Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Night Owl Post
I'm sitting here ripping CDs for Kendall three day trip to Chicago....which is tomorrow. He always waits til the last minute for these things. So I guess it's a good thing that I become a night owl in the summer. I forgot how many freaking awesome CDs we own! I listened to a little bit of Squirrel Nut Zippers and now I'm on Billy Joel's Greatest Hits. Such good shit.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Romance Novel Heroines
Okay, I just really felt the need to take a break from my latest trashy novel and write something really quick....
Why is it that I always imagine the heroines of these books to be my age? I just realized that I was doing it today when I read the sentence, "I'm fourteen and a half". Furthermore, it kinda started to gross me out. I get that the story took place in 1100 AD, but now I'm going to read the sexy parts and be thinking about a 9th grader. EW! And the guy she just married- he's 30. Yeah. Creepy by today's standards. I liked her better when I imagined her as a 28 year old woman. That's much sexier.
The real problem here is that I'll still read the book...and hopefully go back to imagining her as a 28 year old hotty. LOL!
Why is it that I always imagine the heroines of these books to be my age? I just realized that I was doing it today when I read the sentence, "I'm fourteen and a half". Furthermore, it kinda started to gross me out. I get that the story took place in 1100 AD, but now I'm going to read the sexy parts and be thinking about a 9th grader. EW! And the guy she just married- he's 30. Yeah. Creepy by today's standards. I liked her better when I imagined her as a 28 year old woman. That's much sexier.
The real problem here is that I'll still read the book...and hopefully go back to imagining her as a 28 year old hotty. LOL!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Reflections
Harry Potter
I won't write anything here incase ppl are reading and don't want spoilers yet, but I finished the last Harry Potter book this afternoon. I laughed, I cried, I raged, and lastly, I sighed. It's over. The whole series is over. And it makes me sad. No more Potter stories to read. The great thing about these books was that you could connect to Harry. Rowling had a way of putting into words many things that we've all experienced. We may have never fought a real living breathing Dark Lord, but we've all faced evil in our lives. We've all made friends, lost friends, fought with them. We've all had crushes and heartbreaks. We've all felt love. What made these books so wildly popular was that she took all of these things we have experienced and put them into a world of magic. And admit it, who hasn't at some point wished they could REALLY do magic? It's a cool concept. All the more of a connection to Harry and his friends.
Birthdays
We spent last week in Cleveland visiting family and celebrating my birthday. Thanks to everyone who sent cards or called or MySpaced me. Birthdays just aren't the same when you become an adult and the little things really add up. I don't know if anyone else feels that way about their birthday, but it just doesn't feel as special anymore. As a kid it's one of the most exciting days of the year, closely tied with Christmas morning. It's the day when everyone focuses on you. It's YOUR day. The older we get, the less it's about us and the more it just feels like another day of the week. We are more focused on deadlines and paying our bills and home improvement projects- those things we stress about every other day of the year, so why not on our birthday?
Even presents don't hold the same excitement for me. As an adult I have the money to buy the things that I want. And it almost seems a hassle to have to make "lists" for my family. When I was a kid I never really made any official lists. My parents just observed my interests and suprised me. As a grown up, the list becomes an irritation. I feel like I have to wrack my brain for things and then there's no suprise to it. And when there is a "suprise gift" it's usually something that I didn't want and the person didn't use the list. I know that sounds incredibly selfish, and I should be greatful for the presents, but it just seems stupid to ask someone to make you a list and then not use it. I feel the same way about wedding and baby registries. I ALWAYS stick to the list. The only person who truely seems to know what I want without asking is Kendall. When I open his presents I feel like a kid again.
Screeching Babies
Recently my niece has learned how to scream. I don't mean cry. I mean scream at a decible so high that only dogs should be able to hear it. She has also learned that if she screams like that, she gets what she wants from her mommy and daddy. Now I preface this statement with: I KNOW THAT I AM NOT A PARENT YET. But why in your right mind would you give your child something after they behaved that way? Isn't that sending them the message that if they scream, they get their way? I know it's not my business to say anything to the parents about their child, it's their child they can raise her how they want. But do I have to tolerate her behavior when she is in my care? My answer is NO. I've found that she doesn't scream as much when I am in charge. Why? She knows that I will just let her keep screaming. And she doesn't get what she wants. Does that make me the mean aunty? I guess so. But at least she doesn't scream as much when mommy and daddy aren't around.....
Let me also p.s. this with, I would totally cave in public. I know what it's like to be the person irritated over a screaming baby two tables away at a restaurant and I would totally bribe my kid.
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Kendall started his new job today and I think he's doing okay. He checked in at lunch time to tell me he had a good morning. While I enoyed having three weeks off with my husband, I was a little glad that he went back to work today. It gave me some alone time that I haven't had and the excuse to lay around in my pjs all day. With only a month until school starts again, I really haven't had much time to just relax this summer. It's nice to finally start doing that. I'll try to blog again later this week. For now, I'm going to go watch some MTV. :)
I won't write anything here incase ppl are reading and don't want spoilers yet, but I finished the last Harry Potter book this afternoon. I laughed, I cried, I raged, and lastly, I sighed. It's over. The whole series is over. And it makes me sad. No more Potter stories to read. The great thing about these books was that you could connect to Harry. Rowling had a way of putting into words many things that we've all experienced. We may have never fought a real living breathing Dark Lord, but we've all faced evil in our lives. We've all made friends, lost friends, fought with them. We've all had crushes and heartbreaks. We've all felt love. What made these books so wildly popular was that she took all of these things we have experienced and put them into a world of magic. And admit it, who hasn't at some point wished they could REALLY do magic? It's a cool concept. All the more of a connection to Harry and his friends.
Birthdays
We spent last week in Cleveland visiting family and celebrating my birthday. Thanks to everyone who sent cards or called or MySpaced me. Birthdays just aren't the same when you become an adult and the little things really add up. I don't know if anyone else feels that way about their birthday, but it just doesn't feel as special anymore. As a kid it's one of the most exciting days of the year, closely tied with Christmas morning. It's the day when everyone focuses on you. It's YOUR day. The older we get, the less it's about us and the more it just feels like another day of the week. We are more focused on deadlines and paying our bills and home improvement projects- those things we stress about every other day of the year, so why not on our birthday?
Even presents don't hold the same excitement for me. As an adult I have the money to buy the things that I want. And it almost seems a hassle to have to make "lists" for my family. When I was a kid I never really made any official lists. My parents just observed my interests and suprised me. As a grown up, the list becomes an irritation. I feel like I have to wrack my brain for things and then there's no suprise to it. And when there is a "suprise gift" it's usually something that I didn't want and the person didn't use the list. I know that sounds incredibly selfish, and I should be greatful for the presents, but it just seems stupid to ask someone to make you a list and then not use it. I feel the same way about wedding and baby registries. I ALWAYS stick to the list. The only person who truely seems to know what I want without asking is Kendall. When I open his presents I feel like a kid again.
Screeching Babies
Recently my niece has learned how to scream. I don't mean cry. I mean scream at a decible so high that only dogs should be able to hear it. She has also learned that if she screams like that, she gets what she wants from her mommy and daddy. Now I preface this statement with: I KNOW THAT I AM NOT A PARENT YET. But why in your right mind would you give your child something after they behaved that way? Isn't that sending them the message that if they scream, they get their way? I know it's not my business to say anything to the parents about their child, it's their child they can raise her how they want. But do I have to tolerate her behavior when she is in my care? My answer is NO. I've found that she doesn't scream as much when I am in charge. Why? She knows that I will just let her keep screaming. And she doesn't get what she wants. Does that make me the mean aunty? I guess so. But at least she doesn't scream as much when mommy and daddy aren't around.....
Let me also p.s. this with, I would totally cave in public. I know what it's like to be the person irritated over a screaming baby two tables away at a restaurant and I would totally bribe my kid.
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Kendall started his new job today and I think he's doing okay. He checked in at lunch time to tell me he had a good morning. While I enoyed having three weeks off with my husband, I was a little glad that he went back to work today. It gave me some alone time that I haven't had and the excuse to lay around in my pjs all day. With only a month until school starts again, I really haven't had much time to just relax this summer. It's nice to finally start doing that. I'll try to blog again later this week. For now, I'm going to go watch some MTV. :)
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
My vacation in pictures
Okay, so basically I had to put this picture here because we stopped more times to fill for gas than we did to site see. CRAZY!
One of our first stops on the trip was to the Biltmore Estate. Built in the late 1800's by the Vanderbilts, this house only cost 180,000 to complete. I would have killed just to be employed in this household. It was AMAZING. We'll definitely be going back. You can't see it all in one day.
One of the highlights on the trip for me was going through the tunnels in the mountains. Kendall thinks I'm weird, but I made him take this picture as we were driving. I LOVE tunnels!
Kendall was a little camera happy on the trip. I humored him most of the time. Plus, I liked this picture of me. It says, "I'm cute, but if you keep taking my picture- I'll kill you!"
My husband has such a pleasant dispostion. Plus, I like these kind of pictures were his eyes get all squinty. So cute!
As we travelled along, we stopped at any welcome centers we saw. Who knew Kentucky doesn't have one! And neither does Ohio!
The first night of our trip we stayed in a Baymont hotel. Highly recommend them. Clean, not too tacky on the decor, and decently priced.
We went to Savannah on the 4th of July. We were pretty tired at this point in the day. We'd already gone to the beach for several hours and walked a large portion of Savannah. But it made for a nice family shot.
We went to an outdoor concert near Natalie's parent's house. It was a pretty decent cover band. Connie and Robert were very generous hosts. We had a really nice time.
This is at the Ripley's Aquarium in Gaitlinsburg. I'd never been to that area of TN so it was a lot of fun for me. This have this area where you can sit and watch the stingrays. What they don't tell you is that they do this while you sit there! And see where that flash is on the glass? Yeah, they can jump up and splash you! WILD!
You can't really see it in this picture, but the little stingrays look like they're smiling. This was also a rather cute picture of my husband.
We also hit up Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. My kids at school kept going on and on about it this past year, so I had to go see what it was all about. We got to see a REAL shrunken head! SWEET!
Isn't this the coolest chair? We both felt tiny for once! LOL! I love how Kendall posed for his shot. So petite!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
In a Nutshell
So the truth of the matter is, I've been too busy to write about my vacation. And now it seems like so much time has passed that I don't really even WANT to write about it. I'll post a few pictures when I get a chance, but honestly, you wouldn't want to read about most of it.
We shopped, we did some site seeing, we got sunburn. Overall it was a lot of fun.
This week we spent working on the house. It's been a VERY frustrating week. We started the weeding that needed to be done outside and got a small portion done. It's unbelieveable how stubborn weeds can be. I also raked the hideous red mulch out of our front bed. I still have the stuff under the trees to get to. It's hard work and even harder to clean up. We bought a riding lawn mower, again I'll post a pic later, and it cut the mowing time in half. We went from two hours of yard work to one. Which was nice.
We also bought a new fridge. It's been nothing but a pain in the ass. Yeah. Great deal....too great I guess... It doesn't fit in the kitchen. SOOOOOO frustrating. Kendall and his dad have been talking about how to get it in for hours. I think the final plan is to file down the top cabinet 1/16 of an inch (yeah that's how BARELY OFF we are) and then take out the drywall on the one wall. Pretty extreme. But I want this F-ing thing in! We're not taking it back. I refuse.
That's my week in a nutshell. We're heading to Cleveland on Tuesday. We'll be back Friday afternoon. Planning on having dinner with the Jameses and then heading to Barnes and Noble for my Harry Potter book at midnight. I then plan on staying up all night and reading the book until I'm forced to put it down for Annaliese's birthday party or I finish it. So I really don't forsee myself writing on this until next Sunday. I will try to get a few pictures up if nothing else.
We shopped, we did some site seeing, we got sunburn. Overall it was a lot of fun.
This week we spent working on the house. It's been a VERY frustrating week. We started the weeding that needed to be done outside and got a small portion done. It's unbelieveable how stubborn weeds can be. I also raked the hideous red mulch out of our front bed. I still have the stuff under the trees to get to. It's hard work and even harder to clean up. We bought a riding lawn mower, again I'll post a pic later, and it cut the mowing time in half. We went from two hours of yard work to one. Which was nice.
We also bought a new fridge. It's been nothing but a pain in the ass. Yeah. Great deal....too great I guess... It doesn't fit in the kitchen. SOOOOOO frustrating. Kendall and his dad have been talking about how to get it in for hours. I think the final plan is to file down the top cabinet 1/16 of an inch (yeah that's how BARELY OFF we are) and then take out the drywall on the one wall. Pretty extreme. But I want this F-ing thing in! We're not taking it back. I refuse.
That's my week in a nutshell. We're heading to Cleveland on Tuesday. We'll be back Friday afternoon. Planning on having dinner with the Jameses and then heading to Barnes and Noble for my Harry Potter book at midnight. I then plan on staying up all night and reading the book until I'm forced to put it down for Annaliese's birthday party or I finish it. So I really don't forsee myself writing on this until next Sunday. I will try to get a few pictures up if nothing else.
Monday, July 02, 2007
The Beginning of our Trip
Saturday- We went to a bat mitzvah in the morning, which I've never been to before. It was fascinating since most of it was in Hebrew. They provided us with English translations too, which made it even more interesting. I turned to Kendall at one point and said, "This is why Jesus died on the cross for us...so I didn't have to learn Hebrew." Slightly blasphemous....but also, slightly true! LOL!
We spent the afternoon driving to Knoxville, TN which took about 5 hours. It was actually a pretty quick drive and we had a good deal of fun along the way. I'll post pictures later. We stayed for the night at a Baymont Hotel, which we were highly impressed with. It was clean, relatively untacky in terms of decorations, and the price we relatively decent, only 70 bucks.
Sunday-We left the hotel at about 10:30. We decided that we wanted to stop at the Biltmore Estate on Asheville, NC. Now if you've never seen this house, I'll post some pictures later. It was INCREDIBLE! I'd take just being a servant in this house! Their furniture was nicer than most of mine! And it was hilarious because the booklet we bought to explain the house said that the servant furniture was considered "low quality" because it was mass produced. It was made of chestnut and mahogany. YEAH. I asked if I could steal some, and the tour guide told me no.
It was totally worth the visit and if you're ever down in that area, it's worth the stop. It's easily a 2 or 3 day adventure if you want to truely see everything. We spent 2 1/2 hours there and barely got to see the whole house. We rushed the end of the tour because we were tired, hungry and needed to get to Hilton Head.
We arrived safe and sound about 9 last night and had a delicious meal with the whole family. Ribs, baked beans, and corn on the cob!
We spent the afternoon driving to Knoxville, TN which took about 5 hours. It was actually a pretty quick drive and we had a good deal of fun along the way. I'll post pictures later. We stayed for the night at a Baymont Hotel, which we were highly impressed with. It was clean, relatively untacky in terms of decorations, and the price we relatively decent, only 70 bucks.
Sunday-We left the hotel at about 10:30. We decided that we wanted to stop at the Biltmore Estate on Asheville, NC. Now if you've never seen this house, I'll post some pictures later. It was INCREDIBLE! I'd take just being a servant in this house! Their furniture was nicer than most of mine! And it was hilarious because the booklet we bought to explain the house said that the servant furniture was considered "low quality" because it was mass produced. It was made of chestnut and mahogany. YEAH. I asked if I could steal some, and the tour guide told me no.
It was totally worth the visit and if you're ever down in that area, it's worth the stop. It's easily a 2 or 3 day adventure if you want to truely see everything. We spent 2 1/2 hours there and barely got to see the whole house. We rushed the end of the tour because we were tired, hungry and needed to get to Hilton Head.
We arrived safe and sound about 9 last night and had a delicious meal with the whole family. Ribs, baked beans, and corn on the cob!
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