sister.

last night i went to supper with my parents and sister.


on the way to supper we were talking about musical talents in our family.

or lack-thereof.
[except my dad].


i stated that i couldn't "carry a tune in a bucket".


to which my sister responded...


"i've never understood that saying....i mean, can you sing better when you're in a bucket?"

s&c.

last week i got to meet a couple of my girlfriends from college.  there was a group of four of us freshman year that met and hit it off immediately.

we deemed ourselves the 's&c girls'. 

random, but it worked at the time and it has stuck ever since. 

well, when we graduated, we all disbursed.  one stayed in raleigh, one moved to kentucky, one to washington state and me...to smalltown, usa.

so - when washington was in town - raleigh, washington and i all got together for supper.

[and we missed kentucky like crazy].

they sent me the address of where to meet them and i ended up here.

a shack. surrounded by trees. a gravel lot. and very little light.

so i called them.
just to make sure we were still friends.
and to make sure they weren't trying to have me killed.


and apparently allen and his son decided to move on - without letting the world wide web know about it.


and they almost caused me to be part of a horror story.


so, i called them.

and told them they had sent me to a shack.
well, they were so excited they had sent me to a bbq shack.
because apparently i made it seem like a really cool, vintage, bbq shack.

until i had to explain to them it was really a shack.
and i was not going to meet them alive if i didn't get out of there soon.




so...we quickly revamped our plan and went to a different bbq place.



where i got to meet up with these two beautiful ladies.

[raleigh and washington].

aren't they beautiful?

and a little strange...

but oh, so fabulous.

and of course we decided we needed to have adequate documentation of the evening.

where i showed just how big my mouth really is.

and washington showed just how much she liked my hair being slung in her face.

and ummm...i just don't know what this shows here.

and this.

yes, this.

shows how great raleigh's photography skillz are.

the majority of the fifteen bazillion pictures of washington and i turned out like this. 

and then, even though we're still close in proximity, raleigh and i couldn't pass up the opportunity of a photoshoot.

this is the only one that halfway came out without being blurry.
[i think it was the half-click focus that was confusing...maybe??]

and then, from the most wonderful reading corps girl on the planet.

we got valentines presents.

which she decided to act out.

and, if the pictures i've already showed you weren't enough...




we set the continuous self timer and had some fun.


a couple of comments before we get started - 

• i think washington was a little scared in the first one. 
• raleigh made beautiful pictures in almost every single one we took. 
• i apparently feel the need to cause myself to have a double chin, spaz out and take the scariest, worst pictures i could possibly take when i set a self timer [believe me - we tried it multiple times and i just couldn't rid myself of ugly, scary face].

but in the end, we had to send a normal picture to kentucky to let her know how much we missed her.

 

except apparently that is our pretend normal - because we only had one like this and about 35 gazillion like the ones i showed you.



[just because i know you will be concerned, no one else was in the restaurant at this point.  well, except for five male waiters.  who may or may not have kicked us out after the end of our photoshoot.]

sick.

for the last two days i have been sick as a dog.

a really, really sick dog.




i keep thinking i'm getting better and then i get worse. 

[uggh.]


it's miserable.





so...since i've been stuck in the house for the last two days making my way back and forth from the bed to the couch i have found that these things have made me happy.

[in between throwing up and sleeping - which has taken up the majority of my time - tmi, i know.]


but, during the other times this is what i have been doing...


1.  my new photoshop book.  trying to figure out what i'm doing so i can actually start making use of the program.

2.  ginger ale 

3.  ncis.  have you watched this show?  worker man and i have become obsessed.  you should watch it, really.  but not the l.a. one - it's no good.

4.  my bathtub.  not that this is my bathtub - but any huge contraption that will hold a bunch of hot water will work for me.

5.  cute pajama pants.

7.  a wonderful husband that will get up and make me toast, get a wet cloth to put on my head, refill my ginger ale cup and rub my back.

hope you're having a better day!!

future tv star.

umm. 

can we say...

hoarder?



[sorry for the terrible quality - people were starting to stare as i made worker man drive me around the parking lot and back in beside this beauty so i could take pictures  --  the things i do for you, the things i do.]

guilty pleasure.

i promise this is not turning into a healthy eating blog.


but i have one more thing that you have to try.

these are fabulous.

they are only 100 calories and are only one point on weight watchers.


worker man and i eat one almost every night.


well...except the first day that i bought them.

worker man was out of town.  and for supper i had a fudge bar, a couple of bites of a rotisserie chicken and the last five pickles in the pickle jar.  and to drink?  the pickle juice.
[gross, i know - but i love it...does anyone else?]

oh and for dessert?

two more fudge bars.


i think i was still at only 400 calories...

friday favorite.

i don't know if anyone else has this same problem, but i am always looking for something to take for lunch.  i eat the same thing for two months straight and then i'm totally over it.

for the first few months i brought a salad each day.
then i moved on to corn.  i ate a can of niblet corn every day.  for at least two months.
then i moved to lentils.  wonderful, but not everyday.

so i've started trying to switch it up a little.
i have also started stalking everyone in the breakroom to see what they are eating for lunch.

two weeks ago i smelled something fabulous coming from the breakroom.  so i asked what it was and my coworker told me about amy's.

it's a company that makes all natural meals.  they make lots of frozen meals and she was eating the vegetable lasagna. 

well, i hate frozen meals.  just as much as i hate airplane food.  honestly, it's all i can do to swallow it without gagging.


but, because it smelled so good and was organic, i thought  i'd at least give it a try.


and, oh.my.word.

it's wonderful!


you should try it.
really.

sport.

when i came home from work the other night i walked in the door to this:

worker man bought me a treat!

a new racquet. 

for racquetball!

we had been using the gym racquets but worker man decided we were ready to move on to the next level :)



have you ever played racquetball?

i took a racquetball gym class in college and i have been in love ever since.


when i met worker man, i insisted that we play and he also loved it.  but once i graduated from college we didn't have a place to play anymore.


that is, until we joined the ymca.


it's our new date night.

[which is awesome because it's a ton of fun and it's a great workout.]


if you have never played, will you try it?

for me?

you'll be addicted too.


promise!

wfmw - high heels.

if you're like me, you hate it when your high heels start to wear out. 

you get frustrated because you feel like the shoe is just fine, but the heel is messed up.

the  nail is starting to show through.
you make that little, annoying, clicking noise [different from the regular] when you walk.
you know that you're going to have to get rid of the shoes, but you just can't do it quite yet.

well, last year i thought i was smart.

i found a place in the mall that would repair high heels.
it was fabulous.
i would drop off my shoes when i got to the mall.
shop around and come back an hour later.
pay the man $10 - $15.
and go home with like-new heels.

the only problems with this plan?

the mall close to your house [and where i live now] does not have a little store like that.
you don't want to pay $10 - $15 to get them fixed.


well, never fear!

a friend at work told me about these little things!

you can get a pack of 8 [four pairs] for $2.99 at target.


then, you get your fabulous husband to repair your heels for free.

using a pair of pliers, pull out the old nail.

insert the new tips.

and hammer them in.

and your heels are like new again!

and the best part? 

it only cost you $2.99.


and a blow pop sucker.

head on over to kristen's blog, we are that family, for more great tips.

gift.

when i started my new job last year, the current dean of admissions was about to retire.

so, as his retirement gift to each person that worked in student admissions [i know, that's completely backwards - but true], he offered to build something of their choice.

he has a hobby of being a carpenter. and a fabulous one.
since i was only going to be working for a few months before he retired, i assumed that i was not included in this offer.  especially since everyone here has worked in this department anywhere from ten to twenty-four years. 

but, he graciously offered to build little ol' three month employee [me] something too.


he asked me to find something that i liked and send him a picture.


i immediately knew what i would ask for.


i have been wanting this chest from pottery barn since before we got married.
[we being me and worker man, not me and mr. dean :)]

i mean, everytime we walked into pottery barn i would go and drool over it.


isn't it fabulous?



well, i showed him the pictures above and he said he would be glad to make this for me.

i had only seen pictures of his previous work and heard from my coworkers how amazing their piece of furniture was.  so i had my hopes high.


but let me just tell you,  when i got to go pick this thing up last week....i was in awe.


words can't explain how incredible this thing is.



the quality and design is so much better than the chest i would have paid $600 for at pottery barn!



he even put a tray in the top to put our remotes in.  which is an extra that he thought of.

because we couldn't find any hardware that looked similar, he handmade the hardware to look even better than the ones at pottery barn.



and he thought to put child-proof hinges so that in the future [the far away future] our kids won't smash their fingers in the chest.

he also handmade the center latch.  which is actually a real latch.  much better than the pottery barn imitation latch!

hands down, the nicest piece of furniture in my house.








isn't it fabulous?!?