My favorite things about fall

My favorite things about Fall.

I <3>

1. The brilliant reds, oranges, yellows and browns that the leaves change to. It is such a beautiful landscape that these vivid colors create.

2. Although I’m not a fan of cold weather I am a fan of baking. With the heat of the summer disappearing you can suddenly start turning on your oven to bake. It’s also the things that you can find for baking during this season.

3. So the reds and yellows and oranges don’t just remain in the leaves but also in what the trees are bearing. Fall brings fruits like pumpkin (yes it’s a fruit) for pumpkin pies, soup, and muffins. It brings apples for apple pie. Most of the citrus family comes in the fall like oranges, tangerines, and kumquats that can make really good citric vinaigrettes for a salad. Cranberries for cranberry sauce or a cranberry orange crème brulee that is very fall. There are so many other fruits.

4. The smell of the neighbors turning on their fireplaces and burning wood. It’s just such a crisp smell in the air at night.

5. I spoke of the fruits so let’s talk about fall vegetables. Avocadoes come in the fall for a great guacamole. Along with green things is broccoli which is my favorite vegetable. Garlic is another fall vegetable and everything is made so yummy by it. I love Spinach salads I’m not crazy about it when it’s cooked but it’s another great fall vegetable as is Sweet Potatoes. There are so many things you can do with Sweet Potatoes.

6. Halloween is the best holiday ever if you ask me. You get to dress up as anything you want and people don’t look at you weird. The other day I got dressed up in my costume and took public transportation to my destination no one batted an eye. If I had put on that dress wig and Goth make-up any other time of the year there would have been a train full of uncomfortable people. There’s also the candy. I can’t eat a lot of candy anymore but seeing the happy faces on the faces of all those kids is just a great experience.

7. I can bring out my t-shirt jersey bed sheets during this great season. Falling asleep all covered up in soft jersey. Ok let’s be honest just the new warm cozy bedding you start using when fall arrives is a great thing all around.

8. Thanksgiving is the second fall holiday. Who can live without a huge meal like Thanksgiving dinner? It’s just not the food but the chance to stop and think of all the blessings in your life.

When Jimmy becomes unwantable

If you have an addiction to feed you learn ways to feed it. Since I can remember I have had a not so unique addiction to shoes. To me it seems that a huge percentage of the female population has a similar addiction. The older I’ve gotten the finer the taste for my addiction has become. When I first was able to start buying my own shoes I was in high school and most of my shoes came from Payless. In college I was working several jobs and going to school. My taste became a tad more refined. Stores like TJ Maxx and Ross were able to get my attention to buy shoes. When I graduated college and had a real job, you know one not at a supermarket, I finally joined countless other women in what I like to call the Middle Class of shoe stores. You know the stores I mean, Nine West, Aldo’s, Bandolino, and Aerosoles. I thought I had made it to the big times. Then a show called Sex and the City became more prominent in my life. I had been watching the shows for a while now but for the first time I was paying attention I mean really paying attention. Names like Jimmy Choo and Monoloblanc became names that I began to understand. I wanted these shoes like I wanted to be a size 2. It was a life goal that I didn’t think that I could reach but always tried to get to.

Last year shopping I found a beautiful pair of black Jimmy Choo, black leather open back heels that were heaven. They were only $100 due to the one error that Jimmy made. They were a size 6. Not many women out there seem to be a size 6 so that size just isn’t sellable very often. That’s where my addiction feeding comes in. I was blessed with a perfect size 6 foot. I didn’t realize this blessing till recently but I love that blessing. I had reached that unattainable goal finally.

So I wore my shoes twice and I noticed something that scared me. The tip was being eaten as I walked with my shoes. I wore them two more times and then stopped wearing them because the shoe was being eaten alive. I recently took them to a shoe repair store that took me all this time to find. To repair the damage cost me more then the shoe cost. It’s still a deal because the total of the shoe plus the repair is still less then what they would have cost me. I realized something though. You can reach unattainable goal but do you really want to stay there? I bought them but every time I used them I knew I was killing them and fixing them was another expense. Maybe I should be happy with what I have and what I can attain now.

Fake it till you make it

That's right I said it fake it till you make it. Everyone thinks I'm happy and over this fiasco. I'm back with a vegence appearances would have you believe. I'm matching and caring about my way of dress once more. I'm hanging out with people more then I did before. I'm laughing and smiling and coming up with things for people to do. I'm constantly sending texts to see what the new is. I'm talking about the situation without obsessing about it or crying when someone brings it up. I taught my first Relief Society lesson without any signs that I was in a million tiny little shreds from having my heart ripped torn and stomped on. I'm also picking up new projects so according to what everyone sees I've made it back to sanity.
Appearances are the liars that we all wish we could be. The above picture is the greatest example! Looks like I'm the happiest person alive don't I? That picture was taken the night of the break up! You can't tell that one of those girls had to keep a 24 hr vigil to make sure I didn't do anything stupid. You would never surmise that another one of the girls there that night rampaged my whole apt for all of my prescribtion medicines to make sure I didn't take any. I was a mess I am a mess and I will be for a long time. It's not necessary for everyone to see how tortured I am in the inside. I am my own glue no one can put the pieces back together but me.
Erik says 'he is dead to you' so he thinks I can be not just my old self but a better me by saying that. I have to go on and so I do. The honest truth is that each time I go to a certain site on line and it tells me he was looking at my profile I break into tinier pieces. Each time a memory of him floods my mind it leaks some of those memories through my eyes in the form of tears. Each time it dawns on me how willing he was to let me go even though he said he would never do that I die a million new deaths. So I smile and I go out partying every night, I work on a million new personal projects, I do overtime at work, I smile and I laugh at all the jokes, shamelessly flrirt with any guy who flirts with me in the hopes that as I fake it one day in the very near future I can do it without having to fake it.

I get by with a little help from my friends!

Many of you have been asking me how I'm doing. Everyone keeps telling me how strong I am. So here's the truth.
I'm going through the grieving process. It's like Erik told me breaking up with someone you have to act as if they died. I've gone through anger as you may have all have read in my last blog. Then last week I called him and bargained. I think I'm finally slowly reaching acceptance.
I'm thinking that strong as everyone thinks I am I don't think that's how I would describe myself. My favorite scripture is Nephi 3:7 . At first I was very very angry with Heavenly Father but with some faith and lots of prayer I know that He wants me to learn from this experience. I know that I can get through this. This is not how I thought things would end but now that they have I must go on.

Updates

I'm blogging b/c I was recently reprimanded for not blogging in awhile. I haven't blogged because I felt there was nothing much to tell. Things have been going really well and I'm happy... hmmm maybe that's why I haven't been blogging I've not had anything to complain about. No need to cry on the internet's shoulder about how horrible my life is. That and to be honest life has kept me really busy.
I have one great piece of news though. After saying that I would never be in love again and dismissing all romantic ideas I actually have fallen in love. I'm in love and I'm happy and I feel like the luckiest person in the world. He's the most amazing person in the world. He's sweet and kind and choices to ignore my bad qualities and actually loves me for some of them. It's such a great feeling to not only be in love but to have those feelings recipricated.

Laughing it out

My Bishop called to ask me to see him on Sunday before church. I gave him a yes and was wondering what was going on.
When I got to his office today I sat down and put my cards on the table. I figured it had to be one of three things. He surprised me when he said it was two of the three. He called me as the Relief Society Enrichment Counselor. I started laughing when he told me. When I realized he was serious I stopped laughing. Took the position and then started laughing again. He was serious he wanted me there so I said yes.

One of these things is not like the others

People travel in packs with other people that are just like them. That's at least what I was told when I was a young girl. I never believed that it was completly true since my friends were always what I wanted to be but never what I saw myself as.
In high school I was friends with the really smart people in school. My grades would tell you other wise about my intelligence. Yes I did go to a Magnet school, yes I understood the criteria in class but I was unwilling to do all the work. I doubted my intelligence still do actually.
In high school I also hung out with the group of people that would be considered artsy. All the girls had long hair that they would put up in ponytails. They'd wear long flowing skirts with flower prints with birkenstocks or their old Converse. They'd have charcoal or paint on their faces after school. The boys were all smokers and in some kind of band. There was the Dave triad in my grade too. Dave M. wore Doc Martens and black jeans w/ a white shirt and his leather jacket year round. Dave Green wore dresses to school year round but was straight. His hear would be a variety of colors but mostly green. Dave Garcia was the pretty boy of all three but still hung out with the group and played the guitar for the girls. I didn't have an artistic bone in me. I sometimes wondered if they just let me in their group to be nice.
In college no matter where I sat down in classes people seemed to flock near me because I was the smart girl according to them. I was quiet but I didn't get half of what was going on in class. It seemed my classmates got less then I did though. When I walked into the music lounge in school there was always someone in one of the popular cliques that wanted me to sit with them. They wanted me to explain something or just wanted to talk. I would hide in the cafeteria to eat and study. Every semester someone in one of my science classes would find me and ask me to explain something. Before I knew it each semester I had a study group I never planned on of ten people. I over heard someone once say oh she's the popular girl in John's group. John was the popular guy in the class. John and I helped each other with homework but I never thought I was part of his group or that they all liked me. Yes they were nice to me but they had to be they knew I was the one who would explain the mysterious of biology to them.
When I started taking the pre-requisites for Nursing I sat in the seat that made it easiest to leave the class. Medical terminolgy seemed like it was going to be boring. I was surprised when the girl w/ dyed black hair and tattoos sat next to me and started chatting me up. I was more shocked when a week later we were on campus and she said hi to me and introduced me to as the cool chic in her med. term class. I wasn't tattoed I ddin't have smart ass comments to make all I did was be nice to her. I made friends w/ all the goth kids that semester. I wasnt' goth though so I didn't get it.
Then it happened I graduated college and became an adult. I moved out on my own into Univ. City. I found myself hanging out with all the pretty girls in my neighborhood. They all liked to wear nothing but name brands and just out shine everyone. I was stunned by their beauty but they loved to include me in things. I like pretty clothes, I like name brands but I'm not pretty so why befriend me? Then I met my neighbors... the hippie, the artist, the seamestress and her boyfriend, the pretty blonde with brains. We can all talk in the hallway togehter for hours. My apartment is the center of activity in the building. We do things together and I'm always having my door knocked with one of them having a question. The artsy building with me the social worker... and yet the befriend me. I'm not like them or so I think so, so why do I befriend them if I travel with them why don't I look like them or am like them? Am I missing something?

The Mystery Sock

Since I can remember I never told my mom anything about my private life. This was for two reasons... to protect my mom from her very imaginative mind and to protect me from my very imaginative mom. The smallest little thing has my mom concluding the craziest things. I remember once slipping that my best friend's mom said she'd make me a wedding dress if the day ever came that I needed one. Two hours later my brother called me telling me she had called him in a panic saying I was getting married and she didn't even know to who. That day I made sure to not even tell my mom the smallest detail.
As you all know and probably have been a partner in crime to, I have tons of friends come over and/or sleep over my house. My neighbors always raise their eyebrows when they see the ppl that come out of my apt. each morning. Gay men, straight men, lesbians, straight women, black, white, Asian, and Latino I don't discriminate on who can sleep over. My mom has never found out of course. Her mind would take her to me having wild orgies in this apartment.
Since I usually do my own laundry at work if anyone leaves any clothes in my apartment she won't find out. The case usually is that my friends well comb through the apartment to take any piece of evidence that they stayed over with them.
Now I had two guy friends sleep over this laundry cycle. They both took their socks off at some point. They both were wearing white socks with grey bottoms. They both are messy individuals. Messy people are ok with me because I can usually cover my tracks and anyone elses but last night I made a HUGE mistake. I put the first wash in the dryer and the second wash to start running and went to bed. My mom finished my laundry for me this morning when she got in. As she was folding the clothes one single men's sock fell out the wash that had all of my unmentionables. My mom took the sock and didn't say anything but 'this fell out of your wash.'
I looked at the sock evaluated what happened in seconds while never leaving my eyes from hers... and then said 'hmmm ok if it did I guess you should just put it in with the rest of my clothes' and then turned around and continued dictating information to my supervisor.
She just stayed there and stared at me for a good five minutes. Now the stare down is something I'm very knowledgeable about. She used to use the stare down when she knew I was lying to her and when I was little I would finally break down and tell her the truth. The thing is she never changed the tactic and I learned how to stop freaking out about it. I soon learned to just remain calm. She didn't know anything she just had conclusions based on one sock. She finally put the sock away.
So to you my readers I ask... Which one of you idiots took your sock off and left it in my laundry? I think I have it down to two of you but I'm not sure it could have been a number of people so whom ever is missing a sock 'fess up and be aware you owe me BIG. I mean you owe me like a nice shiny gift or a dinner at a nice restaurant. I'm going to have to dodge glances, looks, questions, and sentences that might incriminate me for at least a month. All of that over the small mistake of someone not taking a FREAKING sock with them. Deep breath.... it'll be ok.

Drama Queen

I'm a drama queen. If one thing goes wrong I break down and start thinking that everything is going wrong or well go wrong. This happened on Saturday the day of my birthday party. I broke down and started crying but when the party started it was amazing to a point that I can't even remember why I was freaking out.
So many people showed up. It was more people then I expected. The atmosphere was great and the food was wonderful. I'm sorry to all of you that I doubted. Please forgive me for my drama queen abilities. Thank you all that helped make this such a succesful party.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

I'm extremly cranky right now. I actually spent the last hour and a half crying in frustration. My birthday was Thursday and today I'm suppose to be preparing for my party. Nothing's gone right. I was suppose to go shopping w/ someone but they had a friend come into town and they decided friends trumped family. My boss said he'd take me but he then dumped it on someone else b/c he had a family thing come up. That person had other things to do so two hours before my party I have nothing prepared.
So far I've had two people call to cancel. One called to say that they'd only come to drop my present because they didn't want to be here while my mom was here. Then I had a friend who e-mailed me three times this week promising me he'd be here no matter what. I called him this morning to see how he was doing and co-ordinate how he'd get here because he can't drive due to health issues. Now I only called because I saw him online when I was on MySpace. The person that answered the phone said that he was asleep. Then they told me he'd had a rough night... it smells fishy to me it sounds like he's trying to get out from coming.
My mom is here too watching my every step and telling me how I'm doing everything wrong. I hate birthdays I hate parties I hate people who promise to be here for me and don't... All I want is a hug right now but I can't even get that. I hate my life.

Pet Peeves

There very few things that erk the shit out of me in life. The few that do though just erk it all out.

The two biggest pet peeves are very similar... number one pet peeve is when you send out an invite and you ask ppl to RSVP and they don't. Worst is when they do reply saying yes or no and then go against the RSVP they gave you. It just drives me up the wall in such a way. Ppl just don't realize how hard it is to plan a party. You need to know the exact numbers and you need to know the who's and the when's. I'm a big place card person so when you say that you're not coming I don't have one, and I hate it when you take all that time to make a place card and the person just doesn't bother to tell you they won't be able to make it after they told you they were coming. You're wasting my time!
The second one is when someone says that they'll call you by a certain date or that they'll show up at your place and they never do. The biggest offenders of this are usually men. You do know men that by saying you'll call or come over because you don 't want to be the bad guy and say no you actually are becoming the bad guy? Just be honest and say no sorry doesn't matter how much you beg and how cute you look and how much you give me the pout w/ the puppy dog eyes I really can't. If you say you're coming over to my place that means I won't be able to go out all day waiting for you. YOU MY FRIEND HAVE WASTED MY WHOLE DAY. Just call and say won't be able to make it. I can still salvage my day somehow. Come on ppl stop pissing me off.
BTW the first person to do this to me for my b-day watch out because I'm not taking it this year. I'm sick and tired of ppl not showing up to their own b-days, promising to come to mine and then not coming b/c they're afraid of their girlfriends... I'm not taking the SHIT this year people. My time is worth more then anything else in my life so stop wasting it. Ok I'm done ranting now

Excercise releases endorphines, endorphines make you happy, happy ppl don't kill their husbands, they just don't!

Today was my first day back at the gym since probably early December. I just haven't been able to pull myself to go. Between the depression that I was going through and the busy schedule I keep the gym just wasn't an option. Today due to snow I had to close work so I had some free time in my hands. I decided to run some errands for work and myself. Some of those errands were going to take me a half block from the gym. I ended up packing my gym clothes and then heading out. I ran on the tread mill for half an hour. I could tell I was out of shape. I easily found myself out of breath. I was sweating which isn't something that I usually do and then I found myself dying of thirst. I can usually wrong 6 miles before I find that I have to drink water, today half a mile in I found myself looking for the bottle water.
There was another change too. I used to run to 'happy' music to get me going. As an example I have Mananamma by the Muppets in my iPod to run to. Today music like that was slowing me down. I found that Linkin Park and and Staind were more my musical taste in order to run. I found that I had to find my negative energy to keep up my pace. Now yesterday I was told that I've been acting bubbly so I thought it strange that I had to find negative energy in order to run. Maybe I'm learning to use that negative energy in a positive way.
I must say that even though I got home feeling tired I felt great. The negative things in my life didnt bother me afterwards. Excercise and anti-depressants are my two best-friends! Lets hope that I can lose some of this weight that I gained while I've been sitting on my butt. My next big adventure is my annual check-up by my favorite Dr. Todd Vladyka. Here's to hoping I have good blood pressure and low cholesterol. I'll let you guys know about that as soon as it happens.

Life lessons

Sometime in July of 2006 I wrote a blog about ppl that I felt had abandoned me. By ppl I mean men. Recenlty one of the two men discussed asked to let him back into my life. Now you say seeing how I let Billy back in my life and how that exploded on my face I would know better and say no. Now Josh and I hadn't had contact in over 5 years but who's counting right? OK so obviouisly I am. Now I knew my best guy friend was in contact with him. I had asked Chris to never give him any type of contact information on me. Chris is a good boy who doesn't like to get the Wrath of Lupe so he was good and never did it. The other night he called and fessed up that he gave Josh my phone number. Before I was able to get angry he explained why. While I was still on the phone Josh called.
He wanted me to be angry... he wanted me to hate him. I was far away from those feelings or any feelings for him. I explained to him that I wasn't angry and never had the right to be angry for his life choices. We decided to meet and see how things went.
When we met we talked for a long time. We talked for two days non-stop to be honest. I learned a lesson that many ppl have been trying to get me to learn. PPl don't leave me because I'm unloveable or because something is innately wrong w/ me they leave due to their own issues. So I want to say thank you to Josh for that lesson. I'm not sure if Josh ever wants to see me again or if we ever will but I know that it's not because of me now and for that lesson I'm grateful to him.

My Baby Daddy

I have a baby boy named Bobby Magee Strauss. He only weighs 9 lbs and has the largest most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. They're big and brown like mine. He can't speak but he communicates anything he wants with whimpers, cries and his eyes. He loves being carried by me wherever we may go. His father,Kevin, who has full custody of him at the moment drives him in the car all the time. Bob loves car rides. We always ask him if he wants to go for a car ride and his eyes light up. He likes looking at big semi-s going by when he's in the car. I love playing with Bob when I have a chance. I love kissing him and feeling his cold wet nose on my face. THe only problems is the little Silkie Terrier likes biting my nose.

It's a Boy!

We all know that I'm nothing but a big tomboy that learned how to put on a dress and wear make-up in a way that I can pass off as a normal girl. I get a long better with boys for some reason. Probably because I was raised by my brother and didn't have a strong womanly influence in my life. I always have said that I want to raise nothing but boys just because I know how to deal with them.
I've noticed one thing about boys though. Boys that were born between the months of September to November and I are a bad combo. We sort of feed off of each others craziness and things always end up really really ugly. Then again males born between the months of February and May and I seem to have nothing in common but we always become BFF (read sarcasm in the BFF comment). I think men born during those months have an inner peace that I need and I have a craziness that they need. To all of you that have given me this sanity I wish all of you a happy birthday. Thank you for being in my life. I hope to have many more February to May boys come into my life. Muah to all of you.

Secrets

It's been 9 months of only a handful of ppl knowing my secret. 9 months of staying quite and wondering who might find out. 9 months of sadness and 9 months of trying to forgive. 9 months of staying away from those things I held dearest. 9 months of glances every way to make sure no one was looking. Finally on Sunday at 4:20 some of that was taken away! Three more months and I might be off free. Hopefully it won't take longer then that. I know I had to go through all of this but it's been tough on me. I've grown from this though and I'm grateful for that.

Orchid Stem

Seventy degree weather on a January weekend. I was getting off the train in Center City wearing nothing but a scarf to go w/ my t-shirt and jeans to keep warm. Unusually warm weather for a January but I wasn't complaining. Before I got on the trolley going home I had to make change for laundary. My hamper at home was beginning to overflow.
The cop standing near the change machine looked at me as I kept putting all the quarters into my bag as they came out of the machine. Several dropt on the floor and I had to pick them up. I could feel his stare on me as I bent over to pick it up. As I began walking towards the building exit I could still feel him looking at me. As I past the smoothie stand I thought if I should buy one. I wanted to stop but then realized I really wasn't hungry and that I shouldn't eat one they were a summer treat. Yes it did feel like summer but it really wasn't.
As I opened the door to leave the building I began thinking how life had been like for me these last 8 months. I finally was coming out of a long dark tunnel. Things were good again. Life was happy and I was beginning to figure things out. There was a red light as I got to the corner of the street. Then there was the tap on my shoulder. I felt myself tense up and my street smarts turn on. I didn't recognize the man who's hand was still on my shoulder. Things seemed to go in slow motion suddenly.
"Have you gotten flowers yet this year?" he asked me as he handed me a stem of Orchids.
He obviously mistaken me for someone else.
"I'm sorry?"
"This are for you," he handed me the flowers. I accepted them while looking at him suspiciously.
Was this guy for real? I looked into his eyes and there didn't seem to be any malice in them. I started laughing not knowing how to react.
"Thank you, I don't know what to say. They're beautiful. Sorry I don't mean to laugh it's just that this never has happened to me," I explained trying not to offend him.
"It should happen to you more often you're beautiful," I knew where this was going.
"Thank you, I'm sorry I don't know your name," I told him
"It's Chris,"
"That's my best friends name. My name is Lupe by the way,"
"Were you going down to the station?"
"Yes I was headed home where are you headed?"
"I was on my way to catch a taxi to Center City when I saw you," he explained.
"And you had enough time to buy flowers and catch up with me?"
"I bolted so I didn't lose you out of my site," he laughed.
"You were determined," I smiled at him
"Yes I couldn't miss the opportunity. I'd like to take you to dinner sometime," we exchanged numbers and we each went on our own way.
Yeah I know it sounds like one of those romatic crappy stories I used to write in my Creative Writing classes the clencher is this isn't a work of fiction. This really happened to me today.
Never before! Trying not to let it go to my head but it's going to be hard. I got flowers from a perfect stranger today!

Christmas!

I've been crazy busy leading a life instead of wallowing so I haven't even thought about blogging and then I realized that it's almost the end of the year and I should blog one last time for 2006.
This season holiday has been filled with tons of firsts for me and I want to brag about them, because well that's what I do best.
So for the first time ever in ages my whole family spent Christmas together and did the whole Christmas thing. We had our first real Christmas tree. When I was a little kid we had that fake Christmas tree thing but we never got a real one. So this year we got one as a present for my mom. She kept going up to it and sniffing it and saying it smells good! I loved it. Then we had our first Christmas dinner. Well it was on Christmas Eve but hey it's close enough. We actually had over 17 ppl over for dinner which was way more then we expected but we set up the table for everyone. I was also the party host which was my first time being a host for a 'grown-up' party for that many ever.
My favorite firsts were the cooking firsts though. I cooked green beans for the first time ever. Really quick and easy recipe... caramelized onions (only way I'll eat them) with a splash of apple cider (my definition of a splash is about half a cup btw) and then add steamed green beans to that cook together for 5 min. so the green beans pick up the apple cider taste. Then I made my first apple pies... not exactly from scratch since Pilsbury did help me w/ the crust but I did peel and cut the apples and flavor them all by myself. Then this is when the crying and emergency phone calls started. I made my first turkey all by myself... everyone had left the house to tend to other Christmas errands and if I didn't make the turkey either A. no turkey for dinner or B. dinner would have started off really really late. It was really easy too... season turkey with the following salt, pepper and some garlic powder. Make sure it gets the seasoning on all sides. Then cut celery, carrots, onions (and/or any other good veggies into the dish) put veggies underneath turkey add some water. Cook 15 mins per lb or until button pops with an aluminum 'tent' on top of turkey. When done take 'tent' off leave in oven for another 10 minutes to get color onto turkey.
Thanks are given to the following ppl for a great Christmas...
First off to my family for co-operating with me to have a good Christmas with one another.
Next to Howell Strauss for opening his home to all of us to have this event... especially loved the toast where you welcomed the 'whole family' weather by birth, marriage or choice.
Never forget Kevin Strauss for helping me pull this off with helping of shopping and keeping me calm and help with recipe ideas.
Chef Dave Clouser for the apple pie recipe he gave us.
The Strauss-Benjamin-O'Glasser family for welcoming my family and me into their family.

Bargain Shopper

I think we all know that I love clothes and shoes. We all know that I love quality brand name clothes. Sadly we all also know that I don't make enough money to be able to afford all the quality name brand clothes I would love to have. So what does a girl do? A girl shops for things that are on sale. 90% of my wardrobe is clothes I bought on sale, 5% is stuff people have given to me and the last 5% are stuff I decided to buy for full price because it was a must have item.
This Friday my friend Daneen went shopping at a few stores to buy yarn and other stuff for our Christmas gift projects. Next to the A.C. Moore there was an Old Navy (or as I like to call it Trailer Gap. I pointed out the fact that all their sales items were 50 % off their lowest price. We decided to go in when we were done at A.C. Moore.
So the sales were tremendous. I got clothes betwee $5 to $10. I had an armful of clothes. Although I don't consider Trailer Gap quality name brand it is a known name brand and besides you can use their clothes as a small piece for a great outfit. I always do a tally on how much I'm going to spend before I got the the register. I was ready but when the cashier told me how much I owed it was much lower then what I had added up in my head. I asked her why it was so low. She showed me the cream blouse that I had gotten and told me well that was just $.50 and things came out cheaper then 50% off. I GOT A BLOUSE FOR $.50 THAT'S 50 CENTS PEOPLE. Yeah Trailer Gap is my new favorite sale store!

Sleep Overs and Reunions

Baltimore:
I had to go to a work conference down in Baltimore. I was excited because I have friends that live there so I had made play dates with them. I wasn't excited about the conference itself to be honest. I had a roomie to share the hotel room with but last minute she changed plans so I had this huge room all to myself. I invited my friend Alison to sleep over with me. It was our first sleep over together and it was actually fun. We watched girlie movies together and talked all night until we sort of just fell asleep. The next morning she and I did a lot of touristy things and we did some shopping. We took pictures of everything. Even though she's from the area she's never done the tourist thing it was fun. That night a handful of my friends came over to play. We went to the pool and swam and then we did the hot tub thing of course. They took me to the Little Italy which was tons of fun and very filling.
Girls Night In:
A bunch of the girls from chruch had a sleepover at our Bishop's house. His wife threw it for us which was really sweet of her. She had so much food for us when we got there. She had candy, chips, desserts, and tons of pizza. It took forever for us just to eat because as we sat around the dinner table all we could do was keep talking, I mean we are girls. We then watched movies but mostly everyone sat around gossiping about all kinds of stuff. Of course if you're watching a movie slash gossiping you can't help but eat more. It's needless to say that we were very sugared up and that there wasn't a soul in the house that wasn't giggling. Later on the dancing portion of the night started. The Bishop plays the electric guitar which was a surprise since he seems so straight laced. The night ended with ping-pong and more talking till we all fell asleep in our sleeping bags.
ReUnion:
So Alex told me about how there was a re-union for an old Bishop that we had had in the church. He and his wife were moving to Utah and anyone that still lived in the area was invited to his farewell party. I got to see a lot of old friends from church that I hadn't seen in years and we caught up. Everyone except three of us weren't married. There were kids running all over the house. I was in this parallel universe where kids existed. I hardly see kids in my daily life. It felt wierd. By the end of the party I was ready to shoot someone. Everyone kept asking me where my husband was and I kept politely replying that I wasn't married. I kept getting this wierd look from everyone when I said that. Finally someone gave me the "Oh don't worry you'll get married some day as pretty and smart as you are any man would be lucky to have you." WTF?! Did it seem that I was asking for that? It erked me in such a way that I was glad when we finally left. It seemed like an episode of Sex and the City. I was so glad to get back home to my nice happy comfortable apartment where there weren't any kids running around hitting each other and crying for mommy.