It's been a while since I've posted. And that's not because things haven't been happening here. It's almost like TOO much has been happening here and I don't know where to begin in recapping it all. I'm afraid it will turn into some sort of post that looks like it had picture diarrhea. And now that we downgraded to the super-slow (but super-cheap) internet, it takes 40 kajillion forevers to upload photos.
But since I have hit the play button on this Baby Einstein dvd for the second time this morning (judge away!), I will try to recap.
Weeks ago, I hosted a blogger meet-up at my house. My BFF from high school/college,
Brittany, came and threw a
Willow House party in order to give our party a purpose. It was yoga-pants-casual and I've got to say, if you're eating creamy cheesy bacon dip on top of too many ritz crackers with a side of a thousand snickerdoodles and cheesecake-filled strawberries, yoga pants are what you need to be wearing in order to not split a seam. I didn't take enough pictures, of course.
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| Oh, don't act surprised. You knew there'd be fudge. |
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| Brittany and Sarah, no doubt trying to decide what to get me for Christmas. Brittany looks like she might even be checking my Pinterest for specifics. |
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| Here's an out-of-focus picture of Julie and Kingsley! I mean, I only took 4 pictures of the entire party, so I don't feel like I can be too picky with photo quality here. |
Molly and her cute kids somehow managed to escape my awesome photography skillz, but she was awesome to meet and kept the conversation going like a boss.
Moving right along, let's talk about how I'm slowly knocking things off of my
101 in 1,001 list.
I recently decided to cook a whole chicken (#5). This might not sound like a big deal to most people, but it was something I'd never done, so it seemed like a big deal. And come to find out, I don't like touching dead animals. I'm fine touching its separate, de-boned, de-skinned, nicely wrapped in plastic PARTS, but keep the whole body in-tact and I am squirming and using tongs and paper towels to avoid making skin-to-skin contact with this poor bird.
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| It's just way too easy to picture where its head used to be. Any moment she will lift one of those wings and be like, "Damn it was hot in there! How's my new tan look?" |
It smelled delicious though and tasted pretty good, once I manned up enough to touch it. Yes, even cooked, it still looked too "real." I will clearly never be a butcher or run a farm. Or think too hard about where my food actually comes from.
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| How I feel after I eat Taco Bell. (TMI?) |
I also flossed my teeth for 30 days (#6). Some of you might think it's gross that I had to make that an item to do on my little bucket list, but let's face it, that's the only way it was getting done. Steve is a religious flosser and I find it gross and it sounds painful. Not to mention it is one of the messiest habits he possesses. (Splattered mirror, hello!) But since he is not here to fling tiny food particles onto every visible surface of our bathroom, I thought I'd give it a whirl and see what all the fuss is about. Turns out... I need to floss more often. While my 30 days are up, I still do it occasionally, which is more than I ever did it before. But I am not as religious about doing it every night like I did during my 30 days.
We did Halloween.
Between my somber cowboy and my squishable little indian, I'd say this satisfies #40. Although I do have big plans for next Halloween when we can go out as a complete family.
I also updated my voter registration. BEFORE the election. I know. I am horrible with deadlines, and the four years in between elections sometimes is just not enough for me to get it together. But I did it. Shocker. This is one of the lesser thrilling "things to do" on my list. But it's done. (#95)
That wraps up the What I Have Accomplished Lately portion of our program. My parents came to town this past weekend and we had some fun.
We went to get some fresh donuts from the Mennonites. So this is not an unusual sight thanks to the previous sentence.
My mom kept Sam distracted enough to forget that he wasn't going to be partaking in the donut-eating.
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| Even though she just got finished throwing leaves in the air, I like to pretend she's saying, "Come ON girlfran', join the par-tay!" |
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| LEAVES! |
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| Ah, the fun that only a grandparent can bring. |
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| Why are you offering me trash, woman? |
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| I LOVE THIS TRASH! |
My parents got themselves a sweet set of Mennonite-made wooden gliders after we were drugged by their fresh donuts. (You know there's no hope when you start talking about gliders in that manner.)
Then we drove home and attempted to stop the whining by promising a trip to the airplanes and helicopters and tanks later. It didn't really work, but we went anyway.
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| It will be tough to have a "no guns" policy in our house when our outings look like this. |
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| Watching the flag go down for the day. |
After exploring each aircraft no fewer than two times, we lured Sam back
to the car and went home to make dinner and watch Alabama lose.
The next morning came.
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| Straight out of the camera. Because really. Who has the time to edit pictures anymore? And how could you possibly make this look better? |
Obviously Molly got me up in time to catch this beautiful sunrise. And to think that there are people out there that sleep THROUGH this. What a shame. If anyone is looking to capture a gorgeous sunrise in your backyard while wearing your pajamas and no shoes, just give me a holler. I will rent this baby out to you so that you too can be in awe of how early the sun pops out of the other side of the neighborhood and how truly resistant your body can be to the caffeine in a second cup of coffee.
My parents paid no attention to the miracle of this sunrise and the hidden message in it from God that said something like, "Stay here forever," and went back home. They cite "jobs" and "a house" and "money" and other such things as reasons for not moving into my teeny weeny guest room forever and ever. I still love them anyway though.
If you've made it to the end, I think we both deserve a Reese's. Cheers.
