Thursday, March 26, 2009

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for my mom! It's her birthday today so of course I have to pay a special tribute to her. Especially because she's magical. She turned 29 today for the 25th year in a row! Those are some pretty amazing powers if you ask me. :) I think she was more excited by the fact that I went to Institute last night than by the actual present I got her (in my defense, she's the one always complaining about what a piece of c-r-a-p [yes, you have to spell it out] her can opener is. I was just trying to be practical in these hard economic times; besides, if the world came to an end tomorrow, she'd be out of luck when it came to all of her CANNED food storage!) Love you, mom!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

More Pictures....

I found some more random pictures that I feel the need to share.
This was the Nativity that the Special Needs mutual did at their Christmas party. A couple of the ladies at the home I worked at participated in it, so I took a picture. Too bad I only had my phone...
I took this about a year ago while I was still in Utah. I saw it everyday for about a week before I stopped to take a picture. Have you ever seen such a perfect snowman that was done by a couple of kids and their parents? I was impressed.
My Shamu plane! This is the plane I flew on when I went to Salem for Thanksgiving. How cool is that?

I'm like a proud momma

My sister is always telling me about the cute things her baby girl does. So in return I have to tell her about all the cute things my kitties do. I'm just glad they get along. They play so much that if you're downstairs and they're upstairs playing, it sounds like thunder! Here's my kitties when they aren't playing...
This one is blury but it was the only one I got before they moved. Ashes was on my right and Gabby was at my feet. When I got up to go to bed, I picked up Gabby and put her next to Ashes and this is how she got comfortable. I grabbed my phone and took a picture. I went to grab my camera, but they followed me.
Here they are a couple of days ago on the leg rest of the love seat. Ashes was sound asleep (the purring had stopped and she was twitching every now and then from her dreams). Gabby came in and made herself comfortable.
Over the weekend, I ran some errands. When I got home, this is how I found them.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This was the only picture of food that I took before everyone started eating. That's a hat with a shamrock, in case you were wondering. :) They were the most delicious mint brownies. Yummy!
The festive windsock that graced the front porch for the week or so leading up to St. Patrick's Day.
You can't really tell, but I had a shamrock bear hanging in the living room window. This was the best picture I could get.
The front door. I'm pretty sure this embarrassed my mom the entire time it was up, but who cares?! You can never have too many decorations for the big day!
I had to find some way to display my bag, so I hung it from the rocking chair.
Yes, technically, this is a Christmas decoration, but the snowman was so festive with his pot of gold. Since the Christmas tree was long gone, he was hung from the lamp in the kitchen.
The hutch in the kitchen. And I would just like to point out that I got the 2 waterglobes when I was in Ireland. You don't get anymore Irish than that!
The table in all its glory. Even the candles have gold shamrocks on them. My mom and I bought the tablecloth at Target the day before. It was already on sale. How rude!
Speaking of Target... while we were there, we looked through the St. Patrick's Day cards. There was one that was so priceless my mom had to buy it. It's for someone who has their birthday on St. Paddy's Day. On the front it says, "For your birthday, I baked you a special corned beef and cabbage cake." When you open it, it says, "It blows it own candles out." Hilarious.

So I'm a week late in posting these pictures, but since St. Patrick's Day is my favorite holiday, I figured better late than never. :)

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

When I lived in Utah, snow was part of life in the winter. Back here in the south, snow is rare! So when it snowed a few weeks ago, I just had to take pictures.
I took this picture with my phone as my mom and I were getting home from church.
My car hadn't seen this much snow since leaving Utah!
I thought this tree in the front yard looked ever so pretty all covered in snow.

View from the front porch.

Random

Last semester I took a history class about Ancient Greece. For my term paper I decided to write about Sophocles. No, I'm not going to bore you with his politics and writings... My professor recommended a book to me called Sophocles and Pericles. The campus library is HUGE!!! So I decided to request it instead of trying to find it on my own. After I got the e-mail telling me the book was available, I picked up the book and brought it home. I found this in the back...

I guess the book was more popular in the 70s than the past 30 years.

This says it all!

My mom forwarded this to me. I thought it was too perfect to not share with the rest of the world.

Letter from the Boss,

As the CEO of this business that employs 240 people, I have accepted the fact that Barack Obama is our new President, and that our taxes and government fees will now increase in a BIG way.

To compensate for this additional overhead, I figure that the clients will have to see an increase in our fees of about 8% but since we cannot raise those prices right now due to the dismal state of our economy, we will have to lay off several of our employees instead. This unfortunate economic reality has really been eating at me for a while, as we believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who will have to go.

After giving it considerable thought, this is what I did. I strolled thru our parking lot and found 31 Obama bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the first to be laid off. I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem.

They wanted change; I gave it to them.

If you have a better idea, let me know.

Sincerely,
The Boss

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Beauty and the Beast

A couple of weeks ago, my parents and I adopted 2 cats from the pound. One was about 10 months old the other was about 4 months old. They have come to be nicknamed Beauty and the Beast. The 10 month old looks like a regular black cat, but if you get closer, she's acutally a dark chocolate color with a white patch on her chest. She's a beautiful cat. So she's Beauty. The other cat is a terror! She looooooooves people and hates to be alone. She's always right at your feet, but as soon as you pick her up, she starts biting and clawing at you. So she's the Beast. Her favorite hobby is to get into everything. I'm pretty sure the phrase "curiosity killed the cat" was coined because of her. If a door or cupboard is open, she gets in (this includes when the dishwasher is open). And she's so fast that half the time you don't notice until you hear her meowing to get out. Her lastest hobby is trying to climb door frames. She runs at the full speed, manages to jump up and claw up abotu half way before she slides all the way down. It's hilarious to watch. So here they are, Beauty and the Beast...

Here they are waiting for my mom to come out of her room. (Like I said, they love people and if they know where you are, they will wait for you.)

Here's Gabby, aka the Beast, her first day home. She settled in nicely and made herself to home in a clean pile of laundry. Her name is Gabby because she loves to talk.

Her eyes aren't really that creepy, just the way the flash reflected in them.

Here's Ashes,aka Beauty. Her eyes aren't that creepy either. I tried to make them less creepy, but the photo editing program on my computer only fixes red eye if the eyes are actually red. Who knew computers were so smart?

And this is why Ashes' name is Ashes. We brought her home from the pound and she made herself at home in the fireplace. All the doors were closed so we knew she had to be in the living room or kitchen. If you're looking for a lost cat that has her coloring, don't just glance into the fireplace because they'll blend right in and you'll keep looking.

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm grateful for my calling at church. I got called to be a primary worker. I'm an "official substitute" so I don't teach any particular class. Last Sunday I taught 2 classes because I got calls from 2 different teachers. It was my first Sunday and I loved it! Primary is so much more fun than adult Sunday school (though, the teacher in my ward is awesome!) and Relief Society. Plus, kids say the craziest things. My favorite was 2 Sundays ago. The kids were learning a new song about building an eternal family. The chorister brought a bag full of different things having to do with different professions, like a chef and a painter. We come to the kid who is now dressed like a carpenter, tool box and hammer included. When asked what he is, one of the kids yells out, "He's a tool!" I'm sitting here laughing just thinking about it. Gotta love kids and that's why I'm thankful that I work in primary.

Thankful Thursday

I missed posting last week so this is what I was going to write...

I'm grateful that both of my parents still have their jobs. In today's economy, people are losing jobs left and right. What made me think of this was when my mom and I went to the pound. So many of the animals (excluding the pit bulls... don't get me started on that...) were over a year old. Yes, the kittens and puppies get adopted before the dogs and cats but some of these animals were 5 years old. Neutered. One cat was even declawed. So you know that at some point these animals were loved and taken care of. My mom pointed out that a lot of these animals probably belonged to families who lost their homes and had to move into apartments. Most apartments don't allow pets or if they do, they charge a ridiculous monthly fee for the pet in addition to the rent someone is already paying. The saddest case was the 5 year old mastiff named Holly. Her eyes broke my heart. So....... I'm grateful that my parents have good jobs, have been able to keep their house and our dog (even if she's a pain in the butt sometimes and poops on the floor). And that we've been able to adopt 2 cats.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

25 Things About Me

On facebook, there's been things going around about posting 25 things about yourself. After being tagged a few times, I decided to make a list. And here it is...

1. I was born with a birth defect that wasn’t discovered until I was almost 21 years old (and required neurosurgery to fix).
2. I don’t have all of my skull. My brain was too big for my head so part of my skull was removed to make room for it.
3. I name my cars after Harry Potter characters. First I had Cedric the Civic (NO! He was not named that because of Robert Pattinson) and now I have Tonks the Toyota. Had my Ford Tempo not already been named White Stallion by my sister, he would have been named Fred the Ford.
4. When Tonks dies and I can afford to buy a car on my own, I want to get a Hyundai and name it Hagrid. If I’m ever rich and famous, I want to get a Maserati and name it Mad Eye.
5. I’m deathly afraid of heights but I really, really, really want to go skydiving someday.
6. I can’t live without chapstick. I always have some with me no matter where I am.
7. I think Hugh Laurie is the greatest thing the ever happen to TV. If you’ve never watched “House, M.D.”, you make me sad inside.
8. I love to cross stitch, though sometimes it drives me crazy because of all the counting and many different colors.
9. Singing is my absolute favorite thing to do in the world, but I hate singing in front of other people unless I’m in a musical (which I haven’t done since high school) or I’m part of a large group.
10. After I saw the movie Curly Sue when I was 6, I wanted to be a lawyer. Now as I’ve gotten older and realized just how screwed up our so-called justice system really is, I’m glad those dreams changed into something else.
11. I think Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are the biggest hypocrites in the world.
12. The Phantom of the Opera is my favorite musical but my least favorite movie. Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler (who I think is great) just ruined it for me. Plus, no one will ever compare to Michael Crawford.
13. I once had 3 spinal taps in one day (and I would just like to say that they aren’t nearly as painful as they are made to look on TV).
14. I think St. Patrick’s Day is the greatest holiday ever invented.
15. I loathe people who get on their cell phones during movies. If you can’t handle being away from the real world for a couple of hours, why waste the money? Keep the phone in your pocket or purse and we’ll all be happy. J
16. It drives me insane when you stop to allow pedestrians to cross and they just meander along. Come on people! Things to do, places to go. Other wise I wouldn’t be out!
17. I hate feet yet I have a weird obsession with socks. I love them to have designs and I don’t own a single pair of solid color socks.
18. I think toaster ovens are one of the greatest inventions.
19. I always download the free stuff from iTunes whether I think I’ll like it or not. Who doesn’t like free stuff?
20. I killed my guinea pig when I was 4 when I was trying to teach it how to do back flips.
21. I think that the phrase “open-minded liberal” is the biggest oxymoron to ever grace us with its presence.
22. My favorite place in the world is a little shop in the small town of Camden, Maine called the Smiling Cow (and I’m very excited to go there this summer).
23. I think the greatest sound in the world is a baby’s laugh.
24. My roommates and I once dressed up as Baby Spice, Scary Spice, and Sporty Spice. We then went to Blockbuster and rented Spice World. Yes, we were that cool.
25. My favorite song when I was little was “Chapel of Love” by the Dixie Cups but I preferred to call it “Chapel Magic.”