Jul 10, 2012 | Friends & Fun |
It’s a well-known fact around our house that I have a very limited amount of female interaction these days. I babysit a little girl every couple of
weeks, but besides her and her grandmother, the only females I ever talk to are the ladies at church whose average age is about 72. I adore living with Christopher, but on the occasions I want to discuss bubble necklaces, summer dresses, or Reese Witherspoon blond vs. Reese Witherspoon brunette, he is unable to hold up his end of the conversation.Yesterday was a very exciting day. I spent ALL of it with a girl.
Laura and I met in person in February when I stayed at her house on the way to Christopher’s OCS graduation. I never really blogged about it because the whole MARRIED TO AN OFFICER thing was so big, but let me tell you- it was so fun. To be sure, there were moments beforehand when I wondered if we’d sit in silence staring awkwardly at the wall all weekend, but you really bond with someone while eating two flavors of Doritos and driving around the state in search of Jon and Kate Gosslin’s house. (Aaron was not exactly helpful when I expressed concerns before that first visit. He felt the need to tell me many met-through-the-internet stories gone terribly wrong. He even went so far as to say since I had never seen her in person, she might really be a
he. Or
a bear. After Laura and I talked on the phone, I proclaimed to Aaron that not only had I confirmed she was female, I was positive she wasn’t a bear. He rolled his eyes all over, but he couldn’t argue when I said that BEARS DON’T TALK ON THE PHONE.)
Laura and I are only living about 5 hours apart this summer, so I emailed to ask if she’d like to visit for the day. After many messages and much studying of maps, we settled on Easton, MD. Then we switched to Chesapeake. Then we switched again to Annapolis. (I feel the process may have been easier if Google could have given a good answer to “what city is between where Laura lives and where I live?”) Third time really is a charm because Annapolis was lovely.
We walked all the way around the pier, looking in the cute little shops along the way. Within the first half hour we knew where we wanted to eat lunch which was only natural since our friendship is partly based on a healthy appreciation of food.
Walking through the doors of the Naval Academy gave me a reason to whip out my military id. I NEVER turn that kind of opportunity down.
The academy is just beautiful. The buildings and yards are so pretty.
I may be loyal to the Army, but I can appreciate a good Navy uniform.
During the day I made the following random observation: somewhere along the line I have started saying “oh my WHAAARD” instead of “oh my WORD”. I hope it didn’t annoy Laura too much because OH MY WHAAARD WORD it was annoying me.
I had so much fun spending the day with another girl. She understood things like nail polish colors and importance of cute sandals. I am a fan of a good girls day out.
I realize I look highly awkward in this picture. I managed to be unprepared even though I was the one taking the picture.
May 8, 2012 | Friends & Fun, Uncategorized |
Happy 18th birthday, kids.
I’ll still be calling you kids when you’re 88.
I’ll still love you when you’re 88.
Happy birthday, favorite twinsicles.
Leave it to Hallmark to make an appropriate card.
Love,
Sarah and The Other One Christopher
Dec 15, 2011 | Friends & Fun, Holidays |
The parentals and I are driving up to get Elizabeth from school today! I haven’t seen her since August so I’m very excited. With both my sister and my husband being away at school, I’m been without two of my very important people!
I saw this sign a few months away and decided I’d try to recreate it to go with Elizabeth’s Christmas gift. She loves signs and I love crafts so it was a match made in the aisles of Joann’s.
It’s not quite as beautiful as the sign above, but I was very happy with how it came out. I hope she likes it!
Oct 1, 2011 | Friends & Fun, Uncategorized |
I recently wrote about Elizabeth asking me to sew her a stuffed animal.
Having never sewn a stuffed animal before I wasn’t sure how it would turn out.
It is with a small bit of pride that I present to you…Spring Chicken.
To give the chicken a little extra wow factor, I attached the above eyes with velcro so Elizabeth can change the eyes whenever she feels the mood is right.
Just try to image a time when you’ve seen a chicken with so much sass.
I had fabric left over, so I made Spring Chicken Jr.
I almost faint over the cuteness of this teeny tiny chicken.
Mama Spring Chicken and her little Spring Chicken Jr. go everywhere together.
You know what they say- birds of a feather flock together.
Sep 20, 2011 | Friends & Fun, Uncategorized |
The following short story was recently submitted for publication. After a careful overview of her work, the management here at Dandelions and Daffodils, Inc. are pleased to introduce you to the work of Elizabeth Fantasia Stricknine. We welcome her as our first ever guest blogger.
Mom is determined to be a millionaire. (Don’t ask her, because she’ll deny this fact, but, trust me, it’s true.) If only for the reason that she MAY be able to buy an oven whose door is not falling off , I’d say that’s a pretty worthy aspiration. Especially considering the skyrocketing prices of lettuce…*looks pointedly* It would be nice to be a millionaire and have access to, as I like to put it in an Italian accent( the accent is crucial.) “Lettoochay en bulkque!” =)
I digress 😉 Mom wants to be a millionaire.
With this goal in mind, Mom, The Twin, and I attended a free Rich Dad, Poor Dad seminar at a suave country club. We did not belong. That Monday morning, Mommy had given Twin and I specific instructions to dress appropriately for the occasion. We were to give, for the night at least, the appearance of those desperate for higher learning and to “channel our desire for wealth into actual money-making investment opportunities…”, even if it was propaganda. Well. For twin, at least, it was propaganda. I just want lettuce. With all of this in mind, mom dressed quite nicely in her professional, blue-flowered shirt and stretchy black pants. I dressed in, well, let’s just say I wore clothes too restricting to be mentioned here. Twin, unfortunately, wore his track clothes.
After accidentally, and uninvited, we went into the wrong room and experienced three seconds of a stiletto and bow tied “Tom Wright-Democrat For Congress” rally in the next room, we finally found the Rich Dad seminar, which went pretty well. *nods* So well, in fact, that the Mom convinced Andrew to go AGAIN with her to the next one. This one, was at *drum roll* The Hilton Hotel.
A sign at the parking garage said: SECURE ALL VALUEABLES. Well, that left me with nothing to do. But once Mom and I arrived at our second Rich Dad seminar, I occupied myself with wondering why on earth we hadn’t brought our dad…it should have been a requirement. Or at least “Bring a dad, get a seat.” Oh well. Some things are past finding out.
Once again we listened with rapt attention to the same speaker, same speech, same dialogue… “Speaker: Let me make this reeeeeally clear. [insert complex real estate investment monologue here.] “Does that make sense?” Audience, vehemently nodding heads: “Yeeeeeeeeeeeess.” Me: Nooooooooo!” Apparently I missed the memo to take Claritin Clear before attending the seminar…because it did NOT make sense. Speaking of drugs, there was, for REAL, a lady sitting next to me whose name tag said Benadryl. No joke. It said, “Hi, my name is Benadryl-I invest in my future.” Her mother must have been on as many medicines while pregnant as Sarah’s been on lately and just picked one.
Close to the end of the ninety minute session, I got up and went to sit against the silver, embossed wall. I figured that was cooler. Just as I focused my mind back on learning how to RUN my own real estate business, and mouse RAN by me. Yes, a MOUSE. In The Hilton Hotel. Surprises never cease to exist. 😉 I considered telling management, but decided they would probably not believe me. So I’m telling you, hoping you will.
All in all, it was a good experience.
And just one question: What do you think the future is in investing in mouse real estate?
Sep 17, 2011 | Friends & Fun, Uncategorized |
Last night Christopher and I went shopping for a spring chicken.
To be more specific, we went shopping for materials to make a spring chicken out of, but it’s much more fun (also the WHAT?? factor is a little higher) to say we went in search of the chicken itself.
I should probably provide a back-story.
Elizabeth contacted me requesting that I make a stuffed animal she can take with her when she goes to school next month. She wants to hold it and think of me. How sweet. I must say I was slightly surprised she came to me for comfort because the last time she was upset and I tried to cheer her up, I offered her a can of corn. The exact words that came out of my mouth were, “DON’T CRY!!! DON’T CRY!!! I’ll get you something to make you happy again! Do you want to can of corn?” I have absolutely no reasonable explanation for offering her a canned vegetable other than it was the very first thing that popped into my head. It didn’t occur to me until later that she’s allergic to corn. Maybe next time I’ll go with a can of peas.
While I do pride myself in being able to create an egg family and turn paper bowls into ipod-holding turtles named Rocky, stuffed animals are slightly outside of my expertise. After being told that Build a Bear was not acceptable, I did a not so quick Google search for ‘easy to make stuffed animals’. After weeding through many sites and viewing many unpleasant-looking monster stuffed animals with googly eyes, I narrowed it down to a donkey, a penguin, or an odd looking dog with a cute collar. And then, my friends, then I discovered the Spring Chicken. He has big feet and floppy wings and is just so charming. He’s also unique; I doubt anyone else at school will have their very own spring chicken stuffed animal.
So that’s how we came to be perusing the aisles of Joann’s last night around half past six. (It doesn’t hurt that I had no less than six Joann’s coupons with my name on them burning a hole in my wallet. I am powerless to resist when I see “40% off any item in the store”.) I tried introducing Christopher to the beauty of the fabric section but he was very distracted by dancing to the song on the radio. Not being one who likes causing or being anywhere near a scene, I pretended I didn’t know him. 😉 Actually, he was very helpful and found the yellow and white fabric I’ll be using for the body. Once we decided on the appropriate fabrics, we headed to the button department to find some eyes for the chicken. Because we’re people who enjoy adding a little spice to life, this chicken is not going to have any ordinary eyes. Oh, no! He is going to feature eyes that are, without giving too much away, NOT ROUND.
We’re people who believe in going all out when it comes to spring chicken making.
