Spiders are disgusting.

Although Renee and I are both huge arachnophobes (is that correct?) she insisted I take this picture of our friendly spider outside the remnant shop.

She was a mama, and she is no more. She died a tragic death of being sprayed with Behold (the furniture polish) until falling to the ground and then a heavy wooden block was dropped on her. RIP. But anyway, Renee thought her legs pulled up on her head were cool.

Free Rice!

Not to you, silly. I love this website - I'm on it pretty much every day. It's called FreeRice and it's a website dedicated to teaching and donating at the same time!! If you love vocabulary and donating food, please check it out. What you do it match the word they give you with the correct definition. When you get three in a row correct, you move up a "word level". When you get one wrong, you move down a level. There are fifty levels in all, but they say it's rare for anyone to get over level 48. Me, I'm stuck right around level 37 38. Them's some hard words!! The great thing is, everytime you guess a word correctly, you've just donated 20 grains of rice through the UN for World Hunger. I've donated like 4000 grains of rice today!

I act like a 21 year old!

HOW OLD DO YOU ACT?

Put an X in the ones you do, then add it up and that's your age!

[x] I know how to cook toast
[x] I can do my own laundry
[x] I can cook for myself.
[ ] I actually enjoy intellectual conversations
Total So Far: 3

[x] I show up for school MOST of thetime unless I'm sick
[x] I always carry a pen in mypocket/purse
[ ] I've never gotten a detention
[x] I've watched talk shows.
[ ] I drink coffee at least once aweek
Total So Far: 3

[x] I know how to run the dish washerand/or do the dishes.
[x] I can count to 5 in eitherSpanish/French/German/Italian/etc.
[x] When I say I'm going to do something I do it.
[x]I can mow the lawn.
[x] I remember to water my plants.
[x] I study when I HAVE to.
[ ] I pay attention at school.
[x] I remember to feed my pets
Total So Far: 7

[x] I can spell experience without looking it up.
[ ] The first thing I do when i get home is eat.
[x] I can go to the store without getting something I don't need.
[x] I understand jokes the first time they are said.
[x] I can type fast
Total So Far: 4

[x] I have realized that the weather forecast changes every hour
[ ] I realize that no one will take you seriously unless you are over the age of 25 and have a job
[x] I can read a book and actually finish it
Total So Far: 2

[x] I knew that the alphabet and twinkle twinkle little star have the same rythym.
[x] I noticed rhythm is spelled wrong
[ ] You actually watch the weather
Total So Far: 2

Total : 21

Pretty close! Alright!!

People are funny.

I love people with a good sense of humor. I also like reading the "best-of-craigslist" posts on craigslist. (Craigslist is a website where you can post jobs, things for sale, personal ads, etc.) This is a real ad that was on the Craigslist California board:

left handed vintage air guitar for free all thats needed is new strings and a good dusting.

That just cracks me up.

It's that North Carolina edumacation.

When Stephen's family is with us, board games abound. One of our favorites is Hear Me Out, which is also one of our favorites to play with Jenn and Matt. One category you have to do is brainstorm on a certain topic. Well, the topic was "Cities Outside the U.S." You get points for matching other people's answers, so of course most of us got the obvious ones - Rome, London, etc. Well, imagine my surprise when no one else put the ones I did - Iran, Iraq, Egypt...

I shouldn't feel so bad because for another question Corky said the answer would be the largest continent.. and they proceeded to answer Asia.

Another category is for you to speak for 45 seconds on whatever topic is on the first card you draw. Josh had to talk for 45 seconds on why he loves Spam so much. It turns out he had some very persuasive reasons, which included "the sound when you open it - fsst!" and "because it's Spamtacular!!" This is the kind of game you are just cracking up pretty much the whole time you're playing it.

I love quizzes and I never post any on here, so I'm going to because I said so.

You Are Dasher

You're an independent minded reindeer who never plays by the rules. Why You're Naughty: That little coup you tried to stage against Santa last year Why You're Nice: You secretly give naughty children presents.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

American Cities That Best Fit You:

60% Austin 55% Atlanta 55% Washington, DC 50% New York City 45% Chicago

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

You Are 50% "Average American"

You are average because you donate to charity. You are not average since you live more than three miles away from McDonalds.

How "Average American" Are You?

Not a creature is stirring

Our guests left early this morning, as we left for church. We've just gotten home and the house is so quiet already! I've already slipped back into my pajamas, and Stephen and I have the perfect next three hours planned. He's making lunch, we're going to turn on the fireplace and TV, and just lay around and do nothing. And if we fall asleep, hallelujah!! It'll give me some relaxation time before we have to be back at church for play and choir practice. So I'm going to go bask in it.

No jackpot.

We didn't actually hit the jackpot at yard sales this morning. Our first three were not happening (talk about cancelling at the last minute) and then we went to a "Huge!!!!" 4-family yard sale, which was not so "Huge!!!!" and more "average..." Although I did get a cute candle holder and 6 Yankee candles for $1. The coalition was closed for Thanksgiving, which I should have known but it was still a bummer.

For lunch we all ate at 195 with mom and dad. Sooooo good. The boys have gone hunting again now and the girls are resting. I think we're going to Christmas shops later, if I can find them. Well, there's not that much to post about so I'm just going to go do something else.

Thanksgiving twodoubleohseven

I'm thankful that our house didn't burn down yesterday. We found out that our air conditioning wasn't working yesterday (yes, we still have our air on), and when Stephen went to look at the electrical box thingy, there was a big burn mark and there was definitely something wrong. Him and Corky fiddled with it, and eventually it started working again. Then we had professionals come out today and really fix it. But I'm thankful that we, our visitors, and our belongings were safe during the period that we didn't know about the electrical problem.

Yesterday was such a typical Thanksgiving, and I absolutely loved it!!! This is what makes Thanksgiving Thanksgiving:

1. FOOTBALL.

2. FOOD. LOTS AND LOTS OF FOOD.

3. INDIANS AND PILGRIMS.

4. MOM GETTING THE BIGGER END OF THE WISHBONE (AS ALWAYS).

5. ALL-NIGHTERS OF GAMES!

I am so thankful for so many things! And now I am about to go whup some butt at our most fun game, Hear Me Out. And then, off to rest. Big day tomorrow with going out early to yard sales with Josh, lunch with Stephen's and my family, and the big fight tomorrow night. I'm so excited!

Happy Turkey Day!!!

I don't even like using that phrase "turkey day" because it's just so cliche that people eat turkey on Thanksgiving. But I do... so I'm using it. I hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving! Our family from Georgia is in town, so I am thankful for that. And VERY thankful that I get to spend today with my family, some that I haven't seen in a few months even though we live in the same county. So here's to good eating, good talks, good laughs, and bloated bellies!

Today I'm thankful for...

LAUGHTER!!! My favorite people are the ones who make me laugh. This is mostly my husband, family, coworkers, church family, and other random friends. I don't think I am close to one person who doesn't make me laugh so hard I cry every so often. In honor of that, I wanted to post some things to make you laugh, or just smile! (I hope!)

Teen Girl Squad Episode 3 (has sound)






















Teen Girl Squad Episode 4 (has sound)

Strongbad Email - Guitar (has sound)

Ask a Ninja

I'm thankful for my employer, who gives their employees Food Lion gift certificates at Thanksgiving!! Thank you!!!

Still Thankful...

I'm thankful that tonight's Christmas play practice was called off!! Wahoo!!! That really makes my day 10 times better. Also, I'm thankful for lunch. I am eating lunch with mom today - we are having organic butternut squash soup which sounds so good! And tomorrow, I will be munching at Panera Bread with Jenn for my first time ever! I am so hungry just thinking about it. I'm thankful that we saw Stephen's cousin Rachel and her 4 month old baby Riley last night. So cute!!

Also, I'm It.

I've been tagged by Jenn. The rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share seven random and/or weird things about yourself.
• Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let those people know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

I'm not sure I can think of seven things about myself!! Let's see...

1. It would be my life's dream to cook every night, but after working 10 hours, I can't seem to pull myself together to cook even twice a week usually.

2. I have fooled myself into thinking I will get more things done after I have a baby and am no longer working.

3. One of my favorite parts of the day is when Jessie (7 years old) climbs into my lap, rests her head on my shoulder, pats my boob, and just lays there quietly, like she's about to fall asleep.

4. I don't understand what the big deal is about having your picture taken. I love having mine taken, even if I look bad, because that's how I keep my memories. (Otherwise I wouldn't remember anything!)

5. I wish we could sell our truck. If we had great public transportation around here, we'd sell the truck and Stephen's car, and I'd take the bus everywhere.

6. I wonder how parents do it. That is, put up with their children.

7. I don't know anyone else with a blog except for Jenn and Lib and they've both already been tagged, so I'm ending the tagging cycle! I'm awful!!

True Blue

I'm so proud that my cousins are being raised right. I don't know what mine and Jennifer's children are going to turn out like - Matt being a Duke fan and Stephen being a State fan. It makes me sad for the future.

Mmmmm... raw egg.

This is how we'd prefer to spend every afternoon, if we could. Don't tell our children.

Slow day, tough crowd.

Don't have much to say today, not a lot has been going on. But I would like to add in my two cents worth on the Thanksgiving countdown. I am thankful for music and books, for without either of these things I'd have a lot more free time!! But seriously, music and books have been incredible inspirations to me. Music is a way of releasing energy, getting me pumped up, letting out my emotions, worshipping God, becoming closer with family (gathered around the piano singing together is one of my all-time favorite memories I have with my dad and at Christmas, Stephen's family.) Reading helps me get away from stresses, enter a whole other world, learn new words, make me think of things I'd never realize otherwise, and much more.

In honor of my thankfulness for music, I'm putting up the link to this video on the Evolution of Dance. This is the best video EVER. I know every song but one, so I guess that's why I love it so much. Rock on, Jud Laipply!!!

Evolution Of Dance

whew.

We had the big yard sale for work this morning. We had over 100 people show up! It was a lot of fun. We're planning another for December, so if you're in town, check it out!!

I just realized I forgot to post pictures of Jenn C.'s absolutely adorable baby Mark. Now he's a month old, but I got to see him when he was only 1 day old!! He is so cute!!

So cute!!! 'Kay, I'm outta here.

Ah Ah Ah Ah Stayin' Aliiiiiiiiiiiiive...

We're watching Saturday Night Fever right now, so this song is majorly going through my head right now. I love the Bee Gees!

Mom and I went to Jan's jewelry show tonight. Mom got a couple of really cute pairs of earrings and I got this pretty necklace. Now Stephen and I are spending quality time together in front of the TV. I've gotta get some sleep tonight because we're doing another Skyline yard sale tomorrow! From 8-12, so come by if you're in Southern Pines. Then there's flag football with the church at West End school, but I don't know if I'll make it to that. Stephen might have to be my ambassador. I'm outta here!!

Deedly deedly deedly da da da WAAAAAAAAH!!!!

That's right, we got Guitar Hero!! This is what I walked into after work:

I had to show him how it's done:

I love it!! Can we please have a huge Guitar Hero tournament?? We'll rock your head off.

SMORGASBORD!!!

I think that's how you spell it, right? This morning we have a HUGE breakfast buffet at work. Ham biscuits, sausage biscuits, fruit, sourdough bread, cranberry cinnamon bread, french toast, some apple thing I don't know what it was but it was very good, lots of juice... whew! I was going to take a picture - our entire counter is full of food - but I don't have my camera here.

Did I mention that I love working in a place where people love food as much as I do?

Craftiness

We did our Christmas craft at LOF on Monday night. Mine actually turned out better than I expected, so I'm going to post these pictures. We made minature Christmas trees!

Here we are in the middle of our projects...

That's mine, although it got a little loose riding home in the car. The all silver ones look really beautiful!! If anyone wants to do a craft with me and make one, we should totally do it!!

I forgot all about you

I've been sitting here with this window open to start blogging for almost an hour now. I completely forgot all about it!!! Isn't that hard to believe? Har har har. Well, we have been updating things at the Talbert household. Last night I came home from church and lo and behold, we finally have Internet on the downstairs computer! I'll probably never go upstairs again. That means - LOTS more pictures!!

Also, as it turns out, my hubby bought me a sweet little present. It's only called GUITAR HERO!! We are hoping beyond hope that it will come today but it'll probably come tomorrow, which means we'll have to rush home from church to play it before bedtime. If it comes tonight, that stinks, because I have play practice!

I'm going to try to remember to post pictures of our new piano, as well as some from over the weekend maybe. We had a gorgeous sunrise at the beach. I keep getting distracted from posting so I'm just going to stop now and maybe pick this up again later.

Ketchup

I had such an absolutely wonderful time this weekend at the beach with the ladies group from church. As LB said, "And here I thought some of these ladies might be stuffy!!" We definitely and absolutely let our immaturity fly this weekend, and it felt so good. We have our monthly meeting tonight, where I am hoping to find out that I will be the Secretary of our group in the coming year. I am also signing up for youth group again, assistant choir director, nursery coordinator, the drama team, the choir, and the food ministry. I think that will be quite enough. I seriously thought about taking over the Christmas play next year, but as I don't know what will be happening in my life 13 months from now, I am setting that aside.

I did pretty good this weekend considering we went to two Tanger outlets, one regular mall, two Ross stores, one Marshalls, one TJ Maxx, and one World Market. I didn't buy any books which is just amazing, and I only bought three or four clothing items. I bought tons of stuff from World Market, Le Gourmet Chef, and Kitchen Collections, as always. And tons of items from Charlotte Russe, as always. I love introducing people to that store, because it is amazing. The website doesn't do it justice.

We're talking about having another trip in the spring, but hotel rates go up so much then. We'll see.

Okay, let's prepare for this week. Schedule?

Monday night - Ladies of Faith meeting - bring snacks
Tuesday night - Christmas play practice
Wednesday night - church
Thursday night - supposed to be going to see Jenn T., probably going to try to get out of this so I can keep my sanity
Friday night - Jan's jewelry show
Saturday night - FREE!! (so far)
Sunday night - don't get me started
Monday night- FREE!! (so far)
Tuesday - Sunday - Stephen's family from Georgia will be in town.

So, in a few weeks I will have a break again, right?

Sleeeeeeeeeeeep.

Gosh, I think I slept about 11 hours last night, but it definitely didn't make up for the lack of sleep Friday night. We only slept about 2 hours while in Myrtle Beach. I swear, our 12-year-old insides really came out over the weekend!!! Everyone looked pretty wiped this morning at church, but at least we all showed up!! We said if the tithing went down today, we all knew why - cause we spent all our money at the beach! Well, I did pretty well. Everything I got was something I really needed, and Stephen was proud of everything I bought. So I'm pretty pleased with myself. Well, I have LOF tomorrow night (Ladies of Faith) and I'm making raspberry scones, so I better go make sure they don't burn!!

Back!!!

Okay, I have just recently returned about 10 minutes ago from the beach. I can't wait to post about our trip. We had SUCH a blast, and I was SUCH a good shopper!!! I will have to write about it, probably Monday. I have never shopped so much in my life. My feet hurt, my hips hurt from standing, my legs hurt from walking - I bet we walked 30 miles in two days. But I got in my exercise for this year. So I will post soon about the trip!!

Off we go, into the wild blue yonder

Well, I'm off. I'm leaving in just a little bit for Myrtle Beach. I'm going with lots of lovely ladies from church for a shopping excursion! But have no fear, I shall return tomorrow, hopefully not in a lot of debt.

Nature pictures

Continuing on with the Webshots account that I know the password to... Here are a couple of pictures from one trip to Cascade Falls that Mike and I took. We were going through a phase of going to every waterfall we could find, and taking tons of pictures.



And we found tons of other incredible sights on our way there. Photo hunts are the BEST!!



We always saw several rainbows - well, considering that rainbows are pretty rare, anyway.



There's them falls!!



This is Linville Falls, one of our favorite places to go hiking.



This picture was taken at Beacon Heights, another of our regular spots. I love this shot because I look like I've just conquered the mountain and Keely is just uber thrilled for me!! I miss the days of driving around on the parkway, listening to Postal Service or Jack Johnson, or just nothing at all. And then when we got really cold, we'd go over to the Broyhill Inn where you could sneak up to the third floor and get free hot chocolate! It was awful, but free!!

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

Take a picture; it lasts longer.

Anyone remember that clunky website called Webshots? Well, I was really into that in the 00's (so over it now.) As it turns out, you can only store so many pictures on there before you have to pay to put more on there. So, of course, I have three accounts. I have no clue what my usernames or my passwords are, because I made the three accounts over 4 years of college. About every 8 months, I try to figure them out because I want to see some oldschool pictures.



This is a great memory picture. This was one of our infamous game nights, and I think we were playing Battle of the Sexes, if memory serves me (which it usually fails to.) The awesome plastic yellow watch was part of a care package from Keely. It was supposed to get me to my exams on time. I didn't fail any, so it must have helped! The shirt is from one of our great Boone stores, where you could Mix a Six Pack. You could pick any 6 beers to put in one box, so we'd try all these local brews, or brews from other small towns. And the Mike was and is one of the greatest friends ever. He was the guy who let me talk about Stephen as much as I wanted, he helped me perfect my photographs, he pretended to be my boyfriend if someone was hitting on me, and showed all of us the best nooks of the parkway.



This is the group of girls from the Women's Center that I walked with a few times a week. I love the Women's Center, because I think it made me much more socially aware than I ever had been. These are the girls that made me step out of my box. Because of them, I led lectures on sexual assault. I set up booths, begging girls to love their bodies. I helped out at the local domestic violence shelter. I learned to describe the guy in the corner by his clothes, or crazy hairstyle rather than "that black guy over there" or "the Mexican over there". I went to biofeedback, and convinced the woman there to come give a talk to our group about it. I went to more movies, lectures, and counselors than I ever thought possible. I applied for a very hard position on "The Candidate" (the ASU version of that Donald Trump show that I can't think of the name) and actually won a coveted position. I ended up doing my senior year internship there, and absolutely loving it. I really really miss that crowd, and those experiences, but I think that's why I love being involved with our youth group today. Maybe I might be a little too liberal for some of them, but maybe I can influence them in a positive way anyway.



And, oh yes, we walked outside in short sleeves when it was snowing. We were hardcore.



And checked our mail. Really hardcore.



And went shopping??? Okay, now that's just crazy. Or is it... laaaaazy?



This was one of our presentations on Media Gender Roles and Sexual Assault. Go us!

Well, that's all for today. Tune in next time for "Can Amanda figure out any of her other account names and passwords?"

Sippin' Soup

Today is my lunch date with mom. Once a week we get together for homemade soup, cheese toast, and root beer. Well, it's homemade soup 90% of the time anyway. Today I've made vegetable beef soup, because Granny's was so good the other day. It's the easiest recipe ever, but so good:

1-2 lbs of beef (I just put in however much I feel like)
1 large can of tomato sauce
1 smallish can of stewed tomatoes
1 can of beef broth and 1 can of water
frozen mixed vegetables
1 package dry onion soup mix

Brown the ground beef. Mix everything together in a crockpot, cook on high for around 4 hours or on low for 7 or 8 hours.

I love this recipe, and it makes the house smell sooooo good. Last night Stephen had Monday Night Football with the guys, so he wasn't home, and he totally missed out on the tasting of the soup. (The obligatory bowl of soup to make sure it tastes right.) I love that part of cooking!

Did you wake up grouchy? No, I let her sleep.

I am sooooo not a morning person. I absolutely, totally despise waking up in the mornings. Whether I have had 2 or 10 hours of sleep, I always want to sleep longer. If it were possible, I would just keep hitting the snooze on my alarm every 10 minutes for a couple of hours after I'm supposed to get up. Funny side note - I've had my alarm clock for probably 7 years now, and I don't even know where the snooze button is. If I want to snooze, I have to totally reset the alarm. It's a lot of hassle for 10 extra minutes, but I admit to doing it about once a week. Until sometime after lunch, my eyes are squinty, my eyebrows are furrowed, my lips are set in a pout, and I'm in some kind of morning fog. I snap out of the haze every so often, but let me sit down for about 15 minutes and I'm outta there again. If you say the wrong thing to me, I'll probably cry. If you really say something wrong to me (something rude, perhaps) I'll probably just get really ticked at you and be mad at you all day.

The problem is, I'm not a night person either. We go to bed so early to get enough sleep that I can't stay out late anymore. I don't even know when my prime time is anymore. Until I got married, I stayed out 3am, 4am, no problem. Now when 9:30 rolls around, I'm whining like a baby.

I just hate mornings. I hate them!

I am not observant.

It's true. I am that person who will never notice that you got your hair cut. I won't notice your earrings, your shoes, and I certainly won't remember on Tuesday what you wore to work on Monday. It's not because I don't care about you, of course, just that I don't pay attention to those little details. And if I did pay attention, my memory's so bad that I wouldn't remember any of those details in a few hours anyway!

So I'm not really surprised that I just walked into our "office" room and just now noticed our papasan chair is in the corner. I am going to ask Stephen later how long it's been up here, because I have never noticed it. Now you guys know how big papasan chairs are - pretty hard to overlook - so this should be interesting.

Ah, my memory.

Alright, first of all I'd like to congratulate myself on posting today. And second of all, I have to give total credit to Jenn/Libba for talking about blogging when they were here earlier, because I had not even thought about my blog at all. I can't believe I almost broke my resolution in only three days!!!

Today was such a great day, as most Saturdays are. Although I always seem much more exhausted on Saturdays and Sundays than I do during the week. I guess it's because we have so much to cram in on S&S. This morning I got up as early as usual so that I could hit the big Bethesda church yard sale right when it opened. It was slightly worth it, seeing as it was on the way to the seriously big yard sale that was my focal point. The big yard sale is, of course, the twice-a-year Joel Road 5 mile yard sale/flea market. I absolutely love the chaos of it all. It seems like all of Moore County is there in their cars, golf carts, and yes, horses. But I love the social aspect and scooping a great deal out from someone else, haggling prices, seeing people I know, and finding rarities for people. I found three more great s&p shakers for dad that are truly unique, and two great mysteries for Granddaddy. Also got lots of 50 cent items for the next baby shower I'm going to. I don't know where people come up with all the stuff they sell! Afterwards I met mom and dad at their house for a pit stop (there's no bathrooms on the 5-miler, and it takes over 2 hours to go through if you're thorough (which I am, because what if I miss a great deal just because I can't see it clearly from the road??) ) and to hit up the Catholic church yard sale. Books were 10 cents, and as soon as we walked in we heard a booming voice over the loudspeaker announcing that everything was half price. So I got several books and a cute Christmas soap dispenser for 40 cents all together! I love it! Now when am I going to find time to read....?

Brunch - the most in-between meal of the day

This morning at work, we had a huge argument discussion about when exactly brunch happens. It was pretty much another Civil War - the South vs. the North. (like that history analogy?) One of our resident northerners was telling us about how her and her husband used to have brunch in SoHo, where they'd have eggs benedict, a bloody mary, and Ben & Jerry's. Renee said, "You had a Bloody Mary for brunch?" And Kathee said, "Well, yeah, it was like 1:00!"

Brunch is at 1:00?

So I told her she was mistaken, that lunch happens at 1:00, not brunch. And she said, if you don't wake up until noon, your first meal is brunch, not lunch. I say that breakfast is around 7-8am, brunch is around 10, lunch begins around 11:30, 12:00. If you don't eat a meal until 1:00 in the afternoon, you are eating lunch. Whether you're eating a pancake or a hamburger, it's lunch!

I know I'm not the only one who feels this way - there were others in the office on my side. I'll have to get the opinion of some other southerners and northerners and see what they think...

Here we go, NaBloPoMo!

Okay, I am accepting Jenn's challenge to post a blog every day in the month of November. That's right, every single day. Or as it says on the NaBloPoMo website, "Even Saturday and Sunday!" I am just curious to see how long this lasts. I think I'll be doing well to make it until this Sunday. So, my money is on me failing this by November 3. Let's see. I thought I'd start off the month with another round of 100 things about me. So let's get started.

1. I've been meaning to do this list since Jenn posted her other one on October 25.
2. I had probably 1000 thoughts since then to put on here.
3. Now I just hope I can remember one.
4. Yesterday was Halloween and I didn't even remember.
5. I pride myself on being the Halloween queen, decked out in earrings, necklaces, and sometimes one orange sock and one black sock.
6. I've been more forgetful lately because of handling too many things at once.
7. I'm really nervous I'm going to forget something really important soon.
8. We remembered to put candy out last night for trick-or-treaters, but we don't know if we had any because we were at church.
9. Stephen was not-so-secretly hoping that no one would come, because he bought tons of candy that he likes.
10. Notice: Candy that he likes.
11. Although we did win three cakes from our church fall festival last weekend and I'm still plowing through those because he doesn't like any of them.
12. We had one carrot cake, one caramel apple cake, and one chocolate buttermilk.
13. I have sensitive teeth, so I don't even like to eat sweet stuff.
14. My teeth have pretty much been constantly tingling since last Saturday when we got the cakes.
15. I'm kidding, it's not really that bad, but I have been going through sugar highs and lows every day.
16. I'm not used to eating so much sugar.
17. I wish sugar gave me energy and not just the jitters.
18. We had our first yard sale last weekend for Skyline (which is our mini-storage business).
19. We hadn't had a yard sale in over 2 years, so imagine the junk we were trying to get rid of.
20. It's amazing what people will leave behind.
21. I want to cry everytime I find pictures or kid's clothes.
22. I have cried every Kid Nation episode thus far.
23. Stephen begs me to quit watching it if it upsets me, but I want to see that the kids have the guts to get through all the situations.
24. My eyes are scratchy because I'm still so tired.
25. After 24 years, I still don't know exactly how many hours of sleep I need to function.
26. I also haven't yet learned how to do everything I need to do in 24 hours.
27. I have always prided myself on being that person who stays in touch with everyone.
28. I am growing increasingly worse at this aspect of my life.
29. I, like Jenn, go barefoot in our office sometimes, although not where customers can see.
30. When I worked in insurance, my boss had to ask me twice to please put my shoes back on when walking around.
31. That's embarrassing to admit, but no one ever came into our office! Hardly.
32. Although when he got a new job at a law firm, he hired me there, so it couldn't have mattered that much to him.
33. I only have two pairs of closed toed shoes - running shoes, and cute black ones that are a size too big but I wear them anyway.
34. I'm tired of people asking me why I'm wearing short sleeve shirts when it's getting cooler outside.
35. I'm tired of explaining to them the formula of "coldness outside = heat inside rising exponentially".
36. I, unlike Jenn, love writing checks and try to do it every chance I can.
37. Although that could be because 2 years after I've been married I still have checks with my maiden name and my parents' address on them.
38. I just got my first checks with my name and my address on Tuesday.
39. I haven't walked Cassie in over a week.
40. Stephen does it now because he gets off work at 3pm.
41. I liked using my Cassie time to eat muscadine grapes and pray.
42. I can't stand people that don't reuse water bottles.
43. The reason I steal so many hotel shampoos and lotions is so I can use them and then recycle the plastic containers.
44. Granny gives me all of hers from trips, and it makes me feel like I'm making a small dent.
45. Very small.
46. I actually like having discussions with people when we both disagree but there's no way to know factually who is right.
47. I can then convince myself that I am right.
48. I have an overwhelming desire to do so many things someday.
49. One of those things is to grow my own vegetables.
50. Another is to visit another country before we have kids.
51. I'd love to catch up on all the books in our house.
52. We have almost as many books as a library.
53. I want to watch all 10 seasons of Friends - we are in the fifth right now.
54. I don't like to step on cracks, and if I do step on one with one foot, I have to step on another with my other foot to even it out.
55. Stephen is the only person who knows that about me. It seems very OCD to me but it doesn't interfere with my life.
56. I hate talking on the phone. Either my phone is crackling, or my ears can't hear well enough to have a decent conversation with people.
57. That's why I prefer snail mail or email.
58. I don't even check my voicemail except for every two weeks because it's such a hassle.
59. When we moved into our house, we couldn't wait to do several things which we've never done.
60. I never sunbathed on the deck with Jenn while sipping on wine.
61. We never set up our horseshoes from mom and dad.
62. We never set up a volleyball net for our youth group.
63. But we are planning on having a Christmas party.
64. And we've hosted UFC parties, so that makes me feel better.
65. Jessie draws me a new picture almost every day.
66. I don't have room for one more on my desk!! (makes me sad)
67. I love the days that we eat out for lunch, although I love Granny's lunches too.
68. I like riding places with Granddaddy because he tells me stories of when he was growing up.
69. I had the same roommate all four years in college (except that first semester which doesn't count).
70. We are still best friends, even though we live hours and hours apart.
71. I sometimes feel like I am the only person who didn't choose my bank pin number. It was given to me by the bank.
72. The first CD I can remember getting was The Cure. And mom got it for me from a yard sale.
73. I love getting mail, checking mail, and opening mail.
74. I took over that aspect of our business because I really and truly love going through mail.
75. I check my email several times a day, and would definitely do that if possible in my real mailbox.
76. I also love getting free things in the mail.
77. I really think that my "Todd" picture would sell at art galleries, but I don't know how to get in on that action.
78. We are buying a piano today.
79. Sometimes I feel like Stephen is more excited about that than I am.
80. I just feel like it's going to interfere with our TV time and video game time. Not that we have time to spend on either of those things.
81. When I lived with my parents, I played the piano every single day, sometimes for hours.
82. I just don't have that time anymore.
83. I'm worried that my iPod is going to die soon. They don't have a long lifespan.
84. If it dies, I'm just going to have to buy a new one, because I use it all the time.
85. I keep a journal when I do my daily devotions.
86. I have tons of notebooks at home that I have entered journal entries into.
87. I love reading my old journal entries, even though I sometimes disappoint myself.
88. I want to re-dye my hair, but this time I'm not paying Lisa to do it.
89. I found out last Sunday that my preacher helps his wife highlight her hair.
90. He said only real men can admit to that.
91. I don't think I'd want Stephen helping me do it. The last time he put my hair in a ponytail it was bumpy and he pulled many hairs out.
92. But I still like for him to do it because I like for him to play with my hair.
93. Sometimes I feel like slapping people who say we only like each other because we've only been married 2 years.
94. Is your marriage really that awful - and are you trying to make me feel like mine should be that bad?
95. I love marriage more than I ever could have thought.
96. I love Jenn's quote on her blog "Tied together by stuff too difficult to explain to someone new."
97. That quote fits both of our marriages perfectly.
98. I hope we order pizza tonight - we're having Steve and Aaron over so I think we probably will.
99. I'm leaving for lunch with Granddaddy!
100. I'm sure I'll learn something new today from him - I love these times.