And it seems like forever since I talked to you...

Yes, it has been 13 years since I posted anything. But seriously, nothing is going on lately! Or rather, too much to type about. I have some great pictures though, so I've gotta post now!! This weekend was a crazyhectic one, but really fun. Friday night we had a pumpkin carving party with our youth group.

Some of us were really into it...

And some weren't that into it...

We have a lot of talented kids!!

They look so great!!

Of course, what would a party be without Twister?

Saturday night was our Fall Festival at church. Stephen went as Rambo III, and I was wearing a white dress and just asking people what they thought I was supposed to be. I was a princess, angel, Rambo's wife, prom queen, and damsel in distress!! I won cutest adult costume. I'll try to scan our picture on here, it's really funny.

Lots of the little girls were cats. So cute!!

Our pastor and his wife were Abraham and Sarah...

We even had Moses show up!!

So that was a ton of fun. We won three cakes in all, so if you want some cake, give me a call and take it off our hands! Sunday we had a singing service for Pastor Appreciation Day. Our service lasted over 2 hours (with no complaints - incredible!) and when it was all over, fourteen people got saved!! That's totally amazing for a church our size. I'm so glad that we're back home so we aren't missing out on things like this. This was just absolutely the most fun weekend, although I was stressed at the time, yes, but now it was all worth it. And now I'll have a reprieve for about two weeks, which will be nice.

Stephen started his new job, which means new hours. His new hours are 6:30am to 3:00pm. How wonderful for him!! He'll have so much free time in the afternoon - that's so great! Methinks I'll have to rearrange my hours every so often to see him in the afternoons...

JDK

Follow this to see how talented my beautiful sister is. I'm so proud of you!!

Let's give 'em the old pizazz!!

That quote is from Funny Face, which will make perfect sense after you read this blog. Jenn came over Monday night to hang out with me, and we just went to town. We had such a great time with wine, crescent rolls, and a camera!! We found out that neither of us are good at taking the classic arm-length picture. Here are some of our worst and best:

First of all, for some reason, I really thought it would be funny to take pictures of us laying on the floor:

As it turned out, it was really funny!!! But neither of us could get our aim right, as shown here by Jenn's attempt to take a picture (turns out she pointed the camera in the wrong direction!)

So then we tried just standing together taking cool pictures. That didn't work out so well either:

And no, I cannot explain why I felt I had to open my mouth so wide in half the pictures.

Finally, we put our foot down and took some cute ones with better aim.

By this time, we were so tired of smiling, we were pretty much just cheesing.

Anyway, we had such a fun time. My sister is so cool! I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. My abs haven't had such a workout in forever. Thanks for coming over Jenn! I love you!!

It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black. - Spinal Tap

Well, I spent my weekend in sunny Charleston and I am offically back in "Missing Charleston" mode!! Don't give me that look - there's just too many good things about it! Stephen and I went to Mellow Mushroom on a date Friday night which was nice because it forced us to walk around downtown, and it was a gorgeous night. Probably no one really cares what we did on Saturday (let's just say it involved a lot of thrift stores and used book stores) but that night we went to a party in honor of stephen for him leaving Charleston for good. His supervisor presented him with an extremely nice Study Bible for his going away present. We had about 20 of our friends show up, and we had a BLAST. We went to Wild Wings where they have the best wings and martinis. Stephen and I got a platter of 25 wings to share - Italian, Garlic, and Honey Mustard, and I'm tellin' you, mmmm, I'm starting to drool just thinking about it again. Moving on.

Jenn just wrote a post about a letter she'd write to her 17-year-old self. Well, wouldn't that be just peachy if we could do that? I think I could have saved myself a lot of trouble and wasted time. But alas, that is what learning is all about. But my point of this is, you CAN write to your FUTURE self. FutureMe is a website where you can write yourself and send the letter whenever you want to. Right now you can send it to tomorrow, or up to 30 years from now. I prefer smaller timeframes, like one year. If you can't think of anything cool to say, you can at least check out the letters other people write. Well, I thought it would be kind of cool to post a letter I once wrote myself using this system. I wrote the letter on September 26, 2004, and received it on August 15, 2005. Yes, I had totally forgotten about it at that point. This is what it said:

Dear Future and hopefully Improved Amanda,

Well, by the time you read this you will be getting ready for your wedding! *shriek!* I know you are super excited. Don't stress out, everything will be awesome.

Right now I am 21. I am working harder in school than ever. I am doing daily devotions which has made my life the best it could possibly be. I want to be a counselor someday. I have the best sister ever, Jenn. I hope you are still close to her. If not, KICK YOURSELF RIGHT NOW and then call her.

This summer I came to realize which people care the most about me. Don't treat mom and dad like they're worthless. They were your best friends over the summer, and you have attempted to treat them like a king and queen ever since. If you aren't still doing that, tell them every day how wonderful they are.

Go right now and call Mary and Keely and tell them that you love them. If you are lucky enough to be near them, give them a hug. They have kept you sane these past 4 years. Let them know how lucky you are to have found them.

Are you still doing your devotions? I hope you are getting closer and closer to the Lord. He has blessed you so much lately and helped you when no one else was around.

Do you still splash in puddles? If not, do it the next time it rains! Don't be afraid to grow up, but you'll go crazy if you don't act your shoe size every once in a while. I love you so much. I know that you are trying to be your best. With the help of God, and your close friends, and strength from yourself, you can do it. You are talented, pretty, smart, and funny, just remember that. Love, The Old Amanda

Well, it's funny looking at this now, 3 years later, how relevant so much of it still is. I still want to be a counselor, but that Master's degree is just sort of roaming around in the back of my head at this point. I'm closer to Jenn now than 3 years ago, especially physically! I spend more time with mom and dad than I have probably since I moved to Boone. Keely knows how much I love her, and we are still in close contact. Mary and I talk less, but I'm sure she knows the effect she had on my life (I played pool over the weekend, and visions of Murphy's ran through my head...) I don't go to bed without doing a daily devotion, and I'm definitely constantly trying to get closer to God. I don't really splash in puddles anymore, mainly because I hate being cold, but I have a feeling that's okay. I still act immature in plenty of other ways. My favorite part in reading this letter again is that I complimented myself and told myself that I loved me. I know the situation I was in when I wrote this letter, and it's amazing to me that I was in a place where I could say that to myself. Anyway, I highly recommend this website, and it will be well worth it to take a few minutes to write something to FutureYou.

Kudos to anyone who read this whole post.

My dog is a delinquent.

It is so pathetic that my dog causes so much drama in my life. I got home last night, came inside, changed my clothes, and walked back out. Before I even got out, our motion light went off in the garage. Then I heard all this rummaging around. My first thought was that someone was in our garage, so of course I walked over to where the noise was. But no, it was my precious little Cassie! Precious little Cassie who is supposed to be anchored into the ground with no way to get off of her steel wire cable. Well, as it turns out, if you really want to get off of that steel cable, you can certainly chew your way through. That's right.

The offending cable, after the gruesome attack.

The punishment for such said attack. That's right, you get NO room to run around while I go to PetSmart, show them the murdered cable, and then find that you are too big even for a chain, and just buy the exact same type of cable you have just chewed through.

The retaliation for being tied up.

Still chewing.

Muahaha, you'll never chew through this new cable that's exactly like the one you are laying on that you just finished chewing through!

If my children are anything like my dog, I'm in big trouble.

poor Cassie McNasty

We almost had a tragedy befall us last night!!

It was a dark, not stormy night. The time - 8:30 pm. I had just gotten home from a wild and crazy extravaganza called "Dinner Date with Granny and Granddaddy." It was the first time in over 13 hours I had been home, and I was berating myself for being a bad mother and leaving my dogther (dog/daughter) home alone for so long. I went out to feed her, and was almost to her place in the yard, when I realized I could hardly see because I didn't have the outside lights on. So I trudged back inside. I had to flip the light switch, and then follow the light, to see which ones were closest to where Cassie is. So I turned on one light and looked out to follow it. Sitting in the middle of our yard is something hot pink. As soon as I realized that it was my spray bottle (for spritzing Cassie when she gets sassy), I knew something was wrong, because that spray bottle sits on our front porch, which Cassie can't reach thanks to the chain she's anchored down on. I ran outside, only to screech to a halt when I saw that she was gone. The yard was completely empty except for her empty chain, and the spray bottle. Of course, I start freaking out - cause who knows how long she's been gone at this point? I called Stephen (not that he can do anything from 3 hours away) and I'm all crying and everything, mainly because I'm scared that that dumb dog may have run after a car for fun and ended up being creamed dog soup. Also because I thought she was dognapped. She is gorgeous, after all.

I called Jenn because I actually wanted to talk to her about the antique fair this weekend, but of course I had to become overly dramatic and we ended up just worrying about Cassie, and then Jenn made me very nervous about the potential dognapper. Anyway, I decided to drive through the neighborhood and talk to everyone standing around (there was a fire or something at our neighbor's house, so the whole neighborhood was outside with the fire. I thought maybe someone had seen Cassie or the alleged dognapper.

So I'm backing out of the garage, and I keep looking behind me, because I thought, "How awful would it be if I ran over her and then I worried and worried and ended up being the cause of her death??" Also, looking back, I have no clue where I'd take her if she was hurt. Anyone know where I'd go in that situation? And don't even tell me something like a dog ER cause you KNOW we don't have anything like that. Although I could take her to Henry's Gelato because I saw last night it's open now - someone wanna try it with me?

But I digress.

I'm still backing out of the garage, really slowly so that if I hit her it would just bump her, when I suddenly look out my window, and she's standing there. Just standing there, with this look on her face like, "You just got home! Where are you going now!?" Woooo! I ran over to her and didn't even scold her for jumping on me.

I won't tell the rest of the story cause it's boring. It goes something like this - water, food, playplayplay, thank God, make sure she's not hurt, call Jenn, check on Cassie, call Stephen, check on Cassie, make dinner, check on Cassie, you get the picture.

Mom just called and got me marked down blueberry muffins and scones from Harris Teeter! Score!! Mom rocks!!!

Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.

This weekend was so much fun!! Friday we had a UFC party and everyone actually got to come - yay! Usually I prefer watching the fights over the social aspect but this night the company was fun and the fights were not as good as usual, so it balanced out.

Saturday morning Stephen and I went to Pittsboro with mom and dad to the big book sale at the Kiwanis Club. Yes, we drove an hour to buy bags of books for $5 a bag. Stephen and I got two bags, which was only 10 bucks, and we smushed about 40 or 50 books in there. Awesome!! I got a new Stephen King hardcover that I didn't even know about, and a TON of unedited books that aren't made public. I also got a few autographed books which is worthless but still pretty cool. We then went to two more thrift shops where we got (what else?) more books and CDs. We are addicted, I admit it. Then we ate a great lunch at this remodeled General Store. Yum!

Saturday night we took our youth group to Grace for their outreach party. It was absolutely one of the most fun things we've done in a long time. We started off by doing the American Gladiator thing - knocking each other off of pedestals with big Q-tip things. Then we climbed the rock wall. I was proud of my kids for kicking butt because they love rock climbing! One of our kids who is scared of heights even made it all the way to the top! Then we did Sumo Wrestling, where you actually get in those huge padded suits and bounce off of each other. I fought Stephen and lost 2-1. Boo. But I definitely held my own! Then we rode the mechanical bull, which I did for only 8 seconds but it felt like forever. Then we did the Ironman Competition which one of my kids unwittingly challenged me to. I KILLED him, and after we finished, I went over to congratulate me, and the first thing he said was, "I cheated twice and you STILL won!" Haha. We played games from 5-7 and then went inside for worship until about 9. It was such a great night. About 60 kids got saved which is really awesome. I'm so glad our youth group went. It's the exact thing I imagined when we took over the youth group.

Stephen's gone for now. I was fine all day yesterday because I had lunch with him and then didn't get home from work until after 6. Then, of course, I had to walk Cassie and play with her some. On that note, it IS okay that I walk her mainly for the benefit of eating muscadine grapes that we found on a grapevine the other day.. right? Sure. She starts sniffing them out about 100 yards away. It's so cute! She's looking out for her mommy. Anyway, then I ate dinner, watched a movie, and just chilled. It didn't hit me that I was alone until I got into bed and his half of the bed was made up. Too weird. I actually don't mind any of it like I thought I would. I guess I'm just too busy, and we don't see each other that much anyway. Now let's see if I can handle the youth group alone tomorrow night...

bored already

This is about to be the most boring month of my life. Or at least for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow, Tim, Renee and the girls leave for Greece. That is good and bad. Good, because, well hello, my boss is leaving town!! (Just kidding, there, you guys) But I am going to miss the girls, and Renee and I chit chat a lot during the day, so hmm.

Then on Monday, mom and dad are leaving for their trip with my grandparents. Okay, so there go some more of my friends. I hang out with my parents like twice a week usually!!

Then on Tuesday, Stephen is leaving for Charleston and won't be back until the 20th. How BORING and SAD!! I will probably go see him once and be totally lonely the rest of the time.

Not to say that everyone is leaving me. Jenn is still here, and so are mom's parents who I spend tons of time with. So I'll have plenty to do. And Stephen will probably not recognize the house when he gets back because I have some "reorganization" ideas in mind!! I am determined to make our house cute by Thanksgiving because that's the next time we'll have guests.

YAY! (Not about people leaving, about making our house cute.)

Artsy Fartsy

Jenn and I spent the weekend with Libba in Charlotte. My mind was unbelievably blown away, from the moment I saw Lib's decor to the Art and Chocolate shop to the Art Festival. I cannot imagine people possessing such talent. I still think Lib had to hire someone to decorate her house - no normal person has that kind of vision. Just kidding Lib! I got some ideas from her but I promise they will not look normal in my house.

The food was one of the best parts of the weekend. We ate at Macaroni Grill, Fuddrucker's, and some pancake house which I should remember the name of but I don't. I can't believe how good that food was. Incredible. Also incredible that I judge so much of the weekend based on how good the food was.

It was so much fun to get away for a weekend. I can't wait for Stephen's new job to start in October so that we can do things together on weekends again. Of course, I will obviously want to do trips with just girls too, so I don't overload on testosterone.

This weekend is the first UFC at our house with everyone coming. I can't wait! And these are going to be some great fights, so I'm really excited. Also, I'm excited about the food that will be there.

We are going grocery shopping tonight. We haven't gone for 6 weeks because we're in such a mode of finishing everything before we go spend more money on stuff that will sit around. We have so much food in the freezer and pantry. But I have to admit, we're really starting to stretch it, and we're eating the same things over and over again. So we're breaking down and going tonight, but we won't get much because of Stephen leaving for Charleston soon. We'll go shopping when he's home for good.

This is a pretty boring post and I apologize, I'm really just trying to fill up some time. So I guess I'll go now and do something else.

100 stream-of-consciousness things about me

1. I am absolutely starving.
2. I have gotten hungrier since Nate got here with the hamburger buns.
3. We can't start the grill until the rest of the people get here over an hour from now.
4. The logical thing to do would be have a snack.
5. I ate more breakfast than usual this morning because of Emma and Jessie being here and I wanted to be a good example for them.
6. They ate until they "couldn't put another bite in their mouth", as Jessie put it.
7. I never realized Stephen's talents will actually come in handy when we have kids, like talking like a pirate, or whistling when he says "S"
8. Although they were pretty impressed with my accent which they call my "Mary Poppins accent"
9. I can't keep my mind off of my stomach growling.
10. Although I can hardly hear it over the guffaws coming from Nate and Stephen as they blow people up in their video game.
11. I really really love this new song by Finger Eleven called "Paralyzed"
12. The version I have is really tenor-y with not enough bass so it's kind of crackly.
13. The newest songs on my Ipod are from one of my youth group members who is trying to turn me on to country.
14. I don't want to hurt his feelings, but it ain't workin'.
15. My favorite country CD is one that is actually labeled as Southern that was mixed by Jenn.
16. Stephen refused to accept that no one up north has sweet tea and without fail, asked everyone if, by chance, they had it.
17. He got a lot of replies like this: "Well, we have artificial sweeteners on the table..."
18. So that's supposed to make up for it??
19. We saw a billboard that proclaimed McDonald's NOW HAS SWEET TEA.
20. We almost ran to the nearest McDonald's but decided against it.
21. I wondered aloud if sweet tea would now overtake the nation.
22. Also, is there anywhere around here that we can get butter pretzels?
23. ALSO, have you tried the new Pringles Stix that are honey wheat??
24. They taste like yeast rolls from Golden Corral. Hubba hubba.
25. Was hubba hubba an extra thought? Nah.
26. I had to play Tooth Fairy last name because Emma lost her molar while she was at our house.
27. I was uber excited, even after I found out she gets $2, that's right, $2!!! for a molar with a "silver star" in it, which means a cavity has been filled.
28. Say what!?!?
29. In my day, you got a quarter, and you were dang lucky to get that quarter.
30. Molar, incisor, last tooth ever lost... quarter.
31. I'm probably going to give my kid a quarter - what they heck are they gonna do with all that money anyway?
32. If they buy something, it's my money that they're buying it with anyway!
33. Also, I almost had to pay her in quarters because I didn't have any cash.
34. I am totally addicted to DDR.
35. In college, Mary and I would put DDR on workout mode, and during breaks we'd drink beer and eat ice cream, in order to balance everything out.
36. And when Keely and I would run, we would finish off our runs with a pint each of Ben and Jerry's.
37. I'm sensing a pattern.
38. Now I just go ahead and eat the ice cream, and knock that whole pesky exercise thing out of the picture.
39. Sometimes I think I'd be happier if I was Garfield.
40. I hope the Fayetteville Observer comes tomorrow with coupons.
41. They're the only newspaper that will deliver out here.
42. But we just got a new Family Dollar built here - woot!
43. Movin' on up... we got a new Mexican place too!
44. Although we only eat out about once a month or less, so a fat lotta good it does us.
45. Britt Nicole is like religious music's Lily Allen.
46. I really miss Charleston for the simple fact that there was someone cool coming for a concert every week.
47. If no one was coming in concert, a hockey game was being played, or a monster truck rally, or SOMETHING.
48. I hate having to drive to Raleigh or Greensboro to hear someone play that I really like.
49. Now that we are heading up the youth group, we really have an excuse to go to more concerts.
50. Our last concert was last April - we took mom and dad for her birthday to see Third Day and David Crowder Band.
51. Mom jumped around more than most kids there!
52. Our next concert is Casting Crowns in November and then David Crowder in November.
53. Not hearing shouting from downstairs makes me worried that Nate and Stephen will interrupt me at any minute and I won't be able to finish this blog.
54. I can't do this at work because my thoughts are all - "AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!"
55. I found Jennifer C.'s baby shower present today.
56. Her shower was last Sunday.
57. It was in my suitcase.
58. Not unpacked from Pennsylvania.
59. Which we got back from 10 days ago.
60. Luckily I had gotten her other stuff, and mom had showered her (literally) with clothes, so she's not needy or anything.
61. Actually, I'll probably give her the book but keep the clothes.
62. I can't shut my hope chest anymore because of all the baby clothes.
63. If we can't have children, Jenn Kirby's babies will be VERY fashionable.
64. Also they will have lots of books, toys, coloring books, and an artwork holder that says "Dylan" on it.
65. I'm not changing my son's name just to match his used artwork holder.
66. Our doorbell just rang so that means more people are showing up.
67. If I'm really quiet, no one will come looking for me.
68. If it's Aaron, he'll want to play the game with Stephen and Nate anyway, so he won't even think to look for me.
69. If it's Steve, he'll think I want to be included, and he'll come talk to me.
70. Nice gesture, but I think I'll be overloaded with testosterone tonight.
71. I can't wait for the UFC at the end of this month because of all the girls who will be there.
72. Even if they don't like it, they come to be sociable and I'm so happy about that!
73. Plus we always have really good food.
74. I got a free Glamour in the mail today because Jane magazine went out of business.
75. I actually hate Jane magazine and had tried to unsubscribe for 2 years now with no luck.
76. Now I've successfully unsubscribed - great timing.
77. So I've got a free Glamour and a check for a $2 refund.
78. Although $2 would get me a ton of books in the 10 cent section at the Habitat store!
79. But then I'd have a ton of trashy romance novels...
80. And everyone knows I only read the wholesome Christian romance novels.
81. That skirt around several issues, but I love them anyway.
82. One of our kids put a dead cricket on the prayer list last Wednesday night.
83. What do you say to that, exactly?
84. Our other adult, Maria, said, "I think it's a little late for that..."
85. It's interesting to see what things are funny to them and wonder if I would have laughed at that 10 years ago.
86. I don't think so.
87. I'm feeling a lot of pressure now that I'm so close to the end of this.
88. Soon I've got to go face all these guys.
89. Luckily, once the fight is on, no one will pay attention to each other.
90. Does this mean we can start the grill now?
91. I just got word that the grill has been started.
92. I have arm weights up here that I've only used one time.
93. I quit using them because my arms didn't get stronger after one use.
94. Same goes for my Abs of Steel video.
95. We have a "Bat Cave" here that leads to our attic.
96. Very attractive to little kids.
97. I saw a baby bat one time that had flown into a garage by accident.
98. Literally. He was lying there wounded.
99. A nice lady picked him up with a stick and set him on a bush to heal.
100. Uh.. I think that's a good note to end on. It can only go downhill from here on.