my new girl crush

For the last 2 years or so, my "girl crush" has been Sienna Miller. She has reprehensible morals, I know, but I still find her completely adorable. It's the freckles.

However...in the past few days, my eye has wandered (sorry, Sienna!). I have a new girl crush.

Ellen Page. Now, I have not seen Juno, her Oscar nominated movie. I've never seen anything she's been in. But in interviews, pictures and on the Oscars, she was so cute!

I still think Sienna is wonderfully attractive, but she's been replaced.

(Girl crush, for the curious, is when you think a chick is so dang cute you have to look at her every time she is on screen/in pictures. It is NOT sexual in any way.)

I never pick the "beautiful, hot, sexy" girls as my girl crush, it is always the "girl next door/cute" type. I wonder what that says about me?

GRRRRR.

Why do we keep EVERYTHING??????

You never realize just how much crap you have until you have to wade through it on the spur of the moment looking for a document your husband needs by tomorrow and does not know when he last saw.

I've now looked for 2.5 hours and still, no luck.

If I cannot find it, I am not sure what that means for his new job, as they are the ones who want it by tomorrow.

So...if anyone happens to get a divine vision of where I can look next, call me, ok?

Update:
I have now spent 6.5 hours looking for it. I never found it. I think it is gone.
It is now 10:00. I am going to bed.
Mission failed.

surprised?

Tonight, Donald informed me that after 6 years together, I still surprise him. (He said this in reference to a song I said I liked.)

I am glad I am not a completely predictable person to him yet.

mint musketeers

Okay, so three muskateers came out with a mint and dark chocolate bar a month or two ago. The commercials looked really, really good. I kept saying "I want to try that!" But, everytime I was at a store I looked and no one had it. Last night, at a gas station, Donald found one and bought it for me.

Well...the month I spent desiring it was wasted.

They suck.

YAY!!!

Donald got a new job! He's finally getting out of Lakeland, 4 years after he decided he wanted out. Long road, but it's over now (well, after 2 weeks, because he gave his notice today).

He gets to work as a computer help tech. He's happy to work in the field he is studying in.

He starts training march 3rd.

I am baking him brownies and writing "Congratulations! I am so proud of you." on them in frosting right now. I was not sure what you do to congratulate men, since they aren't all that into flowers.

A date with Gabbie

Gabbie was sad that my birthday did not involve roller skating or eating out this year. She was also sad that she did not get to come to my party. Hillery consoled her by telling her I would do something with her alone this week. So, last night, I had a date with Gabbie.

I called to ask her to go out with me and she was excited to say yes. I asked what we should eat and she said Umi. I said that was not in the budget! She said Incredible Pizza, so I suggested Cici's (cheaper and does not make me want to have a seizure!) She said yes, so away we went!

As we ate, Gabbie said, "Aunt Amber, we are just alike! We both don't eat the crust!"

We finished our pizza and went to look at the deserts. Gabbie was shocked at the idea of a buffet not having an ice cream machine (and secretly, I totally agree with her).

So, we hoofed across the parking lot to Hanna Banana's, where she got a huge ice cream cone and ate the whole thing!

She got chocolate, of course, because she's a girl! Despite the dripping and ice cream running down her hands and chin, she was determined to not waste a drop. We went through a ton of napkins, because every few bites, she exclaimed "This is freezing my face!" and I would have to wipe her off.

She was quite amused with her chocolate beard and moustache. She kept standing up to admire it in the mirror.

A date with Gabbie, part 2

However much she liked the mirror, she did get tired of sitting still and decided to play hopscotch on the checkered floor in between bites. Some college girls were in the store, laughing at her, which only served to make her ham it up more. She is totally aware of the power her cuteness has to captivate audiences!





While we were eating our pizza, she told me about preschool and her friends. She talked about a little girl with "beautiful fingernails" that her mommy paints pictures on with a fingernail kit. I heard her desire to have those "beautiful fingernails" and asked if she'd like to get her nails painted at a nail salon. "Oh, YES!" she exclaimed, so after our ice cream we headed to the mall. She made me close my eyes when we walked in so she could "show me a surprise." Talk about a lesson in trust, walking through a mall of people with my eyes closed, led by a 5 year old saying, "turn here," go up the ramp" and "hold on to the rail." But, I did. She finally said "Okay! Open your eyes." I did and we were in front of Claire's! She said "This is the store that sells beautiful earrings and bags! What's it called?" Such a girl.

We went into ProNail and asked them to polish her nails. The man told her to pick a color off the wall, and she picked the brightest neon pink she could find...wanting to tone that down a bit, I found a coral pink with shimmer and said, "Look, this one has little sparkles!" and (thankfully) she said she liked it better and wanted it. We handed it to the man and he manicured her nails. She grinned the whole time.

I was so upset at myself as we left and I realized that I did not take any pictures of her getting her first manicure! So, when we got to her house, I told her I wanted a picture of her nails. She told me "Wait! I want a movie star picture with my Dora scarf and old sunglasses!"



This is "Movie Star Gabbie." For me, this is what childhood should be! She felt beautiful and glamourous and loved this picture when I showed it to her.












She then let me get a shot of her nails.










When she got her manicure, the man polishing her nails asked, "How old are you?" She told him she was five. He said "Wow, you have been so good and sat so still, I will paint you a free flower." He painted a little white flower on each thumbnail and she was over the moon! She had pictures on her nails!

She said "I am going to show this to EVERYONE at preschool tomorrow!"

He sat her with her nails under the drying fans and told her she had to stay still for 5 minutes. She did great, and sat totally still. We paid our five dollars and headed home.

You can't really see the gold shimmer dust in the polish in these pictures, but it really is sparkly.

I had a great Gabbie date. I went on a Gabbie date for my birthday last year, and had not done it since. I need to do it more often. It always makes me feel happy. She's so funny and sweet. Someday, when Davy can handle being away from Mommy for over 3 minutes I will need to plan some boy-centric Davy dates, too.

I look forward to that. I love these babies. I'm blessed beyond words to be their "Aunt Amber/Meemer."

birthday party

I had a good birthday. I had good food and great friends. That's a sure fire bet to a good night for me.

My cupcakes from Hillery were really good! And, despite not having bacon grease, my fried potatoes were pretty good, too. I enjoyed my cabbage rolls, though not my favorite cabbage rolls ever. I want to experiment a bit to find a recipe I really love.

I got sweet, thoughtful gifts that show my friends know me.

I'm another year older. For a whole 'nother year. If you're the praying type, pray 28 is the year I get a baby.

It's my birthday!

It's officially my birthday, as of about 15 minutes ago. I need to go to bed, but the 3 hour nap I took today is preventing that.

The cabbage rolls are stuffed, and waiting in the fridge to be put in the slow cookers tomorrow. There will be spaghetti for the crazy people who won't eat them. And cresent rolls and spinach salad with cranberries, almonds and croutons. And potatoes, because you should always have potatoes with cabbage rolls. It's a requirement.

Our vacuum quit on us this week, so I borrowed Hanna's Hyla today and vacuumed for tomorrow's dinner. That was GROSS. There was literally mud in the bottom of the Hyla when I was done. Yuck. But I know the carpets are much cleaner, right?

The living room is clean, the kitchen is half way there. It will be finished tomorrow and Donald said he'll do the bathroom. So, I will have a clean house to host the party (which is good since some people coming have never been here before).

I still wish I had tomorrow off. That would be such happy stuff. Oh well. I'll live over it.

Mom has 6 inches of snow right now. The snow was falling fast enough today that KCI airport closed, because of fear of hydroplaning aircraft. They delay flights alot, but rarely do they close. They've had as crazy a winter as us, if not more so. Mom is really sick of snow.

I'm out of things to say.

When I grow up...

My Sunday school class of three year olds decided to tell me what they are gowing to be when they grow up. Here are their big dreams!

-A balloon man who makes balloon shapes, because all the other balloon men make animals and not shapes.

-Strawberry Shortcake

-A firefighter who dresses like Batman.

-A person who goes to outer space and saves the people there.

-A blue and yellow sea monster with a really big nose that eats people and animals, but not at Sunday School.

-A lady bug.

-Lightening McQueen.

-Something really quiet.

birthday planned

I finally decided on a birthday plan. Even though some of my friends are allergic to my dear cat, Jax, I decided I really do want people to come over. Every week some of our friends come to "Monday Night Dinner." We are just moving it up 2 hours and inviting more people than usually attend. My allergic friends (Hanna, Chris and Joey) will come, they just may not be able to stay as long, which is unfortunate...but at least they are coming.
I am going to make cabbage rolls, which I have been craving for a while, but my husband thinks sound awful. But he cannot complain if they are for my birthday, right? Hillery will make cupcakes (chocolate with rainbow chip frosting) and I will probably make potatoes of some sort and something that maybe the people who won't eat cabbage rolls can eat instead.
There. Now when people say "So what do you want to do for your birthday?" I actually have an answer.

murder-suicides

Okay, another murder-suicide at a university has me a bit peeved. This is probably the exactly wrong-unPC thing to say, but I don't care. It's how I feel.
I am not for suicide. BUT...if you are planning to kill yourself, why the hell do you feel like the last thing you need to do is cause as many meaningless deaths as you can before finally shooting yourself? My word, if you feel like dying, fine, do yourself in. That's your choice.
But stop taking 3, 7, 14 people with you. In Columbine, yes, the killers were "teased, bullied, etc." but most of the people they killed were not their bullies. In most situations, the killer has been "mistreated." But the people they kill did not do the mistreating. In some cases, like the mall/store shootings, they are killing totally random strangers. They could be Mother Teresa type people, but the killers don't care, they just want to kill. I mean, come on, last year a man shot a bunch of little AMISH girls. Like they ever did anything to him!
To me, this indicates that the "mistreatment" has very little to do with the killing sprees, this is a character issue. These are killers. Cold-blooded, pyschologically evil killers. We are probably better off without them in society. I just wish they would off themselves in their own homes and leave the world without a bunch of senseless violent, random killings.
And I desperately wish that everyone else (media especially) would stop looking for the "how society caused this" excuse for them. I don't care if they were bullied, are bipolar, were abused children or are "off their meds." When someone is that depraved, they are not going to care how society treated them.
Weren't we all teased at some point in our life? Bullied a bit? Left out sometimes? Maybe even physically pushed around a bit? Yes! Aren't millions of people depressed, bipolar, abused or "unmedicated?" Yes! But when is the last time we went to the mall and shot a group of people? It's not a reason. Its hardly a factor, in my opinion. It's just an excuse. And there is a difference.

Valentinezzzzzzzzzzzz......

Well, Donald and I were together from Friday at 5pm to Wednesday at 3pm, when we finally left the house to go to Hillery's. So, tonight we had no real plans. I got home and we cuddled on the couch and both fell asleep. At some point, Donald woke up and went to bed. I woke up 4 hours later on the couch.

I'm probably going to bed soon, as I still feel totally zapped.

How romantic we are after 5 years....

(To his credit, Donald did buy me a chick flick, The Holiday, after I told him my star necklace was the only gift I wanted this month from him. Sweet.)

birthday plan?

I need to come up with a birthday plan. I know this because three people have asked in the last 24 hours what my birthday plans are. Problem. I have none.
What do I want to do on my birthday??? Someone find out and let me know, ok?
My main problem at this moment in the planning is that I have a cat, and good friends who are deathly allergic to my cat. But I do not want to inconvenience people by using their house (even when they tell me to). I also cannot spend a ton of money to go out somewhere. Quite simply, I decided our 5 year anniversary was more important than my 28th birthday and Valentine's Day. So, we spent money for that instead.
But, now I am stuck. And I don't know what to do. Last year, I took Gabbie roller skating. I loved that. We went to Texas Roadhouse afterwards with a big group. I remember other birthday events, but not necessarily what year they occured. I remember going to Trolley's, then to Hanna's. I remember a surprise party at Hillery's. I remember Village Inn. Notice, none of these took place at my house.
I don't like the idea of forcing people to not come by having it here, with my deadly kitty cat. But at the same time...I like the idea of inviting everyone over.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Brilliant ideas? Miracle cure for allergies?

Snow days, ice days

Snow and ice have taken over the last few days. For some, it means dangerous drives to work. For some, it means having your electricity go out. For some (including me), it means having to work for almost 2 hours to deice your car (in my case, with a spatula).

But for me, as a teacher, it means having to work on my birthday.
Since my birthday falls on president's day, I would have gotten my birthday off if we went to school tomorrow. But today used up the last of the days available at the end of the school year, so tomorrow takes away our president's day holiday.

I am still very confused as to why we are getting tomorrow off in the first place, as everyone says the roads are not that bad. But everyone in the area canceled, so maybe it is just not safe for buses?

I don't know. All I know is we will be totally backward this week, with a 5 day weekend and a 2 day week. (Now there's an idea we could make permanent!)

Why did I make this blog?

I have been posting on MySpace, but decided to join the club here for a few reasons.

1. MySpace won't let me put my pictures on my blog, only in my albums. I hate that. Sometimes a picture is what my post is all about.

2. Several of my friends blog here and I cannot comment on their blogs without having a blogger account.

3. I think those are really my only two reasons, but it seems like a list should have three or more things, so I put a three here anyway.