End of a busy weekend

Well, my cousins and aunt and uncle left yesterday morning. After which I lay on my bed reading and trying not to fall asleep and then we all went to Costco. I about fell asleep in the car on the way home though, so when we got home I helped carry stuff in and then headed to bed. Pulled the blanket out from under the very peeved cat and curled up and slept for almost four hours. I didn't really feel better when I woke up because I woke up with a horrific sinus headache and had to take some Tylenol and sinus medicine and take a shower, all of which helped some. I finally felt better after sitting on the couch and eating some roast beef sandwiches...I hadn't really had any lunch so I probably needed to eat.

Here are a few pictures from when my cousins were here, I didn't take as many pictures as I sometimes do. For one thing I don't have any extra batteries for my camera so I didn't want to run down the ones that were in there. They're the fancy Energizer e2 lithium AA's, but they do run down fairly fast if I have my camera on a lot!

They were racing going down the slide...which was so short that it was usually a tie:








They look a bit squished:








What's wrong with your hands, Rebecca? :p :








Playing tic-tac-toe...from left to right: Alex, Rebecca, Andrea, and John:





















It was kind of different this time, because only Rebecca stayed here with me, Andrea wanted to stay in the hotel with everyone else...something about not wanting to have to sleep under the table like last time they were here. :p So I'm not sure if we got more sleep or less this way...there weren't any late-night Dutch Blitz games, but we did play chess one night and talked the next night, and then Friday night we just read until we decided we'd probably better go to bed.

So we had a pretty fun Thanksgiving weekend! I apparently missed a big political discussion, and something else controversial like that too, I think... I didn't miss my uncle offering to give my dad a shotgun with one of his reasons being that Dad should have a shotgun to be cleaning when any young man came to see me. To which I said that he'd probably have plenty of time to get one with the ways things are right now, and my uncle and my mom said in unison "You never know when someone might show up!" at which point I looked slightly freaked out and muttered something about, "Hopefully sooner rather than later!!"...like, before I start doing that too... ;)

So anyway, we had a good weekend, and after I had my nap and supper and felt better last night, I was weirdly happy...I guess because I felt so much better, and my room is fairly clean, I have a fairly light week of work coming up, a birthday party to go to on Saturday, and not much in the way of big chores to do this week. I should mop the floor though, because between the root beer and people going in and out, the kitchen floor isn't exactly clean. :)

Tomorrow's December already! I wish the months wouldn't keep sneaking up on me like this...I don't even remember this summer...it's weird. I remember Easter and I remember my cousins coming in June, but I guess I was so busy with getting work stuff figured out and everything that the rest just faded away. I should go read my blog...see, this is why I blog, so I can remember what I did! :p Well, not really, I blog because...well, because people will read it I guess. I don't know! Because I enjoy blogging, and reading other people's blogs. :)

Woo-hoo! It's tomorrow....I mean today...

...I mean, I had coffee!

Ha-ha, my cousins and I went to Starbucks and my dad kind of suggested I get decaf because I was very, very hyper before we left. So I got decaf and then when I got home started falling apart because I was tired, plus I had caffeine last night, so I was in withdrawal. I was stumbling around the kitchen trying to get stuff cleaned up and accidentally putting the napkins in the fridge, so I asked Rebecca if she could put a small cup of coffee in the microwave for me. :D I drank that and it helped a lot, and now I'm definitely awake, and I'm also drinking down a travel mug of water to counteract all the coffee. :) I don't know if getting caffeinated coffee at Starbucks would have helped anyway...Andrea was sitting there drinking her coffee and saying: "I don't...think...this is...working..." Although when we got home John was spazzing about "did his coffee have caffeine in it? Because he felt very awake! And he didn't think he'd go to sleep for a while. And then about how nice the Starbucks employees are, because the guy was polite and took his order and actually talked to him and told him to have a good day or something. Yeah, they're kinda paid to be polite to the customers... :P

Anyways, this morning we all went next door to Grandma and Grandpa's and ate breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes...except I'm really picky about how my eggs are cooked and if they're cooked wrong I can't stand to eat them. So I ate about three bites of egg, two pancakes, and a lot of bacon. Bacon is delicious. After we got done eating we went to the bookstore and I found four books and only paid about $12 for them. I got a very nice Everyman's Library edition hardcover w/dust jacket Bleak House. The Adventures of Robin Hood, hardcover with color illustrations. Fahrenheit 451, paperback. And The Man Who was Thursday, paperback. Everyone else found books too. And the people who work there were very nice, and they were showing us some really neat books they had, and the lady was going on about how she was so happy we were buying her cute little books. Her husband said that she is more like foster mom to the books, and we weren't buying them, we were adopting them! :D (They were joking, they weren't really that crazy... :p) And they were so happy that we were buying classics, while the adults that come in there want James Patterson and stuff. :) So anyway, that was a lot of fun, and I'll definitely be going back.

When we got home the adults were still next door, so we started digging out leftovers for lunch and in the process of getting his food John managed to spread mashed potatoes all over the counter and then asked me if that was a problem. Um....kind of. And Rebecca had an unfortunate freak accident with the root beer, which although it had been sitting quietly by itself decided to explode when she opened it and she went running outside with the root beer fizzing as she went, and there was root beer on the wall even. lol! So we had to mop it all up off of the many surface it was on, and then go over the floor several times with wet rags because it kept feeling sticky, and in the middle of all this Colin came in and demanded that I get him some lunch. At which point I kind of lost it and said something about mashed potatoes and root beer everywhere, and don't step in that puddle, and do I look like I can get you lunch this instant?!!!

I think it was just after we got done cleaning it all up that our parents came back over and wanted to know why the rug was outside. I explained that it was outside because it had root beer on it, and that they had missed all the excitement. (That rug's still out on the patio actually, I forgot to throw it in the wash.) Sheesh, I knew there was a reason I don't like root beer!

After lunch we went up to the church and played around for a while, and on the way back scared off a flock of those stupid Canadian geese that were hanging around down by the pond nearby. That was really fun! They just kind of looked at us at first, like geese do, as if to say "You're not really serious are you?", and then they started hustling a little faster, then they decided we were serious and they all took flight with a big "Whoooosh!" of flapping.

Rebecca and I got supper ready when we got back, Rebecca mixed up the fruit salad and I cooked and put together the pasta and meatballs and popped it in the oven, then went and tried to remember how to play rummy. And found out that the deck of cards I have is not only warped (they got wet because they were in my coat pocket) but there are also cards missing...hmmm...I was not aware of that. I guess I need a pack of cards for Christmas. :p

Oh wow, last night Rebecca and I were a little slap-happy and for some reason we got started talking about how we hog covers, or if we have stuffed animals they end up being flung across the room (actually, I just realized I don't do that, I usually end up squishing the stuffed animals by rolling over on top of them)...anyway, we started cracking up, and wondering what we are going to do when we get married and have to not steal the covers from our poor husbands and/or kick them in the process of rolling over and taking the covers with us. We didn't really come up with any good solution, other than that maybe a king-size bed would fix the problem, or I thought maybe a queen bed but with king-size sheets would work.

I guess there's also the possibility of marrying someone who's as much of a cover-hog as yourself and just always fighting for the covers. :D Because seriously, does anyone just lie down in bed like a log and never move the entire night? I mean, I sleep like a log, but more like a log in an earthquake... So anyway, we got to laughing about that and had trouble calming down. Yeah, the covers would be the problem...Andrea and I managed to share a bed when we were all out in Oregon and we didn't kick each other, but there was lots of pulling the covers back and forth, and it's certainly a strange sensation to be used to pulling the covers over to your side, but then suddenly feel them pulled tight across your neck and dragged back. :)

So...we were a little...tired last night. And that was very funny then... *sees her blog readers raising their eyebrows and looking slightly doubtful of her sanity*

And I'm a little tired now, plus I've finished my mug of water, so I think I'll go...sleep maybe. Maybe. It would probably be the sensible thing to do anyway. Ha.

How...eventful... :D

Oof, I'm frozen. My hands finally thawed but my toes feel somewhat less than all there...my cousins and I were just out playing kick-the-can (or bucket) and it's a wee bit chilly outside. But it was fun, and I now have grass stuck to my hat and mud on my jeans because I was lying on the ground...which is a pretty good way of hiding. Until you realize that maybe 19 is really too old to be doing this because you feel stiff and sore. lol!

Rebecca and I stayed up late last night playing chess and they were certainly very interesting games of chess. I think maybe I wasn't quite awake, because I'd suddenly see something that I should or shouldn't have done and that should have been very obvious. We finally decided to go to bed, but then I stayed up probably another hour reading because I'd had that short nap and was not really ready to sleep yet! :)

So today we:

Ate breakfast...spilled milk on the table, discussed the strange milk jugs from Costco, and cereal-eating methods, and threw coffee about. Okay, so my uncle threw me a bag of coffee, it wasn't quite a free-for-all with liquid coffee, but that sounded more exciting. :p

Then my cousins and I went outside and went for a walk before lunch.

Then we ate lunch, lots of lunch, and I lay down on the couch and fell asleep. I think some people were playing chess. Yeah, that's right, they were playing when I woke up. :)

After I was awake and they finished their game, we all walked up to the church playground on the corner and swung on the swings for a while and then I attempted to teach them how to contra dance in the picnic shelter. Unfortunately I have no idea how to dance the guy's part, so it pretty much didn't work too well. I realized that I rely on my partner knowing what he's doing and then I know what I'm doing and that works. What doesn't work is one girl who doesn't know how to dance the guy's part trying to teach another girl who doesn't yet know how to dance the girl's part. Pretty dismal. Not satisfactory at all. And it's totally not my cousins' fault, I'm just disappointed that it wasn't more fun. :( Darn, I wish there was a nearer contra dance tomorrow, Carrboro's a bit far away.

Anyways, after we gave up on that we came back home and ate dessert, and Alex and I played probably the longest game of chess I've ever played, even without counting the half-hour break after Colin knocked a glass off the table and we had to meticulously sweep, vacuum, re-vacuum, and Swiffer the floor. Glass really slides far on a hard surface... So that was...exciting. :P

And it was after that we all, except for Rebecca, went outside. Rebecca shooed us out of the room and blogged...so you can read her blog post too.

So...I don't know what we have planned to do tonight...other than I'm going to shower and see if I can get my toes to thaw. Converse are not any good at keeping your feet warm...even with two pairs of socks on. I'm just finally actually feeling my feet a little bit more.

Oh, and we're going next door to Grandma's for breakfast at nine tomorrow, so I guess we should be planning on getting up in time.

I think tomorrow we're going to go to a few used book stores! Fun!!! There's one on Stratford Road that I've heard is pretty good, and that there are interesting people working there....which is cool, I like interesting people. :) But I'm not sure if we want to brave going to that end of town (near the mall) with all the shopping crowds tomorrow. But we'll at least try to hit the store on Reynolda and see if it's any good, and maybe go to the other one after all the people are shopped out? Do they get shopped out? Surely all the awesome deals are gone pretty fast and then they can all go home! Or maybe not.

Then I think we're going to go to Starbucks sometime and have coffee. Which sounds really nice and warm right now...mmm... A nice caramel macchiato sounds yummy.

So, fun tomorrow and...leftovers probably. :) And I can't think of anything more to say, other than that we had a great Thanksgiving...so, I'm out.

Quick post

Okay...I got all my chores done today...and my back didn't go out. Yes, it felt in danger of doing so. After this weekend, I need to focus on fitting exercise in and doing something about this. The two sides of my back don't feel like they're even aligned....and that can't be good. :P I got a book from the library about pilates exercises for back pain, and that sounds like it might be the best thing, so I'll see how that goes. Plus I need to take time for lifting weights because that will help as well. *sigh* So many necessary things that take time. In the meantime...no heavy lifting and also: ow.

I thought I wasn't tired, but I lay down on the couch and promptly fell asleep for almost an hour. Okay...I guess I was tired. :)

My cousins will be here in about...two hours, I think? I'm very excited! :)
And I think that's all I have to say right now. lol
Rebecca and I will be blogging this weekend though, so stay tuned for craziness. ;)

Hmm...my calendar's filling up

Well, I felt like last year wasn't very festive, so this should help at any rate. In a "Charlie Brown Christmas" sort of way at least... I need involvement!!! :D I need a schedule that's rapidly filling up. No, not really...ah, too late. I think part of the reason last Christmas didn't feel very Christmasy is because we left to go up to Illinois right after Christmas, and while it was fun to see my relatives up there it was all a bit of a rush at home before we left.
But anyway, whether it will help or not, it seems like there are going to be a good number of things going on this next month.

• First, my cousins are coming this Wednesday night through Saturday for Thanksgiving. Yay! :)

• There's a fellowship after church next Sunday. (I was thinking there was something going on the first week of December, but I'm not sure what it was now.)
  

• On the 13th or 14th our church will probably be having a Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner at Fair Oaks Chapel for the elderly people there...although we haven't heard back from them yet, so it's up in the air still. (That's where our church meets in the evening...they have a very small group of mostly old people so they don't have an evening service.)

• The 20th is the holiday concert at the coliseum...sorry, Winston-Salem Entertainment-Sports Complex is what they're calling it now...in which case they should change their URL. Anyways, the Sealy/Fox 8 holiday concert, which is always fun to go to. The Salvation Army collects canned goods and that's the entrance fee.

• Then on the 21st we're having a Christmas service at church, followed by a fellowship lunch.

• On the 24th we're having a Christmas Eve service (no, we don't usually have this many services! lol) either at Fair Oaks or at someone's house...with maybe the possibility of snacks afterwards at someone's house if we're not at a house already? I'm not even quite sure on the details of all this! And I just said "house" three times in that sentence...
  

Okay, so that's six different things I guess...so not that much, but still quite a few things. We could have gone to a cookie exchange last week and an open house this week also. And of course I'm working next month too.

Sometime we'll put our Christmas tree up...if we get one. Mom and Colin had trouble with their allergies from the real tree last year, so we were thinking of getting a fake one, but waiting until they're on sale cheaper. Which might be after Christmas. :P I don't mind either way, I like having a tree and decorating it, but I don't mind if we don't have one. Hmm...I do like all the decorating though... ah, whatever.

Let's see what else...I went and got my hair trimmed Sunday afternoon...I don't see that it was really necessary for the lady to cut off quite as much as she did, since I did say to cut as little as possible. I guess that's as little as it was possible for her to cut off! I just wanted the split-ends trimmed, because it was getting all frizzy. I realized the other day that I don't do much with my hair anymore...I used to braid it a lot and stuff like that, but since I got it "styled" with layers, I've just been wearing it down, or clipped up to be out of the way. So I tried braiding it Sunday and realized that I've also been taking better care of it than I used to, because it's even more slippery than it used to be! "Silky" is how the lady at Great Clips kindly put it after my hair slipped out of her fingers for the third or fourth time. :D Anyway, I should try messing with it some more and see if I can get it to do anything in its current "silky" condition.

Oh, that reminds me, the little baby I take care of has started petting my hair. Sometimes she'll actually grab it and I have to tell her "No, ouch, don't do that, that hurts" and she'll let go, but she likes to just pet my hair when it's hanging over my shoulder. It's so cute! :)

Ah, little kids crack me up. We were at our pastor's house for lunch yesterday and I'd made a chocolate cake to take. Their littlest kid is one and they don't really want their kids to have a bunch of sugar until they're two...so he couldn't have any of the cake. But I was standing next to his high-chair while I was cutting the cake and he started out by going "Mmmm...mmmmm!!!" when he saw the cake and making various other noises indicating he wanted some, then he started head-butting me on the hip to get my attention, and when that didn't work put both hands out and pushed! My laughing was causing me more trouble cutting the cake than his pushing was, because I was just cracking up! It felt like a little goat or something bumping into me wanting food. :D What I really don't get is how he knew that that was the really good stuff and that's what he wanted? I finally got done slicing the cake and walked away, at which point he looked extremely peeved that I had not given him any cake! His mom told him he could have a graham cracker, but he was just not buying it. He knew that graham cracker wasn't going to be anywhere near as good as cake! Oh boy...he's going to be a character when he gets older...

Well, I got a bunch of cleaning done today, I'm working tomorrow, and then I'll have more cleaning to do Wednesday...some things just have to wait till the last minute. But I got quite a lot done, and I'll be able to rest my back tomorrow. I was vacuuming the couches off and all the bending over was starting to get to me. I also found an amazing number of things in one of the chairs! I just kept pulling stuff out...I didn't even think we sat in that chair much, but most of it was Colin's stuff, so I guess he sits there. I found one embroidery needle (mine), three large rubber bands for a rubber band gun (Colin's), two Lego pieces (Colin's), a cotton ball (?), the instructions for some toy of Colin's, and a little electronic calender/PDA thing he used to play with. And a bunch of cat hair...and I think I know who that belongs to. Colin thought he didn't have the PDA thing anymore, so he went around all the rest of the day making the thing beep. Argh...I wish I'd left it in the chair!!!

Oh, I bought a laptop today too. It should be here in about a week. I got a really great deal and it comes with a very nice leather carrying case too. I'm quite happy about it. Okay, really, really happy about it! :D
I'm going to have to start getting this computer cleaned up so there aren't so many things to transfer. I've got a ton of files I need to sort through, and bookmarks to clear out of Firefox, and I should probably clean out a bunch of old emails. I have trouble deleting old emails and I bookmark something almost every day, so both of those things are a mess. It's not really necessary before moving, but I need to do it anyway.

Well, that actually fits me

We got Chinese take-out for supper tonight (mmmm!) and this was my fortune in my fortune cookie...well, okay, the piece of paper in my fortune cookie. They're usually more statements rather than fortunes. :) "Your way of doing what other people do their way is what makes you special".










Special...well, that could be taken a couple different ways, but I certainly often do things differently from the way other people do them. :) Colin's was "A human being is a deciding being"...so was that one left over from around election time, or what?

It snowed today, and while I was disappointed that it melted so fast, I was thinking later that really this is awfully early for snow! So maybe it'll snow more this winter. I certainly hope so! :) I want to play in the snow! When I was little though, I would have leaped out of bed this morning when Dad said it had snowed...as it was, I thought "snow, that's neat", sat up and looked out the window, then lay back down, burrowed deeper in the blankets and slept in. :D

Mom was looking on Lands End clearance for some jeans for Grandpa for Christmas, because Grandma said that was one thing he needed...well, she didn't find any, but she was going through the various fits looking for the relaxed fit and one of the cuts they have is "bootcut". "Uh," I asked, "what is bootcut in men's jeans?" So Mom was saying that bootcut used to be narrow at the ankle and supposed to fit inside your boots, so that's probably what these were, not flared like the women's bootcut...but no:

"Original Fit Boot Cut Jeans sit on the hip, run slim through the knee and then widen — subtly — at the leg opening."

Okaaaay....that's just weird.

I almost bought a computer today. There was a MacBook Pro on my eBay watchlist and it was a really good deal, plus we've got a 10% coupon, so I was going to bid on it. Well, I tried except I waited till 20 seconds to snipe it and then it asked me to confirm that we had a Paypal account and I didn't have time to get that done before the auction ended...for $760. Rats!
So now I'm looking at others (I had been looking at just local ones, but the shipping's not much for a laptop so that's not a problem) and I discovered the black MacBooks that have the Intel processor and they aren't going for as much as I would have expected, so one of those might be a possibility. Plus the black looks pretty sleek...I really don't want one of the white ones because they get awfully grubby. The titanium or aluminum would also be better than the white, but most of the MacBook Pros go for a lot. Unfortunately there are LOTS of the black MacBooks on eBay...oh dear, I don't do well with too many choices.

Wow...I do read fast!

I like to do a lot of things fast...unless it's something I really don't want to do, in which case I procrastinate. :) But other things I do fast...walking, eating, driving, and reading for example. Especially the reading; which is sometimes good, and sometimes not. As is speed in most things, I guess.

I didn't realize quite how fast I read though! I took several speed tests online and I'm in the 350-500 range for fiction and 200-250 for study reading. Ha, big difference there. I kind of expected that...I'm not sure why I have more trouble with study reading but I do.
But the 350-500 (and it was usually closer to the 500 and one was over that) really surprises me! I guess mostly I'm thinking, "do other people really read that slow?!" And I don't mean that disparagingly, I'm just so used to reading fast that it seems normal. :) What's more, I read slower from a computer screen, so presumably when I'm reading a book I'm going even faster than that. Wow. Well, that would be one reason books don't last me very long. :)

Here's one of the websites: this one has the best system, plus you get to read about the Titanic, so if you were lacking in knowledge about the Titanic, you can learn about it on here. :)

Unfortunately, I sometimes also have a problem with reading comprehension. Not usually with fiction, but with studying, which is when you need to...um, especially comprehend what you're reading. :p I think that's part of the reason I have trouble with that, because I'm really working on slowing down and taking in everything that I'm reading and that ends up causing a lot of "regression" as these speed reading websites call it. And I have trouble concentrating and have to have quiet to read. I just really don't get why I don't have that problem when I'm reading fiction. I remember what I read from a fiction book, so it's not that I'm not retaining the information. But even the most interesting...history book for example...is a lot harder for me to read. Hmm...strange.

Actually I think I'm getting better at slowing down and reading things at a little more leisurely pace, so that's good. But I'm probably still reading pretty fast. :D

Oh, in other news, I feel much better! My right hip was really hurting me last night and this morning and I thought it was just really sore, but at some point this afternoon I felt something sort of pop back into place *shudders*...and it felt a whole lot better. I really could have done without the popping, but oh well, it's better than being in pain. It's so wonderful to be able to step sideways, or in any direction other than just forward and back, without it being extremely painful! (And you don't realize how much you do that until you can't.) It is still sore, but that will go away soon and it doesn't interfere with walking. I'm quite, quite happy about that! Especially since I need to get to work helping Mom get ready for Thanksgiving.

My cousins are coming on Wednesday, and I'm working Tuesday, so we don't have a whole lot of time really. And my room is a disaster, as usual. :( I've definitely got some cleaning to do...
I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving though. :)

I think the stairs won

(Note: that's a stock photo...not a staircase in any house I've ever been in.) :)
Okay...I have a slight problem. I'm normally not a clumsy person at all, I'd say I have very good balance in fact and am fairly graceful...but...I have issues with stairs. I just...really have trouble with stairs sometimes. I guess it's because I've never lived in a house with stairs. Well, we may have had an upstairs apartment, but I was probably either not walking or an age where I was either being helped up the steps, or at least taking them very slowly, and that's not the same as running up and down them all day.

I know I've always had problems because I remember going up stairs at friends' houses and finding myself putting my hands on the steps in front of me...so, sort of climbing up the stairs like a cat or something. Yes, this is really sad. And anyone who knows me well and knows my fondness for hiking and mountain climbing sort of stuff, and my propensity for scaring my mom and grandma by climbing dangerous things, would probably be surprised to hear this. Except, that is....for my cousins, who have witnessed a few of my stair incidents. :P

So anyway, I've gotten over the climbing up the stairs, I'm quite capable (and have been for several years, thank you) of going up stairs. Going up quite quickly in fact. Unfortunately, I generally forget that I do not have quite the same skill in going down stairs...and I'll usually take them down just as quickly. And that is what has led to problems, and I've had a quite a few spectacular slips. I generally have more trouble on carpeted stairs...in fact I can't remember ever having slipped on hard stairs...I mean, not carpeted. Most of the stairs have been hard, VERY hard, as I've slipped/bumped down them. :p I also sprained my ankle once from jumping down stairs.

And now that I've said all that...guess what happened today? I slid down some stairs? How'd you guess?! :D

Yeah, I was at work today, and while going downstairs (in sock feet...darn it, I need to get some slippers) I slipped...in slow motion it felt like. I had plenty of time to realize I was falling, and that I needed to do something about it, but that most of all, I needed to make sure the baby didn't get hurt. Yes, I was carrying the baby when this happened. *everyone gasps* But don't worry, she's fine! :)

I was able to get her out in front of me so that she didn't bump her head on anything, or end up underneath me when I landed. She started crying of course, because the fall scared her, but then she looked up at me and I probably had some agonized look on my face and that scared her more! :D Thankfully she's a pretty calm baby, so I got her calmed down quickly and checked her over to make sure she wasn't hurt. I'm just really glad nothing happened to her...I didn't fair fare (oops!!) so well, but I'm bigger and I've also done this before....ha.

Somehow in the middle of all that, I managed to move or something so that I didn't hit so hard, and of course right away I had to make sure the baby was okay, and the adrenaline kind of kept me moving...wonderful the way that works! And I've kept moving most of the day, so I thought I was pretty much okay...but as I'm sitting here, I can feel that my spine feels jarred, my shoulder blades ache, my arms ache, my neck's sore, and since it's all along my spine, of course my head hurts. Oh, and I'm also glad this chair I'm sitting in is padded. ;)

So, yeah...stairs and I don't get along...at all.

Oh, and when the dad got home this evening, I was telling him what happened and he pointed out that the stairs I slipped on are all different heights. (!!!!) And he said that if you look underneath they don't look like they're stabilized very well either...ah, that's reassuring. As he said, anyone who watches "This Old House" would know how to install better stairs! lol! So I think they're going to get the stairs redone sometime....in the meantime I'm going to be super-careful going down them, especially when I'm carrying the baby.

In the more present meantime...as in, tonight and tomorrow...I think I'll go take some Tylenol! There was a possibility I might go dancing tonight...I'm thinking maybe it's good that didn't work out. Oww.....

So maybe I'm just easily amused...

...but these videos got me laughing so hard I started coughing. But maybe it's just me. :p I am amused by some strange stuff sometimes. :D

Goth & Baseball DO Mix!!! Kind of...


Goth & Baseball (The Sequel)

Tag! You're it!

Sarah E. tagged me for this. The rules are:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
  
• Post the rules on your blog.
  
• Write Six Random Things about yourself.
  
• Tag a few other people at the bottom of the post.
  
• Leave comments on their blogs, letting them know they've been tagged!
  
• Let the person who tagged you know when you've written the post.

1. I have a strange habit of mostly only addressing people by their names when I'm a little fed up with them. :p If it's a case of getting the attention of someone, or differentiating between several people, it's different, it's necessary in that case. But if it's a situation where I had no need to do so, and I address you by name, I just might be upset with you about something. lol Or I might just be telling you something very important that I want to make sure you to listen to...either way I usually only do it to make a point, and not otherwise. I'm not sure why.

2. I'm very touch-oriented (no, I'm not sure if that's a word...I think it is though...) when it comes to fabrics and such. When I'm in a fabric store or yarn store, I have to feel everything. Also when a friend wears something with some sort of textured fabric, I have a tendency to have to feel a sleeve or shoulder. No, I don't do that to people I don't know very, very well, and so far none of my friends have slapped me either. ;)

3. I like all things British. Otherwise known as Anglophilia, but that sounds like some rare disease. British authors, movies, the flag, tea (okay, tea's not intrinsically British, but anyway...). I even have a belt buckle with the Union Jack on it:










I wanted a flag at one point, but right now I'm not sure where I'd put it. Hmm...

4. I can only print neatly in pencil...which most of the time is not a problem...until you have to fill out a form (in pen!) and you're supposed to print.

5. I love music and wish I could play an instrument, but I seem to have no capability or patience for playing one. So I just enjoy music...and sing along with it. That works.

6. I would like to be a very organized person, with everything neat and tidy. Unfortunately I'm not able to actually keep things neat for very long after I organize them...yes, this causes problems sometimes. For instance, being surrounded by clutter and feeling slightly OCD about it. But unlike my mom, I can sit down and read without picking up all the clutter in the vicinity. Nothing interferes with reading. ;)

I tag: Rebecca, Annabeth, and Alice. And if anyone else wants to do this, you're welcome to. :)

Work

...no, not the Jars of Clay song. But if you want to, you can see the video here.
Hmm...I forgot how strange that video is, and that I don't like to actually see bands performing. And I wonder if that's real water???

Anyways...work. I just thought I'd give you an update on how it's going. :)

It's going great, actually! :) I'm happy I've got this sort of job, I only have to work two days a week, and it's really quite enjoyable most of the time. Some days it does get a bit tedious, because it's mostly feed the baby, play with her, put her down for a nap. Rinse and repeat until 5:15. And it's kind of hard to play with a baby her age (6 months) because there's not really a whole lot you can do. Carry on a perky one-sided conversation, hold stuffed animals up for her to look at, make the appropriate animal noises, and put her stuffed, fuzzy, beach ball on her feet so she can "kick" it.

But, she's always so happy to see me in the morning and when I go to get her up from her naps. She gives me a big smile, and she's started putting her arms out asking to be picked up, which is so sweet. :) And it's funny to watch her too...she was just rolling over recently, but now she's already gotten a little fed up with that and really wants to be crawling. So it's fun to watch her push up on her hands and try to crawl...and when I got her up from one nap yesterday she'd unwound herself from her blanket and had rolled to her tummy and was looking quite proud of herself for having escaped her blanket. :p She also manages to get her pacifier out of her mouth and under the crib...and I have no idea how she does it! First time it happened I thought it must have been in the blankets and I shook it out, but that wasn't the case. Man, that's a clever little baby!

Look at this cute little dress G. (the baby) has! It's a Hanna Andersson dress...I had a couple of those when I was little and they're so soft and comfy! And stripy...











This toy, and there's also one that's an elephant, bugs me because the colored beads are in the wrong order (that's a giraffe, btw):












Look at this great tree; G.'s going to have a lot of fun with that when she's older....that tree is perfect for climbing!












So anyway, all in all, work's really going great, and I'm really happy with my job! :) It can be tedious, but I really like babies, and G.'s a wonderfully non-fussy baby most of the time...I know I've got it pretty easy. :p

I have noticed a problem though on the days I'm not working...I've got two fewer free days in my week so I need to really make use of my days off, but I've gotten used to doing everything fairly slowly. When I'm at work, I have tons of time, so it's better to do everything as slowly as possible, because otherwise there's nothing else to do. And that's spilled over into my days off...which has made them much more peaceful, I suppose, but a lot less productive. I get to the end of a day and realize I didn't x, y, or z done and think back over what I did do...and how could that little have taken me all day?! So, I need to work on that. I'm the sort of person who gets much more done with an extremely tight schedule, because I work better under pressure, but when I feel like I have lots of time I put things off. :( And I've gotten into a habit of having lots of time.

But I cleaned my desk this morning, so I did get something done. Look, you can actually see the top of the desk...wow! :p









Okay, I'm going to go mow the neighbors' yard now. Gotta accomplish a little more today!

*groan*....goodnight...

I had trouble sleeping last night, so I got about 4.5 hours of sleep. I also got an hour nap at work this morning. Equals: 5.5 hours of sleep.

I can function on that much sleep...I think my minimum is three hours, although that usually leaves me walking around like a zombie. So five and half is do-able. Except I also:

1. worked all day
2. went for an extra long walk
3. went up and down stairs way too many times because I wasn't remembering to bring things up or down with me
4. talked to the cleaning lady
5. carried on a one-sided conversation with the baby
6. drove Dad to work, ran errands, and picked him up from work
7. paced the house while rocking the baby to sleep
8. shivered because my feet were cold

To enlarge on these points, working all day is usual, but I've usually had more sleep. But, I'm so thankful for a job where I can take a nap, and I'm thankful that the baby took an unusually long morning nap.

I went for an extra long walk, so we'd be out of the way of the cleaning lady...and realized about half-way through the walk that I guess I was paying attention to the lovely weather, and thinking about other stuff, because I didn't hardly realize I was walking. And I know that sounds strange, and I'm not sure how to explain...I guess usually I feel it when I'm walking, but it was like I was on auto-pilot and not consciously thinking about the fact that I was walking. Uh, yeah...never mind. It was weird. But I don't usually go around thinking "keep walking!" either. :p

I talked to the cleaning lady who is a wee bit hyper, and not the sort of person one can half-way reply to when one if tired. So I had to sound enthusiastic...which wasn't too hard to do because I found her rather funny. :)

I like driving, and in the morning it woke me up to have to pay attention to what I was doing, although I managed to take the south exit onto Silas Creek Pkwy. instead of the north one...luckily that's easily corrected. But by the time I was running errands and picking Dad up tonight around six, I was so tired. Not sleepy, like I was going to fall asleep while driving, I was awake, just so tired and tired of driving.

My employers prefer people to take their shoes off at the door to cut down on tracking dirt through the house...which is fine, but my feet were getting cold with just socks on, and they get tired from walking around with the baby. Not a big deal most of the time, but the rest of me was actually warm enough today because I wore lots of layers, except then my feet started freezing. So I sat on them...and that fixed it. ;)

So anyway...I got home this evening and supper wasn't ready yet, so I went ahead and showered and by the time I got dressed I felt like crawling into bed and sleeping for hours. Which I think I will do after I get done here...maybe I'll read for a little, but then I'll go to sleep. Even though it's only, uh, 8:45 right now. Because I'm about to fall over sitting here. And that's not good...the floor's kinda hard.

And my optimum sleep time is something like nine hours...not that I have time to actually sleep that long very often at all. Actually I think teenagers are supposed to sleep 9.25 hours on average.

Music for Monday

I heard the originals of both of these songs recently, one in the grocery store and one on the radio...and thought of better performances of them. :)

You're In My Heart ~The Clark Brothers (I really like this one, and it's so much better than Rod Stewart's version)


Daydream ~Jason Castro


And I don't think I want David Cook's new album after all. I found this compilation of thirty-second clips on YouTube, and it sounds like the usual American Idol cheesiness, except they added a little more edge and had him yell/scream all the songs in an emo fashion....and I simply can't stand a whole album of that!



So I just saved ten dollars. :)

It's hard to find a good coat.... ;)

I thought this Saturday Night Live skit was pretty funny... :)

German Coats



And going with the German theme, I just saw this pattern on BurdaStyle. It's not one of the free patterns, you have to pay $4, but it's cute. Wiesn Dirndl
And no, I have no idea where I would wear it, so I probably won't end up making it, but it is pretty cool. :) And German....

Political talk

Okay, I'm going to start out by saying that I think most of you already know where I stand politically, and most of you probably don't agree with me. So you are forewarned, and if you don't want to read this, that's fine. :) Also keep in mind that I certainly don't think politics should interfere with friendships either. I don't agree with...well, probably most of my friends, but I'm certainly not going to stop being friends with them! :) So these are just my views, agree or disagree, I'm not trying to really attack anybody.

So, most of you knew that I don't believe in voting for the lesser of two evils, therefore I wasn't going to vote for McCain just to vote "against" Obama. And I didn't. If we had more write-in capabilities here in North Carolina, I would have written in someone, but since I couldn't do that my only option was to not vote for anyone. And no, I don't consider that a "wasted" vote. How would it be better for me to throw my vote to a candidate I don't really want to vote for? That's like, like......you know, scratch the analogy. I'm not very good at analogies. I just wish there was a "none of the above" option on the ballot.

I voted for all the people I felt like I could vote for, and I am upset that McCrory didn't win the gubernatorial race. :( I liked what he had to say, while Perdue mostly just said she was going to fix the problems, without giving any details as to how she was going to do that. Oh well, she probably won't be any worse than the current governor.

Anyway, Obama will be our next president and I don't think the world will come to an end on Jan. 20th. I think he's going to have an awful lot to try to fix, but I don't think anybody, Democrat or Republican would find that easy.

I've heard lots of people saying they're scared by the way crowds of people are so adoring of Obama...personally, I find it much more scary when Christians are acting like that. Like when Huckabee was still in the race; (and I've got nothing against the man, or supporting a candidate you like) I'm sure he would have been great, but it was a bit disturbing the way some groups of Christians were almost obsessed with him. Of the people who are adoring Obama, what do you expect? A lot of them have no God, and they think this man may be able to save the country. He won't, he is human, and after we see what happens or doesn't, some of these people will calm down and be more realistic.

As far as Obama taking over the government and becoming a dictator, I haven't heard him say anything that made me think at all that he was going to try to do that. And we do have a government with many regulations that would take a lot to overcome! Nor have I heard him say anything at all against Christians. We have had Democratic presidents before that didn't decide to round up all the Christians. As well, government is rather inherently corrupt, and I don't see why one party would be more likely than another to decide to take over. The so-called conservative Republicans have been almost as liberal as the Democrats.
I think maybe with a liberal in office, the conservatives will actually pay more attention to what's going on instead of just assuming that everything's fine, because "our guy" is in office.

To clarify, I don't agree with Obama, but I didn't like McCain's policies or behavior any better. As far as saying Obama's a socialist...what he's been saying is simply what the Republicans would call various other things. I mean, really, social security? Medicare? What about the bailout package? Was that really the government's responsibility? And then to claim they won't raise taxes...that's simply not possible. But anyway...

I also want to address something to Christians (who are the majority of my blog-readership)...is this any sort of witness when we panic and decide the world's coming to an end? Does a democrat winning mean that God is no longer in control? Of course not. The Republican party is not our salvation!!! Christ is our salvation! All men are sinners no matter what party they are affiliated with. God is sovereign and it is His will that the election went the way it did, and He has control over what will happen next.

"The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD,
Like the rivers of water:
He turns it wherever He wishes" Proverbs 21:1 (NKJV)

Absolutely nothing in the future has changed by the result of this election. Is our God so weak that the party in office even matters?! No, but we aren't acting like that! What does it say to others when we have such a fear and respect for government? Certainly we are to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Luke 20:25), but we aren't to fear the government. (Matthew 10)

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:
but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" Matthew 10:28

And perhaps this is to be a punishment of the country. How many times in the Bible did God raise up a wicked ruler to punish His people who had wandered from the truth? He is not a merciless God, but the church in America has strayed very far from Him.

Or...maybe nothing scary at all will happen! We may simply have four years of nothing being accomplished. And while we do need things accomplished, we wouldn't be any worse off.

So there you have it. Feel free to either comment or silently complain to yourself as you wish. ;)

Ten Things Tuesday

A continuation of last week's theme, so ten more things that make me smile...this one's a little more random. Next week I'll come up with something new!

1. Hanging out with friends and family
2. Dark chocolate
3. An inside joke
4. Hedgehogs
5. Mechanical pencils...yes I'm a dork ;p
6. A beautiful painting or photo
7. Kittens...lol!
8. My little brother doing something sweet
9. A pair of shoes or jeans that fit just right
10. The crazy things said when people are up way too late at night...oh wait, that's more like insane laughter, not just smiling....

So, you can link to or write your list in the comments if you would like. :)

Rhett & Link's BBQ song

I've posted some of Rhett & Link's videos on here recently, but I didn't post the barbecue song. I was reminded of it because after church last night a couple people were singing it... :p I was talking with some other people and suddenly caught what they were talking about and singing. I have a good ear for catching lyrics, which means I also get songs stuck in my head easily, but anyway...enjoy! :p

The BBQ Song


*goes off humming about BBQ...*

No knitting...

I missed church last Sunday because I was sick, but I had time on Thursday to listen to the sermon I missed. It was a very good message, and I'm glad I found the time to listen to it.

An Introduction to 3 John

However, I wish I could knit in church. I knitted while listening to that and I find it so much easier to listen when I have something to do! There's an elderly lady in our church who always says that we need a row in the back for people who want to knit during the sermon, because she doesn't like to just sit there either. ;) Oh well...I knit in the car (not while driving!) and while watching TV and sometimes while I'm on the computer if I've got something really slow pulled up. It's not that I don't have enough time to knit or anything...I just listen better. :(

Daylight savings time ended. I got an extra hour of sleep this morning! :)

Last night

Mmm, I'm awake now. My friend Jess called me this morning and woke me up...we're going to go letterboxing today and when I left her a message last night I failed to say that I just might be sleeping in...but it's okay, I needed to get up.

I was sound asleep and dreaming even I think...so it took me a few moments to figure out what that noise was! :p Oh, phone...

Me: Hullo...?
Jess: Hi! Ohh... did I wake you up? I'm sorry...
Me: Yeaahh...but that's okayyyy... *yawn* What time is it??

She finally suggested I just call her back later because it wasn't working too well to make plans with someone who was half-asleep. :D

Here are the pictures from last night! It was a pretty boring night...Colin and I went to maybe 14 houses, and when we got back I answered the door twice. Once to a small (cat? leopard? tiger?) that wouldn't say anything, and once to a guy who was maybe fourteen, who asked how I was doing and told me "happy halloween". Um...okay, that was nice! If you're that old and going trick-or-treating you should be able to be polite.

And we have....*drum roll*... Sarah Palin and Joe the plumber!!

And Sarah looks a bit peeved with Joe... :p ...and our bookshelves are a mess...



































Mom told me to say "Maverick!" which just made me laugh. :)








Please note the snow boots, moose (it may be a deer...) and gun... ;)











Joe...looking ready to fix something!











It's really hard to get a picture of a wink...











And this would be the after-effects on my hair:












That's hairspray...scary stuff. And my hair still feels a bit crunchy this morning even though I used a ton of shampoo last night! That doesn't look bad, in fact I kind of like it, but my hair doesn't usually have "volume", so it's a bit unusual! :p

Okay, I'd better get going and call Jess back...oh, Happy November!
I can't believe it's November already....it was just...April or May or something like that...