Sep 18, 2012 | Uncategorized, What's going on |
I feel like I’ve been in a blogging rut lately. It’s become my tradition whenever that happens to post a collection of mildly to moderately interesting photos.
When we lived in the Virginia I was fighting a constant battle with necklace storage. In a stroke of brilliance I found just the thing.
The words you’re looking for are “klassy and sophisticated”.
Thanks to Hobby Lobby I now have a more, shall we say, normal people method of necklace display.
There are no Hobby Lobby’s where I grew up and now I live down the road from one so I feel the need to visit there every week. I will never forget Joann’s and their “use as many coupons as you have” policy, but I’ve made a little room in my heart for Hobby Lobby. My house will be beautifully decorated by the time I’m done there. I’ll be broke, but I’ll have a beautiful house.
Just for fun, here’s Elizabeth with the necklaces I took camping this summer. One must be properly accessorized, even while in the woods.
We have some new additions to our little porch. (I have to be very careful saying the words “new” and “addition” because Mom immediately thinks she’s about to have another grandchild and she starts planning a baby shower.) Someone in our complex was selling two wicker chairs so I snatched them up. Aren’t they pretty?
Both families I babysat for in New York had baby boys this month. (Let’s not talk about how sad I am that I can’t kiss their little cheeks.) I wanted to give them something they wouldn’t be likely to get, so I bought some onesies and appliques at (where else?) Hobby Lobby and made these.
I was having trouble getting the applique to stick (apparently the towel I was ironing over was too thick) so I asked Christopher if he had any helpful ideas. He looked at it for about 3 seconds, took off his shirt and ironed over that. It worked like a charm. I honestly didn’t think he’d have any ideas but I was wrong. I don’t know why I’m always surprised when he’s creative because he did
propose with buttons. If that’s not the definition of creative I don’t know what is!
Sep 13, 2012 | Life, Uncategorized, What's going on |
Fact: The day after I saw the mayor, I went to the bank to
sort out debit card issues. The lady at the desk asked for my license and after
investigating it, she looked at me and said, “Do you realize this
expired?” Excuse me? “It did. Look at
it.” I looked at it and to my horror discovered that it expired IN MAY. I was
in shock. I was mortified. I FELT LIKE A CRIMINAL.
Fact: I have driven in six states since May.
Fact: Blogging from jail would have taken this blog in a
whole new direction.
Fact: One of the reasons I decided to renew my license in my home
state and not get one from my current state is quite simple. There’s simply NO WAY on earth
I’ll ever again get as good a license picture as the one on that Massachusetts
license. It really is impressive. (I don’t believe I’ve ever said anything
quite so vain.)
Fact: I just finished putting pictures up on the wall. Despite
my best measuring/penciling/tipping my head to the side efforts, I hammered in
and pulled out each nail twice. At least I have a real hammer this time. We didn’t
have one at our last house (technically we had one but it was in storage and OH
MY GOODNESS HERE I GO WITH TOO MANY DETAILS AGAIN) so I used the bottom of a
glass pepper grinder.
Fact: Last night Christopher was explaining something to me
and he said, “It’s like the difference in gas consumption between a Prius and
an Expedition.” It’s humorous that he thinks I would know about gas consumption
in different vehicles. All I am generally interested in when it comes to cars
is the color.
Aug 21, 2012 | Life, Uncategorized, What's going on |
My hair
I went to a new hairdresser last week. As a curly-headed person, it’s always worrisome visiting a new hairdresser because you don’t want to leave the place looking like this:
The hairdresser was nice, but she way over-shared her knowledge of hair follicles, split ends and top of the line shampoo. She even tried to sell me a shampoo/condition made primarily of caviar. I was very polite and (tried to) responded with the appropriate level of enthusiasm, but inside I was thinking, “I have a strict grocery budget so there’s no way I’m going to pay $65 TO PUT FISH EGGS IN MY HAIR.”
Church
Our first Sunday here we went to a new church. We visited that church when we came in May, but this time we went to Sunday school. The man who greeted us at the door asked if we wanted to be in the 20’s class or the 30-40’s class. Such questions always present us with a problem because I’m 23 but Christopher is very old will be 30 in November. We ended up in the class with the 30-40 year olds but really, everyone in the class seemed like a spring chicken compared to our last Sunday school class. The average age at that class was 65.
I absolutely do not enjoy speaking in situations where everyone sits around watching, but unfortunately for me, that’s the recipe for interactive Sunday schools. Here’s an example of why I sit there very quietly and let Christopher do all the talking.
George (the SS teacher): “So Sarah, you’re a military wife, right?”
Me: “Yes.”
George: “And sometimes Christopher goes out on training or to the field and you are left at home?”
Me: “Yes.” (I am so eloquent!)
George: “What do you do when Christopher’s not at home?”
Me: (what I said in my head- He really wants to know what I do? What am I supposed to say? I don’t want to say that I read, eat, scrapbook, eat snacks and occasionally watch a movie. Maybe I should say I planted flowers one time. Maybe grocery shopping is the right answer. Why does he want to know what I do??) “Ummm…”
George: “You hold down the fort, don’t you? You make sure everything runs smoothly.”
Me: “Oh. OH. Yes. That’s right. That’s what I do.”
Those were the only words I ever spoke in that class.
Movies
We went to see the new Bourne movie the other day.
That was a rather frustrating experience.
This is not an update so much as a few tips from someone who had A LOT of unanswered questions when she left the theater.
1. The guy in the woods at the beginning is the same guy who saves the lady from being shot in her house. Don’t spend 45 minutes of your life wondering when the guy from the woods is going to appear again. He did appear; he just looked different because he shaved. Never has facial hair made me so frustrated.
2. Jason Bourne is not in the movie so don’t keep wondering when he’s going to make some sort of unrealistic entrance. I don’t know why they called it a Bourne movie if HE WASN’T EVEN IN IT. If they had called it the Aaron Cross Legacy I would have enjoyed the movie a little bit more.
3. If 55 minutes into the movie you have asked your version of Christopher 18 questions and he’s only known the answer to 3 of them, it may be time to reassess your movie choices.
4. Eat some popcorn.
5. Declare the next month a girly movies only month.
Aug 13, 2012 | Uncategorized, What's going on |
I spent a portion of Friday afternoon procrastinating about about unpacking boxes trying on various hats as I unpacked them. I think I hit upon a winning outfit with this one. The scarf is the perfect finishing touch.
Saturday we decided we had given enough time and attention to unpacking boxes so we went to an airshow with our friends the
Dig’s. I KNOW. Not even here a week and the socializing already started.
Lesson learned at airshow: some people get offended if you mistakenly call an airplane a helicopter or vice versa. (At least I didn’t call it a hot air balloon or blimp.)
That night we went to movies in the park to see Ratatouille. A man from the newspaper came by and asked to take our picture so we agreed. Only after he took it did we start discussing the authenticity of the man’s newspaper photographer story. We could only hope that he really did work for the newspaper and that the picture wouldn’t end up as our obituary photo.
Obviously it was not our obituary photo because we’re still alive and kicking!
ps. We saw a shooting star while watching the movie!
Jun 18, 2012 | Uncategorized, What's going on |
* On Saturday we went down to the American Legion so Christopher and some of his classmates could do their volunteer hours. Consider this your lesson of the day- what Army people call AB or Area Beautification is what normal people call yard work. Of course, if you’re trying to sound extra professional something I do on a daily basis , you could say, “AB is SOP in the CONUS.” (For the record, I have not come across many opportunities to say, “Area beautification is standard operating procedure in the continental United States”, but hope springs eternal.)
* If you ride around town on a motorcycle, you can just bid farewell to having a good hair day. Between the wind and the helmet, it’s an exercise in futility.
* Saturday night we went out to eat with the A.B. group. One lady was there with her beautiful little girl named Cameron Diaz. Her twin brother’s name was Tom Cruise. Just kidding about the Tom Cruise part, but the baby really was named after Cameron Diaz. It inspired me to name one of my sons Harrison Ford.
Jun 11, 2012 | Uncategorized, What's going on |
After the motorcyle shenanigans of last Saturday, we returned this weekend to our usual Saturday tradition of visiting old homes and historic site.
This house wasn’t too shabby.
Most places we’ve visited so far have been lacking in the animal department, so I was delighted so see a herd of goats. I named this goat Cyrus, but when we discovered that he was actually a she, I renamed it Beverly.
This goat was particularly friendly. I think he was saying something along the lines of, “HEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO girl with two braids that I would so love to nibble on!”
Our second stop (technically our third because of course we stopped for lunch) was an old estate turned into a park/garden/wildlife exhibit. We saw buffalo, owls, a bear (at least the sign said that the small black bump in the rocks was a bear), and a bobcat.
I loved the deer. It was so cute when one deer looked like she was kissing the other that I said, “OH DEER. Isn’t that sweet?!” Apparently I just crack myself up with word play. (Last week I almost took a picture of the can of olives that said “Live OLIVE life to the fullest.” I only stopped myself because I started thinking about what on earth I’d do with a picture of a can of olives. So says the girl who took a picture of a bag of onions because it had Josh Turner’s face of it.)
Last, but certainly not least, we saw two bald eagles! The whole time we lived on the river in New York I watched the sky for bald eagles but never saw any. I did see the yards and homes of our neighbors across the water much more clearly thanks to my special eagle watching binoculars. It was hard not to be nosy interested in fellow people while searching for birds I never saw.
I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend.
Or should I say, OLIVE you.
