Jack Frost Better Back Off....

I can just feel Jack in the air waiting to cover the ground in frost as early as possible, but I'm just not quite ready to let go of summer yet. I love Fall, but Summer was entirely too short this year. We had very mild temperatures and I only went to the pool twice. That's just wrong!

I've switched my fan settings to low at night instead of medium, but when I woke up today I thought I was just short of being a popsicle. I'm not ready to let go of my fan yet either. That really makes it official that Summer has come to a close. However, it was quite nice to be driving yesterday with the windows down and letting the wind blow through my hair. It was the perfect weather of not too hot, not too cold.

I'm in the middle of a six day stretch off of work and I've been enjoying it immensely, except for the fact that I have overslept two days and it totally ruined my plans for the day. I hate that! I have a few more things on my list that I want to do before going back to work on Wednesday, so hopefully I can get those done and I will feel very accomplished with my time off.

For now I will just enjoy laying in bed, watching movies, and doing absolutely nothing. :)

Until................

A Little Smile...

This just made me smile... and crack up laughing. :)



Hope everyone had a wonderful (and dry) Thursday. :)

Until...........

Enjoying the Last Bits of Summer...

Sorry I've been out of touch. You know what, I take that back. I'm not sorry. I've been working (of course) and when I haven't been doing that I've been off having fun and enjoying myself.

I was struck with the surreal realization the other day that I do not have to go to school this year. Weird! I had (and still don't) no idea when the first day of school is, I'd been skillfully avoiding the school supply area at Walmart, and I was able to take a weekend away with my good friend Robin, her daughter, aunt and mom to St Louis. I was kind of a tag-along, but they welcomed me with open arms and we had a blast.

We left for St Louis on Friday morning, which was interesting, since Robin and I worked the night before. We got to sleep a little in the car though, which was nice. Once we got there and checked into our hotel, apartment, condo thing-y we decided to head over to the mall. We got a couple of hours of shopping in and then we decided to head off to meet one of Vickie's friends from nursing school for dinner. I was remiss and did not take hardly any pictures! I don't know what was wrong with me. In fact, I was only in one picture the whole trip and it was when we got to the theatre on Saturday afternoon. Oh well. Anyway, my dinner was DELICIOUS with a huge capital D! We ate at Maggiano's. Oh. My. Word. ya'll, the food was delicious! I got the Chicken and Spinach Manicotti, and it was to die for! I have seriously thought about it everyday since. I can't wait to go back and have me some more! Everyone else had "okay" meals, but mine won the prize for most delicious. I'm salivating just thinking about it now!

After dinner we went across the street to Crate and Barrel and for the most part just sat on different couches. I guess we were still a little tired. Then We headed off to some Home store that Vickie and Julie wanted to go check out. Afterwards we went to the famous Ted Drewes for ice cream. I guess I am completely sheltered because I had no idea what everyone was talking about at dinner when Ted Drewes came up. Well, I soon heard the story and got to witness the madness that was "Ted Drewes". Lola (Vickie's friend from nursing school) gave us the grand tour around the city and I pretty much love her. She's hilarious and so nice. I kept seeing mine and Robin's future of what we were going to be like as "nursing school buddies" in x amount of years. However, we both told each other we weren't allowed to move without the other one, so darn it all, no moves to St Louis in my near future.

Saturday brought a new day, still without much rest. We were all in fairly uncomfortable beds (or in my case a couch) and it didn't help the matter that our 'neighbors' came home at 2:30a and were being anything but quiet. I seriously was going to have a major smackdown if they didn't stop their loud nonsense and zip it. People were trying to sleep! We decided to head over to the mall after breakfast and get a couple more hours of shopping in. I was looking for a dress to wear to a wedding, but all the ones I saw were way too expensive and not worth it to wear a couple times since I wear scrubs for a living. We were off to Mary Poppins at 2p, and we were all pretty excited about it.

The Fox Theatre was down on Grande Ave and it was beautiful on the inside. It was pretty dark, so I didn't get any adequate pictures with my flash-less cell phone, but it was amazing all the same. Pictures wouldn't have done it justice. The first act was a little slow in parts. I'm not sure if that was because we were all so tired or if it really was slow, but the second act picked up and it was over before we knew it. Mary Poppins even FLEW up by our section. We were quite impressed!

After the show we jetted off, because the crew was kind enough to drop me off in Springfield so I could attend the Fair and see Kelly Clarkson in Concert. She was amazing, as usual. I didn't get home until almost midnight and I was pretty zonked so I slept until 3:30p the next day. I worked that night though, so I had an excuse. :)

Well, that's what I've been up to. If Robin ever posts pictures (hem hem) I will make sure to put it up so you can see that I actually did go the St Louis this past weekend. :)

Until................

Good Samaritan Shut Down!

I love animals. Not all animals, but most of them. I get it from my mom. As a little girl I can remember being with my mom and if we saw a little dog on the side of the road we would automatically stop and pick it up, find out where it lived or take it home with us. Of course, we didn't keep them all. I think my dad would have gone insane, but we always made sure they got to a safe place.

Well, as an adult I seem to have adopted all of those same "Good Samaritan" habits. As I was driving home from my sister's house tonight I had not even made it two blocks before I saw a little puppy in the middle of the road. It's was a cute little thing and I sat there for a moment deciding what to do. It didn't go into a yard, so I carefully maneuvered around the corner and put my car in park. I sat there looking at it for a second, and as it's brown little eyes looked at me, I knew I couldn't leave it there. It had a tag on it's collar so I determined that I would figure out its address and take it back home.

There was a man in the backyard of the house it was by so I was going to get out and ask him if it was his. Well, the second I got out of the car and started toward the little pup it started barking like a maniac. It was hysterical! I decided since it ran into the grass (away from me) that it was safe enough there for me to go ask the guy in the backyard if the dog was his. Well by the time I got to the fence the guy was gone. Great, now what was I supposed to do? Meanwhile this dog is still barking like mad the most high pitched annoying bark I've ever heard. It was still in the grass so I got back in my car and called my sister to tell her about it. As I relayed the story to her the dog was STILL barking! I finally decided that I would leave it in the yard, choosing to believe that it was her (his?) yard, and head on home. I was totally shut down. Here I was trying to do a good thing and that little dog was having absolutely none of it. Of course I had to take a picture of it first before I left.

(You see that little speck in the grass? That is the dog.)

As I drove away it was still barking. I was cracking up the whole way home. I'm sure that this poor little dog thought I was going to dog-nap it or something. I was just trying to be a Good Samaritan and save it from being hit and it was just freaking out. Holli said, "It sounds like a car alarm. It just won't stop." That made me laugh even harder. It was like it was it's very own alarm system. "Help me! This crazy woman is trying to take me! Help!"

When I got home I relayed the whole story to my mom, and after she asked me if I brought it home for her, she started cracking up too. It seriously was the funniest thing that had happened to me all day.

Now I'll drive past that house and look for that yippy dog and wonder if that's where it really lives. So funny...

Until........

Great Plans Almost Always Crumble...

I had great plans for these four days that I have off. For starters, I was going to go to the pool every chance I got. However the lovely storm we've been having this morning is deterring that plan. Maybe tomorrow?

Another plan I had was to get up early today, workout, clean my room a little and run to Walmart for some ingredients to a cake I'm making for work on Saturday. So far, none of those things have happened except for getting up early. For some unknown reason I was ready to get up at 4:30a this morning. Why!? I think my sleep cycle was slightly screwed up since yesterday I slept until 4p. I wasn't planning on that, but I had just worked 4 nights in a row and was trying to catch some much needed zzz's. So anyway, I went to bed last night around midnight and 4 hours later my eyes popped open. Not fun! Then the storm was swirling around and for some reason I couldn't go back to sleep until almost 6:30a. When I finally did get to sleep I was dreaming of storms. There was some wicked lightening (in my dream). So I finally ended up getting up at 8:30a and from the moment I got out of bed I was planning my nap. Ha!

I really do need to do some cleaning and such to my room, so I'm off to start on that. From the look of the radar the storm should be past us in a little bit, so I'm hoping to run to Walmart soon. We'll see how that goes....

Sorry for the boring update. Not much going on here lately besides work.

Until..............

Nostalgia...

My mom was feeling quite nostalgic tonight.

You see, 22 years, 11 months, and 3 days ago one of her most prized earthly possessions was bore onto this earth. That's right, I'm talking about me. I'm her baby. I'm number three. I came screaming into this world at a whopping 9 lbs [However, I was not her biggest baby.] at 11:28pm. I was quite literally a "Labor Day" baby.

My mom came into my room tonight with my little dress that she says I came home from the hospital in. However, looking back at my baby book I believe this dress is the one I wore to my first day of church when I was only six days old.

My mom's caption for this picture was "Bored with her first trip to church. 9/7/86." How sweet.

This is the dress I appear to have come home from the hospital in. [Please excuse the butterball cheeks, and the fact that it scanned too bright to really tell what I'm wearing. Trust me. It's not the same dress.]

I can't even believe those pictures are of me!

However, I don't think these really look a lot like me either, but I apparently still make some of these same faces...





Before she knew it I was graduating preschool. Who cares if they had to practically push me across the stage. I was headed to Kindergarten!


I don't think either of us was prepared for how fast those next 17 1/2 (!) years would fly by. Here we are now so many years later with me being the only one at home and very close to moving out on my own. I anticipate this will not be an easy transition for her....

Until............

One Size Does NOT Fit All...

Yesterday was a fun day. I went out to lunch with my cousin Rachel and then we shopped until we dropped for 3 1/2 hours. She brought along a cd that she thought I would enjoy, and oh was she right. We listened to Ingrid Michaelson's cd 'Girls and Boys' non-stop and she even gave me the copy she had made at the end of our full day. :)
I have since then done nothing but hum the song "The Hat". I'm particularly fond of this verse: "I knitted you a hat all blue and gold/ To keep your ears warm from the Binghamton cold./It was my first one and it was too small./It didn't fit you at all, but you wore it just the same. What's not to love about those lyrics? It just brings a smile to your face. :)
We ran all over and I ended up getting a few shirts from Gap, an ADORABLE purple dress from Target, and some unmentionables from Victoria's Secret because I had a $10 off card. I think I have officially fallen back in love with Gap. For awhile there I couldn't find anything that I was really happy with, but ever since I bought my white skirt there around April I have since been frequenting the online store and could hardly contain my joy when I went in there yesterday. I found an adorable purple [apparently those two words can not be separated] and grey skirt. I put it back though and I'm glad I did. I got a 40% off coupon for next week, so I shall promptly go back on a day off next week and get it. :)
Now, can I just talk about something a little sensitive for a moment? [Boys, stop reading this paragraph.] I want to talk about women's underwear. There are some things that they are meant to do and there are other things that they were just not designed for. For instance, no one pair of underwear should be asked to be "One Size Fits All". That's just too much to ask of one undergarment. God made everyone in all different shapes and sizes and for that very fact I find it highly impossible to have a pair of underwear be "one size fits all". I was so disturbed by that when the sales lady told me that. Something I was even more disturbed by was the male working behind the counter. [Um, excuse me sir, do you know what store you're in? You do? Just to be clear, you know you're not working at a Menard's, right? Ok, just checking.] I was highly uncomfortable by him being there. I don't think I've ever seen a man working in that store. Ever. I honestly hope to never see him again.
As for my ADORABLE purple dress from target, let's just say I came home and bought a black one online too. :) It's cute, comfortable, and in my opinion you can never have too many of those kind of dresses.
After shopping Rach and I went to Sonic for Happy Hour. I decided to get out of my DCL comfort zone and try a Mango something or other. Let's just say, I will be getting my DCL from here on out with no need to branch out of my comfort zone EVER AGAIN.

After shopping I came home and made dinner for the fam, and then us girls headed to a friends house to watch the Bachelorette. It was the finale, so we had a little party. Basically what that means is that a half dozen or so of us girls got together, gabbed a bunch, and ate a TON. It was a good thing I hadn't eaten too much earlier that day because I more than made up for it then. I laughed a lot though, so I'm sure I burned off all those calories I consumed. Right??
Because this post is already long enough I'm going to be short about this.
Kiptyn- I felt bad for him at the end. I am an Ed fan, but Kip really was a good guy and I felt a twinge of sadness that she didn't pick him.
Reid- What the world?? I mean, I knew you came back, but seriously dude, you came on a little lot too strong. She sent you home, and you can't just come back, propose, and man handle her into saying yes. Doesn't work that way buddy! I was even more disappointed in him with what he had to say once in the limo taxi-van. I'd always liked you Reid, but you made me lose respect for you there.
Ed- :) You knew they had something special when you saw how broken up she was when he left, and not to mention how happy she was when he came back. I hope they last! How cute was the little recap segment when they played that Martina McBride song? A-dorable! I'm a little nervous about the "After the Final Rose" tonight. Hopefully things went well for them during their time apart. We shall see....

Ok, well I must get ready. I'm watching down at the girl's house tonight. So we can be elated or outraged together. Hopefully not the latter.

Until.....................