5 Fact Friday

HELLO blog world! I am still alive. Actually I'm very alive! Things have been great lately! I have had absolutely no desire to blog though. I guess I'm just going through that kind of phase in my life. =) But I'm glad this little thing is still around so I can record my thoughts when I want/need to!

1. The biggest great thing lately is that Collin and I recently got a puppy! She is a Pekepoo pup that we've named Shelley. She is 4 months old today, actually. It's been a BIG adjustment adding a puppy to our family but she's so sweet that it makes up for the lack of sleep and accidents.

For size comparison... She only weighs 4.6lbs. And Seabass is three times her size!

This picture really shows you her coloring, white with tan spots and tan ears! She looks like a seashell!

Compared to our friend Megan's greyhound. Also, photo credit for this goes to Megan

2. This morning while taking Shelley out to the bathroom before leaving for work, we were coming back inside and she started running for the door so I had to run too. However, I somehow twisted my ankle and ended up with a nasty scrape from the sidewalk on the side of my foot. Oh my goodness it hurts so bad. But my dear, sweet husband cleaned and bandaged me up real good. I love that man!

3. I am counting down the hours until 4:00 this afternoon. That's when our VACATION begins! Oh I am so excited for it. Wanna know where we're going? NO WHERE! Sure it would be nice to go to the beach or the mountains or somewhere fun and exciting, but we decided to stay home and have a staycation to save on money. We have some fun things planned such as going to DC two different days to explore and have fun! I can't wait!!

4. I found an article from the Huffington Post on Facebook this morning. People that don't know me REALLY well may not realize it, but I am an introvert and this describes me practically to a tee. Sure, I'm a bubbly, social person but the first paragraphs of the article explain just how it is than I am an introvert.

5. Our county fair is coming up in a couple weeks and I'm really excited! I'm planning to enter a few photos again this year and Collin is even planning to enter some himself. This is one of the ones he plans to enter. I'm jealous I couldn't take it myself since I was driving, but I did ask him to take it while we were stuck in traffic since I saw the beauty. =)

I hope you guys have a great weekend! I am so, so happy that this weekend is the beginning of vacation! I can't wait to have a nice relaxing 9 days with my husband doing whatever we please! Until the next time I blog, have fun my friends!

Cindy

A Sad Goodbye

Friday was a very, very hard day for us. We had to say goodbye to our first "kid", Stank. About a month ago we noticed Stank started losing some weight. Then after a little while he started eating less and less. We took the first appointment we could get with the vet and they did lots of tests. All they could find was that he was anemic. They told us that likely he had cancer but the only way to tell was by doing expensive tests and x-rays. And they also told us that even with treatment his likelihood of survival was very slim and the treatments would make him very sick themselves. We tried our hardest to get him to eat but he just refused. We even tried appetite stimulants which didn't have any affect on him. The poor cat was miserable. He was hiding under our desks and when we'd lay with him he would let us love on him for a little bit but then he'd move away as if to say "just let me be, I don't feel good." It was so hard to see our buddy so miserable. We knew what we needed to do, but boy was it the hardest decision we've made. But at least our Stanky isn't suffering anymore.

Stank, you were such an awesome cat. You had so much love to give, you were so, so sweet and such a beautiful cat. Your daddy and I love you so, so much and we miss you like crazy. Your little brother misses you, too. I will always love you, Stank, and will always remember and think of you fondly. Life just won't be the same without you sitting on my lap, without you trying to swat at my necklaces, without you eating the bugs for me (Seabass just doesn't have it in him like you did), and of course without your snuggles and love.

All my love sweet boy.
Your Mommy

5 Fact Friday

I love Fridays. Absolutely love them. Most of the time anyway. =) I love them even more when it's my Friday off. Unfortunately this is not that one. Actually, I don't really blog on my Friday off. I'm too busy enjoying my free time! This week actually kind of flew by, which is a very good thing!

1. We are moving a week from tomorrow into a 2-bedroom apartment. We have nothing packed yet. And we've only acquired 3 boxes so far. Good thing we have people putting boxes aside for us...

2. Last weekend I read a really great book called invisible by Ginny Yttrup. I highly recommend it. Actually I'm posting a review of it later today!

3. Last weekend it was really nice outside so we spent Saturday afternoon playing frisbee golf for the first time this year, and then we got Rita's!

4. I think I found a solution to our problem with the cats waking us up. I started giving them half of their normal food amount in the evening and giving them the other half just before bedtime. So far they've not woken us up and it's been 3 mornings now!

5. Our play is coming along pretty nicely. We have performances April 19 and 20 at our church and it's been a pretty fun experience so far!

Have a wonderful weekend, dear ones! I'll see you next week!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

The Super Bowl was on Sunday. I am not a football fan. I don't watch games unless I'm at my in-laws house and my father-in-law has a game on. I really don't know too much about the game except for the answers I get from the questions I ask during a game. I do enjoy watching the Super Bowl though, mainly for the fellowship and excitement. And of course the commercials!

This year, Collin and I went to a party at his parent's house and had a good evening! The food was delicious and the game was so good! Plus, it was our local team (Ravens) playing and then they WON. That was super exciting! And we got to see some pretty funny commercials. The only disappointing part of the evening was that some of the other people were talking during some of the commercials and that bothered Collin and I. But other than that we had a really good time!

I made a peanut butter brownie trifle and the very first peanut butter cup I pulled out had TEN wrappers around it. I said to Collin, "Whoa, this one has lots of wrappers, I'm going to count." Then I started counting and when I got to five and kept going Collin just kept laughing!

Delicious food on my plate. Pulled pork sandwich, my buffalo chicken dip with crackers, dirty rice, orange peppers and mushrooms.

The trifle in all its delicious glory!

I didn't make this but it was an awesome cupcake arrangement that a friend made!

Cindy

It's My Birthday!

Today is my birthday! And it is a great day so far! It's so warm!! It's in the 70's! Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share some pictures from my childhood with you all here today, to celebrate! These are some of my favorite "pictures from the past".

Circa 2003-2004. Not sure exactly when this was taken but it was towards the end of high school for me. This is my sister and I being silly with our Nana.

This is my sister and I with a few of our pets (my parents still have the cat!). I'm probably about 6 and my sister would have been about 4.

My dad and I eating ice cream together. This was a common thing for the two of us. =) I'm probably around 7 here.


I do believe that I was 11 here. This was after my piano recital and with me were my sister, best friend Stephanie and Steph's younger sister, Brittany.

One year my sister and I were presents for Halloween! I was probably 7 in this picture.

Easter Sunday with Nana. Kaity and I always wore matching outfits with our cousin Leah. At this point we had already ditched the hats! We're probably 8, 6, and 2 here.

Hanging out in the hot tub with my friends at the Lake Gaston Campground/Resort. This was probably 2001.

Me with my Samoyed dog, Molly. I'm probably 4 or 5 here.

This was taken at a Superbowl party my parent's hosted in 1999. I don't think the Redskins were playing that evening but Mr. Potts was there representing!

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me! I'll be back tomorrow to recap my birthday!

Cindy

Bringing Christmas Cheer

Last night I went caroling with my book club. We decided a few weeks ago that in lieu of our normal meeting we wanted to go caroling to some people in our church and to a few community places. I must say, we had SO much fun!! I hadn't laughed that hard in a while, either! Everywhere we went the people we sang to were very appreciative and it made us so happy to be able to bring a little joy to their day! There were only six of us that were able to go, but it was perfect! We all piled into an Explorer and drove around town. And we even got to sing to some people over the Bluetooth phone in the car. That was when we laughed the most, I do believe. =) So wonderful. I hadn't been caroling in quite a while and so it was wonderful to get to go and spread some Christmas cheer!

Our first stop of the evening was at the fire house where we wanted to sing to the volunteers on duty that night. There were actually only two guys at the station at the moment! There were 5 other people at the station but they were in a training class. So, we sang our best for those two men! Outside the firehouse was a big and beautiful tree! Before we left I snapped a few photos of it and want to share one with you today!

If you get the opportunity to go caroling, I think you should go. It doesn't matter if you think you have a good voice or not. Just go make a joyful noise and bring some Christmas cheer! It's so fun and so worth it! Even when it's cold! And if you don't know what to sing, I'll give you a copy of the song book I made for our excursion; just ask me for it. 14 fun Christmas songs to choose from!

Cindy

Oh How Wonderful

Do you ever have one of those weekends that was just what you needed? That's what this weekend was for me. Friday evening once Collin and I were both home from work we headed to Red Robin for an impromptu date night. We had both been craving some juicy burger goodness and what better a place than Red Robin to satisfy that craving? We had a delicious meal and then headed home. Collin played Metal Gear Solid 3 for a couple hours while I created our advent calendar. It took a bit longer than I expected but I love how it turned out. Now if only we could just get it hung...

Saturday morning after Collin headed into work I went over to my parents' house and my mom and I created a wreath for our front door. I LOVE how it turned out. It's exactly what I had been envisioning and wanted! I'm glad I got to spend that time with my mom, too! Then later in the day Collin and I practiced our song we were performing that evening at Figgy Pudding, a fundraiser some ladies at our church put on to benefit the church's Wednesday night community dinner. Figgy Pudding is an event where you buy seats at tables that people have decorated very festive and you listen to various musical numbers and eat delicious desserts made by people from the church. Collin and I performed the Mark Harris version of Silent Night which is so beautiful! I also got to play with the hand bell choir. I haven't played hand bells in several years but I played for quite a few before that. Anyway, the director comes up to me and asks me if I would sight read and play the hand bells because they were short two people. He was going to play one set of bells and needed me to fill in on the others. Haha! Fun, but a little nerve wracking!

Sunday was a great day! Church was fantastic! It's absolutely amazing the way God makes everything go together so well! Our praise music fit the message PERFECTLY even though the music was picked without knowing what the message would be. It was SO a God thing! After church Collin cooked us some delicious fried rice! We both thoroughly enjoyed it. I love when Collin experiments in the kitchen. We usually get some pretty awesome results! The afternoon consisted of us running all over town running errands and buying groceries. We were in desperate need of food in our house. I mean, we had food, but the reason Collin made fried rice is because we had odd stuff that you can't really eat together. And we couldn't even have grilled cheese because we were out of bread! So now we are well stocked up on food! My mom invited us over for a chili dinner so we spent the evening over there and had a yummy dinner and cookies hot from the oven for dessert! When we got home, I holed myself up in the bedroom with Seabass while Collin and Stank watched The Walking Dead in the living room. I would watch the show if it weren't so gruesome. I ask Collin questions all the time about the characters and what went on because it's got such a great story, but I am too weak-stomached for some of the stuff.

I'd say it was most definitely just the weekend I needed!! I hope you had a great weekend, yourself! I hope it was just what you needed and it's given you the stamina to start this week off on the right foot!

Cindy

Family Fall Fun

I totally just had an "Oh shoot!" moment where I realized I never shared the photos from our fun day with our niece and nephew. This may have taken place just over a month ago but I want to post them. It's as much for me though for memories as it is for you guys! We had such a great visit with Collin's family and I was so glad that in addition to his brother and niece coming, his sister and nephew came to visit, too! As I said before we went to this big old beautiful tree Collin's dad passes everyday going to work and the kids played in the leaves while we took photos. Then we went to the pumpkin patch/corn maze and we all really enjoyed ourselves there as well! It was so delightful!

I love little Jaden peeking out from behind the tree.




Aunt Jade with Kayla.

Beau decided to hang Kayla from the tree. She didn't mind too much.

Jaden however was not so thrilled...

Burying Uncle Collin in the leaves.


Jade and Jaden

Beau and Kayla

She really got into it and started enjoying herself!


Oh I love him so much!

Bahaha!


Uncle Collin holding Kayla's hand and MiMi (Collin's mom) holding Jaden's hand on the way into the farm.



Off for the train ride!

Playing in the corn box.





Jaden was so excited about holding the flag while in the corn maze. He kept trying to raise it up and we would tell him "Don't lift it too high or they'll think we're lost!" So then he kept asking if we were lost so he could raise it! Too cute!



Collin just had to go down the slide.

Finding some pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.

I love being an aunt! It's so much fun! And it doesn't hurt that my niece and nephew are just so darn cute! I'm so glad we got to spend time with them and I can't wait for our next visit. =)

Cindy