Kids Say the Cutest Things

Okay Jenn, I'm posting this so that you don't forget to write it down...

Today I went to lunch at Taco Bueno with my friend Jenn. The booth we were sitting in was right by a window and the sun was shining in. We'd only been sitting a few minutes when her daughter asked "Mommy, could you please turn the sun off. It's too bright." It was too cute. We couldn't help her with the sun, but managed to figure out how to close the blinds.

Sometimes You Just Have to Make Work Fun!

I love to mess with people and today I found a new way. When you get an email from a co-worker asking a question, respond to their question, but before you send it, use the translate feature in Microsoft Word and change it to a different language. It’s great!!!

Secret Admirer, Maybe?

Nope, I don’t have one – but my mom might. Someone has been leaving stockings on her door. The first one had a pear shaped Christmas ornament. The second one had two chocolate turtles and two dove chocolates (yeah, you get the idea what’s going on here). It ought to be interesting to see what they come up with for the rest of the twelve days (and even more interesting to see who’s doing it). Whoever it is, I think it’s a good distraction for her. My dad died six years ago today, so this time of year is always bitter-sweet for all of us – but especially her.

I’ll try to keep a running list of what she gets each day.

Day 1 – Partridge in a Pear Tree (Pear Christmas ornament)
Day 2 – Two Turtle Doves (2 chocolate turtles and 2 Dove chocolates)
Day 3 – Three French Hens (3 "peeps")
Day 4 – Four Calling Bird
Day 5 – Five Golden Rings
Day 6 – Six Geese a Laying
Day 7 – Seven Swans a Swimming
Day 8 – Eight Maids a Milking
Day 9 – Nine Ladies Dancing
Day 10 – Ten Lords a Leaping
Day 11 – Eleven Pipers Piping
Day 12 – Twelve Drummers Drumming

Not a Good Year For Nails

It's no secret that I am accident prone. We've had that discussion in several previous blogs. But my "accidents" are starting to scar me for life. Several months ago, I dropped a container of ice cream on my toe and the bottom section of the nail turned black and blue. My biggest concern at the time was that I would permanently have a black and blue spot in that area that cannot be easily covered up with toe nail polish. OHHHH I should only be so lucky. A few weeks ago, that section of the nail started coming off. so now there is this big crevasse in my toe nail between where the remainder of the nail actually is and where the nail SHOULD start. I'm not even submitting a picture because it's gross. I'm now afraid I may never have a toe nail ever again. I can only pray the situation will resolve itself before sandal weather 2007.

But that's not it. Last Saturday when I was taking a shower, I managed to shave off part of my fingernail (interestingly enough, it is the same fingernail in relation to my thumb as my damaged toenail to my big toe...i.e., second finger/toe on the right hand/foot). I had to cut the nail off to the quick because there was a hole in the nail. But now I still have to keep it cut off short because if I let it grow out any, there is a "claw" on that finger (again, no picture...not because it's gross, I just can't seem to take the picture with my left hand).

I'm some how thinking an investment in electrolysis might be my best bet because I am NOT good with the razor (this isn't my first major mishap).

Just Wondering

Here is a question for you. Last night at our office Christmas Party (yep, I actually went this year), we got into the discussion about ballerinas and one of my co-workers asked this question “what do you call male ballerinas?” One of the girls at the table responded with “balleriners” which sounded like ballerwieners and we got a good laugh out of that. But what do you call them? Just wondering.

Ain't He Cute

This is my friend's little boy Zaine. He's almost 9 months old and so much fun. I have a feeling there is a section of this tree that won't stay decorated this year.

Outdoor Lights & Snow

Here is a picture of the Christmas lights outside my house. Get a load of the HUGE snow drift over my neighbor's door. Eventually, it has to come down. Just hope I'm not standing under it when it does.

Update: I seem to have inspired my neighbor. When I came home yesterday, he had put icicle lights up on his half to complete the picture. It looks complete now.

Ugh!

So I switched to Blogger Beta because it said I would eventually have to, but now it's cutting off the top of my header (though it doesn't do it in the preview). I can't figure out how to fix it yet, so excuse the mess till I get it figured out. I'm so irritated...which isn't good because I'm already easily irritated today (that's a whole other discussion).

I Should Time and a Half…

...and a raise for this! I am working today. NO ONE ELSE in my office had to come in today (well, except Linda). Why are Linda and I here? It’s called a bulletin. We seem to be able to do without anything else…but the bulletin must be printed. And if Linda had a chance to proof it before today, I would be the only one here. This stinks!!! Linda’s husband had to bring both of us to work because if I pulled my car out, I might not be able to get it back in. I’m supposed to go to a friend’s house tonight, but if I don’t figure out a way to get my driveway cleared off, that won’t be happening. I’ve added a snow shovel to my Christmas list, but I might have to break down and get one before Christmas. Hopefully I will get home in time to take a picture of the HUGE snow drift on my roof.

Initial Holiday Thoughts

It's Begun

I was sitting at a stop light yesterday and there is was...the first car I've seen this season with a wreath on the grill. This is a pet peeve of mine.


Christmas Lights

I decided to put up Christmas lights outside. Started out pretty easy. The previous tenant had left the nails in place, so all I had to do was hang my lights...that is till you get to the garage. Ideally, I would like to follow the eve of the garage, but it's pretty tall and I don't have a ladder tall enough to reach it all, so even though I think it looks dumb, I probably won't do the garage. I also hung garland over the front door...but I had to go get new lights for the garland and I think I need some sort of bow to finish it off. They're not lit though. It wasn't thinking when I went to Wal-mart yesterday to get a extension cords and didn't get enough, which will require another trip later. I probably need to do that tonight now that I think of it before the bad weather moves in. Hmmm...


Christmas Tree

I also started putting up my Christmas tree this weekend. The last time I put up a tree, I lived with Jeana (which was two years ago). I didn't realize how few decorations I still had. It's looking pretty sad - but I'm working on it. I also started putting up the garland on the fire place and entertainment center. Also missing something - but I'm working on that too. I would like to make a trip to Garden Ridge on Saturday, but I also value my life. We'll see. The rest of the Christmas decorations are on the floor (at least the ones I want to put out). I'm trying to wait and give my roommate a chance to also put hers out, but she's been sick, so I don't know if she's even going to want to put them out. I figure I'll leave them on the floor a while longer and give her a chance to get hers out.


Christmas Shopping

I have only bought one present so far and it's for my mom. I'm planning to take a Friday off in the next couple of weeks, so I'll probably just do it all then. It's not like I have a whole lot to do. I guess that's the nice part about not having a lot of family that you exchange gifts with. Mom, brother, sister-in-law, and a few friends and that pretty much covers it. I do have quite a few people I need to make Christmas Cookies for. I might need to start getting busy on that sometime soon.

A Good Week – The Anniversary Edition

Monday
- Won the shoes I was bidding on off of ebay and actually got a great deal on them (even with having to pay shipping). This is the second pair of expensive shoes I’ve gotten for cheap off of ebay. It’s my new shoe source.

- Got taken to dinner by my former youth minister/family friend. I like it when I get a free meal.

Tuesday
- Stayed really busy at work (this is actually a good thing right now).

- Got to watch Emmitt Smith on Dancing with the Stars. You can not help but smile when you look at him.

Wednesday
- Got to watch the “leafas” blowing outside over lunch with Jenn & Kayla. Kayla has a great collection of “leafas” in the floor board of their car in front of her car seat.

- Emmitt Smith won Dancing with the Stars!

Thursday
- Paid my car off (and the final payment was less than what I thought it was going to be)! Now hopefully my car won’t be in and out of the shop so that I can actually save the money instead of spending it on the car.

- Found a new duvet cover w/ shams for my bedroom for only $30!!! Looks like the red gingham and denim might be retired sooner than I thought. It’s been 10 years, it’s time.

Friday
- This is BIG. I have officially owned and lived in my house for a year TODAY!!! I was hoping to have an open house/party to celebrate the occasion – but that’s not going to happen. I feel the need to celebrate…maybe I’ll add ordering a pizza to my normal weekend routine.

- Got my shoes in the mail that I won off of ebay. I love them!

- Didn’t get pulled over this morning on 33rd when I very easily could have been. I was thinking about things to add to this list and was going about 7 miles over the speed limit. Whew!!! That would have put a damper on my week.

Dry Cleaners

This is just weird, and maybe not post worthy, but it’s my blog and I don’t want to start a new project this late in the day so I’m going to post it.

I had to go to the dry cleaners today (sorry girls, no cute guys behind me in line, but I did have business cards on hand). Anyway, I give the lady my clothes and she asks for my last name. So I told her and she say “no, I need your last name.” So I told her again and once again she says “no, ma’am, I need your LAST name.” I responded by telling her that was my last name and spelling it. What I find humorous about this is that my last name is never mistaken for a first name. I’ve never even heard of anyone with my last name as a first name. I guess it’s possible, but not common. Granted I answer to my last name a lot, but lots of people do. It was just a very random conversation.

Sorry my posts have been lacking lately, but NOTHING interesting has happened to me in a very long time. I am cooking my first turkey this weekend – but I am hoping this event is uneventful. It has been a good week – but that’s tomorrow’s post. I know you’re anxiously waiting (okay, well humor me and pretend to be).

This is weird

I have had dreams the last two nights about people from High School. I have no idea why. Nothing all that weird or significant about the dreams other than the fact that I probably haven’t thought about or seen most of these people since High School. That’s all I have to say about that.

Miracles DO Happen

I don’t know if I have posted about this in the past, but we have a copier repair guy that in the past I absolutely could not STAND. He was rude and degrading. I got to the point where I asked them not to send him out here. From what I had been told from other repair techs from this same company, he seemed to have that effect on lots of their customers. They said he was good at what he does, but his people skills were lacking.

Well, lately they have been sending him out here most of the time. They have our regular tech working on other stuff, so we’ve had no other choice but to have our machine repaired by the other guy. What I have noticed is that he has become easier to deal with. I think they may have sent him to sensitivity training or something. Whatever the change – it has been welcomed.

Today, we were having another problem, so I had to place a service call. When I got back, he was here fixing the machine. He told me he couldn’t find the problem, but wanted to show me the change he had made to one of the trays. Our copier has two large capacity trays. He thought I was calling about the one I have been having trouble with instead of the external one. When I told him it was the other tray, he LAUGHED and jokingly acted like he was going to hit me. Did I mention he LAUGHED!!! Normally, this would have made him mad. I think maybe, just maybe, we have come to an understanding and I’ve finally made friends with the copier guy that was making my life miserable every time he came out. See, miracles do happen. It’s taken a couple of years, but they do happen.

On a funny note, He has his shirt tucked into his boxers and his boxers are sticking out the back of his pants today. It’s a very funny site and I don’t want to embarrass him by pointing out the problem. I’m just hoping he’ll discover it himself before his next service call.

Today I Feel...

Frustrated
frus‧trate/verb, -trat‧ed, -trat‧ing, adjective
1. to make (plans, efforts, etc.) worthless or of no avail; defeat; nullify.
2. to disappoint or thwart (a person).
3. to become frustrated.

Try This

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 4 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

And here I thought I was an original!

Other interesting facts:

- There are 167,982 people in the U.S. with the first name Stacey.
- Statistically the 357th most popular first name. (tied with 4 other first names)
- 90.18 percent of people with the first name Stacey are female.
- There are 6,869 people in the U.S. with my last name.
- Statistically the 5174th most popular last name. (tied with 38 other last names)

FYI

Just in case anyone is wondering, it is NOT dump on Stacey day. Just thought I would clarify that because my co-workers seem to be under the impression that it is.

Bit-O-Honey

Some people call it “old lady candy”, but I LOVE Bit-O-Honey! I’ve been digging through out office Halloween candy basket pulling them all out. Yum!!!! But don’t tell my jaw doctor. He’d kill me!!!

Over-Heard in the Office

Sometimes I just love the things I hear people say in my office. Today co-worker #1 was sharing with co-worker #2 the experience she and her family had in fleeing their hotel while they were in Hawaii recently during the earthquake. Co-worker #2’s comment was “didn’t they have a basement or something you could take shelter in?”

Seriously, would it really be wise to be in the basement of a building that is shaking and could potentially crumble to the ground? I think not.

Thoughts for the Week

My New Toy
A salesman came in yesterday trying to sell us a new phone system. Since we just replaced ours about three years ago and it’s not something you replace regularly, he was wasting his time. He DID bring me something really cool (not a stupid pen or magnet like they usually bring). He brought me an airplane! And of course, as soon as he left the office, I put it together and tried it out. It didn’t do too well in the office because it kept hitting the ceiling tiles, but it DID do awesome in the auditorium. Who could think I would be so easily entertained (okay, so everyone did.)

Pumpkin Carving
Warning, this can become addictive. What’s great is that it’s a lot easier to carve and NO CLEAN UP! There used to be a tradition with some of my college friends to have a pumpkin carving party every year, but we haven’t done it in a really long time. I thought about re-establishing the tradition this year with new friends, but decided it was too messy. So HERE consider yourself invited to my pumpkin carving party!

Hiccups
I got the hiccups really bad this afternoon. I hate the hiccups, especially when they are so bad that you can’t write or type because of the convulsions the cause.

House Numbers
I finally have house numbers. Now I just need to put them on the house. I tried Tuesday night, but it was after 7 p.m. and it was noisy and I didn’t want to make the neighbors mad, so I decided to hold off and maybe try at lunch today when no one is home.

The Post Office
If you live in Edmond and have every tried to send out a bulk mail, you know how trying it can be (especially when Silvia was in charge). Yesterday, one of our secretaries took a bulk mailing to the post office. When she got there, they didn’t have any sleeves for her to put the trays in, so she went to the counter. The normal lady wasn’t there, but Debbie could see a woman back there working. She waited a few minutes before the woman saw her and approached the counter. Here was their conversation:

Postal Employee: Did you need something?
Debbie: You are out of sleeves and I need some for my trays.
Postal Employee: Did you ring the bell?
Debbie: This bell? (pointing to the counter) No.
Postal Employee: You need to ring the bell.

Debbie stands there for a second trying to figure out if this woman was serious and decides she is. So she rings the bell.

Postal Employee: How can I help you?

Debbie seriously was looking for a hidden camera and said it was all she could do not to bust out laughing. Seriously, we are starting to wonder what test they give postal employees to determine if they are difficult enough people to work for them.

Nightmare
Last night (well, technically it was this morning) I had one of the worst nightmares I have had in a very long time. Hours later and I am STILL shaking. In my dream, I was living in an apartment (the big city kind that opens up into a hallway). A friend had come over and we were talking in my living room for a little bit and then he left. After he left, I decided to make pancakes. I had just finished and walked into the other room when I hear my front door open. Thinking it’s my friend, I peak around the corner. That’s when this guy is walking around my kitchen telling me he’s the apartment welcoming committee. He’s got a bottle of pills and it unwrapping something (cord or tape or something). The way the apartment was laid out, I was able to run out the front door without running past him. I’m running down the hall banging on door screaming and just about the time he grabbed me, I woke myself up screaming. I don’t know if I woke my roommate up (if I did, she wasn’t too worried), but it took me over 45 minutes to calm down enough to go back to sleep. I hate dreams like that.

Random Question for the Day

A co-worker popped her head into my office a little bit ago and asked “Do you remember when they take the High School Merit Scholarship Test?” Though flattered that she thinks I’m young enough to remember something like that, I’ve not been in High School in 14 ½ years, which means IF I even took the test, it was at least 15+ years ago. So the answer to her question would be “no”.

What is that test anyway? All I know is that my first roommate was a National Merit Scholar Finalist. She was the smart one. I’m not sure which one I was.

I Have the Phone and I’m Not Afraid to Use It!

I put a post on Lindsy’s blog earlier today and then realized it probably sounds dumb if you don’t know the story and well…most of my readers probably don’t know the story. It’s actually kind of dumb anyway, but I still laugh at my attempt at bravery. I was sure I had posted this story in the past, but it looks like I actually haven’t, so here you go…

Summer after my sophomore year in college, I lived with 4 other girls in a 3 bedroom apartment. To this day, that was probably one of the funnest summers of my life. All kinds of crazy things happened that summer, but this was probably one of our most memorable experiences.

One evening, Denise, Tracy, Jill, Cindy (Jill’s sister who was visiting for a few days) and I all went to a bible study at our campus minister’s house. Our fourth roommate, Lisa, had other plans and was still at the house when we left. When we got back, Lisa was gone and everything seemed normal – till we looked down the hall way. All the doors were closed, but had been open when we left. We didn’t think much of it till Cindy went down the hall and tried to go into Jill’s room. When she tired to open the door, there was some resistance and the second she took her hand off the door, it closed. She comes back down the hall and informs us she thinks there is someone in Jill & Lisa’s room. Then the fact that all the doors were closed became more alarming.

We’re all standing in the living room trying to decide what to do. So we all grab the “butcher” knives we had in the kitchen (that probably couldn’t even cut butter they were so dull – yet I still have them), and prepare to run out of the apartment to plan our “attack”. Some one told me to grab the cordless phone, so I did. And in my attempt to try to be brave – I yell down the hall “I have the phone and I’m not afraid to use it.” Problem was, there was another phone in the room we suspected to have an intruder – all he had to do was take it off the hook and I wouldn’t be able to call out. Oh, and when I get outside the girls are laughing because they thought I said “I have the phone and I know how to use it.”

So here we are, all five of us standing outside the apartment with dull butcher knives and a cordless phone, trying to decide what our next plan of action was. Since we weren’t exactly sure if we had an intruder or not, we didn’t want to call 911 or apartment security. So we called a friend of Jill & Cindy’s who lived in our complex with some other BIG guys. Not wanting to look stupid, we hid the butcher knives in the bushes before the guys got there.

After a couple of minutes they arrive, baseball bats in hand, prepared to save the day. We all go inside as the guys proceed to open all of our doors and inspect closets, showers and under the bed. The last room they come to is the one with the suspected intruder. One of the guys pushes open the door and then enters the room. A few seconds later, he walks down the hall with a grin on his face. He found our intruder. It was a towel that had slipped off the back of the door. They figure the reason the door closed as soon as Cindy let go was because of a draft.

They got a good laugh out of it and we had yet another story to add to the summer craziness.

Bored?

Give this a try! My first try score was 84. Pretty accurate to my real bowling score!

Psalm 37

I love it when I've been praying about something and then when you sit down to read your Bible and the passage you read totally hits home - almost like God's saying "I hear your prayer and this is what I have to say for now." I had one of those experiences this morning and it's made for a good start to my day.

Psalm 37:1-8

Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.

Weird

It’s the weirdest thing. My middle finger on my right hand hurts really bad (and it’s not from over use…actually any use). It almost feels like a bone spur or something and it’s not the entire finger, it’s just the middle section between the two joints. I only feel it if I touch it or try holding a pen or an eating utensil. I can’t really think of anything I might have done. It doesn’t feel jammed or anything. Very bizarre if you ask me.

Some People Are Easy to Please

I overheard the following quote from one of the guys on our Vienna team today when they were learning to use the postage machine “That thing is the coolest! It’s my favorite thing here so far.” (FYI, I think it was Rusher).

Granted, the postage machine is pretty cool. It seals and stamps the envelopes for you, but I’m not sure if it’s my favorite thing. Mine would have to be the folder, hands down.

Need an ego boost, call a plumber!

When I first moved in, my toilet was leaking around the base, so I called the warranty company and they came out and “fixed” it. Problem was, they didn’t fix it correctly and 10 months later, I started having the problem again. So called them again and asked for it to be fixed right this time. This time they sent out a plumber

First of all, my plumber looked a lot like Gary LeVox from Rascal Flatts. He was really nice and I think was kind of hitting on me a little. Turns out he lost his wife six years ago to breast cancer and has been raising his son and daughter on his own since then (they’re both in college now). He was giving me all kinds of relationship “advice” while he was fixing my toilet (which was done correctly this time). We talked about the woman he’s dating now and the guys I’ve dated in the past (he thinks the guys I’ve dated are stupid to not realize what they had – I concur). =o)

So, this is the second time I’ve kind of gotten a much needed ego boost from a plumber. If it didn’t cost me $45 every time they sent someone out, I would probably break something every time I needed to feel good about myself.

Monday Thoughts

Bad Season for Squirrels
I’ve decided it is not a good time to be a squirrel. I don’t know the cause, but I have noticed a lot of squirrels have met an untimely death lately when I have been out driving around. I have seen a ton of dead squirrels either on the side of the road or in the middle of the road. Most of them flat on their back. Are they falling out of trees? Have they been poisoned? Is the thought of being evacuated from their homes to make room for yet another shopping complex near Hafer Park just too much for them and are they lying there hoping to just end it all? I don’t know the answer, but if there are any squirrels reading this, you might steer clear of the asphalt.

Hmm…
I think if they ever make a TV movie about the Mark Foley case, I think they need to cast Matthew Perry to play him. Seriously, look how much they resemble each other. Just age Matthew a little and you’ve got your man!

Change to the Priority List
There has been a change to the home improvement priority list. I have a decided that it has become of the utmost importance that I drywall my storage space under the closet. I finally got the courage to try to pull out the stuff stored in there to patch the hole when I noticed the beginnings of a nest in the corner. Oh, yes. It appears that mouse is trying to take up residence in the “holiday closet”. I have a policy about non-rent paying residents. They must be evicted. Of course, when I saw the nest, I put what stuff I had pulled out back in, closed the door and called my mom. She said she’d help me take care of it over Thanksgiving, but I didn’t want to wait that long. So, all goes well, she and my brother are coming down for the day sometime next week and helping me “de-mouse” the closet (I won’t be helping with that part), patch the hole and put up drywall. Actually, this probably needs to be done to help with heating costs this winter. Of course, the last time my brother came down to help me with a home improvement project, he found a snake and a squirrel and almost had a heart attack. Maybe I need to have a video camera on hand this time!

I Had a “Friends” Moment

Remember that episode where the cheesecake was mistakenly being delivered to Monica’s apartment and Chandler and Rachel were eating the cheesecake? (Season 7, episode 11 - just FYI) Then the cheesecake got dropped on the floor and they started eating it off the floor? That almost happened to me a few minutes ago. We had a cheesecake in the refrigerator in our office, so I went to get a piece. I took the box out and set it on the counter. When I let go of the box, it fell off the counter (it wasn’t fully on the counter and was top-heavy.) Luckily, the cheesecake stayed in the box and surprisingly stayed intact. I miss Friends!

Things That Make Me Laugh

I read the following article on MSN today and it just cracked me up (maybe because it reminded me of a story someone told me about a friend of his and a “waxing incident.”) I’m not sure if I really have an opinion on the subject. I guess as long as it’s not in excess, I could care less.

The Return of Chest Hair
By Jessica Pressler

A little while ago, movie stars like Heath Ledger and Hugh Jackman and then just regular dudes started turning up at parties with their shirts unbuttoned. Not, like, all-the-way-to-the-navel, Vinnie-at-the-club unbuttoned-but undone enough to let a few tendrils of chest hair curl out suggestively, as if to say, I am Man. Feel me.

It's not that I'm a chest hair fetishist, exactly. I just prefer it. The bald male chest is disconcerting to me in the same way that a hairless dog is. It seems unnatural, as though it's been engineered by science, and it's sort of vain. Plus, I like a little something to stroke and pet and tug on, a springy, hairy pillow on which to lay my head. A quick text-message poll confirmed that fourteen of fifteen female friends agreed. "Yes!!!" wrote one. "Liking lush forest!" replied another.

And there you have it. The area rugs popularized by Hugh et al. are more than just decorative statements; they're welcome beacons of masculinity in a too-calm sea of feyness. They're a rebuttal to the androgynous Jude Law pretty-boy aesthetic and the skinny-pantsed Strokesification of our time. In short: Your chest hair is hot. Own it.
But wait! A new text has arrived: "H8 back hair, tho." Um, yeah. Don't cancel that salon appointment just yet. The women of America are not ready for the full shag.


Who Brought the Cat?

A co-worker sent me this picture yesterday. It cracks me up, yet raises so many questions, like:

1) Who thought it would be a good idea to take the cat along for the ride in the first place? None of our cats ever liked water, so did they not think this might not go well?

2) Where is the picture of the cat when it hits the water (now that REALLY would have been funny)?

3) Does the cat have claws? If so, was it smart to put it in an inflatable raft in the first place?

4) If by some chance the cat was PhotoShopped in, but if so, what did someone do to that poor cat (I can’t believe I just used the phrase “poor cat”) to get that reaction out of it.

Though, then again, I can just see those little girls INSISTING that their kitty come along for the ride (the same little girls have probably dressed and tortured that cat in the past).

I REALLY Am A Chicken

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I really am a chicken! It’s pathetic really. I determined I just have this fear of things running/jumping out at me, which is why I don’t go in my attic. I also don’t like to move boxes in spaces that might harbor mice, snakes or spiders. This brings me to my latest dilemma.

My house has this storage space under the stairs which is great for storing holiday decorations, etc. Problem is, there is also a hole in the wall that I think goes out to the garage (not really sure where it leads). I intended to patch the hole after my mom “de-spidered” all the Rubbermaid containers that had been in my garage in the old condo and put them neatly away in the storage space (what can I say, she loves me and has become quite aware of how depilating my fear can be). Of course, I didn’t around to it before my roommate moved in and put some of her own stuff in there. Now the storage space appears to be full and the only way I can get to the hole is to pull her stuff out of the storage space – hence my problem.

With cooler weather approaching, I need to get in there and patch the hole before a mouse decides to move in and take up residence. But to do this will require moving my roommates stuff out of the way and I can’t do it. I have tried do build up the courage and I just can’t. I had a hard enough time just opening. It seriously freaks me out (like the furnace incident). What’s even worse is that I have some really great fall decorations that I would like to put out, but again, I’ll have to crawl into the storage space and pull stuff out. My plan is to put up sheet rock in there and maybe even install a light – but that won’t be happening this year.

I hate that these kinds of things freak me out so bad. You should have seen me when I would go to get the seasonal decorations out of the garage. I would pull out a box, set it down really fast, and then run. When I thought it was safe, I would get a broom and sweep any cobwebs away and then off to the next box. Just thinking about it has me anxious and stressed. I’m not being overly dramatic here – it really freaks me out. I have laid in bed the last several nights trying to figure out how I’m going to deal with this.

Now, if I see a spider, I can kill it. If I see a mouse or snake from a distance anywhere other than where I am living or sleeping, I’m okay. It’s the whole element of surprise from these creatures that I can’t handle. Really causes some issues when you are a single homeowner. IF I ever get married, he can’t be afraid of stuff like this – he is going to HAVE to be the attic and crawl space inspector of the family.

Oh, and on a side note, though slightly related – I am now a firm believer in keeping my shoes in shoe boxes (especially plastic shoe boxes.) When I moved into my house, I decided for organizational reasons, to start keeping my shoes in shoe boxes and purchased some clear plastic shoe boxes for the shoes that did not have a home. This morning when was getting ready, I pulled out a pair of shoes I hadn’t worn since last fall and opened the box. Low and behold, there was a dead spider in the box. Which means that spider had been in my SHOE at some point. Yeah, flip flops are now the only shoes allowed to be without a box. YIKES!!!

More Fun Quizzes

Okay, I don't think the first one discribes me very well, but the second one hits the nail on the head (especially the last line)!

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

I'm a Lifer!

To you, a job is what pays the bills. You put in your hours, follow the rules, and then go home. Occasionally, you consider quitting, but then you think of how bad the job market is and you reconsider. Whatever happiness you get, you get from your life outside the workplace. Relationships, family, hobbies, and outside creative pursuits are what really matter to you. You're probably taking this test at work because you don't have anything better to do.

Talent: 51%
Lifer: 56%
Mandarin: 38%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

College Randomness

I was reading Krista’s blog yesterday and she made the comment “no good decisions are made after 2 o’clock in the morning.” It’s true, we do weird things when we’re tired, stressed, sleep deprived and some how, being in college, surrounded by people who are in the exact state of mind, just becomes a breeding ground for all kinds of randomness. This got me to thinking about all the random things I did in college (with help sometimes), that probably lack in humor if you weren’t there, but were stink’in hilarious at the time. Here are some examples:

Chinese Christmas Decorations
At Thanksgiving my freshman year in college, my Grandma P gave me some Christmas decorations she had from when she used to work at the Senior Citizen Center. They were metallic looking, and were primarily red, gold and green. So we decided to hang them in the hallway between my room and Jenn’s room. It looked like a Chinese resturant. They were hideous, but they stayed up till we left for Christmas.

The Gong Show
My sophomore year, my roommate Jenn and I were listening to this “new song” on the radio that was just horrid. So I got up, grabbed a pan and started hitting it like they did in The Gong Show. The next time I went home, I brought back this small brass gong that my mom had and every time we thought a song was bad or someone was lacking talent, we’d hit the gong. Again, you had to be there, but it was funny.

My Song Writing Abilities
A little known fact about me is that I have a tendency to make up little songs when I’m bored. RARELY does anyone here them. Normally, I’m just singing them in my head, but occasionally – I bust out and share one of my little ditties with the world. My friend, Jenn (you know, she was a part of a lot of my random experiences in college), was fortunate enough to experience one of these performances. It was shorting after school started and I found myself bored, and laying on my bed. Since I was being left to my own devices, I picked up this pink metal basket that normally sat on my desk, and put in on my face. No reason. Just felt like it. (BTW, there is a picture out there somewhere of this event). This led me to spontaneously start singing the following song:

It’s time to get a date,
When you’re sitting on your bed
With a crate on your face.

Yeah, I won’t be making a career out of this.

Trouble-Causer
Is there a statute of limitations on being punished for something you did in college? I hope so. I’d really hate to get sent to the Dean now. So here goes.

One night while living in the dorms, I was studying with my friend Tammy in the lobby. Some girls down the hall were fighting with their next door neighbors. Not sure what was going on, but the girls from one room kept going and banging on the door of the girls in the other room and yelling at them. This went on for a little while before it stopped. Don’t ask me why, but I decided that it would be funny to go bang on the door of the room of the girls who had been banging on the door of their neighbors. I convinced Tammy this would be a good idea (I didn’t have to work too hard to convince her). But instead of doing it ourselves, we convinced our friend Carrie Dawn to be the “knocker”. Tammy and I stood in the bathroom across the hall and held the door open while Carrie Dawn when and banged on the door. So Carrie Dawn bangs on the door, runs into the bathroom and we all hide in the toilet stalls (we needed an alibi).

Oh, it hit the fan then. We could here all kinds of yelling outside. We waited in the bathroom till things calmed down and then went back down the hall and continued to “study”. A few minutes later, our RA came and asked us if we saw anyone bang on the door down the hall. Of course we didn’t – we were “studying”. Our hall director had to come upstairs and intervene. I think one set of girls maybe even ended up moving to a different room. I don’t even know who lived in those rooms, so if you’re reading this, I really hope you don’t know who I am. And if you do, sorry. I’m going to plead boredom. =o)

Second Source of Income

I have found a second form of income. Not steady, but not back “pocket change” now and then. I’m going to become a human guinea pig. Kind of makes it sound like I'm selling myself, doesn't it?

I had to go to the allergist today for a follow-up. Which before I go any farther, I have to note that I sat in the exam room for an HOUR waiting to be seen. One of the ladies did have me come do a clinical trial for her while I waited – which gave me something to do for 5 minutes of that time. Next time, I’m taking a good book!

Anyway, the doctor is asking questions about how I’ve been doing and then tells me that I would have been perfect for a clinical trial they just finished on people with weed allergies. She thought it paid around $250. Even though I missed out on this one, she wanted to know if I’d be interested in doing them in the future. Shoot! Sign me up!!! I can handle the risk of being miserable for a short period of time for that kind of money. I know several other people that have been doing clinical trials with this same doctor for a while now. I guess one of them got paid $1,000 once (rare, but hey – that would be new flooring if I got the opportunity).

I was joking with a co-worker that this is how I could finance the booth I’ve wanted to open at The Market.

It HURTS

Yesterday afternoon, I had a funny thought. I decided that maybe I just needed to cut off the entire right side of my body. My right jaw hurts, my right hand hurts, my right knee hurts and I have a blister on a toe on my right foot. Then last night, the icing on the cake. I was getting something out of the freezer and I dropped a container on my right foot and it seems I might have fractured one of my toes. It HURTS. The only way I can walk on it is to walk on my heel. And I cannot stand for anything to touch it. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well last night because the blankets kept touching it and waking me up. It doesn’t throb as much as it did last night, but I avoid walking as much as possible. This morning I called the doctor to make sure there wasn’t anything else I should be doing other than icing it and taking ibuprofen. There’s not – so I just get to suffer for the next several days at least and wear open toed shoes. Did I mention – it HURTS!!!!

No Smokers Here

Twice now, in the last week, we have received mail at our house for a former resident. Not unusual I know, but what it weird it that it is cigarettes. Sample packs from Camel. And what I find strange is that I have lived there for almost a year now and we’re just now starting to receive these packages.

I think it is weird – and wrong. The package says it’s illegal to mail cigarettes to minors, but how to they know a minor isn’t going to gain access. I didn’t expect them to come in the mail. If I had teenagers that checked the mail, they could easily take them without my knowing about it – because again, I wasn’t expecting them in the first place.

I keep putting “return to sender” on the box hoping to get off the mailing list, but we’ll see.

Bummer

This morning I woke up thinking it was Friday. It wasn’t. I was bummed. I’m still bummed.

Random Thought on Jury Duty

I have been wishing lately I would get called for Jury Duty again. I wasn’t thrilled the last time, but when I think about it – I get paid to be there PLUS get paid by my normal job. Granted the last time, I never made it on a jury (only made it out of the jury holding room once). Being on a jury might have been more exciting, but I got a lot of reading done. I think I could handle being paid to sit and read for a few days if I had to.

0 for 2

Last night was BK. After church, I noticed I had missed a call. Turned out to be a friend who called to make sure I was still going. He said to just swing by his apartment on the way and we could ride together.

I get to his apartment complex and walked up to his door and knocked. No answer. I knock again. No answer. As I’m standing there I noticed that his grill was gone and wondered what happened to it. A little puzzled to where he might be, I head back downstairs to go to my car and call him. That’s when I look up at the building next to him, see his grill and realize I had gone to the wrong apartment. What’s funny is that I’ve done this before, but the last time I had a plate of cookies and a strange guy answered the door. But what’s sad is that I’ve been to his apartment MANY times before, so I should have known better.

But it gets worse. We head over to Tracy’s for BK. We’re driving down the street and find the house number painted on the street. I park, we get out and I walk up to the house and ring the doorbell. We’re standing there and no one comes to the door. While we’re waiting, we notice that it really smells like cigarette smoke outside her house which didn’t seem right. We quickly realize that we have gone to the wrong house. I just assumed I knew what house it was, but never really looked that closely at the house number.

My friend was a little worried if I would make it home. I plead sleep deprivation.

My Lullaby Collection Needs Some Work

This weekend my friends came to visit with their 5 month old son. I put them in my room because it would be a lot more convenient for them with the baby and all. Recently, I took my portable CD player from work and brought it home because I never used it anymore. Tonna & Kael always play music softly in the room that Zaine is sleeping in, so when Tonna saw my CD player, she decided to turn it on. She looked down, and saw the nature sound CD case that was next to the CD player and assumed that was CD in the player. Instead, she discovered it was a Scary Sounds CD from Halloween last year (shows how long it had been since I used the CD part). We got a good laugh out of it when she told me the next morning.

Saturday night, she decided to put the nature sounds CD in. Zaine was asleep and we were all sitting downstairs watching TV when I started hearing birds. She told me she put the nature sounds CD in, but I just knew there was no way we’d be able to hear it all the way down stairs. But none the less, we kept hearing birds. Finally, Kael decides to go to bed and is standing at the foot of my stairs and it really sounded like it was coming from upstairs. So I went into the room where Zaine was sleeping and sure enough. The babbling brook part of the CD is really quiet – so Tonna had turned it up quite a bit, which made the bird sounds so loud we could hear it all the way downstairs. How he slept through that, I’m not sure.

Tonna informed me on Sunday that I really need to work on my lullaby collection.

Blog Neglect

I know I haven’t posted anything lately. It hasn’t been from intentional neglect. I’ve actually sat down to write several posts, but never had time to finish or post. The jury is still out on whether this one will make it to blogger land or not. Here is the Reader’s Digest version of everything that has taken place lately:

I’m in LOVE!
Sorry, not with a guy – with a truck. Last Thursday I rented a pick up to go to Kansas to get a bed from my mom’s house. Enterprise gave me a brand new, black Chevy Colorado. I am so in love with that truck. The gas mileage wasn’t bad for a truck, but still not as good as my little economy car. I was sad to have to turn it in. Only 3 payments left on my car and the temptation to trade it in is getting tough. A truck like that would be practical for me, but not economical. My goal is to try and hold on to my car for at least another year.

Chair Rail
First of all, for anyone who thinks like a particular “un-home improvement savvy” friend of mine – a chair rail is NOT one of those things that you sit in and it takes you up and down the stairs. A chair rail is a wood border that is placed on the wall as a design divider. I was going to get help from a friend’s husband, but it was hard to find a good time to have them over. So I got online and found a good do-it-yourself site and borrowed the necessary tools from someone at work. On Monday, Amy came over to help me put it up. It was comedy because we couldn’t figure out how to get the saw to work (we needed to remove the safety pin, but wasn’t sure how). At one point, I called a friend from church and asked him how to make the saw work and my explanation to him was “we’re girls”. We managed to get the first wall up without a lot of difficulty (can’t say my cuts were the best, but wood putty and paint fixed it). Our problem came when we tried to do the inside corner. We could not get it to work the way the directions instructed and couldn’t figure out how to make the miter saw cut it the way we needed it. So we gave up. Yesterday, I decided to give it another shot. I finally figured out how to miter the ends so that they met up in the corner the way I needed them to. I managed to get the second wall up all by myself. I just have one more wall to do and I’m done! Not the most professional job, but only a professional could tell and well – not bad for my first attempt.

I’m Quitting My Job and Becoming a CSI
For the last two years, we’ve been having a problem with cash theft in our building. On Thursday, someone had their wallet stolen out of their office. Granted, it wasn’t too hard for the thief because the last person to leave our office left the door open. What this thief didn’t realize was that he was on candid camera. When my co-worker told me she couldn’t find her wallet and was afraid it had been stolen since the door was wide open when she returned to this part of the building the evening before, I pulled up the security tapes and started watching. Since we didn’t know exactly when it happened, I had to start with right after she last used her wallet – which was a good 6 hours worth of viewing. After two hours, I was quickly approaching the time of day when she left and she was starting to wonder if she went someplace else that she had forgotten about. Then all of a sudden, we both gasped and there he was. The man we’ve caught wondering around the building on several occasions. We watched as he walked into the office, looked around, walked into her office and left. I used my “skills” to view him exiting the back the north entrance vs. the south that it was assumed he would have left. I really think I need to become a crime scene video technician. I’m all about making people pay for their wrong doings (I think I need to work on grace).

Shoes
I have been shopping for at the very least, a pair of black heels to go with a pair of pants that I have. Doesn’t seem like it would be a difficult task, but I can’t find anything in my size that are comfortable and not ridiculously over-priced. It’s becoming frustrating – and I have looked just about everywhere. The only place I haven’t looked (mainly because they close before I have a chance to get there) is the Shoe Gallery at North Park Mall. Shopping for black heels should not be this hard!!!

So that’s about it (at least for the stuff I’m going to talk about on a blog). This is me signing off and hoping to head home at a decent hour for once!

You Gotta Try This!

I found this on my friend Fletcher's blog. Of course, the only picture I had that would work was the one from Halloween a few years ago when I was Snow White. I don't make a habit of running around with big red bows in my hair...I promise!



I had to make this smaller to keep it from messing up my title bar on my blog, so if you want to see a clearer version, go here.

You Got to Love My Mom

Ever since I moved into my house, I have wanted to get some sort of bed for my spare room. I wanted to get a futon so that it wouldn’t take up a lot of space, but haven’t had the money to purchase a good one as of yet. So recently, my mom has been talking about getting rid of one of the many twin beds she has in her house to make room for a full or queen size bed. I of course offered to take one off her hands.

Well, with some friends’ wedding quickly approaching which will also bring much anticipated house guests, I decided I needed to find a way to get the bed from there to here pretty soon. I priced renting a pick-up truck online and found out that I can rent one for a day for around $45. So I tell my mom my plan and that I’m going to try to come get it soon.

Well, my mom didn’t want me to spend the money to rent a truck and said she would just put it in her car and bring it down to me this weekend. My mom drives a Ford Focus. But she was insistent that if she laid the seats down, it would fit. We actually got in an argument over it one night because I kept telling her it wouldn’t fit and she said she knew what she was talking about. She even called me to say that she measured it and there was plenty of room. I still kept telling her it might be long enough, but they wouldn’t fit in her car at the angle they would have to go in. Still she was insistent, so I dropped it and told her that if she could get it to fit, great. Otherwise, I would rent a vehicle and come get it.

The plan was that my brother would come over last night and load it in her car for her (even though he also didn’t think it would fit). She called me last night after Brad left. It didn’t fit (surprise, surprise). But hey, she tried and I guess that’s all that counts.

Anyway, looks like I’ll be making a quick trip to Kansas in the next week or so. I think it’s going to have to be next Saturday to get the cheap rate. Road trip anyone?

Thoughts for the Day…

Thought #1
Did you know that Pluto has been down-graded and is no longer considered a planet? I’m serious, you can read all about it here. I feel really bad for Pluto. Though then again, maybe that’s how Grant felt about losing his status, so I guess my feeling bad is kind of hypocritical. Anyway, Pluto no longer meets the qualifications and is now considered a “dwarf planet”. Is that politically correct? I’m actually quite disturbed about this because I always liked Pluto. Maybe because it was the smallest which made it the underdog. Anyway, I ‘m bummed about it. Poor Pluto!

Thought #2
I did a very dangerous thing today and didn’t even realize it. I decided to try someone new to cut my hair. Actually, I had gone to her once before, but it was a long time ago and it was only once. This finding a new hair stylist has been difficult. I liked the girl I’ve gone to the last few times, but she’s so far away. Anyway, back to the dangerous part. I walk in today and she asks what I wanted done. I told her it needed trimmed, but that I really hated my hair. She and another stylist got all excited and started making suggestions. They suggested an inverted bob – but I didn’t really want to do that. I kind of wanted to keep the current length, but hated the shape. So I told the perfect stranger that she could do whatever she wanted to do to my hair, just don’t razor it and don’t take too much length off. End result – well I think it’s okay. I think I like the way she cut it, I just don’t like the way she styled it. So the jury is still out on the hair.

I did find this funny…while I was in there this other stylist (Heather) told another customer that she has been asking people if she and Lisa weren’t hair stylists, what they looked like they might be. So she asks me. I hate being put on the spot like that. First she asked about Lisa (the girl cutting my hair) and the first thing that popped into my head was Kindergarten teacher. I have no idea why, that’s just want popped into my head. Then she asked what I thought she looked like she could be. I had to go with my second thought – receptionist, because I didn’t think telling her she looked like a stripper would go over too well. Do not ask me random questions if you don’t want a random answer!

Thirty Years Ago Today...

My life turned upside down when this creature, a.k.a my little brother Brad, came into this world.

Boy, were my parents shocked to find out Brenda Renaye turned out to be a Bradley Allen. I was personally offended that he was sleeping when they took me to the hospital to see him. How DARE he! It didn't take me long to figure out that a sleeping Brad is a good thing.

My mom and I were laughing last night about some of the things he's done growing up like washing his toy 3-wheeler and then putting the bath power I got for my birthday all over it. Or riding his Hotwheels down the street and telling the neighbors he couldn't step foot on his block without his permission. Or the time he was jumping on the bed trying to make it collapse on me (I was under it) and the bed did collapse, but I got out first and he ended up with stitches (not the first or last time he got those). Then there was the time my parents were trying to teach him manners and after being warned several times to be quiet and go to sleep, he spared me a spanking when he looked at my dad and said "ladies first." Or the time he was trying to make cinnamon toast and used smoke salt instead (he just grabbed the red lid, didn't read the label.) And no one in our family will ever forget when he decided to remove my mom's broom closet with a sledge hammer in the middle of July. Mom wasn't happy.

So happy birthday, Brad. You made it to 30 and NONE of us ever thought you would!

Official Notification of Status Change

Move over Grant Johnston, you have been replaced by Superman! Read Lindsy's blog and it will help explain why. Sorry to bump you, but I'll still watch your weather reports and remember the fond times. =o)

I'm Grace Kelly

I received this from a co-worker. Don't cheat! Sorry Guys, you might want to pass on this one.

Ever wonder which movie star you are most like? Don't read ahead please! Well, a team of researchers got together and analyzed the personalities of movie stars. The gathered info has been incorporated into this quiz.

There are only 10 questions so it doesn't take long.
Number your paper from 1 to 10, then 'Answer' each question with the choice that most describes you at this point in your life, and then add up the points that correspond with your answers.
Don't look ahead or you will ruin the fun!

1 Which describes your perfect date?
a) Candlelight dinner for two
b) Amusement Park
c) Rollerblading in the park
d) Rock Concert
e) Have dinner & see a movie
f) Dinner at home with a loved one

2. What is your favorite type of music?
a) Rock and Roll
b) Alternative
c) Soft Rock
d) Classical
e) Christian
f) Jazz

3. What is your favorite type of movie?
a) Comedy
b) Horror
c) Musical
d) Romance
e) Documentary
f) Mystery

4. Which of the following jobs would you choose if you were given only these choices?
a) Waiter/Waitress
b) Sports Player
c) Teacher
d) Policeman
e) Bartender
f) Business person

5. Which would you rather do if you had an hour to waste?
a) Work out
b) Make out (Wow! This is an option!?!)
c) Watch TV
d) Listen to the radio
e) Sleep
f) Read

6. Of the following colors, which do you like best?
a) Yellow
b) White
c) Sky blue
d) Teal
e) Gold
f) Red

7. Which one of the following would you like to eat right now?
a) Ice cream
b) Pizza
c) Sushi
d) Pasta
e) Salad
f) Lobster Tail

8. Which is your favorite holiday?
a) Halloween
b) Christmas
c) New Year's
d) Valentine's Day
e) Thanksgiving
f) Fourth of July

9. If you could go to any of the following places, which would it be?
a) Reno
b) Spain
c) Las Vegas
d) Hawaii
e) Hollywood
f) British Columbia

10. Of the following, who would you rather spend time with?
a) Someone who is smart
b) Someone with good looks
c) Someone who is a party animal
d) Someone who has fun all the time
e) Someone who is very emotional
f) Someone who is fun to be with

Now total up your points on each question:
1. a-4 b-2 c-5 d-1 e-3 f-6
2. a-2 b-1 c-4 d-5 e-3 f-6
3. a-2 b-1 c-3 d-4 e-5 f-6
4. a-4 b-5 c-3 d-2 e-1 f-6
5. a-5 b-4 c-2 d-1 e-3 f-6
6. a-1 b-5 c-3 d-2 e-4 f-6
7. a-3 b-2 c-1 d-4 e-5 f-6
8. a-1 b-3 c-2 d-4 e-5 f-6
9. a-4 b-5 c-1 d-4 e-3 f-6
10. a-5 b-2 c-1 d-3 e-4 f-6

NOW, take your total and find out which Movie Star you are:

(10-17 points) You are MADONNA: You are wild and crazy and you know it. You know how to have fun, but you may take it to extremes. You know what you are doing though, and are much in control of your own life. People don't always see things your way, but that doesn't mean that you should do away with your beliefs. Try to remember that your wild spirit can lead to hurting yourself and others.

(18-26 points) You are DORIS DAY: You are fun, friendly, and popular! You are a real crowd pleaser. You have probably been out on the town your share of times, yet you come home with the values that your mother taught you. Marriage and children are very important to you, but only after you have fun. Don't let the people you please influence you to stray.

(27-34 points) You are DEBBIE REYNOLDS: You are cute, and everyone loves you. You are a best friend that no one takes the chance of losing. You never hurt feelings and seldom have your own feelings hurt. Life is a breeze. You are witty, and calm most of the time. Just keep clear of backstabbers, and you are worry-free.

(35-42 points) You are GRACE KELLY: You are a lover. Romance, flowers, and wine are all you need to enjoy yourself. You are serious about all commitments and are a family person. You call your Mom every Sunday, and never forget a Birthday. Don't let your passion for romance get confused with the real thing.

(43-50 points) You are KATHERINE HEPBURN:You are smart, a real thinker. Every situation is approached with a plan. You are very healthy in mind and body. You don't take crap from anyone. You have only a couple of individuals that you consider "real friends".You teach strong family values. Keep your feet planted in them, but don't overlook a bad situation when it does happen.

(51-60 points) You are ELIZABETH TAYLOR: Everyone is in awe of you. You know what you want and how to get it. You have more friends than you know what to do with. Your word is your bond. Everyone knows when you say something it is money in the bank. You attract the opposite sex. Your intelligence overwhelms most. Your memory is the next thing to photographic. Everyone admires you because you are so considerate and lovable. You know how to enjoy life and treat people right. Now put your Movie Star in the subject line, then forward and share with your friends.

Not for the Faint of Heart

Last night I stayed at my BK meeting WAAAAY too long. Especially considering I needed to bring the leftover sandwiches up to the church and put them in the fridge to be picked up the next morning for Capitol Hill (my fridge wasn't wide enough for the tray or I would have just taken them home).

It was after 10:00 p.m. when I got to the church, which meant that the building was locked up and everyone had left for the night. Our building is kind of scary when no one is around. Normally when I'm up there after hours by myself (which isn't often), I have 911 dialed on my cell phone just in case, but this time, I didn't have a free hand.

Though my trip was without incident, it was just really creepy to be in the building - dark (didn't want to mess with Turning on additional lights), all by yourself. I could not get out of there fast enough.

Oh, and Suzy, if I've never apologized for the "RUN!!!" incident, I'm VERY sorry now. ;o)

Stacey vs. Air Filter

Well, I finally did it. I changed my air filter! It took Rachel standing at the top of the stairs with me on Thursday night for me to get brave enough to open the door to the unit, but once I discovered it was varmint free, I broke down and went and bought air filters. For everyone that kept telling me it was really easy, I beg to differ! Getting it out wasn’t to bad, but not as easy as one would assume. Putting the new one in was another story. When I went to Wal-Mart Friday night, they didn’t have the size I needed, so I had to wait and go to Lowe’s Saturday morning. I didn’t want to make a lot of racket, so I had to wait till I heard my roommate up and around (because it’s right outside her bedroom).

Here is the play by play:

- Open closet door and manage to get the cover off the unit. Meanwhile, door to closet keeps closing on me causing much frustration.

-Pull old air filter out (which took some maneuvering).

-Open new air filter and proceed to put back in place. Not as easy as I thought it would be because it kept slipping out of the guides.

-In addition to the guide problem, something kept catching hold of the air filter and making it even harder to keep on the guides.

-Frustration begins. A faint “ugh” was verbally expressed.

-Pull air filter out. Try again. Still keeps slipping out of the guide and catching on something in the closet. Door to closet begins closing on me again. Louder “ugh” expressed.

-Something jams in between my finger and fingernail (it HURT). Air filter still won’t stay on the guides and something is still catching it. Air filer is now starting to come apart. Louder “ugh” is expressed.

-After several more attempts at this, the air filter is in serious shape. I’m not VERY hacked that I might have to go buy another air filter. This is when the “dabnabits” started. Verbal frustrations getting louder. (Note: no cussing ever took place, but it was tempting!)

-Now REALLY irritated, I get up and go looking for tape. I think I hit the door to my room when I tried to open it.

-Proceed to tape the air filter back together and making mental note to purchase heaviest dutiest air filter on the market next time around.

-After 10-15 more attempts (and several verbal outbursts of frustration) air filter is finally in place. Dreading the need to replace again in three months.

“Changing Air Filter” has officially become “man’s work” in my book. My definition of “man’s work” is anything that I could do if I tried, but have no desire to do.

And, by the way, I didn't just change one air filter, I changed three. I was advised by a fellow female homeowner that there were too other locations that I should also have air filters. One of the locations was a peice of cake to change. The other one, well - it was in my ceiling and it's a good thing I'm tall because I had to hold the grate in place with my head while I tried to put the screws back into the ceiling. It took some serious talent on my part.

How Rude!

This started out as a comment on Suzy's blog, but then just decided to post it. Yesterday, I went to buy more shampoo and the lady at Ulta ask me if I used their salon services and when I said no, she said "I thought you might need one of these" and stuck a flier in my bag. I didn't think my hair looked that bad. I'm sorry, sleeping yesterday took priority over having perfect hair. And who was she to talk? Her makeup was HIDEOUS! Teal and Purple eye shadow. Plleeeaaassseee!

Did You Know?

More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.

Detroit: Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Amazon: The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.

Brazil: Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

Canada: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.

Ohio: There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is manmade.

Antarctica: Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. However, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice, Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert. (Actually I did know this b/c I paid attention in class a few Wednesday nights ago.)

Damascus, Syria: Damascus was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

Rome, Italy: The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.

Los Angeles: Los Angeles's full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula - and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A. (Can you imagine trying to write that entire name out when you're writing your address?)

Siberia: Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests.

Sahara Desert: In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island. There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

Spain: Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.'

United States: The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

Neglect

I was informed this morning that I am neglecting my duties as a plant parent. If you could see my office right now, the plant isn't the only thing being neglected. I guess I better water it.

Thought of the Day

Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food. – Proverbs 12:9

Finally!!!

So, I finally met the man of my dreams. He’s kind, treats me like I’m the most important person in the world to him, very open about what’s on his mind, and makes me laugh. Oh, and did I mention he wasn’t bad looking either. Just a very genuinely nice guy. Only problem is (seriously, this is my life, you know there had to be a hitch) – he literally was the “man of my dreams.” I don’t know who in the world this man was, but I would LOVE to meet him. We had a really great time last night talking and hanging out. Now I’m kind of sad to be awake. Oh well, maybe if he makes an appearance every night, things won’t be so bad. We could make the relationship work. =o)

Thoughts for the Day

Undo Button
I wish I had an undo button on things other than my computer. Example, today I had to run a quick errand for work, so I got in my car and rolled my windows back up (I had them cracked so that my car wouldn’t get too hot) and immediately wished I hadn’t because I didn’t want to have to get them back into the ideal position when I got back. I seriously found myself wanting to hit the undo button till I realized my car doesn’t have one.

Billboard
I – amongst other things – design billboards for my place of employment. Recently I did one for a women’s bible study that begins every fall. We had several pictures to choose from, but finally decided on a particular layout. We actually thought was one of the best ones we’ve had in a long time because it really stands out. Come to find out, it stands out in more ways than one. Everyone seems to think the open books look like something other than an open book. Well, it’s too late now. People just need to get their minds out of the gutter.

School Supply Hunters
Bad combination: School Supply Hunters + 102 degree temperatures + traffic do not = a leisurely afternoon running errands. Normally, I like these breaks; it gets me out of the office. Today, I would have rather stayed at work.

Perfume
I think all perfume that people wear to our office must be approved by an official office scent committee. There are at least two women who come into our office on a regular basis that wear perfumes that will turn your stomach. When we have pregnant secretaries, they have to leave the office till the scent dissipates. Just a note: if it can be smelled 10 feet away and the scent lingers for 20-30 minutes after you leave, you’re wearing too much. I have an easily triggered gag reflex when it comes to strong scents. You don’t even want to know the affect sour kraut has on me. Same applies to using the office microwave.

Shoes
This weekend I went through my closet and made a sack of all the shoes that I haven’t not worn in over two years, but held on to because they were still in good condition, so that I can take them to the clothing room or Good Will. Shoes in good condition would be better served by someone who would wear them than they are sitting in my closet.

Speaking of Closets
The only thing I really do not like about my house is the closet in my bedroom. It’s just laid out weird. It’s long and narrow and difficult to organize and I have to go in the closet and close the door to get to my shoes, dresses or belts. I’ve been thinking about what I could do to make it better. I don’t think a different layout would work (actually don’t think it would be possible), but I’m wondering if I could install a sliding door that goes into the wall instead of a door on hinges. Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t install this myself, but have one installed.

Who are the People in Your Neighborhood?

Remember that song from Sesame Street?

Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in your neighborhood?
The people that you meet each day.

Some of you familiar with blogging know that there is a little feature you can add to your blog that allows you to see at least what service provider your readers are using. Sometimes this comes in handy when you get responses from random people and you’re trying to figure out how they ended up reading your blog. I don’t check it very often, but as some have noticed, I have had a lot of anonymous posts lately and it’s driving Suzy crazy not knowing who it is (of course I’m curious, but oh well – as long as “anonymous” isn’t stalking me – it’s all good.) I have two theories on who this MIGHT be -- based off of the location of their server, but not really sure. But like I said, if they’re not stalking me, I don’t care.

Anyway, as I was looking at the tracker today, I found it really interesting to see all the different “viewers” I have. Some are regulars and end up on my blog through other friends’ blogs. Some are just hitting the “next blog” feature, and some are searching Google and probably didn’t find what they were looking for (unless I’m being “Googled” by an old boyfriend, but there are very few of those and none of them were computer literate).

Sometimes I’m curious who the “regular visitors” that I can’t figure out are, yet also thankful that at least someone finds what I’m blogging about entertaining enough to come back more than once (well, that’s at least what I like to tell myself.) ;o)

On a side note (totally unrelated of course): My new flip flops are the WORST! I bought cheap ones for camp because I needed shower shoes (the ones I use to use disintegrated). This morning I was getting ready for work and couldn’t find my black flip flops and I was running late, so I grabbed the browns ones I bought for camp. I have tripped at least 10 times today!!! Never wearing these anywhere but in the yard and in the shower at camp ever again!!!!

It’s Just a Matter of Perspective

We have a new worship minister on staff as of Monday. Yesterday afternoon, he stopped by my office and asked if I lived here because every time he’s ever been in the office, I’ve been here. I told him it feels like it.

This morning our “still without title” minister (a.k.a. Kent) was in my office and Scott stuck his head in again and commented that he is now convinced that I live here. We were all laughing about it when Kent said “If she’d find herself a man, she wouldn’t be up here all the time.”

My response was “If I didn’t have to be up here all the time, maybe I could find me a man.”

See, it’s all in how you look at things.

Dude, It’s HOT!!!

That’s all I have to say about Oklahoma weather lately. At first, it was a novelty. You could laugh about it “man it’s hot here lately, ha ha ha.” It’s not funny anymore. It’s down right annoying. I have no appetite – it’s too hot to eat. And as for Mr. Matt Lauer who said on the Today Show this morning, “stay inside today, it’s going to be in the 90’s”. All I have to say to that is “you wuss!”

One Step Closer to “Coolness”

Last night was a monumental moment in the life of Me. I finally watch Return of the Jedi. For those unfamiliar with the history behind this monumental moment, I seem to have had a deprived childhood. I never watched the Star Wars movies as a child. Does this null and void my membership into the Child of the 80’s Club? Probably. Anywho, when the Episodes 1-3 started hitting the theaters, I decided to watch them in that order instead of the order they were released. I finally watched Episodes 1 & 2 before Episode 3 was released, but because I had to watch them with subtitles to understand what was going on, I waited and watched Episode 3 on video too.

A friend had been telling me when I was ready to watch the Star Wars Trilogy, he had the DVDs and I could borrow them. But by time I was watch them, he’d decided that instead of loaning them to me, he was going to bring them over and watch them with me. In all honesty, I thought he was all talk and didn’t think he’d do it. But much to my surprise I finally was able to begin my home stretch to becoming a full-fledged child of the 80’s. Of course, he kept making me wait weeks in between viewing because he had to wait years and just didn’t think it was fair for me not to have to wait some amount of time. The process began in April and 3 months later, I have seen them all.

So what did I think? Well, honestly, I think I’m going to have to watch them again by myself before I can say for sure. He kept giving me commentary on what was going on and I kept asking questions, so I missed quite a bit of dialogue. I guess it does take some of the shock value away when you already know that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia (sp?) were brother and sister – though still disturbing when you see them kiss!

I am told next on the agenda are the Indiana Jones movies, Spaceballs and Muppets in Space (I have seen the last two, but I'm told they'll make more sense to me now).

On the home front, I spent the weekend looking at flooring. I think I have found something I really like, but the 3 year, no interest special ended last night at midnight and they didn’t know it was ending till yesterday. I know some of you are surprised that I’m planning on installing it myself, but my “construction” friends have every bit of confidence in me and keep telling me I can do it. I guess we’ll see how it goes. The only thing that makes me nervous is cutting it. I really wanted everything to work out so I could start on that phase this weekend. They said to check back this weekend because they haven’t heard yet what their new financing special will be. I’m sure my roommate is ready for it to be done. All the furniture is kind of in the middle of the living room right now because I didn’t want to move it back till I got the chair rail up.

I’m A Chicken

Okay, I’m getting pretty good at do-it-myself type projects, BUT there is one thing I need to do that I’m kind of chicken about. I need to replace my air filter(s). I know the one in the heating unit was replaced in November and if I have more than one, I’m not sure where #2 might be.

Anyway, I know there is an air filter somewhere around the heating unit, but I’m too afraid to open the door because there is a hole at the top of that closet – which is right below where we found the snake. I am terrified what I might find if I open that door, but I really do need to change the filter.

Part of me thinks that I possibly have a second air filter somewhere, but I have no clue where it is and have no clue how to find out. Any suggestions?

Just in case you're wondering

I am in the process of trying to add a custom header to my blog. I got some instructions from Karen, but I'm having a really tough time getting the picture to show up, so check back and hopefully I will have it figured out soon!

UDATE: I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! (But don't ask me how, I'm not exactly sure).

Weird Phone Call of the Day

As many of you know, I work for church and more often than I would like, I have to answer the phone. Working in a church, you get LOTS of weird phone calls. Here is today's winner:

Me: "[Name of the church], this is Stacey."

Lady: "I have a question, have you ever gone by the name Renaissance Women's Hospital?"

Me: "Uh, no we haven't."

Lady: "Really?"

Me: "Uh, yeah. Matter of fact, Renaissance Women's Hospital closed."

Lady (sounding disappointed): "Really?"

Me: "Yeah."

Lady: "Okay then. Thanks."

To my knowledge, we have not been birth'n no babies here, though if you saw our Toddler Hallway, you might question that fact. I'm not sure what possesed her to call and ask that question, because our phone numbers were no where close to each other and I would think the fact that we are a church would make it kind of obvious that we've never gone by the name of a women's hospital, but I guess you never know. ;o)

So Long Solitaire

This has become my new favorite computer game. It has now replaced Solitaire as my game of choice when I've reach creative block and need a break. It's awesome! You should give it a try! It's addictive.

What is YOUR Passion?

That was the question one of the guys asked one evening during his lesson last week at camp and it’s something (in addition to some other things) that I have been doing a lot of thinking about lately.

The speaker asked some campers to write down what their passion is. One of them wrote about their passion for running (they were obviously a passionate writer too). Another wrote about her love for God. And the whole time he’s reading their responses, I found myself trying to think about something I am just as passionate about and I could not think of one single thing.

When I was a child up through junior high, I was passionate about drawing and painting. When I was in high school, I was passionate about acting. I bet many of you are kind of surprised to know that I actually was very active in theater when I was in high school – both on stage and behind the scenes. I had a couple of leading roles and even received a few acting awards, but it was a passion that died when I started college. I guess it was more of hobby. For a while in my life, I was passionate about photography – thought I wanted to be a photographer, but then my world fell apart and by time I had picked up all the pieces, making a career of it no longer appealed to me.

I think what bothers me most is that I used to be passionate about serving others. I used to love to teach bible class. I never passed up a service opportunity. Not that these are now things that I have no desire to do, but I don’t seek them out like I used to.

So, I have had this question on the back of my mind for about a week now. What am I passionate about? I seem to have found myself in a place of…well, I can’t think of a word, but I’m just kind of unexcited, unmotivated about everything. I just get up and go through my day and just try to be content with the things I cannot change. But I’m bound and determined to find SOMETHING I’m passionate about. SOMETHING I can get excited about. I need to do something because I’m slowly becoming more pathetic than the stereotypical old maid with a thousand cats because, I can’t stand cats, which means that she at least has something to keep her company. I don’t even have that!!!

It’s something I’m praying about, amongst other things. I swear the older I get, the more complicated it gets.

So in the meantime, while I’m searching for my passion, I’d be curious to hear what your passions are. Maybe it will spark something. Couldn’t hurt.

SMC 2006

Well, I’m back and I survived another week at camp. Actually, despite the heat, it wasn’t that hard to survive. Yes, we did have temperatures well into the 100’s most of the week (it was 115 one day), and the A/C was broken in the mess hall/chapel for two days, but other than that, it was a really good week.

I had a great cabin of girls this year. They were all great – definitely the best cabin I have ever had. They were where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there and never gave us any trouble. I did have to go looking for a girl one night, but she just turned out to be clueless, but it only happened once. They did keep me awake a lot, but that wasn’t their fault, most of the bunks in our cabin squeaked every time someone moved.

My family group (not that same as my cabin group) was a little trying, but not too bad either. They seriously had a case of ADD. I just had a really hard time clicking with this family group – and that isn’t normally the case.

But this was the year for camp pranks. As I have learned from some other counselors this year, camp pranks are not acceptable at every camp, but they have traditionally been a part of ours. Anything destructive and hurtful has never been tolerated, but harmless ornery stuff has always been a part of the norm. My co-counselor is infamous on the girl’s side (and well, I’ve learned from the best and can always hold my own). I’m not necessarily involved in one every year because a good prank can’t be planned, but must present itself naturally – but I have been involved in enough that people get nervous when I disappear for too long.

This year just seemed to be the year to try to out-do every prank from the past. I have to give kudos to some of the senior boys. One night, they took the floating dock from the lake and moved it to a small fishing pond near by. What was even funnier was watching them try to put it back because they had to carry it up a very steep hill to get it back in the lake. Then there was the night they “stole” the extra fridge out of the canteen and put it in their cabin. As a payback, the counselors bought a chain and padlock and put on it so they couldn’t get to their stuff inside. The only problem was, some of the campers aren’t as creative and don’t really think their pranks through. We had a girl write on the walls of the girl’s showers with nail polish. She had to clean it up. I won’t even mention what some of the younger boys did in the boys bathhouse (it was disgusting).

We also had some lame pranks like duck taping the toilet sets closed with only a few pieces of duct tape or running underwear up the flag pole. Some girls tried shave creaming the girls showers (oh, give me a break!) and a few thought it would be funny to shoe polish everyone’s cars. I can’t say it was funny – it was lame and now my car needs to be washed because whatever they used to clean it off (yep, they got caught), left a really bad film on my windows.

Thursday night/Friday morning was probably when some would say it hit the fan. My cabin was primarily senior girls. They had been wanting to do something really good all week and Fran & I kept telling them to wait till Wednesday or Thursday so that the senior boys wouldn’t have time to come up with a retaliation plan. At first, we had something really good planned for them to do. Some male counselors were going to steal the refrigerator in the boys cabin and put it out on the floating dock. Then we were going to get posed pictures of the senior girls with the refrigerator to make it look like they stole it. Problem was, they male counselors could never get into their cabin on Thursday night to get the fridge b/c there was always someone in there. So I had to break the bad news to the girls. But because it was their last year, we gave them some water balloons and gave them permission to go play some harmless pranks. It was funny because they were all dressed in black and set to go, but they kept standing at our cabin door too afraid to leave because the nigh patrol was standing outside. Fran finally told them to go do what they were going to do and hurry up BECAUSE they had to be back in the cabin by 2:30 a.m. or we were going to lock them out. Actually, we would have let them back in, but we wanted them back for a really good reason (I’ll get to that later). In addition to the water balloons, they had plans to go do something in the boys bathhouse. I really thought they might be crossing the line by going to the boys bathhouse and warned them against it, but in all honesty – this group really wasn’t that slick and I didn’t think they would even make it over there without being caught. Yeah, I was wrong – well sort of, they made it over there, but the male counselors knew they were there and went behind them and cleaned up everything they did.

Though technically, our girls didn’t do anything that would get them in serious trouble, the problem came when they weren’t back by 2:30 a.m. Four of them were because they never left the girls bathhouse, but rest did not heed our warning. See, we knew that the boys were up to something and planned on executing their plan sometime after 3 a.m. Their plan was to set off some fire crackers and bird bombs. If you are unfamiliar with a bird bomb, they use them in down town areas with a serious bird problem to attempt to scare them away. It sounds like a really loud gun shot and can be heard for at least a mile away. We tried to talk them out of it because I knew it would NOT go over well, but they didn’t listen. At 5 a.m., we heard three loud rifle like sounds followed by some fire works which I guess it had girls screaming and crying all over the place. At 5:30, the director came knocking on our cabin door to see if all our girls were in the cabin – they weren’t. Just then they came walking down the hill. They had been sitting up on the picnic tables most of the night. What was funny was when he asked them for their names and one of my co-counselors daughters (who is only 14, but went with them), says in her proudest cheerleader type voice “Kelcy ____!” She was so proud that she got caught and the rest of us had to laugh b/c she is Frannie’s daughter!

We did have to clear up the fact that our girls were not involved in the bird bomb issue and I had to clear up with a dad that his daughter never left the girl’s bathhouse (though, he was still mad that we gave them permission to be out after curfew), but other than that, it all blew over pretty quickly. Hopefully the ones that are mad will cool off by next year.

Over all, it was a good year. Might be worth returning next year.