it's not ok...

...when I have to put my winter coat on to go do laundry

solutions

I found a solution to my boredom. I decided that I needed a project... so i went and found one!

Of course there is the ever-constant, never-ending scrapbooking project... and how i had forgotten about this is beyond me. But my mom bought me a TON of vellum and quotes last night, which i am a huge fan of... so tomorrow will be scrapbooking day. YAY!

Buuuuuuut... that's not actually the real project I came up with. Ramon's bday party is next friday and melissa have been trying to come up with a cake for the occasion. he described what he wanted and it came pretty close to a black forest cherry cake. I have never made one of these, so I am very excited about it.

I found this fabulous recipe for a "deconstructed" black forest cake. it is the coolest idea ever. You make all the components of the recipe separately, and then serve it all together but still separate... like this:



It took me a minute to figure this out, but once i did, i couldn't get over how cool it is. So next week, this is what I will be doing :)

Recipe and photos to come!

sooo bored

today is sunny, but ridiculously cold. At the beginning of the winter I was more than happy for any excuse to leave the house... but now, the cold just makes me want to stay inside and keep warm... or at least try to. I haven't even gone to storytime at the library for like a month now. And i don't have money to waste, so going shopping is out of the question.

Last week the girls had off from school... so on tuesday morning we made a "schedule of events."

> Monday they went with their parents to Chuck E Cheese and out to dinner.
> Tuesday we went bowling and to their favorite McDonald's.
> Wednesday we went sledding and got hot chocho after.
> Thursday we went to Adventure landing... which is a child's dream come true, and an adult's worst nightmare.
>Friday they were so pooped from the week's activities we just stayed home and did crafts and stuff.

I think it was tuesday this week when the sun was out and it was actually half way to warm. meaning like 45 degrees! Anyways, it was so great, i let the kids go out and play even though all the homework wasn't done. When you get to this point in the winter, you just have to let go sometimes, right?!

Anyways, i'm longing for spring. I have realized that I haven't been reading nearly as much... acutally not at all... for the last few months. And i came to the conclusion that that is because i am not outside at all! This past summer I can't even count how many times i would go outside book in hand and sit in a chair in the middle of the yard reading... or laying in the grass. It sounds so idealistic i know, that's the only reason i did it ;) it's so much fun!

Wordless Wednesday with a Twist - part 1

A week or so ago I posted about the FotoFest that Rachel is hosting over at americanmum. So here is my entry, but i'm sure that there will be many more. If you like what you see here, go on over to Rachel's blog and click on some of the other entries. Enjoy :)

"Pancakes"

sledding on saturday!

This last saturday, we had a sledding party at mendon ponds... suicide hill style! I forgot to get a picture of the sign that says "snowboarding, skiing and sledding prohibited." HAHAHA! Good one! Anyways, there were about 20 people give or take that actually came and we had a blast.

We went down the hill with three sled trains, and this was the best of the three. the first one my bottom came off of the sled i was on and i was dragged down the hill bare bottom... yah, it was cold. This was the second one we made...

My two bestest friends were there, Melissa and Alicia! Unfortunately, there aren't any pictures of melissa because she was the awesome one who took all of them! She really did an amazing job... score for stupid hands???

By the time we left, I was pretty much wet through both pairs of the pants I was wearing. Mostly because of the one ride down the hill with no sled barrier.

This was the third and last train we attempted. It started out as a "U" shape for who knows what reason... and then proceeded to completely reverse and while we went down for a little ways, the whole thing came apart and we crashed all over eachother. Wow, this sounds like so much fun when i describe it like that *sarcasm*

After about an hour and a half, we'd had enough, so we left to go in search of some hot chocho... among other things. There were five of us altogether. Alicia, Dave, Christa, Josh and myself. Alicia, christa and i changed into dry clothes and then we headed up to the city in search of Java's. None of us really knew how to get there, so with the limited experience I have driving in downtown, we were just going around in circles. But thanks to melissa, we found it and then had the yummiest hot chocho ever!

while we were at java's we decided that it would be fun to go to a movie... unfortunately, at the dollar theatre, nothing that everyone wanted to see was actually playing. PS I Love You was actually playing which is indeed one of the BEST MOVIES EVER... but stupid boys can be party poopers ya know? (disclaimer for any boys who might read this *i love them anyways*) We ended up settling on Vantage Point which was definitely a "boy" movie, but i liked it anyhow. It did however, lack plot in the beginning... whatever.

we had an awesome time and i can't wait to do it again!!!

more on the new car

Today, I have to head back into the shop to hopefully have the alignment on my car fixed. it was supposed to have been fixed last monday before i actually bought it... but when i drove it away from the lot, it was still pulling way to the right. Since then, i have found a list of other things wrong with the car... and it just kills me because I really do like the car, I just don't want to have to deal with all this garbage! The other things that are not right are:

> the brake light in the back window floats around back there because it is not attached
> the rear defroster does not work worth beans
> the cd player only played one out of the seven cds i tried in it the other day
> AND it only got 21 mpg last week

However, I just looked up the average for my car on fueleconomy.gov and it says that the average combined between city and highway is 21. Blah... but apparently my old car was only like 19 or 20... i always thought i got more out of it... maybe it just had a bigger tank. Anyways, this really bothers me!

to blog or not to blog

I feel like i need to blog something... and since i usually base my blogs on some sort of picture (as i am an extremely visual person) i feel like i can't blog because i don't have any new ones! Actually that's not entirely true. i have quite a few pictures i could put up right now, but i am trying to compose what i am going to enter into the photofest.

AHH! Anyways, I thought I could at least come up with something of interest verbally at least. let's see... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

ok i got it. I'm going to write about the conversation i had with my dad tonight. it was on the topic of healthcare (worldwide or wherever) I currently do not have any health insurance. I think that most people at one point or another had to go without, for whatever reason. And to give a little perspective on why i do not have any (besides the lack of money) i will explain a little.

a) insufficient funds - it is true that i paid for insurance all of last year. However, the coverage was not good enough to warrant me EVER going to the doctor unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. I still had to pay for it when I did go, and I couldn't afford the $600 a year extra for prescription insurance.

b) therefore, I decided that I will leave the insurance behind for the time being and still save the same amount i was paying before and use that for the times i am forced to go to the dr.

c) my third reason here will be about how i have decided to trust God. it's easy enough for me to say that I trust God (because I do) but sometimes God gives us the faith and the ability to do things that we would not otherwise feel capable of doing. I have asked God about this no health insurance thing, and quite honestly, I have no checks in my heart about it.

at any rate, as i bought my new car this week i had to reassess my financial situation... and i actually found that with everything going on right now, i am better off than I originally thought.

ramble ramble ramble...

One more thing. my mom and i decided tonight that my cat has ADD. that's right. Attention Deficit Disorder. However, it is not in the normal sense of the definition. She is starved for attention, hence the deficit. It made me laugh...

... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand... i couldn't do it. I had to put a pic up... i'm so bad!

roses are red

Still beautiful from Valentine's Day

my new car!

Today is third day i have had my new car. The first day, i was numb to it. I didn't really know what to think. Yesterday, I started liking it better, and today... it started to feel like an old friend :) I think that's because the layout of the car is so similar to the last nissan i had over 3 years ago. It's the same design, just 12 years newer... yay for new(er) cars!

Anyways, these are the pictures that i promised. I like how the one from the front makes it look so much cleaner... and if you notice, on the side view one "WASH ME" has been written on the side... Such is life in NY in the winter.

let's take pictures!

A girl named Rachel who has a blog i just recently found is hosting a blog photofest! The prize is a $10 gift card to Snapfish. But more than that, it just looks like fun! She's still looking for two people to participate, and since i am going to give it a go, i thought I would share it! Here's the link to her post about the rules etc. So get out there and start taking pictures!

today is the day

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the actual car yet, but today is the day that I am going to buy a new car. And no it is not a "new" car.

It is a 2001 Nissan altima, and what is really awesome is that before i bought my current one, i had an older than dirt nissan sentra. i mean i literally got it from some friends who were taking it to the junk yard, and me being 17 and in need of a car jumped all over that. I think i spent about $400 getting it tuned up and in working condition, but that's about it. The car never gave me any noteworthy problems... except that when it was raining i had to watch out and make sure i didn't drive through big puddles. There was a large hole underneath the front passenger seat and driving through water would make it shoot up into the car soaking the internal computer board thingy and causing the car to die.

Anyways, I will put up a picture or two as soon as i can. But in the meantime, I am working on selling the Eagle. The car is in really good condition save the fact that the transmission needs to be replaced. The kelly blue book retail on it is $3300. So i have decided that I will do this one of two ways. I will sell the car for $1000 "as is" or bo, OR i will pay for the new transmission myself and sell it for $2500. I'm open to suggestions as far as this goes, as I have never actually sold a car before, but i thought it would be worth it to post this up here and see if i get any leads. Leave me a comment if you have any offers or suggestions. Thanks!

it's dead

my lovely car has finally bitten the dust. i am sad... in fact, so sad i almost started crying a truly mournful cry earlier. then i got over it. i'm still sad though... moreso about the fact that i have to buy a new one.

a marketing company's nightmare

Ok, so after reading everyone's fabuless accounts of their lovely and romantic love lives, i really felt the need to say something about my own... or lack thereof.

I know this is a late post, and if you're reading it, it's probably no longer V day. But that's not the point. the point is that i DID write it on V day, so there.

So basically wanted to write about my feelings about said day... and they are this. I think that valentine's day is an adorable holiday... especially when it involves children. and i think that the age old tradition of passing around valentines in elementary school is so cute. but when it comes to the big leagues, it's a different story. Now please don't take my tones of bitterness/sarcasm as the rants from a 23 year old spinster. this is how i feel now, and will most likely always feel. I really like to hear romantic stories about V day... i love seeing other couples in love and hearing what wonderful things they do for eachother on V day. However, my personal feelings about the day are that it should not be a day that is special at all.

this is my theory: when one expects something on V day, they are almost always disappointed. One thing or another doesn't match up with the expectations and said person is let down. When one does not expect anything on V day, ultimately someone will screw it up with an unexpected expectation! It's an all around lose-lose situation. i've struggled through my share... with and without someone to share it with... and i've NEVER liked the day for myself.

I'm the girl who the marketing companies hate... and that's just fine with me :)

V Day Cookies

I felt an uncontrollable urge to take some cool pictures last night, and since Melissa was going to bake cookies today and had invited me over to help it was the perfect opportunity!


This past weekend my small group from church did an outreach where we decorated Valentine's Day cookies together and then delivered them to different people in the church. Mostly elderly single or widowed people, but a few others who we thought could use a little cheer this time of year.


The recipe that Melissa used was a basic sugar cookie mix. In fact, I believe that it was actually a mix that you can buy and then add maybe butter and an egg or something. Whatever it was they were great! At any rate, I went on a little icing adventure with Alicia this weekend in the midst of our great cookie baking experience. We mixed up more icing that i've ever seen and or used in my whole life. So I broke the icing down into a *manageable* amount and wrote it down here for you.


It's kind of a combination of the icing that my family uses for Christmas cookies and basic buttercream frosting.

1 bag confectioners sugar
3/4 cup butter
milk to desirable consistency
1 tsp flavoring of choice

The milk is variable, since i never actually measured that. Or the flavoring for that matter! So basically you would put the butter in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up. Then add the confec sugar and mix it up with a mixer adding milk slowly to make it mixable. Depending on how thin/thick you want the icing will determine how much of the milk you actually use. And if you add too much milk and it's too runny, you could always add some more sugar... that is if you have any left!


The flavoring is my favorite part, because that's what gives cookies a true "signature" taste. I made some cookies later on this afternoon as well for my cadre tomorrow and used almond flavoring in both the mix and the frosting. They are sooo yummy!

The super amazing cookie decorating experience

While we were at Melissa's today baking cookies, A decided that he wanted to decorate them. I was envisioning a complete mess... however, i was not going to let that stop his creativity from flowing forth. Sometimes you just have to clean up a little... and there's nothing wrong with that!

So when i told him he could decorate some for his sisters and his mommy and daddy this is the face I saw.


And wouldn't ya know, the kid actually produced awe worthy art! Not just the kind that you say is so beautiful because he made such an effort to produce something wonderful, this was actual bona fide, pretty darn good decorating!


And I am very proud to say that I literally did not help him with any of it, except for the one that has writing on it :)

the story of my car

THIS is my car. It is a lovely 1995 Eagle Vision. I have owned it for 3 1/2 years now... and today it almost came to its end. I've had a few close calls with her in the past few years, struggling with thoughts of saying goodbye, but none ever as close as today.

Last night whilst driving home from small group, the car stalled two times. Once when I was parking the car, instead of me turning it off, it decided to turn off by itself. I am not sure yet if it thought it was being cute or funny, but i can assure you that I found it to be NEITHER. The next time it decided to do this was over the bridge on 390 between avon and lima. It was dark, and there were a lot of cars oddly enough.

After that, it continued along at it's usual pace plus some intermittent "jumping" as it was having an issue with shifting into the next gear. *LOVELY*

When i got home, i explained all of this to my dad. He in turn looked very solemn and confirmed my worst fear and exactly what i had presumed. The transmission was a goner.

So this morning, i woke early and cleaned out the car (not the way you think, like when you move into another one. i was just taking the garbage out of it so that whoever had to get in it didn't have to see what a slob i am) and left the house with my mom's car. Which by the way has an automatic starter that i was able to utilize and consequently enter into a fully heated car.

My dad took the car up to the mechanic and they did the diagnostic on it which produced the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with it. That was odd, since there most surely was something wrong with it. They took it out on the road and drove a few miles while it was hooked to the diagnostic and all the while the car exhibited its symptoms and the test kept reading negatory.

So they opened the hood and started poking around only to find a loose belt that has something to do with the air conditioner. Just as an aside, the air conditioner in my car has not worked since before i got it. Hence my alternative of 60x4 (60mph times 4 open windows) and a sweaty back all summer.

to make this long story end, the final conclusion to the problem was to cut the wayward belt that served no actual purpose OFF. And the car now works fine.

I am really really happy about this. I mean i was totally ready to go and buy a car this week, and while technically i can afford to do that, i have been trying very hard to save that money for something else... and i didn't want to have to blow it on another stupid car.

pre makeup

amidst cuddling

and post settling in for a wintery snow day

ice... snow... and SUN

This is a follow up from yesterday's post. Yesterday was one of the low points for me in the winter season. It's inevitable and happens every year... but i forget so easily how quickly it can be done away with.

I'll start at the beginning of the day, and you will see the progression.

Woke up. Felt adequately rested, but at the same time had the desire to spend the ENTIRE day/year in bed.

Brushed my teeth, washed my face and exited my room ready to leave for the day with 10 minutes to spare. I sat down to check my email, then moved to the kitchen to take my daily supply of vitamin C and finish the orange juice straight out of the jug. As i took the last swallow, I realized that as I had not de-iced my car the night before and/or taken any precautionary measures to ensure that it would not be *encased* in ice this morning, my 10 extra minutes turned into -5 minutes instantly.

Walked outside, started the car... my pants got wet as the seat had not dried yet from it getting soaked yesterday. Began to chip away at the ice. The chipping soon turned into literal hacking. I was hitting the windows of my car with that blasted ice scraper and nothing was coming off.

15 minutes later. The windshield and the two front windows as well as the rear window had been sufficiently de-iced. made it to work in one piece.

All of this hacking and stressing about ice made me *momentarily* forget about the headache that has been nagging me for 3 days now. It started out like a migraine on tuesday and after medicating, felt MUCH better... but has been persisting with a dull ache in the back of my neck and head.

I began to think of anything that might work as a heat source to put on it, since nothing else felt like it was going to work... and after realizing that there was nothing usable, i decided to head back to my house for a corn sack.

I packed up some things for A and me and we climbed into the car at approximately 7:59am. Once home, I put in Daddy Day Camp and secured my neck with extreme heat from the corn sacks. By about 9am, my head began to feel significantly better. I then decided at about 10am after a conversation about washing hair on the Chinese new year that i did indeed need to wash my hair.

That was the turning point, no doubt. I could barely feel my headache anymore, and I realized that the SUN WAS SHINING!

I feel so energized it's ridiculous. I even wanted to clean! I could honestly make a list right now of all the things i want to do because i feel so good! But what i DID do was take a few pictures.

the snow is a welcome alternative to ICE.


And this face is a welcome alternative to staying in bed :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the Chinese new year. The year of the RAT. And I was born in the year of the rat, so it is a very special year to me indeed. However, i have been unable to keep up with the traditions of the Chinese new year... as i already had to wash my hair today. I will explain.

To my understanding, there are many traditions in the Chinese culture that have to do with luck. Good and bad. I have no idea whether this particular bit of information is true, but i heard that the year of the rat is bad luck. So this morning on the radio i heard that in order to keep the good luck in your house one of the things you need to do is NOT wash your hair on new year's day. OOPS. my brother and i discussed the possibilty of not washing our hair this morning and both came to the same conclusion... we were in need of an oil change... or that it might potentially cause a bio hazard if i did not wash it. All not good options. So i washed my hair...

i suppose i just washed all my good luck away...

Anyways, Happy Chinese New Year...

Vitamin D and Owen

This is the face i have had to look at all day long. Truly, this picture doesn't even do justice to the patheticness of this poor creature. He will sit across the room in an Eeyore inspired position and then look over his shoulder at me with the most pleading eyes i have ever seen. It speaks to the fact that even dogs feel the gloominess that this time of year hands us. What's funny though is that whenever i say his name, his tail starts to wag... i think that if i had a tail i would wag it too.

I've gotten past the point where my sunny pictures in Brazil no longer make me feel warm... I mean they definitely remind me of the sun and all... but i'm just not inspired by it like i was. It lasted for a couple of months... but right now, especially this week... man it's just depressing!

So poor Owen... at least looking at his face makes me realize that i'm not the only one longing to go outside and run around and not return to the house covered in mud. I can't wait for the sun to break... when it happens, i may just go out in full on sweat gear and take a nap in it. or maybe i could just start taking vitamin D?

what color are you?

I am WHITE today

You are the color of purity and truth. While you may often be considered naive, you know what is truly important in this world and are morally steadfast. While it could only take tiny interaction from another color to spoil your perfection, chances are you are going to remain pure and beautiful forever.

Sooo... what color are you?

thoughts

Tonight, on my way home from a great night out with alicia, merrie and melissa i had sudden inspiration for an outfit to wear tomorrow...

... when i was little i remember lying in bed one night drawing a picture of a raccoon in my mind. I would close my eyes and watch as my pencil moved over the paper and formed every detail perfectly. i was *very* excited about this and thought to myself that if i could draw so well in my mind that for sure i could draw that well in real life. So the next morning i went off to my second grade classroom, got out my pencil and paper and began to draw that little raccoon. It didn't work out quite the way i had hoped. I began to realize then how active my imagination can be at times. I feel things in an almost unnatural way sometimes... and by that i mean that beauty in all its different forms isn't something that i just see, i actually feel it.

i said all that to say that when i got home, i went to my closet to try and compose this outfit, but it didn't quite work out the way my mind had imagined it. i'm back to the trusty rusty standby.

this post may seem a little *out of the ordinary* and getting a very small peek into how my mind thinks may leave you feeling like you know me even less than you thought you did. And you may think, "what in the world do clothes and raccoons have anything to do with how my mind works?" I guess for the most part, I am talking about how the things that are beautiful, the things that God has made alive in my imagination is an art form that i am constantly trying to express.


Art in it's truest form always looks better when it's a reflection of someone's imagination. I love seeing what comes from other people minds and imaginations because it can truly be so spiritual. God connects people with an unnatural ability to connect emotionally through what is seen and felt. when someone creates something that they feel inside of them, it's a lot easier for the viewer to connect with what they are looking at. and it just amazes me how awesome God is when i see this happen.