i *LOVE* them

This is the first year i have really gotten gift cards for Christmas... my personal feeling about giving them has always been that they are sort of a cop-out, but since receiving them, i am a changed person.

I have received $20 in starbucks cards, which have been almost used up... !

I got a $25 check that can be interpreted as a gift card... i like the way that sounds.

and then last night I got a $25 gift card for Kohls.

I really love that store. So tonight I went in and planned on buying something that I didn't currently have the funds for that would be totally just for fun. Well i walked around for some time, and finally stumbled across the photo section. I am headed to melissa's tomorrow for a scrapbooking day and as I went to look for a new scrapbook to start the other day i realized that I didn't have one! imagine that. with all the stuff i *DO* have, I don't have an actual scrapbook to start with! So i ended up buying two tonight and I just love them. They are perfect, pretty much what i have been waiting for :)

I had a really great idea for scrapbooking too, and that is to take the things that I have written in my blog and use them for words in the book. As much of a procrastinator as i can be, I really do enjoy blogging, so this is a perfect way to "catch up" on all the months that i have neglected my pictures...

fuzzy slippers

I have a new obsession.

Slippers.

It started about a month and a half ago when i bought a cute pair at kohls. They soon flattened out and i was looking for a more practical pair. My mom had some that she didn't like so she gave them to me. They are totally great and fuzzy and warm. I love them. Then for Christmas I got a pair of pooh slippers from my nieces and nephews, which are also cute and fuzzy and warm. But I decided that i liked my first pair the best. So I went back to kohls to find another equally as cute pair, but that wouldn't flatten out like the first ones did. And this is what i found.

They have little jingle bells on them and so wherever i walk there is a little jingle to go along. And i wore them to bed last night and my feet were so nice and warm and not once did they come off!

Merry Christmas Eve... and Day

We all made it... tonight is one of my favorite nights of the year. Truly, for me the most spiritually significant of them all. I love the way Christmas eve feels, i don't ever want to go to bed, not because i want to see santa, but because i don't want the feeling to end. Jesus truly is the reason that we celebrate this holiday.

I want to wish everyone the happiest Christmas as we are able to remember what really happened on this special day so long ago. Take a minute to say a prayer and thank Jesus for coming to earth that cold Christmas eve so long ago. We owe Him everything.

Merry Christmas everyone

i'm so bummed

i didn't win the ipod :(

waiting for an ipod

i am attempting to win an 8gb ipod nano online. over the course of about a month i accumulated points from the local country station around here and have been waiting for the right time to cash in on them. I had almost 500,000 points and decided that now was the time to act. So i used all of my points today to put 230 entries into the sweepstakes. so i'm crossing my fingers and i'll find out on saturday!

more mail sorting

so i spent another couple hours cleaning and sorting today. i found a ton more mail that was buried amongst all the clutter. So i sorted through all of it and then began the daunting task of shredding all of it. my brother has instilled the importance of shredding into me and on the one hand i am grateful for it, but on the other hand it is just such a pain in my butt! i hate shredding stuff but there is something in the back of my mind CONSTANTLY that won't go away unless i shred it all!

so here's the good part...

monday i found the $103 check from state farm. i also found a $10 old navy cash certificate.

so last night i cashed in on my old navy cash and got a new wallet and some chapstick. but tonight i found MORE old navy cash!!!

$20!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!!!

making gingerbread houses!

summation of 2007

The year is almost over and i thought this would be a fun way to remember some of the things I did this year!

01) Where did you begin 2007? with my most wonderfullest cadre!

02) What was your status by Valentine’s Day? single...

03) Were you in school (anytime this year)? yes... all this fall... and i'm glad for the break!

04) How did you earn your money? i worked at a nursery school, sold a ton of jewelry and nannied for three GREAT kids!

06) Did you have any encounters with the police? I got a ticket for talking on the phone while I was driving... painful

07) Where did you go on holidays? this is actually harder than i thought! ok for Easter we stayed home. Fourth of July I in India. Thanksgiving my brother and his family came and i also left for Brazil. Christmas hasn’t happened yet … but it's going to be at home with my other brother and his family.

08) What did you purchase that was over $1000? my plane ticked to India

09) Did you know anybody who got married? no, but next year i will :)

10) Did you know anyone that passed away? not personally

11) Did you know anyone who had a baby? yes a few people but noone in my family or close friends ya know

12) Did you move? No. I thought about it, but then I decided to start saving money for a house.

13) What concerts/shows did you go to? i don't recall going to any... so if i did they must not have been that good if i can't remember!

14) Are you registered to vote? i thought i was but i found a voter registration form in my enormous pile of unopened mail today and realized that i must not be... can that kind of thing expire? cuz i've definitely been voting lol!

15) Who did you want to win Big Brother? i DO NOT watch that show haha!

16) Where do you live now? with the rents... although there isn't any rent going on lol!!!

17) Describe your birthday. i worked all day... then went to small group, then we watched a bills game, which i never do but i felt like i needed to do something exciting because it was my birthday... and the royally lost.

18) What’s one thing you thought you’d never do, but did in 2007? went to brazil!

19) What has been your favorite moment? being able to be a part of the kids i take care of lives'

20) What’s something you learned about yourself? i'm actually figuring out that i've learned a thing or two from the mistakes i've made... which makes me feel better about where i am today

21) Any new additions to your family? the mole that sophie brought into my bed and then promptly disposed of... so i have been to a funeral this year. oops!

22) What was your best month? definitely end of june and beginning of july (getting ready to go to India and then being there)

23) What was your worst month? goodness knows... january maybe

24.) What music will you remember 2007 by? breaking my fall by jeremy camp

26) Who has been your best drinking buddy? ummm i don't go out drinking... and when i drink coffee, it's usually by myself :)

27) Made new friends? Yes. I have made a lot of new friends! I hope that never stops.

28) Lost Friends? no thankfully

surprises amongst unsorted mail

this morning i brought a laundry basket to work literally overflowing with mail and other such fun things from my desk at home. when i walked in the door Mo asked me what it was and when i told her she responded by telling me about her similar "laundry basket."

hers was the back of a station wagon.

i felt slightly better.

so today i worked on sorting through everything and low and behold i found a check from state farm for $103!!! I read everything in the envelope to make sure it was for real and sure enough, it totally is!!!

my day has been made :)

a midnight snow adventure

Last night on my way home from the outbreak party, i was feeling very nostalgic and was feeling the need to do something excessively wintery. So when i walked in the door at 11:55pm and alicia was still up, i decided that we were going on a midnight snow adventure. it was so much fun!!! so here are some pictures of what we did

pre-adventure pic... post snow clothes (must stay warm)

a nice snowy Christmas to frame with :)

eating snow is a must (i really did eat it)

beeyooteefull christmas lights surrounded by snow in the trees across the street :)


lights in one of the store windows on genesee st

i definitely leaned against this lamp post and my head got stuck to it. like hardcore stuck i couldn't get it off unless i ripped out some hair with it... which is what ended up happening :( but it wasn't too much hair

alicia passed out on the circle as cars drove by... ha more like one car driving by at midnight lol!

i got pantsed!

Christmas with the OUTBREAKers

last night was our annual outbreak leaders Christmas party. we had a great time hanging out together eating yummy food and playing the most ridiculous game ever. anyways, from the pics you can assess as much yourself.

john being... john

anna drinking out of a cup like a kitty

josh

onlookers...

shelly doing the chicken dance
rob copying every move aizy made

the whole evening was quite entertaining...

the story of my life... err i mean blog

I thought it would be a lot of fun to have a cool template for my blog. So this morning i went on a search for the perfect temp... and i found one. I downloaded it and then copied the html into the blog.

Consequently the new template decided to take over my blog and make it look awful!!! Hence the reason for the new site name. What a pain in the butt! I tried to figure this thing out all day long and noone was really able to give me any answers... AH!

I kept thinking throughout the day that i wanted to blog about this particular problem, but my blog was unreadable, so it would be useless. So even though i am DEAD tired, I have just spent the last hour recreating the entire blog under a new name so that i can get this show on the road.

i'm pathetic.

the adventures of elmo in grouchland

I only have one final left and it's on saturday. I'm really not worried about it... therefore in my mind school is over. I am so relieved! The stress is literally draining from my body :) however, all that draining is leaving me excessively tired. thank God i don't feel sick anymore, but i am just wiped out.

So this morning i was watching dragon tales (which i hate by the way, but A loves it) and he just looked up at me and said, "manna, you not feelin good?" I replied and said that i feel just fine but i'm kinda tired. So he hopped down and ran up to his room and got me his special car blanky and told me, "lay down and take nap manna."

Great idea! I turned on the adventures of elmo in grouchland which is one of the newest favorites he has and i laid down. Granted he was crawling all over me the entire time i snoozed, but if he hadn't been i wouldn't have been able to get any rest because i would have been worrying about what he was doing! I actually dozed for an hour and i feel so much happier now!!! yay for 3 year old encouraged naps :)

more chocolate problems

As per the post before last, I was hoping to be done with topics having to do with any kind of chocolate specifically chocolate phones. However, I am not psychic and cannot see into the future. What happened between yesterday and today is so far fetched that if i had not literally seen it with my own two eyes i would not have believed it.

(as a disclaimer, I am starting to feel alicia's pain... and am actually starting to believe the WILD stories she tells me about her phone troubles)

It all started last night. I was online doing my banking and noticed that one of my savings account had a significant amount missing from it. I opened the account and found that verizon wireless had made a $296.02 e-check withdrawl from my account. here are the preliminary things that ran through my mind.


1) how can an e-check be withdrawn from a savings account

2) how did verizon get this account # when I am not an authorized user on our verizon acct

3) the total of $296.02 was over $150 off from what our bill that was already paid for last month was!!!


so i went through all the necessary channels to begin the process of straightening this whole thing out but the very soonest it will be resolved at this point is monday. it's a good thing i wasn't counting on that particular money for anything in the near future.

OK, so onto my other problem. At about 2:35 this afternoon my phone ceased to make outgoing calls. I have no idea whether or not it was receiving calls because, as you might have guessed at this point IT WASN'T WORKING.

So I decided to power it down and then back on again. when it powered on, it flashed a screen about "full system reset do not power off". When it finally powered up it read on the main screen read "service required" and a little picture of a phone with a slash through it.

Lovely.

the entire phone was stripped clean... no more contacts, no more pictures, no more settings... literally everything was reset to factory settings and to top it all off, it had NO SERVICE.

So, again, I am back on the good ole standby... i switched back to the old phone until i can get into verizon and get this whole thing straightened out. There actually is more to this drama, but i don't want to write/relive the whole thing, and even more than that, i know that you don't want to read about it.

melissa told me today that i always have the greatest stories to tell... is that because the craziest stuff actually happens to me or because i am a dramatist. neither. i like to think that my life is just naturally exciting, and not let things that feel truly out of control ever actually GET out of control.

THAT'S the key.

stress induced artwork

The beginning of this week and all of last week are going down in my personal history chronicles as one of the most stressful weeks of my life. i really didn't think that i was all that stressed out. I don't usually get cranky so much, I just exhibit physical symptoms of stress... therefore i don't realize how bad it is until something really traumatic happens to me!

For example, this summer as a result of many stressful situations I started losing my hair... thus the reason i now have short hair. But this time I have contracted the weirdest cold/virus i have ever had. I don't feel sick in my body like all day, then all of a sudden it hits me like a load of bricks and my throat swells up to the size of a pencil and i am so tired i start getting vertigo. and then i take a little snoozer and am good for another few hours. and it's not that i'm not getting any sleep, because i definitely am.

But at any rate, I am coming out the other side of this stress and I am starting to feel really great... not physically, but emotionally. I have been in this great drawing class all semester and I wanted to post my two points of pride and joy for everyone to see. These two pieces almost make this stress bearable :)



the leaf one was done all with soft pastels and then the black and white one is with india ink... they make me happy

chocolate is just so good!

Well, I finally have chocolate back. It's not the same as white chocolate, but i am learning to adapt. Our cutsie family of chocolate phones will never be quite the same without white, but we are learning to manage. This is a picture of what our family used to look like.

i know you're probably sick of reading about chocolate phones right about now, but it is quite therapeutic for me to continue my ranting!

I will stop posting on this particular topic after this one... at least until something else happens... and hopefully nothing will... but if white chocolate came back, then that would warrant more posting!!! But here is one final picture, this is my new chocolate... we are becoming friends, but we're not best buds yet :)

in loving memory of white chocolate

As we headed back from brazil, we made a transfer within the country. We left the plane and headed out to our taxi to take us to the next airport for the connecting flight... however, as soon as i had lugged my bags into the van, i realized to my HORROR that i had left my cell phone in the seat pocket on the plane we just came off!

So we ran back into the airport and went to lost luggage where they promptly called the plane to have them check. They said that it was not there. It hadn't been more than 20 minutes since we had gotten off the plane, and deb and i were literally the last two people on the plane. the cleaning crew was shooing us off. So I suspect that one of them pocketed it... I mean who wouldn't...

white chocolate phone with headphones and adapter... and 2gig micro SD card... where are you??? I loved my phone so much, especially the music that was on there, the only remains i had after a freak accident with the hard drive on my computer... oh white chocolate phone that i love so dearly... with videos and pictures and all the people i know and love...

I loved that phone. It was a good phone and friend to me. It was white and clean and it played me nice music. It always woke me up on time and it would take nice pictures of me and my friends :( oh white chocolate phone how you will be missed...

This morning I went on a telephone search to try and locate the missing piece of white chocolate. I called the airline and they instructed me to call the airport in Brazil. So i did. they speak portugese, I don't. it was a very unfruitful call. My phone is gone... forever.

Good bye good white chocolate phone.
You will be missed greatly.

CAUTION: self-reflection ahead

Well, I'm home now. and i have been so warmly welcomed by this lovely arctic weather... maybe warmly wasn't the right word...

however, i am really glad to be home. traveling is so much fun, but i realize that honestly there is never truly another place like your home. as much as i complain about the weather here, and the different problems that living in upstate ny present, i truly love my home. and i love my family!

I am feeling compelled to write this because the last two days i have been feeling anything but loving. I have been feeling like a downright angry person. I have been driving around getting mad at other cars and when talking to people feeling like i just want to scream because nobody is listening to me. I'm being completely irrational, so I have decided that I need to recognize this and then move away from it. So here i am...

recognizing it

... moving on.

Ok, I'm done with that subject

more pictures!

I'm having some trouble getting the rest of the pictures i really wanted to put up here, so i thought i would just go ahead and post what i have and then the rest when i get them. you know, the goofy ones, that i have deb take for me... such as me sunning myself on a rock like a lizard and the like. they'll come soon :)

All of these pics were taken at the resort we are staying at right now. It is called Ponta dos Ganchos. it's really really beautiful...

This is amanda "pre-burnt" I thought I did a really good job with the sunscreen, but evidently not good enough, and I'm now paying the price! you can't have sunblock too strong down here, I had on 50 and still had problems.

my lovely view

toes

this is the front of our bungalo, I'll maybe put pics of the inside later

does anyone know what kind of flower this is?

I just LOVE hibiscus!

this is the island right across from the beach

and the bridge that leads over to it. But the water is shallow enough that you can just walk over in the water

the other side of the beachview

my lips love Brazil

As I have mentioned before, I am addicted to chapstick. I have in fact found a chapstick addicts annonymous group on facebook thanks to Melissa. it's good to have that accountability... but quite honestly it has not helped the addiction. What has helped is my 10 hour flight down to Brazil. My lips love it here. They love the humidity and the heat just like i do! they are truly lips after my own heart. However, I have to confess that I have been liberally applying just the same because of the sunscreen factor. Chapstick has spf in it and i don't want my lips to get sunburnt! the sun is CRAZY here... i mean it's seriously not a joke. you can be burnt within 10 minutes of going outside in the direct sunlight here. So i am being good to my lips and they are being good to me.

And i am still whiter than a really white thing.

pictures!

this was my first breakfast at the hotel... they have a huge buffet of about 20 different kinds of fruit, an egg bar, any kind of pastry you could want... like 8 different types of fruit juices... it's ridiculous, seriously... but i'm not complaining!!!


CORCOVADO
We rode a train to the top of Corcovado which is where the Christ statue is. They statue is facing the harbor where all of the ships come in and was built that way so that they would be welcomed and blessed as they came on land.

still on Corcovado... look at those boys!


BOTANICAL GARDENS
I took pictures of these pictures at the botanical gardens right in Rio de Janeiro... this one was in the orchid room

don't know what this is, but they looked like crab claws

palm trees... duh?

turtles



SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN
these are the islands that i posted before, said i wanted to find out what they are called. they are called the Garca family islands. And as they are marked, that's what part of the family they are. The mother is on the beach watching the baby and the children play while the dad is laying down in the sand. Then way off in the distance is the mother in law :)

i am pointing to the islands in this one, but i kind of cut them off. This pic was taken at the top of sugarloaf mountain.

on top of sugarloaf mountain we could see everything. Behind me you can see the Copacabana beach

this was the only picture that i could squeeze out of deb voluntarily

have to have crazy pictures!