ours got a new safe. Now when I say “safe” I mean…a safe . I’m not sure if it’s exactly like that one, but you get the idea. So after bible study he asks a few of the guys to help him unload it. Soon after the guys have it in its new home, he and Ryan are carrying a smaller safe (I instantly assume it’s the safe that’s being replaced) toward the back door. I figured he was going to be putting it in his outside shed…nope. They walk outside, walk up to OUR car, and Ryan starts pilfering around in his jeans pocket for the keys. Then it hits me. And I understand. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!” (Apparently I seem to really be liking this phrase/question lately as it’s the same thing I screamed when we finally found a road ( the state park entrance ) the last time we went hiking…and got lost …thus tacking on an extra 2 miles or so…I was not a happy camper…literally speaking.) Ryan gives me the little boy smile he loves so much. This s