30 Before 30!

 

I'm linking up with my new favorite blog, www.emyselfandi.com, for her 30 things to do before 30 post. I love this idea of having a list of things to do before a certain age. I'm not sure I'll be able to come up with 30 things tonight but seeing as a have several (somewhere between 6 and 8) years until I'm 30, I'll still have plenty of time to add to my list of things. 

1. I hate trying to come up with the first thing on the list. Yikes! #1 always seems to mean the most important. I guess the most important would be to have a summer packed full of fun the year I turn thirty. I realized in typing this list that I will turn 30 in June and then celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary in August of the same year. I think that is super cool and requires some super fun plans that summer. I'll let you know when I decide what those plans might be (in a few years)!

2. Go on a cruise with Mom. Hopefully that will happen in the coming summer! Woohoo!

3. Lose 15 pounds. I should really get busy with this one NOW!

4. Get a full time job as an elementary school teacher. Come on, Economy! I'm ready and willing to work!

5. Pick out and purchase a new (or at least new-to-me) SUV. 

6. Find an organization system for my photos, scrapbooks and stick with it and stay up to date. 

7. Learn how to apply eyeliner on myself. 

And now, I'm stuck. Since I have a number of years before 30 I'll keep adding to my list.

Until then, check out the blog, www.emyselfandi.com I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about E, her cute dog Addy and teaching high school. (I have a cute cat Tucker and want to teach little kids but somehow my blog isn't as much fun. Maybe I should update more?!?)

New Normal

What is normal, really?

It's been a busy, crazy week and another one is starting tomorrow.

I'm ready for the new normal to consist of : scarves, boots, pumpkin spice lattes, jeans, pumpkins, Dixie Stampede soup, a full time job, and spare change to spend on hobbies. And happiness for all. I'm not sure if my new normal will contain all of these but a girl can wish, right?

Photo Credit: http://www.wellsphere.com/weight-loss-article/how-starbucks-pumpkin-spice-latte-fits-in-your-diet/791459

The Most Wonderful 4 Letter = FALL!

Only one month until Fall! (Yes, I know Fall begins Sept. 22nd and it's only the 20th but the countdown thing I used online says it's 31 days until FALL!) Woohoo!


Side Note: Do you ever forget what lead size mechanical pencil you prefer? I do! Just got out two pencils to test out. And I can't decide. I like the way 7mm feels when writing but 5mm smears less. Ugh.

What's in your purse?

Back in April, Stacy Julian issued a What's in your purse? challenge. You were asked to take pictures of your purse and its contents. Yep, I did that - back in April. But I never did anything with the photos. Just snapped them and loaded them into Picasa.

So, fast forward to today. I'm in search of new blogs and decide to go through my list of followers on Twitter. I come to a blog "Peek at My Paper" and begin reading her posts. That's when I find her purse challenge posts except she goes on to talk about what the contents of her purse say about her. WOW! Why didn't I think of that?

Without further ado, here are my purse challenge photos and what I think the contents say about me.

1. I like pink! Purse, phone case, wallet, small spiral notebook, sticky notes, even my book!

2. I'm a paper person. I need to write my notes/lists on paper - no electronically stored lists. I have my grocery list in the notebook. Another list torn out of the notebook. A list of names and addresses for a wedding shower I was throwing. My Sunday School lesson plan.

3. I'm a bargain hunter! Several coupons and receipts are found in my purse.

4. I love Chic-fil-a! Their coupons are the best! Did you know that Chic-fil-a will accept expired coupons? Or that if the coupon is for a free grilled sandwich, you can trade it out for a different kind of sandwich? The Veggie Tales CD came in my kids meal from Chic.

5. I must have sunglasses & my cell phone! Those are my essentials!

6. My iPod, lip gloss, and book are just extras. I can do without them but must have sunglasses & cell phone!

7. I guess having my wallet and keys are pretty essential too.

8. The paw print shaped tag is from my cat's bed that I bought that day that he never sleeps in and the postcard is from the vet say that the cat was due for shots.

9. The ziploc bag is full of coins. I save my coins to feed my Starbucks habit. I try not to spend "crispy cash" as my favorite 2 year old twins call dollar bills on coffee.

10. The vial and nasal spray thing is my migraine medicine, Migranal. Works wonders!

11. Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews is probably my favorite book ever! And that pink purse - probably my favorite purse ever too. I'd always wanted a colored, leather purse and this one fits my personality perfectly. I'm still carrying that same purse today and I rarely stick with one purse that long. My wallet is in my fav Vera Bradley pattern too, Mod Pink Floral. So sad that pattern's been discontinued.

12. That orange thing? It's a free sample of some magic cloth that I saw demo-d at the mall. It was pretty cool but not worth the $20 price tag to buy.


Here's a link to the blog post that inspired me to write this post: Peek At My Paper blog link

A few more photos just for fun:

The price you pay for FREE

I was lucky enough to receive a free Starbucks coupon. I decided I'd use it yesterday. It was hot outside, I felt a bit drab, and was hungry/thirsty.

I go to my Starbucks in Target and order a non-fat cafe vanilla frappuccino no whip. Here's where I should note that I normally order a non-fat vanilla bean frap with half coffee base no whip but lately that hasn't had enough of a coffee flavor.

I inhaled my frap as I browsed through every inch of Target. Ah, the joys of good coffee.

Fast forward 12 hours....yep, still wide awake at 1am. Why? I wonder as I lay in bed thinking of the upcoming fall season, plotting ways to obtain a career job, which Coach bag I'd buy if I had the money, thinking about my love of YellowBox flip flops, or how cute the tiny baby socks on the end cap at Target are that have the "3-6 months" label on the bottom in that non-skid stuff and trying to come up with a way to invite myself to a family-friend's mountain cabin again so I can sip coffee on the rocking chair porch overlooking the mountain view in my PJs each morning.

And that is when I realized it. COFFEE. My normal vanilla bean frap is only half coffee based...my new cafe vanilla frap = all coffee! Ugh. Thank you, my friend caffeine for keeping me up most of the night and thank you, my dear cat for waking me up 4 hours after I fell asleep.

I wonder if they can make my cafe vanilla decaf? Or half decaf-half regular?

So, the price for my free frappuccino  yesterday was about 4 hours of sleep.

Photo note: Taken in April of my favorite book, purse, and frapp at Starbucks.

Love-hate relationship with school supplies

I love school supplies...

...because there is something so fresh and new about starting a school year.
...because the notebooks and pens and organizers and planners are so colorful.
...because everything is empty - the notebooks are empty, the planners are empty, the pencil pouches are empty - all just waiting to be filled with possibility.
...because the hustle and bustle of the stores is fun - like Christmas except it's warm outside.
...because the deals are so good - 1 cent folders!


I hate school supplies...

...because this is the beginning of the first school year since I graduated from college and I should be stocking up on my supplies for my own elementary classroom - but I'm jobless.
...because my husband is stocking up on school supplies for his classroom and sometimes I'm just plain jealous. Please forgive me.
...because if I had lots of money I'd still stock up on school supplies for when I do get a classroom.
...because it's hard to justify spending $20 on a cute planner that won't get used because I'm jobless.


The rest of my story

The rest of my story would probably be beneficial to know and might explain more as to why I'm in such a love-hate limbo over school supplies but I feel it's best not shared right now. Maybe soon. Maybe not.

As a side note: I visited every school-supply-selling-store in my immediate area this afternoon to entertain myself. Found lots of great stuff. Should have snapped cellphone pics to share but I didn't. (I've been doing that a lot lately...taking cell pics of anything that I want to buy but can't justify the cost of)

So, I went into Staples then Target and then Office Max (went to Walmart a few days ago) and I was shocked. I've always been a loyal Staples fan but Office Max blew me away. Lots of cool stuff. Lots of neat planners. Lots of just pretty colors. Ugh. I did not need to find a new store.

Singing to my Heart

Our church is running their revival services every morning and evening this week. Last night, this lovely young man sang this song. I was so moved! After getting home with a yucky headache I was so of disappointed that I didn't know if I could find a version of the song online to listen to again.

Well, the headache was gone this morning and I set off to googling and found the song. "God's Been Good" sung by the Legacy Five. I've downloaded this and a few others from iTunes already. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.  

Off to get ready for tonight's service now. Busy busy around here. Will be back with more blog soon.

Random-ish Rumblings

{Don't ask where the post title came from. I don't know. It just sounded like fun.}

1. Tucker is really wanting to go play on the front porch but it's too stormy.

2. We booked a trip to Pigeon Forge today. Super duper excited about Dixie Stampede and Dollywood. Hopefully, this trip won't get snowed out the like the last time we planned to go to Pigeon Forge. Here's a look at what we were doing the last time we'd planned to be in Pigeon Forge. Yep, snowed in at home with 5 inches of snow!

3. Speaking of travels, I really want to make a "Travels Together" scrapbook off all the places we've been. But I need some inspiration. Please share clean and simple, cohesive scrapbook ideas preferably with travel themes. I have lots of photos to get busy with!

4. I need a J-O-B. I'm getting to the point of not being picky. I just want to start getting a career-sized-paycheck. But ideally, I'd love to teach 4th grade at an elementary school within 20 miles of my house. I realize now's not the time to be picky so I'm applying to every public school district, day care, pre-k, Starbucks, Target, and other place of employment withing the metro-area.

5. I think every weekend between now and the end of summer is booked up. Just got a call asking us to bring a salad to a picnic in two weeks. I felt silly but I had to ask "Do you mean a lettuce-salad? Or some other kind of salad?" The response...lettuce salad or macaroni salad or potato salad. Any of them would be fine. Every time I've typed salad in this post, I've typed "salada". I think I like that word better. I'll probably try to make a homemade version of this. (I think I blogged about this heavenly pasta-in-a-box before!)

6. If I could be any famous person, I think I'd want to be Reba McEntire. I love her red hair!

7. I finally let Tucker go out on the front porch since it has quit raining. We're both happier now. He's not crying and I can actually think and type this post that has taken me entirely too long to write out.

8. I have a dishwasher full of clean dishes to unload. YUCK!

9. Went to Chickfila for lunch today with the hubby. We didn't realize it was Cow Appreciation Day! We totally would have dressed in our cow outfits for the free food.

10. I have about 4 Mary Kay Andrews books that I want to read, a camera book to read, and an Eagle scout photo slide show to put together, and a closet to clean out. But writing silly blogs like this really is more fun.

One more random photo....In honor of today being, the 9th day of the month, I'm going to open the 9th folder in my photo organization system until I get to a single photo and I'm including it here.

Making homemade biscuits.

New Blog Look!

I made this blog banner months ago and have just now learned how to add it to my blog. I'm so proud of my accomplishments on the blog. Now, maybe I'll blog more frequently.

SUYL - China Patterns

This is my first time linking up with Kelly's Korner Show Us Your Life posts! Wish me luck!

Our wedding china is the Oberon pattern by Wedgwood. It was very difficult for us to find in stores but eventually we got 7 place settings plus the cream, sugar, and coffee pot (shown in the picture). The coffee pot is my absolute favorite piece!

My everyday dishes are these white square Corelle dishes. I love them!

Just for fun these are Mom's dishes. Old Town Blue. 

And these are Nanny's. Spring Blossom.

I see a scrapbook page somewhere in the future about our dishes and love of Corelle.

Corelle

YIP 6.04.09
Originally uploaded by that blonde girl

Ten Things I'm Thinking Today ::: Walmart Edition

1. I needed to buy groceries tonight because we're out of milk. We go through a lot of milk around here. Especially since Tucker the cat adopted us a few weeks ago. He LOVES milk!! Yes, we know it sometimes makes cats sick but not Tucker. And it makes me happy when I have at least 2 full gallons of milk in the fridge. Last week when it snowed, I had 4 new, unopened gallons of milk. I was ready for snow-cream making!

2. Funny how when you need milk, you suddenly need lots of other things. Like toothpaste. And grapes. I buy milk and grapes once a week. Sometimes I think Tucker and I could live off of those two things.

3. It's pouring rain. It's dark. It takes me 10 minutes to get all my rain gear (rain jacket, hood, umbrella, rainboots, Vera hipster on the inside of my jacket for protection) on for this trip to Wal-Mart. Approximately 10 seconds after walking out the door, I'm soaked. I am now on the search for rain pants.

4. Walking laps around Wal-Mart is not easy. In fact, it's very tiring especially when you forget things and have to walk across the store 10 times.

5. I finally found a frozen entree that I like: Smart Ones Lasagna worth 6 Weight Watchers points. I'm not a huge fan of frozen meals but I'm sick of sandwiches. Today, I took Townhouse crackers and grapes for lunch because I was so sick of sandwiches. (Don't worry, I didn't end up eating that for lunch. My wonderful assistant principal was going out for lunch and offered to pick me up something.) So, I need frozen meals to have on those "It's pouring rain. I'm running 20 minutes late. The traffic reporter on the morning news is already reporting wrecks on the roads that I drive to work." day. I also picked up a Salisbury Steak Weight Watchers meal, again worth 6 WW points. I hope 6 points isn't too much for lunch. My luck I should only eat like 4 WW points and that will ruin my lunch-plan.

6. Speaking of lunches, I also picked up this yumm-o Pasta-Roni pasta salad that I'm making for lunch with some chicken for tomorrow. Yes, I'm planning (and cooking) my meals over 12 hours in advance.

7. I needed to pick up some more make up tonight. I've been using the same Revlon Color Stay Active 02 makeup for about .... 5 years now. I started using this makeup when I realized that the orange stain on the preacher's shoulder of his white dress shirt was caused by my makeup rubbing off when I hugged him. Oops.

So, anyways.....Wal-Mart does not have my make up! None. Not even other colors. Must solve this dilemma ASAP. I must not ruin any more preachers' white dress shirts.

8. Why must the people that organize Wal-Mart put the 27 pound bags of Tidy Cats blue bag cat litter on the top shelf, way out of my reach? I bet they would rethink their Cat Litter Aisle organization when the 27 pound bag of cat litter busts all over the aisle. Good thing I wasn't desperate for cat litter tonight. I'll just get it at Petsmart another day. At Petsmart, someone offers to get my cat litter down for me even though it's on the bottom shelf.

9. I played the "I sure hope I have enough cash to buy all this stuff since it appears that I have lost my debit card...again" game. Luckily, I had 37 cents more than I needed! When I got home, my debit card magically appeared in my wallet. How strange.

10. As I geared up again to walk across the parking lot with a buggy full of goodies, a sweet lady with a small baby complimented me on my rain boots. I was very appreciative of her compliment but I was slightly jealous that her husband was moving their car to the curb to load groceries and keep her and cute little baby from getting wet. Oh well. Playing in puddles is kind of fun.


Updated: I MUST find a Weight Watchers friendly pasta salad recipe. The boxed mix I just made is almost 6 points for 1 serving! Not to mention the points of the chicken that I planned to eat with it! Yikes! Suggestions?