Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Thanksgiving, version 2011

~I think the turkey on the right has seen better days.~
~We filled out thankful leaves to send to Elizabeth. This leaf is Aaron's.~
~My favorite part of Thanksgiving was being able to spend the whole day with Christopher.~

Monday, November 28, 2011

it was just a lovely day

What did you do yesterday? 

I dropped Christopher off at the airport (OH THE SADNESS), and got in an accident.

It won't really go down in history as one of my Top Five days.

 As Mom and I were driving to church, we got rear-ended while sitting at a red light. We hit the car in front of us which in turn hit the car in front of it. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt, but the lady in front of us left in an ambulance because her chest was hurting. 
Mom and I were very sore and after a few hours started having tingling in our arms so we went to the hospital. We expected it to be a relatively quick visit because we assumed we were just having muscle pain and not experiencing anything serious. Did you know that if you go to the hospital when a football game is on that the place is almost deserted? Apparently no one chooses to be at the hospital when they could be on their couch eating Doritos. I'll have to remember that and schedule all my future emergency room visits around the NFL schedule.
I was in and out within thirty minutes, but unfortunately for Mom, her visit was anything but quick. After she had a CAT Scan, the doctors decided she needed to be put in a neck brace, strapped to a stretcher, and taken by ambulance to another hospital for an MRI. 

So that's how I came to be standing next to my mother's bedside at 12:54am in the middle of Urgent Care Room 6A. 
Under normal circumstances I would have tried to keep her spirits up by serenading her, but my sore self protested that idea. Instead, I played the people guessing game with her and Aaron asked questions that could be filed under "party ice-breaker questions". I'm not sure where he got the idea that we were HAVING A PARTY.

We're both at home now. The doctors think Mom already had something wrong with her neck but the accident accentuated it. (Side note- I AM so impressed with myself for using the word accentuated properly.) We're currently on the couch discussing what movie we should watch tonight and looking forward to spaghetti with meatballs from Grandma. I don't think our appetites were damaged too much. :-)

Thursday, November 24, 2011

count your blessings, one by one

#1. My dear sister Elizabeth, whom I affectionately call Squiddzen. She's away at school right now so I haven't seen her since August, but I think about her ALL THE TIME. Did I ever mention that on nights when I couldn't sleep, she would tell me her version of The Great Gatsby? It worked like a charm and put  me to sleep every single time. It was like my own personal sleeping pill.

#2. I can now successfully drive a standard. I have always been a praying person, but I never really prayed for safe travels every time I got into the car. Now I pray that I won't crash, screech, stall, or squeal every single time. So far God has answered my prayers because I haven't crashed once. (But there are still some days when I screech and stall like it's GOING OUT OF STYLE.)


#3. The friends I have made through blogging. I'm especially thankful for the one I can text about how many dresses Carrie wore during the CMA Award's, or how much we should tip the people who clean our car.
She understands how important these things are. ;-)  

#4. My beautiful wedding. I love that I was able to have the real butterflies like I always dreamed.

#5. All the weeks I watched Allison.
#6. That Aaron asks me to play xbox with him. 

#7. My nieces and nephews. At this time last year I had nary a one, now I have three. According to my calculations, that's 300% increase. At this rate, I'll have 30 nieces and nephews in 10 years.

#8. Single Ladies Club. When I moved back from New York, we started our meetings up again just as if we had never stopped. It was wonderful.

#9. Babies. I'm always thankful for babies.
                                   

#10. My most wonderful Christopher. I always said I wanted to marry a soldier, a cowboy, or an astronaut, and here I am, married to a soldier. The downside of marrying a soldier rather than an astronaut is that my chance of ever visiting the moon is now extremely slim.
*
Of course, this is only a VERY SMALL portion of my blessings. I'd never have enough room to write them all.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

in keeping with our Fall tradition...

...we'd like to introduce Mr. Hugo T. Squash.
Occupation: butler

Monday, November 21, 2011

Guess who's coming for Thanksgiving!!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

a visit with Ariela

Friday, November 18, 2011

sew sew sew

Yesterday was the first meeting of our new sewing club. Anna and Jillian's mother asked if I would pass on my sewing knowledge and, after assessing the piles of unfinished sewing projects around my house, I agreed. What's one more project when I already have so many going?

As the teacher, I am ashed to admit that the first class started late. I got lost getting to their house. Raise your hand if that doesn't surprise you in the least. 

For our first project, we sewed little sachets filled with potpourri. 
We're now preparing for our next project- a stuffed owl!
I'm also preparing proper directions to their house.

---
Kelsey redid my blog this week! She did a wonderful job!! :-)

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Thanksgiving loveliness

                                                                    Source: simplifiedbee.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest




                                                                                       Source: etsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

                                 
                                                                                    Source: ourbestbites.com via Sarah on Pinterest
                                                        
                                

Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

there's a new baby on the block!

My sweet sister-in-law had her little daughter today!!
I am so happy for them and can't wait to meet Sadie Capri at Christmas!! ♥

Monday, November 14, 2011

the award for dear people

Hello folks!
I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Unless you count doing laundry as highly eventful, which I don't, mine was about as uneventful as it gets. I did sing my signature chorus, "I can be your hero, babyyyyyyyyyy" to Aaron, but I don't think he was overly impressed. I just can't imagine why not.

A few weeks ago Linda  (hi, Linda!) very kindly give me a blogging award. An award with a GERMAN name, no less. I am always impressed by foreign languages.

LIEBSTER IS A GERMAN WORD MEANING DEAR, SWEET, KIND, NICE, GOOD, BELOVED, LOVELY, KINDLY, PLEASANT, VALUED, CUTE, ENDEARING AND WELCOME

The purpose of this award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers.

The official rules for this award are as follows:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog
2. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you
3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

* Maggie at A Pair of Parsleys
* Melissa at Just the 3 of Us
* Asha at Asha's Aspects

Friday, November 11, 2011

Day O' Fun

This morning I awoke at the crack of dawn to prepare for my Day O' Fun with Katie. Due to a series of unfortunate wardrobe malfunctions, I left the house later than intended. To be specific, I was having some belt issues. In an attempt to expedite my dressing process, I pulled pants out of the drawer that already had a belt attached (looped?) so I wouldn't have to go through ALL THE WORK of putting on a belt. I quickly realized the belt did not match my shirt, so I went in search of another.The first belt I took of my sophisticated coat belt hanger didn't match either, so I pulled off a goes-with-everything brown belt. However. This belt was apparently made for someone half my size and, while it made it around my waist, would not buckle in the front. WHY on earth to I own a belt that is too small? Maybe my waist really is size 52

I'm sure you're glad to know I eventually solved my belt issues and was able to move on with my life.

I arrived at Katie's house where two of my favorite children were waiting for me. 
After visiting with the family and eating a second breakfast, Katie and I went to the mall for her birthday pedicure. I couldn't possibly let her enjoy a pedicure alone so I joined her. I do realize what a selfless friend I am. ;-)
Once our toes looked all cute, we headed over to Forever 21 to try on clothes we will never buy. I believe Katie should buy this dress because a) she looked lovely in it, and b) she now has a boyfriend. Obviously a + b = buy a lovely dress to wear for the boyfriend. (I will discuss her new boyfriend more once I have recovered from the fact that he is 31. 31! Thirty-one!!)
Our Day O' Fun was far from over after Forever 21. Our next stop was....a nursing home! I don't think I'd schedule a nursing home stop into a normal day out with the girls, but apparently the fact that we are responsible grown ups now means that Katie has to show up at work. Watching Katie dance around while singing with the residents once again proved that she is not the wall-flower in our friendship.

Before poetry hour, Katie introduced me to everyone by giving them a rather extensive overview of my life. It went something along the lines of, "This is my very best friend Sarah. We meet when we were two years old and have been best friends ever since! She got married in April- or was in May?- and I was her Maid of Honor. Then she moved way up to the very tippidy top of New York where her husband in stationed at Fort Drum. Her husband is a soldier. Now he's at school so she came back here where her family is and today she's visiting me! We did all kinds of fun things this morning, and now here we are! We had a tea party one time where we all recited a poem we had memorized. We were very proper and everything because it was a tea party! But...then we went sledding because it was the winter so that was the end of that tea party."

I believe the only thing she left out of the introduction was that I was born in May of 1989.

Katie is truly is a wonderful friend to me: she gave me two of my favorite Lindt truffles for the ride home. That's just one of the many reasons I'll keep her around for the next 68 years or so. 

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

'round and 'round and 'round

Saturday, November 5, 2011

motorcycles and other matters

A few weeks ago I sent Aaron a text message that read, "yo yo! I just rode on the motorcycle!!!"

(For whatever reason, "yo yo!" is my standard greeting when texting my siblings. I don't know why. It's just one of the many mysteries surrounding my life.)
He responded with "O.O! did u die?"
Oh course I didn't die. 
That would be a legitmate question had I actually been in charge of driving the motorcycle, but no one in their right mind would put me in such a position. I sat on the back and did my best to hold on and not fall off. 

Today is Christopher's birthday and I've been saving these pictures of us riding his motorcycle together until today. (Confession- it works out well that his birthday is today because I just plain FORGOT to put them up before.) 

Every single time I hear this song it reminds me of him and how well he takes care of me.

Happy birthday, Christopher!!!!!!!!!!!
 I can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving!
I love you more than I love listening to Brad Paisley and Josh Groban, more than I love eating oreos, and more than I love looking at the stars.

I love you even more than I love baby shoes.

That's saying a lot because you know how much I LOVE baby shoes. 

Friday, November 4, 2011

single ladies night: birthday edition

The Single Ladies* reunited after many long months!
the birthday truffle
The birthday girls celebrating another year of life and the ability to eat birthday truffle.
Joanna's birthday was back in July but we weren't able to celebrate until now. Autumn's birthday was Wednesday. 


* Just because I'm married now doesn't mean we're going to change the name of our club. It is entirely too much work to say that we belong to The Two Single Ladies and One Married Lady Club. Not to mention that such a name change would force us to look for a new theme song! 

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday


I am loving that today is Autumn's 21st birthday and that we'll be able to celebrate her tomorrow!

I am loving the fun signs I've found recently.
Joanna and I have decided this sign will describe us when we're old.
I am loving this baby in a pumpkin picture.
I am loving this pretty blue dress.
Most of all, I am loving the flowers and puppy (his name is Marcus) that Christopher sent me yesterday!!