Happy Valentine's Day!

The past two Valentine's Days I posted about love, Valentine's Day and what this day means to me. You can read that post here because it still all is very true. However, today I want to do something a little different. Today I am going to participate in a Valentine's Day Link Up where Collin and I each answer some questions to see how well we know each other. Or rather, how well Collin knows me. ;) Melissa at Life of a Not So Ordinary Wife is hosting this fun little link up!

How long have you been married?
Him: Working on three years.
Her: It will be 3 years on April 24!

Where was your first date?
Him: Chick-fil-a
Her: Chick-Fil-A and a walk around Target.

Where was your first kiss?
Him: I believe it was on her parent's living room couch, but I may be crossing wires between stories.
Her: I think it was on the couch at my parent's house.

Who first said, "I love you"?
Him: She did when I put on the score from Braveheart.
Her: I did. I just couldn't hold it in any longer. We'd only been back together for like 3 weeks but I just knew. I knew he was my future husband! He didn't reply then (I told him he didn't have to), but by the end of the week he realized he felt the same way!

What were your wedding colors?
Him: Blue and yellow.
Her: Blue and Yellow.

What is her most commonly used phrase?
Him: "Interesting"
Her: "I don't know." (What do you want to eat? - I don't know; What do you want to watch - I don't know. lol)

Who is her celebrity crush?
Him: Cuba Gooding Jr. *In his defense, I really do like Cuba!*
Her: I don't really have one, but if I had to pick, John Krasinski.

If she was ordering drinks for both of you what would you each get?
Him: Water for her and sweet tea for me. Both with no lemon.
Her: Water for me and Sweet Tea for him, both without lemon.

What is the best meal she has ever cooked you?
Him: Hmm... I have a bit of talent show syndrome here (where the more recently experienced things seem better) so I'm going to say the tamale dish she made a few weeks ago.
Her: Oh man. He seems to like almost everything I cook. I'll say, Chicken Club Brunch.

What is the worst meal she has ever cooked you?
Him: Something with long noodles that weren't cooked all the way and bad sauce. I forget what it was called. *Totally what I was talking about!*
Her: I have no idea. I block the bad things out. Oh! Probably this spinach and artichoke fettuccine one time. It was so gross we couldn't even take more than like two bites each.

What is the most-played song on her iPod?
Him: I wanna say... Embracing The Sunshine by BT
Her: I listen to my music on shuffle pretty much all the time. So everything gets a mostly equal play time. But I suppose "The Birds and the Bees" by Patrick and Eugene is up there.

What would she say is your most annoying habit?
Him: That I'm always trying to help or not helping. Whichever is the one she doesn't want at the time is what I'm doing usually.
Her: Not putting his pants in the drawer when he takes them off if he doesn't want them washed yet.

What is the last thing she does before she goes to bed?
Him: Before GOING to bed, she brushes her teeth and takes out her contacts. Before sleep, she puts Vaseline on her lips and lotion on her hands.
Her: My goopey stuff as I call it. Putting Vaseline on my lips and lotion on my hands.

If you could throw out one item of her clothing what would it be?
Him: Just one?... The yellow tights but I believe those got a hole in them so I don't have to worry about those anymore.
Her: He likes pretty much anything I wear. But he would definitely throw out my "jaundice-colored tights" as he calls them. (I thought they would be more mustard-colored when I bought them...)

What would you say is your favorite thing about her?
Him: Her love for music. *Totally not the direction I took this question...*
Her: My butt...

What's her go-to drink at Starbucks?
Him: If she ever even went to Starbucks, it'd probably be the pumpkin spice latte.
Her: I don't go to Starbucks (or really drink coffee) but when I do I usually get a chocolate chip creme based frappacino.

What's her blog's name?!
Him: This and That
Her: This and That

Wow! He did really well!! I knew he would though, sometimes I think he knows me better than I know myself! I just think marriage is so much fun. The fact that we can answer these questions so similarly and even agree on most stuff is just great! I love my sweet hubby and I can't wait to celebrate many more Valentine's Days together!

I hope that you guys enjoy your love day! Go love on those people in your life you just can't get enough of! Whether it be your spouse, children, parents, siblings, or even friends, go share some love!

Most importantly though, don't forget to show some love to the One who makes love possible! Tell God you love Him. You can't ever say it enough to Him!!

Love to you!

Cindy

Fame For All the Wrong Reasons

Our little Seabass is famous!

While hanging out with our friend Megan one day I noticed a piece of paper with some interesting stats about her Greyhound sitting on the counter. When I asked her about it she told me about a site called Dog Shaming. It sounded pretty funny so I checked it out. Then she also told me there was a site for Cat Shaming. Basically the premise is to "shame" your pets when they've done something naughty. Well, since bringing Seabass to live with us he's been very naughty. But I suppose that comes with the territory of having a kitten... Anyway, we can tolerate most stuff but getting on the kitchen counter is not something we're just gonna shrug off. No way, no how. So, to try to deter him from getting on the counter, we've been putting strips of tape down so he'll get it stuck to him and learn his lesson. It's finally working (mostly) and he's getting on the counter less and less, that we can tell. Or if he is getting on the counter he's avoiding the tape but we've made that pretty impossible. Anyway, one day last week we came home and Seabass was frantically trying to get a piece of tape off his face. So, instead of removing it right away we decided he needed to be shamed... His photo went live on the Cat Shaming Tumblr this weekend! I'm so proud...

Cindy

Weekend Update

This past weekend was a lot of fun! We spent a good bit of it with family, too! Friday evening we spent with Collin's family and yesterday we spent with my family! Collin's aunt and uncle had been in town visiting so we went out to dinner with them Friday and then they came back to our place to see it and play Quelf! We had a blast! We got to eat at the new Cracker Barrel that just opened on Labor Day. We had a long wait (about an hour) but it was delicious! I'm so super excited we now have a Cracker Barrel. It's one of our favorite places to eat!

Saturday I got to do a bit of shopping with my mom and our friend Kathy. Mom needed to go to the mall to pick up my dad's birthday present and Kathy and I tagged along. We had a delightful afternoon together! And then once we got home I got to do even more shopping in my mom's closet! I got 6 new shirts that my mom was getting rid of! =D I love free clothes! That evening after running some errands Collin and I just relaxed and watched Night at the Roxbury (so stupid! lol) and then some Scrubs on Netflix.

Sunday we had a great church service where we introduced a new song called Great I Am by Jared Anderson. Such a powerful and incredible song! I am so glad we learned it and have introduced it to our congregation. Our pastor said it gave him "tingles". =) After church we went out to lunch with Jeff and Jeannie and it was SOOO delicious! We went to a local gourmet sandwich bistro and I will definitely be going back! So, so good! I had chicken tortilla soup and a roasted vegetable sandwich with goat cheese on foccacia bread. I didn't take a picture but I absolutely should have because it was beautiful! After lunch we spent a little time at a friend's 21st birthday celebration and then we headed to my parent's house where we commenced the scavenger hunt all about my dad for his birthday! We had a blast!! And it was so fun comparing pictures with the guys. We did girls vs guys and it was really great! Then after, we had a delicious dinner my mom made and a yummy hot fudge pie that I made via a Pinterest recipe. I'm for sure making it again and I'll take pictures and post a tutorial next time. =)

To kick off my dad's birthday weekend he and I had lunch together at his favorite Chinese Buffet on Friday!


Cracker Barrel food is always so delicious. This time I got the Country Vegetable Platter with dumplings, lima beans, mac and cheese and fried apples. So, so good!

Seabass is really taking to his new home. It's very rare though that we can catch him sleeping peacefully. I know he does at some point but it's rare he does it when we're around so I had to document this moment!

Picture taken to represent what my dad wants to do when we retires. Be a full time RVer with my mom. =)

This picture was taken to represent both my dad's favorite store and his favorite tool. Haha! Auto Zone and a Screwdriver! I love that my sister can be as goofy as me!

I hope you guys had a great weekend! I most certainly did. What was your favorite moment this weekend? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Happy Monday!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

We've been collecting supplies for a contract here at work for months to send overseas and it was finally time to ship the stuff out. The stuff we had to ship included six 40-foot 740 lb telephone poles. Fortunately the trucker that came had a flat bed truck. But all we had to move the poles from the ground to get them up on the truck was a forklift and a chain. This is how we maneuvered it. I thought it was pretty silly looking! =)

Dragging the pole behind the forklift by the chain tied around it and secured to the forklift.

Lifting it up onto the truck with men on either end to keep it stable and from rolling off the forks.

They decided to pull the poles this way instead of behind the forklift because it got them off the ground more...

Happy Wednesday!! I get to do this again today. We only shipped half our stuff yesterday and today we've gotta ship the other half! Oh, also, Happy August!!

Cindy

Elevensies

My dear friend Ashley tagged me in this fun "eleven" questionnaire. It was so fun to get to know a little bit more about Ashley and I definitely wanted to participate!

The Rules:
1. Post these rules.
2. Post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions set for you in the original post.
4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you've tagged them.
6. No saying, "If you are reading this, you're tagged."

11 Random Things About Me
1. I almost always have my toe nails painted. If they are not painted I feel naked. And they are never bare in summer. If my toes show in my shoes, there is polish on them.
2. I grew up with semi-strict parents when it came to watching movies (which I am so glad for now). Even after I turned 13 there were some PG-13 movies I was not allowed to watch and R was always out of the question. Therefore there are numerous "classic" movies that came out when I was young that I have yet to see.
3. When I was a senior in high school I took AP Physics and LOVED it. And I loved (and still love) the weather. I debated for a while between being a music major or a meteorology major. And for a while there I said I would be a singing meteorologist! Some days I wish I could still!
4. I have always loved reading. When I was in 10th grade (I think it was 10th) I got the first three Harry Potter books for Christmas. I read them all in 4 days. I brought them to the dinner table with me because I couldn't put them down.
5. I have tinnitus. I always hear ringing in my ears. The doctor did a hearing test though and said I have better than perfect hearing so he doesn't know why it's there.
6. I took Spanish in high school for my foreign language credit. I loved it and did really well all three years (and the two semesters I took it in college). My freshman year at the awards assembly I received an award from my Spanish teacher for outstanding achievement. My parents were extremely confused and proud at the same time.
7. Other than the period of time I was at college, I have been attending the same church since I was 4 years old.
8. I wish more than anything that I could be a stay-at-home wife(someday mom) but unless some miracle happens, I doubt it will ever be a possibility because of my student loans.
9. While in Europe on our choir tour my sophomore year of college, I almost got kissed by one of the living statues in Prague.
10. I gave up drinking soda back in high school and I haven't really missed it since.
11. I have a slight quirk when it comes to peanut butter and jelly. I love eating it on a piece of toast in the morning for breakfast. However, the thought of eating it as a sandwich for lunch or dinner makes me gag.

Ashley's 11 Questions For Me
1. What is your favorite Disney movie?
Up! But of the old classics I have to say 101 Dalmatians
2. Have you ever broken a bone?
I'm not sure. I was never treated for a broken bone but my right wrist bothers me a lot and I had it x-rayed once and the doctor reading my x-ray asked me if I'd ever fractured my wrist and I can remember when it would have happened if I really did...
3. Are you a dog person or a cat person?
Definitely a cat person. I do talk about and post pictures of my cat lots, don't I? =) But I also do enjoy dogs. Collin and I would love to have a dog eventually.
4. What are you afraid of?
Tornadoes and spiders. ICK! And a few other things but those are my most paralyzing fears. And I HATE that I dream about tornadoes all the time. It makes the fear even worse!
5. What is the most expensive thing in your closet?
Oh um... my wedding dress. lol But of the stuff I regularly wear, probably my black boots. I'm a very thrifty shopper so hardly anything I own is expensive.
6. Have you ever had super short hair?
I have! Well, I suppose not super, super short but when I was younger I had my hair cut up to my cheek bones in a bob. And every once in a while now I'll cut it up to my chin or so.
7. What is your favorite dessert?
Chocolate. It doesn't matter too much what it is so long as it's got chocolate.
8. Which was cooler...N'Sync or Backstreet Boys?
I liked them both. I had all of both their CDs but I was slightly more into Backstreet Boys.
9. What is your dream vacation destination?
Venice, Italy.
10. Can you play an instrument?
Yep! I can play piano (I've been playing for 16 years) and I also play percussion, everything but snare drum or set!
11. If you were stranded on a deserted island and only had two music cd's, what would they be?
David Crowder Band's Church Music and BT's These Hopeful Machines.

My 11 Questions for the Friends I Tag
1. Where is your favorite place to shop?
2. Are you a morning, night or afternoon person?
3. As a kid, what was your favorite TV show?
4. If there were a zombie apocalypse, what would you do? Do you think you'd survive?
5. What is your dream vacation destination?
6. List your top five favorite movies.
7. Is your hair color natural or do you highlight/dye it?
8. If you could meet one person, past or present, who would it be?
9. Do you have any pets? If so, what kind?
10. Would you rather fly, drive or take a train?
11. What website do you visit most often?

I Tag...

Lynn, Annie, Meagan, Elizabeth. and Jessica.

I hope you guys have fun with this! I sure did! Also, hope you all have a truly splendid weekend!!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Most people post pictures of their kids and that's great. Their kids are their life and their blogs are a way of documenting their lives. Well, I don't have any human children. But I have a fur child. My cat is my baby for now. So if it bothers you that I keep posting pictures/videos of my cat, I'm sorry but he's just so gosh darn cute and I post about him for the same reasons others post about their human children. To document life. =)

I have no idea why Stank does this. He's so funny though! He'll jump up on up the couch and his paws will touch my blanket and he just immediately begins kneading it and sucking on it. I think it has something to do with nursing and it bringing back instincts of being a kitten. If you know for real why cats do this, let me know.

Cindy

Comedy Break!

I've been pretty busy these past few days and my creative blogging juices aren't flowing today so I just want to leave you with something funny to tie you over until my next "real" post. I follow these guys on youtube, Tripp and Tyler of don't be that guy films and this is one of their latest. It's so, so funny. Collin and I have been quoting it lots lately. Give it a watch. I think you'll appreciate it, too!

"Does anyone know how I can make Papyrus my default font?" haha! Hope you enjoyed the video!

Cindy

Ya'll Come Back Now, Y'Hear?

So going around on the interwebs has been this fun little dialect test/vlog thing and after Ashley at Hudson's Happenings posted it this week I just really wanted to do it. So... here's a little video of Collin and myself showing you our "accents". =)

The instructions are to say these words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And answer these questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you use to change the TV channel?

So... what do you guys think? Do I have an accent? Do Collin and I sound anything like how you would have imagined? I just love Collin's deep voice! He sounds like a radio personality or something, doesn't he? =) We hope you enjoyed our first little "vlog". We had fun making it!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! It's cold here but we're not predicted to get any snow just some rain but other places are supposedly gonna get hit pretty hard. So if you're one of them, good luck - stay warm and safe! See you all Monday!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

We have a tradition on ASP called cake day. We buy an ice cream cake and everyone participates in eating it as fast as they can using only their hands. It's quite an amusing thing to watch. This year it took them about a minute and a half (the previous record was about 5 mins) but they had LOTS of extra help this year because the other church and the center staff participated. This is the aftermath. Love it!

Wordless Wednesday

Cindy

A Little Humor - A Big Lesson

I'd seen these videos before but last week my cousin posted it on Facebook. I laughed out loud at my desk at work but then it got me thinking. But before I get into that, let's enjoy some laughs. =)



Funny, right? And there's a few more on YouTube not in this compilation. Go watch them and have some more laughs! It's amazing though how things can seem so much worse than they actually are. In all those situations there was nothing bad going on. Everyone was innocent but the way the scenarios played out, it made them look not so innocent.

So anyway, like I said, this got me thinking. I started to wonder how many times I draw conclusions about people without knowing all the facts. How many times do I judge someone unfairly? And to add insult to injury, I'm not even supposed to judge people at all!

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye."
Matthew 7:1-5
Jesus' words don't sugar coat things. He very plainly says do not judge. There's no wiggle room, no way to misinterpret it. Just don't do it. But golly day this is no easy feat. Judging comes naturally to us as humans. But when you judge you are not only hurting those you judge against, you're hurting yourself. You are pulling away from Christ and it's like telling Him "Don't worry Jesus, I got this. I know what they're doing wrong and I'll let them know, too." But what about what you've got going on in your own life? Would you like it if someone pointed out what you're doing wrong in your own life? Yeah, me neither...

We're so fortunate that when we do mess up and could use a little judgement that our Father is compassionate. God doesn't belittle us or make us feel horrible about ourselves. Any of those feelings come from our own minds. God loves us and though he wants us to live a godly life he won't yell at us for messing up. He shows us the error of our ways and then He just opens His arms and calls us into His presence.

So who's with me in letting God do the judging? I'd much rather leave it to Him because he's so much more compassionate than I will ever be. And I don't like being a hypocrite. Now onto the hard part of ignoring my tendencies to want to judge!

Cindy

Weekend Happiness

This past weekend was a lot of fun! Friday evening we played frisbee golf and had dinner out with our friend Jim. Then Saturday I went to a Stampin' Up workshop and made some awesome cards and had a good old time! Sunday we had church, went to the Patuxent River Appreciation Day at the Calvert Marine Museum, and then had a lasagana dinner at my parent's place and we played a game of Risk. Monday extended our weekend thanks to the Columbus Day holiday! Collin and I drove down to Williamsburg because I had won a free stay at this resort there but we had to do a tour of the place before we could get our prizes. Basically they were trying to get us to buy into their timeshare program, and as good a deal as it sounds, we can't afford it now so we went just to get the free stuff. But we ended up getting a 2 night/3 day stay in Williamsburg, a 3 night/4 day stay in Orlando, a $100 Visa gift card, and a $50 Subway gift card. Not too shabby! So we just drove down there for the presentation, had lunch at Cracker Barrel, visited the Yankee Candle Factory store and came back home.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a few things that made me happy this weekend!

McDonald's now has snack-size McFlurries! I was craving an M&M McFlurry on Friday after work so I stopped and got one and was very excited they had a small size!

I love the cards that I made at the workshop on Saturday. They were so much fun to make and they turned out so pretty! I loved using the new techniques!

The Marine Museum has a fossil of a Mega Tooth hanging up in the room with Prehistoric era information and this thing is creepy looking but also so cool at the same time! I love how the museum goes through the history of our area's bay life.


Collin dances while driving. I think it's the cutest thing, ever. Anyway, yesterday on the way to Williamsburg he was dancing to the song "Superman" by the Korean pop group Norazo (click here to watch the actual video on youtube). I thought it was too funny and wanted to video him so I grabbed my camera. I love my silly husband.

So yes, we had a good weekend! Lots of fun times and good things to make me happy. What did you do this weekend? What happy things did you encounter this weekend?

Cindy

The Pink Wave

Each summer our youth group goes on a mission trip through ASP (Appalachia Service Project) to one of 4 states in the Appalachia region to work on houses. Their slogan is to make homes warmer, safer, and drier. It's an amazing program and it touches so many people each summer. Our youth group has been going since 2003 and we've been to Virginia and West Virginia many times and I believe Tennessee once, and we have yet to be assigned to Kentucky. This year we're heading to Keokee in Lee County, Virgina which is practically in Kentucky! This is actually my second year going on this trip, my first time was in 2003. This will be a very different experience for me though. 1) because I'm going as a leader and not a youth and 2) because there is a completely different group of people going. I'm really excited about the trip.

Anyway... each group has to raise funds to go on this trip. One of our major fundraisers is flamingo runs. We have two flocks that we put in people's yards without them knowing (usually at night) and then we remove them from the yard for a donation. Actually, the victim doesn't have to make a donation, we will remove them for free if someone is offended or what not, but if they do make a donation they get to choose who the flock goes to next. This is such a fun way to raise money. Both the congregation and the youth love it! The youth love being sneaky and decorating people's lawns and the congregation loves waking up and finding flamingos in their yard! It's really a win-win situation. I've been out on a few flamingo runs so far this year and they've been great! We actually got caught once because the lady whose house we were at walked by the front window and saw shadows. She was expecting her grandchildren to arrive at any moment so she thought they were home and came to the door to let them in. Well, she didn't find her grandchildren but rather a bunch of us putting flamingos in the yard. =) She loved it though and actually invited us in!

The pictures I'm posting are actually from our wedding day. The group leader thought it would be fun to put the flamingos in my parent's yard the week of our wedding so all our out of town relatives could see them and they would get a kick out of it. Oh boy it was great! And it made for some fun photos.  These photos are courtesy of our photographer, Norine Rowe.

Does your youth group/church have any fun fundraisers that you guys do? Have you ever heard of flamingoing before? I love it!

Cindy

Wedding Week - The Bachelorette Celebration

*In honor of our 1st Anniversary on Sunday I'll be sharing a bit about our wedding this week on the blog. I wasn't blogging during the wedding process so this is a fun way to share about our big events!*

My bridesmaids were the greatest! I had my two best friends from college, a good friend from church and my sister by my side on my special day. Even though they all live out of town except for my sister they were awesome bridesmaids. They were all involved in the planning process, giving advice and tips and help and they threw me such a fun bachelorette celebration! I told them that I wanted something fun that didn't invlove alcohol or strippers and preferably involved the beach. Since we were all so busy and so spread apart we had my party the day before the wedding after our bridal lunch. It was SO MUCH FUN! They didn't tell me anything about it except that we would be done in time to get our nails done before the rehearsal. They drove me down to Greenwell State Park and we walked down to the beach there and they pulled out these silly hats, feather boas, crazy sunglasses, brownies, sparkling cider and fun cups! Basically we drank sparkling cider, ate some brownies, took LOTS of pictures and laughed SO hard we cried, fell on the ground, and couldn't breathe. I'll let the pictures explain truly just how much fun we had. =)

Such a wonderful celebration with my girls! I love looking back at these pictures. They never cease to make me smile and laugh thinking back on the silliness we enjoyed!

Cindy