5 Fact Friday

I couldn't be any happier that it is Friday! I am so, so excited for this weekend. My grandma gets into town in about four hours! =D I haven't seen her since October and I'm really looking forward to her visit this year. Plus, my mom's side of the family is having their family reunion this weekend, Collin and I have 4 performance of Hairspray this weekend, and it's the last of the performances, too. It's going to be a BUSY weekend but next weekend will make up for it (mostly) since I'm taking Thursday off to spend the day with Gramma Bonnie and it gives me a 4-day weekend since next Friday is CWS! Woo! I love when things like that work out. =) Now onto my five facts for today! I love joining Nancy in this link up. It's fun learning new facts about some of your blogger friends!

1. This week was a "dark" week for the play. It was also Vacation Bible School at our church. However, I purposefully didn't volunteer this year since last week and weekend were so crazy with Summerstock rehearsals and then performances. I felt a little guilty saying no to VBS but it was the best decision. This week of having no plans during the evenings has been just the break I needed before the performances again this weekend.

2. I am really excited about the prospect of jet skiing sometime within the next week and a half. I haven't been on a jet ski since Summer 2011 and I miss it!

3. Last Saturday I wanted to take some pictures of flowers around our apartment. I got so frustrated with my camera that I ended up finding the manual and reading how to use the different settings on it. I should have done that much sooner.

4. I had that pretty hydrangea blossom sitting in our living room for a while and it brought me so much joy. I want to add some greenery (maybe a succulent or two) into our regular decor.

5. The temperature the past two days has been marvelous. Yesterday it only got up to 79 and today it's going to be about the same. We turned the AC off and had the screen door open and we even took a walk yesterday evening. It was phenomenal.

I hope you, my dear lovelies, have a wonderful weekend! May it be relaxing, fun, and just the perfect "pick me up" that you need!

Cindy

Storm Relief

During the month of June and so far in July we've had SO MUCH RAIN. It rained almost every day last week, and in June it rained at least a little bit practically every day it seemed! Kinda crazy, huh? It's currently pouring buckets outside. The field across from my window is flooded. In June we even had some pretty terrible storms. One actually produced a tornado (it was only an EF-0) that caused some damage in a nearby neighborhood. It also produced a water spout over the Patuxent River that I saw broadcast live on a TV station based in DC which is about an hour and a half away. This storm was bad, people. But despite all this rain, we have had some pretty sky scenes to make up for it!

I hope that the weather has been more fair to you than it has to us! I'm ready for a break from the rain. It's been really good for the crops though. The corn is so tall already this year! It's going to be great for corn mazes in the autumn!

Cindy

If You Have To Move...

...it's nice to have a weekend like we did! Moving is never fun. Packing boxes and then moving them, scouring up help to move the big furniture, borrowing a truck/trailer to put the stuff in (thank goodness for our dads and friend, Butch!), and finding places for the boxes in the new place so you can "live around them" is just frustrating. But, it's all not so bad when the weekend is as beautiful as it was for us!

It was in the mid 60's and sunny both Saturday and Sunday! We did a bit of moving on Friday too, when it was off and on rainy and in the 70's. Still not bad but not quite as nice and Saturday and Sunday when we did a good chunk of the stuff!

We are so excited that we are finally in our much larger two bedroom!! I LOVE it. It may only be about 210 extra square feet but it's huge to us! It feels so much more roomy and we have a hallway!! We've never really had a hallway in any of our places so far. It may seem trivial, but it's big enough we have a hallway! I think another reason it seems larger is because in addition to the extra space, we have less furniture stuff in our living area. Since we have a second bedroom the bookshelves are all in there and we got rid of a bookshelf that was falling apart.

We can't wait to continue unpacking and make this place our cozy new home. It's already pretty cozy, I just know it will get even better when it's decorated, all the boxes are gone, and we've bought the few things we need that weren't needed in our old place! I'm so glad we stayed in our same community though because we've absolutely loved living there for the past year. It was a great bonus when we were looking to upgrade that they had a two bedroom that was very much so within our price range!

It is definitely a relief though that the move is over with. We were both pretty stressed about it, but it went fairly smooth! A big HUGE shout out to our family and the few friends that helped us. Without them it would have been much, much more stressful!

Cindy

5 Fact Friday

Happy Friday, my friends! It has been a long week here. Not quite sure why, it just seemed to have dragged by. But IT'S THE WEEKEND!! I am so happy for this weekend. Nothing really planned except for a group dinner with my book club and all our husbands on Sunday, but I love weekends!

1. This past week I signed up for some free online courses through a government sponsored "university" to better myself for my job. However, I have spent hours trying to figure out first, why I couldn't log in, and then trying to figure out why the content for the course wouldn't load on my computer. Frustrating. But, at least I got to listen to this ridiculous hold music the university has.

2. Collin has been watching The Walking Dead pretty much since it started. He has always been a zombie fan and I on the other hand am terrified of zombies. I would try not to be around when Collin watched the show but sometimes it was just impossible. Then the story pulled me in. So when Season 3 came back a few weeks ago, I started watching it, too! And now I can't wait for 9 PM on Sunday nights!

3. It snowed on Monday AND Thursday this week. I think I mentioned that earlier. It didn't stick to the roads on Monday and then on Thursday it didn't stick at all, but still, it snowed. However, I didn't hate it. It was much too pretty to hate. I thought it would make me mad because it was supposed to be spring on Wednesday, but I enjoyed the snow!

4. The first day of spring turned out to be a pretty nice day! And I love that Rita's gives away free Italian ice that day. I went with Collin and some of his coworkers. I got myself a yummy cup of chocolate!

5. Taking this photo yesterday afternoon really made my heart happy. It turned out to be such a beautiful afternoon. And it made me want to go on a photo walk to capture spring prettiness.

I hope you guys have a happy weekend. I pray it's full of fun and relaxation!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Guys, it snowed on Monday. SNOWED. Today is the first day of spring and it snowed on Monday. I was so disappointed when I got up Monday morning and there was snow on the ground. And it was still snowing! It kept snowing until about noon or so and then it was dreary and rained the rest of the day. But the snow actually stuck and stayed on the grass and vehicles until the rain came. Fortunately it was too warm for it to stick to the roads.

The light dusting before work. It was even more covered later in the morning!

It may have not been the weather I wanted, but it was pretty.

So yesterday and today it's in the high 50's. Tomorrow barely 40 with a chance of snow. UGH. Now that it's officially spring, can't we just have all spring-like weather??

Cindy

5 Fact Friday

Happy Friday! I thought this Friday would NEVER come. UGH. It has been the longest week. And I have felt so uninspired about blogging and photo taking. I blame it on the weather. It's been so schizophrenic here! One day it's sunny and in the 40's, the next it's windy, cold and SO MUCH RAIN. Supposedly we were under a winter storm warning on Wednesday. Seemed more like it should have been a tropical storm warning with the amount of rain and lack of snow we got. And the wind was awful! It really did seem like a tropical storm out there! We even had some downed trees around the county. But the rain stopped, and it issunny today and was yesterday, too. And the temperatures are rising; it's supposed to be in the 50's for the foreseeable future! Now the wind just needs to blow out. ha!

1. I don't mind a little bit of cloudiness/precipitation, I know it's good for the earth, but boy do I love seeing the sun and white fluffy clouds after it's been gross out.

2. I really enjoy card making but sometimes I just don't feel inspired to create.

3. On that same note, I am SO excited to be moving into a two-bedroom apartment next month so the other bedroom can be an office/craft room. My head is spinning with possibilities for decorating and arranging it. I can't wait to have an actual desk to make cards on and to have an easier way to store my stuff!

4. We got a free one month trial of Hulu+ and I've been watching through Sabrina the Teenage Witch for the past few weeks.

5. This weekend Collin is going on our church's men's retreat. I am really excited for him but I'm dreading being alone at night! This isn't the first time he's left me at home for a retreat, but it's not often at all!

Cindy

A GREAT Birthday!

Oh you guys, I had a great birthday yesterday! It was so, so nice. Much better than last year, that's for sure! Last year's was kinda depressing, but this year made up for it! It was a BEAUTIFUL day temperature-wise. It was cloudy but didn't rain at all until late afternoon and then it was just a sprinkle. That stopped and it didn't even really start to rain again until overnight! But besides the temperature, I felt so much love! Everyone was wishing me a happy birthday, I got to spend time with family and I just enjoyed the day! My aunt took my mom and I out to lunch (my mom's birthday is today!), I got to do some shopping at Ollie's after work and I found some goodies, I got to get adjusted at the chiropractor which always makes me feel better, then I got to have dinner at Cracker Barrel with my parents, Collin's parents and my sister, and to top the evening off I got to snuggle on the couch with Collin and catch up on some shows on Hulu. It was so delightful!

My special birthday message from Collin first thing.

The beautiful birthday sunrise!

A coworker gave me one of his cinnamon roll things he had brought in that morning!

My delicious loaded baked potato soup at Long Horn Steakhouse for my birthday lunch!

The temperature about mid-afternoon!

Lately this has been one of my favorite places.

So once we left the chiropractor and went to dinner I completely forgot about wanting to document my day and didn't take any more pictures. =( Sadness but it's okay. It was a GREAT day!!

Cindy

A Snowy Morning

Hi friends! Did you miss me? I've been in a bit of a blog slump lately. I love my blog and all my friends I just haven't had any motivation to post. But today, today it snowed! And I had to show it to you. And it was gorgeous, friends! Or still is gorgeous. =) The sun has come out but the snow is still on the ground and I love it! The roads are finally clearing and for that I am grateful, because driving to work this morning, not so fun... The roads weren't plowed and there was a thin layer of ice underneath the snow that made it just a bit slippery... I drove 20-25mph the whole way in to work. Good thing my commute is less than 5 miles.

This was the sky yesterday afternoon before the snow began to fall that evening.

Leaving my apartment for work.

You can kind of see the sun trying to peek through for it's sunrise.


The main road in our apartment complex. Completely unplowed...

The snow still coming down outside my office window about an hour ago.

It's been such a pretty morning. I love the snow like this. It's light and very fluffy so it's easy to clean off and it's just pretty enough and there's not a lot of it to cause any issues. I do love when we get snowed in, but my wallet doesn't like that so much since it means Collin doesn't get paid if he doesn't work.

We're supposed to get some more snow tomorrow so we'll see what happens! But for now, I shall enjoy this beauty. Did you get any snow where you're at?

Cindy

And The Sun Will Rise

Happy Friday! I'm so excited! Not only is today Friday, but it's only 4 more days until Christmas!! Yay! It's really quite cloudy out today and a bit wet... It's not raining anymore, but we had some fierce wind and rain last night! I'm glad Collin and I got home before it got too nasty out! So, because I didn't get to see a pretty sunrise from my apartment this morning I'm reliving Tuesday's gorgeous sunrise here today with some pictures!

I hope you guys have a great weekend! I hope it's full of lots of fun Christmas preparations!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Hi friends! Did you think I'd disappeared? I didn't! I just didn't blog for oh... 7 days. Oops! Last week was SUPER busy. My grandma was in town visiting and then Collin's brother and niece came into town and then Collin's sister and nephew came into town! Goodness lots of family to spend time with in such a short period of time and blogging fell by the wayside! I have LOTS of photos to share with you though! I still need to share my corn maze photos. And then there are the ones I took at Messiah while we were there for Homecoming almost two weeks ago! And then of course there are the ones from this weekend which I just love of our adventures with our niece and nephew! So, be on the lookout for some major photo sharing! Tomorrow I'll DEFINITELY post the ones of our corn maze fun from THREE weeks ago!

Anyway, we survived Hurricane Sandy. And honestly, for us it wasn't as bad as I expected. I know it hit other parts of the country, like New Jersey and New York City, much harder, but here in Southern Maryland it wasn't all too bad. It sure was windy and rainy though! It started raining Saturday night and didn't stop until sometime in the middle of the night last night. It was nice though because it allowed Collin and I to have three full days together in the same weekend, two of which we did not much of anything, and one that we didn't leave the apartment! We didn't lose power at all which was a real blessing. But we enjoyed our time together! It was hard for us to both come back to work today though!

Our boys taking a nap together.

This was taken on Sunday afternoon about 3pm. Notice how dark it is already... It was really sweet though having both of our boys snuggling with us.

I hope that everyone affected by the Frankenstorm is safe and well. It affected a very large area of people and I hope that everyone is okay! If you didn't feel the effects of this massive storm, how did you spend the end of your weekend and first couple week days??

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

The past couple days have been interesting, weather-wise. It was really nice and cool over the weekend and so sunny and beautiful! Then Monday evening the rain showers started and yesterday the temperature (and humidity... ick) rose and it poured off and on all day. Today is going to be some of the same, only it's more humid! Blah! Currently the window is so fogged up I can barely see out of it. Anyway, this weather has made for some pretty great pictures!

Watching the rain through my office window yesterday afternoon during one of the many downpours.

This set of storm clouds moving out.

Bright, fluffy clouds accompanied by the sun moving in temporarily.

It was quite a day! Hopefully today will bring a little more sunshine and a little less rain. And I hope that the autumn temperatures return real soon! From the forecast it looks like they will on Sunday and stay that way from here on out. I hope so! I want to participate in fun autumnal events and it would be weird to go to a corn maze and pumpkin picking when it's 80 degrees outside!

Hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday, dear friends!

Cindy

A Few Little Notes

Dear Stank, you are such a joy in my life. You bring me much happiness and I love watching you lay around and enjoy the sun or run around playing with toys. I also thoroughly love when you snuggle with me. It's so adorable. I did not however enjoy it when you bit the back of my arm this weekend. That was not cool.

Dear heat wave, thank you for finally breaking over the night. Your excessive temperatures were not appreciated. Especially not with a husband who works generally outside. Please don't come back. But I do appreciate you leaving us alone this week.

Dear sunsets, I love watching you. I don't think watching your gorgeousness will ever get old. =)

Dear fireworks, you were pretty cool this year, I just wish we had of been closer and did not have fishermen in the way blocking some of our view. But thanks for giving me a nice show to enjoy.

Dear thunderstorms, you always beat fireworks in the best light show category. How cool to see God's fireworks going off during the man-made ones on Wednesday! And I must say, you were pretty cool yesterday evening, too. Some awesome lightning and thunder. Way to go! I would appreciate though if you could not be so loud while I'm trying to sleep. Last night was very restless because of your noise.

Dear Yo Kool, I am so glad you have come to St. Mary's County. The self serve frozen yogurt has become a new-found love of mine and I'm so excited to see you here locally. And you're cheaper than Menchie's in Annapolis and that's a plus! I hope you stay around for a long, long time because I will be a frequent customer.

Love, Cindy