A quick one - more later

I decided I only have a few minutes before I need to leave the house this morning so I figured I'd do the quick survey that Dani posted and tagged me in. So here it goes..

The rules:
1. Answer with 5 answers.
2. Tag 5 friends.


1). What were you doing 10 years ago?

- I was 23 and loving being on my own - partying way too much probably
- was in a shitty relationship
- was living with my sister and having fun
- was waitressing
- was going to college

2). What 5 things are on your to-do list for today:

-work
-drop off Halloween costume for my niece
- go hang out with the girls to watch the game
- laundry
-my Thursday night ritual of cleaning the house to free up my Friday

3). Snacks you enjoy:
-salsa/chips/sour cream
-cracker barrell cheese
-honey cheese curls
-pepperoni
-hot fries


4). Places You've Lived:

-westville, nj
-Berlin, NJ
-Gloucester, NJ
-Runnemede, NJ
-wildwood, nj (summer)

5). What are 5 Things you would do if you were a billionaire?

-whole new wardrobe
-do lots of great things to our new home
-Pay off all our bills, all my families bills (I copied Dani, but it's great)
-adopt a child and a couple dogs
-donate to a lot of different charities

Busy is good - sometimes

I've got such a busy week & I'm kind of liking that. Today was a pretty easy day. I made a potluck dinner; basically a little of everything. And my brother came over for a little while. I had to run though because I needed this hair cut, it was driving me nuts. Of course I made a trip to Walmart at the same time and got some not so needed things. Well, maybe they were in fact needed. Tomorrow we have our tasting at our reception venue and then on Wednesday I have a movie/dinner night with my friend from work. I know, I know.. you shouldn't mix your work with your personal life but she's good people; trust me. We're supposed to go to see Paranormal Activity but I hear it sucks. I guess I won't mind so much since we have gift cards we're using. I won't feel as bad about the movie being a sleeper if I'm not paying for it out of my pocket. My friend Steph and I are horror movie buffs. We were either going to see Saw 6 or Paranormal Activity .. and somehow Paranormal won. Then Thursday I'm off to get some furniture moved for my mom and Friday I'm hoping to make a trip down to my friend's house and visit for a while. Her husband fell ill a couple of weeks ago and it's been a trying time for them. More about that in a later post.

Trying to stay awake

I'm really trying to stay up late tonight.. since my work week's over but Thursdays are always so hard for me. I was up in the wee hours this morning and now it's catching up with me. Oy, my poor body. I should probably try to get to bed at a decent hour anyway so that I can start my day earlier tomorrow. I do like sleeping in on my days off but I don't like sleeping in too late because then I feel as if half my day is already gone when I do get up. Tomorrow I'm picking up my mom and my niece and hanging out for a while. I think my niece has a soccer game tomorrow night too so we'll just hang until we have to go to her game; my sister's working til 8 p.m. I want to try and get home in the mid afternoon so my niece can nap before her game. I always feel like she's so tired by the time her game starts. They're so little to begin with.. but it sure is precious seeing a bunch of toddlers racing around on the soccer field. And she is a star! It's hard to believe how well she plays... but she's always loved the soccer ball. I guess she's a natural. Hopefully the rain holds up because I don't like lugging through the rain when I'm trying to get things done on my days off. I think I might try to go bowling.. my niece LOVES bowling... so that's an idea, in case I can't think of anything.

The wind down

Well, I finally got all of my fall decorating done. I'm sure I'll come across something in the coming weeks that I just have to add but for now, I'm pretty darn content and impressed with my creative side that suddenly appeared. Is this what happens when you buy a home? All of a sudden this domestic diva comes out of nowhere? Domestic Diva?!! What a crock. I said that to Jeff last night when he came home from work; he was thoroughly impressed with what I'd done out front. AND I'm proud to say that I actually was able to get those damn cornstalks in my car.. which by the way is just a Saturn ION. Yes, it was interesting when I got up nice and early yesterday morning, went to the produce outlet and saw the cornstalks there in the garden center. Literally towering OVER ME. I said to myself, "And how in the hell am I going to get THOSE big ass cornstalks in my car?". So I left, with some indian corn and pretty new mums and figured I'd wait til Jeff got home with his Titan. BUT, if you know me, I don't like to wait and I wanted to do it myself. So I went to yet another garden center and looked at the stalks, MUCH the same in size as those earlier and was not leaving without them. I went to the counter to pay for them and the nice young man actually went out to get them for me. I said to him, money in mid-pass, that I wasn't sure they'd even fit in my car. He said, "I'll get 'em in".. and did he ever? With a little pushing and maybe a bit of squishing and an open back window, he managed to get them in my car and lucky for me the excess that was hanging out my window was minimal. I was glad I was only around the corner from my house, in any case, but I got those cornstalks! So now, we're all fall decorated. This morning we got up early, went to breakfast and made it to the fall festival one town over, before the rain really hit. Lucky for all of the vendors, it lasted only a little while. They had lots of nice things for sale and it was a nice walk for us. Now I'm home unwinding and waiting on takeout to get here. Is that order-in as opposed to take-out? Anyhoo - I'm getting my jammies and slippers on and relaxing for the rest of the night. I need to just sit and vegetate for a while. Too much running today. We decided to take my mom to Ikea to look at some things for her new place.. (actually just a bedroom at my sister's place) and she went hay wire like I did the first time. Ikea rocks though! I love it there.. and I was able to control myself this time. Then we were off to church, Target, Walmart and now we're home. Can you see why I'm exhausted!!?

Turning in for the night

I hope. Thursdays are my "fridays". So naturally on Thursday evenings I take it to the limit with staying up late and enjoying my "weekend". But I always get to the point where I can't hang any longer and I have to call it a night. Tonight I've been on Ebay looking up God knows what for the wedding. This, that and the other thing. Cake toppers, favor seals, jewelry. You name it! I was even putting in things that were turning up "no results". Come on, seriously? EVERYTHING is on Ebay. I don't believe it. Well I must call it a night anyway, because I've got big plans to get up early and run to the produce outlet and grab some corn stalks and mums to put outside. Yeah, I learned that mums have to be watered? Hey, I'm new at this owning a home thing and I do not have a green thumb by any stretch of the imagination so I'm learning here. The last two mums I bought turned into a nice dried floral arrangement. Yeah, that's it! I was going for that look. Ahem. Anyway, I'm meeting up with two former co-workers tomorrow and I'm super excited. We'll have lunch around the corner from my house and then they want to head back here for the grand tour. It's nothing special, probably, but it's ours and we love it. So I guess that's all that matters. I guess I kind of want to get the last of the fall decorations up BEFORE I bring them back here for the tour. I'm just teetering on Fall or Halloween?... more of one? or a nice mix of both? I really wanted to get those tombstones that they sell at Michael's and put them in the big flower bed that we have outside but I think we're still in our "probationary period" with the neighbors! haha I don't want to have them eyeballing us anymore than they already do. I think they were all a little curious when I hung the "Welcome to the Nut House" flag out. It was too funny not to get it, sorry. We had one when we were kids when it was OH SO APPROPRIATE for our household. So, I'm going to make that effort to wake before 9 tomorrow and get my butt out for the last of the goodies to make this place look festive for Fall.

Falling into place

It's apparent that Fall is here and I could not be happier about it. I wish that Fall were the only season we had. Maybe a bit warmer, but not much. I don't like chilly mornings when I have to get a shower or climb out from under the warm, cushy blankets. But yes, I'm really digging this weather and this time of year. I love the homes decorated with all of the Fall themes and the hay bales and scarecrows! I need to go get two more from Michael's because it's come to my attention that our front yard is pretty darn big and the scarecrows I did put out just don't look right. There's so much empty space and then these small scarecrows at opposite ends of the barren flower garden out front. I really need to jazz up the house way more than this. It drives me batty every time I pull up in front. Before I know it, Halloween will be here and I love that holiday! Always have and not sure why. This year my sister works on Halloween and so does my niece's dad so I'm taking her out to trick-or-treat with my friend and her son. Well, he's 13 so we're pretty sure that he's past the age of walking the neighborhood with mom and trick or treating! One can hope though. I'm going to get dressed up too but I'm not sure what I'll be yet. Probably just get some ears and the neck tie like I did last year. I was a devil I think. It was silly but it was easy. I better get out and find something though because those shelve empty out pretty quick when it starts to get REALLY close. I better head on over to the wedding blog and update there.. I can't believe we are 6 months away from the big day. It seems so far and other times it seems so close. I have some things to get done that I have to stop procrastinating on.

Fridays are my favorite

Well, maybe they are sometimes, but not always. I'm usually running around like a nut getting things done. I'm off Fridays but Jeff is not so that sorta stinks because that means that we only really have ONE full day together ever.. That would be Saturday. Today I'm off to the bank to change my address and then to Michael's hopefully to get some fall decorations. I love Fall! And now we have our new home to jazz up, so that's going to be a lot of fun. Haven't really decided what to do so far but we have a great front porch that I know will set the scene for a nice Fall theme. Can't wait. Probably do lunch with a friend and then take her wherever she needs to go. The weather is great today, I just turned the heat off and opened up a little bit. It's breezy out and I love that! You can open all the windows and get the fresh air in. Ahhh. Well, I'm off and promise to post later.
Hope you have a great Friday!

The Shack & reflections

I've been reading The Shack for what seems like months on end. Actually, it has been that long. At first I was reading it and it was very strange to me but then I decided to just perservere and get through it. Well, now I'm at the point that I can't put it down. You know how that goes. I would assume that every one who reads this book will come away with all of their own findings, opinions etc. I find myself doing just that. It's been for me, almost like a "Bible for Dummies" sort of read. It's brought different things to light for me. Some things inside of me. I know that the book is pretty much all fictional but I believe in some parts that it couldn't be closer to the truth than if it really and truly WERE. I think the most recent passage I read in the book that really stopped me and led me to reflect was the line where God was speaking of the great tragedy that had happened to Mack. (the man the story is based on) ... God goes on to say "Just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn’t mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don’t ever assume that my using something means I caused it…” This brings to mind how quickly, when something goes awry, we're so quick to blame God or assume that it's a test by God. When I read that line in the book, it made so much sense to me. I can't even count on two hands, how many times I've said it in the past. "Why, God?" ... or "Why am I being punished like this?" I think I've got a whole new take on that now. That's why, unlike so many other people, I don't always believe in "things happen for a reason". It disgusts me how, when a child is killed or murdered or raped, someone always says how it was bound to happen. It happened just as it was supposed to and there was a plan that God had. That's just stupid. God did not intend for all of this violence in the world and all of the hate and prejudice. All He did was gave us FREE WILL... and this is what mankind has done with it. Abused it. I'm not so quick to point a finger at God anymore; throwing my hands up in times of trouble and asking "WHY?".