Thursday, October 28, 2010

This is a lesson in value.

My sister and I decided to have a yard sale this weekend so I've been going through closets most of the evening. After I watched The Vampire Diaries, of course. ;) It's really amazing what you can put in a closet and forget about! I found two laptop bags in perfect condition that I don't remember ever using. There were shoes I bought when I was first told I had to get rid of my heels because of the pinched nerve in my foot and went on a flats shopping spree. In other words, I'll be selling some good stuff this weekend if you're interested! Lol!

Anyhow. The biggest part of my purge is related to my old twin bed. It is solid wood and I remember the year my mom bought the matching beds for me and my sister. I remember the excitement of shopping for them - at the MALL! We rarely shopped at the mall when I was growing up because money was always tight. So going shopping for the beds there was a big deal. And I also remember how my mom worked so hard to come up with the money to get us GOOD beds. That was a big deal and I could tell she was proud of that. She confirmed tonight when I was texting her that she was happy to be able to buy them for us.

My bed has gone with me through our limited moves. When we got married and moved down the street I took it. When we moved back into mom's a year later it went back. Lol. And when we bought our house and moved to Milton it went into "the nursery" where it has been since. Kelly still has hers and it is now Landon's. Now that Tyler has turned two he needs a big boy bed... So after much wrestling with myself over it I told Kelly she could have it for him.

I'm sad to part with the bed even though I know it's going to a great little person and will likely belong to one of the boys their entire childhood. That's okay with me. And is kinda cool that the beds will be back together.

But then as I was going through the linen closet I came across the quilt mom bought me for Christmas one year. It's not too fancy and I'm not really ~in love~ with the design or colors anymore. But once again I remember the excitement of shopping for it. I remember that it was a sacrifice for my mom to spend that much money on a quilt. But it was what I wanted for Christmas that year and she made sure we found one that I liked. Because of that I simply can't put a value on that quilt. It's a twin size and I won't have a bed for it anymore... But it's not going anywhere! I tossed shoes I never wore and blankets I bought and then changed my mind about into the yard sale boxes without giving them a second thought. Things I paid decent money for (one pair of shoes still has the $25 price tag on them but they hurt my feet) and am willing to part with for very little. No big deal. Take my hard earned money. But when it comes to the things my mom sacrificed to be able to get me... I'll never be able to place a value on them - even if they aren't even something that anyone else would want!


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Saturday, October 16, 2010

It's hard to find a square pumpkin.

Today David and I went with Kelly, Josh, Landon, Tyler, and Kelly's friend Danielle to the pumpkin patch north of Milton.  Technically the address is Milton, Florida, but it's 30 minutes north of here (or more if you're stuck behind a slow farmer like we were!).  I haven't gotten to my pictures yet, but I did manage to pull the pictures of the shock-resistant Olympus I let Landon use today.  Both of the boys like playing with it and taking pictures, but Tyler still can't push the button very well.  Landon really got the hang of it, though.  He was so happy to take pictures of all of us, and I put together this collage of pictures he took.  It's so interesting to me to see things from his point of view.  I need to teach him to climb up on things to take pictures, though, because shooting from below is not usually the most flattering angle!  HA!

Photos by Landon

I was shocked when he turned the camera around and started pointing it at himself, Kelly, and Tyler.  At four years old he wanted to take a self-portrait.  Kids these days!! ;)


I handed off my camera for a little bit so David could take a few pictures of me with Landon (and later with Tyler).  I wasn't long before I was reaching for my camera again, though.  I'm just not supposed to be on the "subject" side of that lens.  And MAN do I need to lose some weight.   

Thursday, October 14, 2010

I can't sleep so I think I'll blog.

Unfortunately for all of you I've got it set up so I can email my blog entries now. That should make my blogging more regular - and perhaps a bit less logical. But I'm pretty good at typing with my thumbs these days!

I have been working on a couple of different crochet projects. I keep meaning to take pictures of them and post them, but I've gotten to the point that I don't want to pull out the big camera just to snap a couple of pictures at home unless one of the pets is laying in an ~amazing~ pool of sunlight or something. I'm working on a Christmas scarf with white yarn that has a silver thread running through it. I love that one! It's so simple yet awesome. That one stays at work. There's also Landon's blanket for Christmas. It's getting really big and it's so soft and warm! It's too big to take to work now so my progress has slowed down a bit. The cats can vouch for how awesome it is, though They want to lay on me while I'm working on it. I also started a pink scarf for my sister because she has never had a scarf before. So I am in the middle of three different projects and my hands are so sore! But Christmas is getting here fast so it's time to buckle down and make lots of progress if I'm going to make all the things I have planned.

I'm also trying to read Wuthering Heights. (Forgive me, I can't italicize from my phone.) I'm on chapter three and so far I don't get it. Like with Emma, I'm having a hard time keeping the characters straight. What's with that? Is my brain only capable of keeping up with characters in young adult vampire novels anymore? Ugh. That just reinforces to me that I need to keep on reading classics. My brain needs the challenge.

I had a strange thought today. Am I the only person who wonders what the Duggar family (19 Kids and Counting) thinks of the Sister Wives? And vice versa, I suppose. Both are devoutly religious families with an incredibly large number of children. I think they probably have some fundamental differences in their beliefs... But do they also have some similarities? Would they praise one another for bringing so many little gifts into the world or criticize them for bringing them into a religion that they don't believe? Both are on the same network (TLC) and I'm really curious about what they think of one another. I think TLC should explore this. Seriously.


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Friday, October 8, 2010

I cooked dinner tonight!

At the beginning of the year I made it my mission to cook at home more often.  We actually challenged ourselves not to eat out at all for a while and we made it a little over a month.  I was so proud of us!  And the only reason we stopped when we did was because we wanted to go out to eat for Valentine's Day.  So I've actually learned to cook some this year, but I still consider myself a beginner.  Cooking just isn't one of those things that comes naturally to me!  If there aren't very specific directions I'm likely to get lost.

Samantha sent me this recipe for No Boil Baked Penne earlier this week.  I love Italian food of any kind and this was billed as quick and easy so I decided to try it.  And since I love pictures, you get pictures of my big cooking effort for this week!


I made my list before we went grocery shopping last night.  We hadn't been in two and a half weeks, so it was way past time.  For some reason I've developed an aversion to grocery shopping recently.  Hopefully it will pass soon.  I don't know why because I LOVE Publix.  The pasta and spaghetti sauce were both on sale buy one get one free.  The Publix brand cheeses were all cheaper than the alternative and just as good.  I didn't look too hard for a deal on the sausage though because I had no clue what to look for in comparing the brands.  I decided to go with a brand name I recognized, and then to pick which type I went with Italian since I was cooking an Italian themed dish.  Um, works for me.


The recipe says to brown and crumble the sausage so I decided to try to cook it like hamburger meat.  Except that it wasn't the same consistency as hamburger and didn't stir as easily.  Tricky.  And messy.  But i got it cooked!  And so far I haven't dropped over of food poisoning so I think I got all the pink out.


Then I added the cheeses.  Perhaps I measured a tiny bit more than 1 cup of mozzarella.  But I only used half the Ricotta because I really can't stand the stuff.  I absolutely love lasagna, and I'll eat the Ricotta in it when I first start eating... but the less hungry I am as I eat, the less I can tolerate the nasty stuff.  The recipe called for what I consider a HUGE amount of it so I cut it in half.

Then I mixed it all up in a big bowl.  That wasn't very pretty...  sausage, tomato sauce, uncooked pasta, three different cheeses, and water.  So I did us all a favor and skipped taking a picture of that step!  I popped it in the oven, set the timer for 55 minutes and headed out to the front yard to take some pictures of the spider lilies that are blooming.  I absolutely love spider lilies because they mean fall is officially here.  Plus they're one of the only flowers I'm capable of growing.  For some reason I do okay with bulbs.  Probably because they're tucked safely under the ground and they don't need me!

IMG_3833

(Click on that one to go to flickr and see it bigger if you like.  I think it's pretty.  Go ahead, I'll wait here.  LOL)

We watched TV while the deliciousness was cooking.  I wouldn't really classify this as a weeknight meal.  It had to bake for 65 minutes!  We are used to eating between 5:00 and 6:00 because David has to leave for work at 6:30 on work nights... this didn't get finished until after 7:00 and we were starving!  It tasted good, though.  Sorry I don't have a prettier picture of the finished product... I promise I even cooked it in my pretty baking dish that matches my dishes!


But trust me that it was pretty good.  I'll make it again.  I'll probably use a tad bit more sauce next time and perhaps less sausage.  It was very meaty and we're just not huge meat eaters here.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

I'm still here!

I haven't abandoned this blog, I promise.  In fact, I've been thinking about it a lot lately and just wondering what I should write about.  I guess I should start by posting that I did finally manage to finish Emma and I don't recommend it AT ALL.  It was pretty awful.  Then I rented the movie through Netflix and it was equally awful.  They obviously used sets for outdoor scenes and I just don't get that.  It was sort of like watching a really slow play in movie form.  Except I like plays.

Next I decided to read The Vampire Diaries.  While I found the writing better (grammatically) than Twilight, I just couldn't get into the books.  I read three of them and decided I'd wasted enough of my time.  (They were quick reads so thankfully that didn't translate to too much wasted time.)  I then decided to give the TV series based on the books a try and oh, my...  I'm hooked!  I managed to watch all 22 episodes of the first season over the course of a single weekend (they're 45-minute episodes!) and I'm now thoroughly enjoying season two with everyone else as it airs.  I'm totally Team Damon and I have a picture that Ian Somerhalder tweeted of himself as my wallpaper on my computer at work.  HA!  Yep, I just publicly admitted that.  I think I've sunk to a new level of geekery.

I haven't decided yet what I'll read next.  I think it will be either Wuthering Heights or GRRM's Game of Thrones.  Depends on whether or not I keep with my classic - current - classic - current plan or not.  Classics are so boring, though.

I've also started crocheting again.  I learned in middle school but hadn't done anything in a LONG time.  It's like riding a bike and I picked it back up pretty easily.  I'm currently hooked on granny square blankets, which I taught myself to make by watching a tutorial on YouTube.  You can learn anything on the internet these days!  So far I've made a couple of scarves, a baby blanket, a toddler blanket, and a hat.  The hat came out too small for an adult, though... which is unfortunate because it was supposed to match a scarf that I made.  My fingers have been objecting to my crocheting so much lately, though, so I'm giving them a small break.  But I hope everyone likes stuff made of yarn because that's what they're likely to get for Christmas this year. 

Something else I feel falls under noteworthy news is the fact that I actually beat a sinus infection without taking any antibiotics.  Someone needs to write that down somewhere important because it's a first for me in a LONG time.  Like since I was a kid.  Z-Pack stopped being effective for me in either middle or high school.  My body typically doesn't give me the option of recovering without antibiotics, but with the help of unbelievable amounts of Vitamin C, Mucinex D, NyQuil, and more boxes of PuffsPlus tissues than I can count I DID IT!  I want my prize now, please.

(This is a test to see how posts sent by email look on the blog.)

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