Catching up

I mostly travel to Georgia during the holidays, so it is hard to find time to meet up with old friends. I contacted 3 people with the hopes of getting together. But this year, I think because Christmas fell on a weekend, I was only able to get together with one friend. Pictures to follow later, because I haven't taken my camera out of my backpack, so I'm relying on everyone else to provide great pictures.

My 10 year college reunion (not that we had one) was this past May. I was able to spend a couple of hours today with my college roommate. Holly and I lived together for 3 of our 4 years of school. We don't talk very often now and we see each other for a few hours every couple of years, but it is great that we can pick up right where we left off every time we get together. While I was playing with her and her kiddos, I was looking around their bonus room and spotted a picture frame. It had pictures of her and her bridesmaids. I almost didn't recognize myself :). But so much fun!

I wish I could have spent time with Alicia, Christy, and Scott. But maybe next time!

Puppy Love and Self-Portraits

I was trying to get a picture with ZuZu and I. It took several takes because she gets really happy when she's this close to you. Here is the first attempt! :)Look at that tongue! It looks like it is going right into my mouth, but don't worry, it barely touched my mouth. Then I had John take a picture, but she still wasn't quite cooperating.

And then I cut my head off.
And then she got distracted.
And then we got a fairly good picture :) What a cute puppy!

Trying to age people 15 years

When I'm in Georgia and I go out in public, it always feels really weird to me. I constantly scan the crowds for people I might know. But those people would be the ones I went to high school with. I don't keep up with very many people from high school, so it's like looking through a time machine. You have to imagine what people would look like 15 years later. It is kind of taxing doing all that scanning and it often gives me a little bit of a headache. At least I stay at the house with John, Mom, Chris, and Ann most of the time. They don't usually give me a headache :).

Learning to spell my name

I learned how to spell my name before I was in kindergarten (I think). And I've been signing my name for the better part of 20 years. Here is what my first name typically looks like: However, lately when I sign my name to my paperwork, especially when I sign it quickly and repeatedly, it will look like this:
Three "e"'s instead of an "r." This is sometimes what happens when I try to concentrate so that I don't make three "e"'s:
And then it looks like a forgery because who tries to correct there name in the middle of signing it? Me, I guess. But lately, this has been the anomaly that has been happening:
I don't even know what to do with that! The "r" is back, but I have an extra "e" thrown in! How does adding a letter to my name make it quicker? This has happened more often than not when I am signing my work notes now. Sigh.

As I was taking these pictures, I was amusing myself. My statement: I love having a blog. How else would I be able to share such a mundane thing?!

Family Party

The Forsberg family party was last night. It was another great event. There were babies EVERYWHERE. As they get older, they sure do get around a lot more :) White elephant, a visit from Santa, a train set under the tree, and food around every corner. Plus family, family, and more family.

I really did think I was going to get away with not getting my picture taken with Santa this year. I was the lone representative of my branch of the family tree. But Aunt Kathy never forgets! My cousin Chris was nice enough to join my picture. And then, of course, there was some baby snuggle time. I had the honor of rocking Gianna to sleep. She slept through Santa handing out presents, but she woke up just before the family pictures started, so she was still able to get her picture taken with Santa. She's the youngest in the family until my nephew is born in a few months.

Singing in the Shower

Most mornings I wake up with a song in my head. It usually stays in my head during my shower but then my brain moves on. It cracks me up though because there is no rhyme or reason to the song. Sometimes it is a song I listened to the day before. Sometimes it is a song that I talked about to someone. Sometimes it is a song that I don't like and changed the station when it came on the radio. The worst is when I only know the two lines that run through my head when I wake up and they run through my head repeatedly for the next half hour or so. I've learned that it does no good to try to put a different song in my head. It doesn't work. But really, the title of this blog is misleading, because rarely do I sing these songs out loud in the shower, only in my head. Even I don't want to hear me singing out loud with no music playing!

Santa's Workshop

This is the present I got from one of my clients today: She got it from the Santa's Workshop at her school. Do you remember Santa's Workshop? I remember it being the best thing ever. You got to make a list of everyone you were buying gifts for and then you went shopping. The worst part was that everything was the greatest and you had a hard time deciding which $1 trinket would be the best and most perfect gift for each person on your list. And you couldn't wait to give them to the person. Man, those were the good ole' days! It made me think of this:

This is a rose ring that my younger brother bought for me several years ago at school. I remember opening it, paying more attention to the look on his face then what the present was. His statement after he watched me put it on? "I saw it and thought it was the perfect thing to get you!" How cute is that!

Two things to mention about these gifts as an adult:

1. My fingers are still a little too small for the adjustable rings. yikes!

2. Apparently all the rings are lethal. Whenever I wear the rose ring I have to be careful to keep it away from my face because it scratches really bad. The new ring has some sharp edges too.

3. Don't forget to actually wear them when you see the person who gave them to you. They will notice. :)

Getting ready for winter

Even though it didn't feel like winter out today, and I am not a winter-only puzzle-doer, I felt the need to buy a few new puzzles to get ready for January. Hometown Collection puzzles are my favorite. From where I sit, I can see at least 20 of these puzzles in various places (mostly the open closet). They have a lot of detail, so you rarely get stuck with the pieces that all look the same, like the sky, that you don't really want to put in, but you did all the fun parts so you don't have any choice. So, if you want to join me for some puzzling fun or want to borrow any of my puzzles, just let me know. :)

2nd Annual Cheesy Christmas Movie Night

For the second year in a row, Emily and I have had Joanne and Amanda over to watch a cheesy Christmas movie. Becky joined us for the 2nd annual viewing of a cheesy Christmas movie. What is a cheesy Christmas movie, you might ask? Here are two examples: "Call Me Mrs. Miracle" and "The Christmas Hope." A cheesy Christmas movie, by definition is not a classic (like Charlie Brown, It's a Wonderful Life, or Miracle On 34th Street). It's not a well known movie (like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation or A Christmas Story). It is a made for TV movie that probably aired on abcfamily or the Hallmark Channel. It has bad music in the background and over-the-top acting. Last year we watched an abcfamily movie called "Holiday in Handcuffs" starring Mario Lopez (Slater from Saved By the Bell) and Melissa Joan Hart. The movies shown above were our selections this year.
Joanne was giving a dramatic reading of the back of one of the movies so we could make an educated vote.
We decided a secret ballot into the ornament candy dish was the only way to choose which movie to watch! This is serious business here, folks!
It was intense, but with unanimous votes, "Call Me Mrs. Miracle" won.
Here are Becky, Joanne, and Amanda getting ready to enjoy the movie by the glow of the Christmas tree. Yes, this is without the flash and literally the only lights (besides the TV) were from the Christmas tree :)

The movie provided all the cheese factor we had hoped for and more! We're already discussing selections for next year...

Don't try this at home

I was working on a project while sitting on the couch with a blanket covering my legs watching an ABC Family Christmas movie online. And in my life, when accidents happen, they happen big. Don't worry. There were no casualties of said project, just a little stupidity on my part. Just remember, when I share the details of said project, that I am a qualified adult and there were no children involved in this project. :) That was all said for the "real" adults who read my blog (such as my mom, aunts, etc.) who will tell me that I should not play with fire. Anyhoo...on to the details...

We have a candle in our apartment that drives me crazy because it doesn't burn evenly. I was laying on the couch watching a movie on my computer, and the candle was in my line of sight. I noticed that it was burning down low enough that I couldn't see the flame and was afraid I was going to forget that it was burning (see how responsible I am!). So, I decided (which I've done before) to burn some of the excess wax on the sides so that it doesn't bother me quite so much. So, I got the tools for this project. Candle (which I extinguished), lighter (you know the long-stemmed kind), cup to pour the excess wax into. Supplies that I forgot...paper towels. So, while I watched my movie, I began to burn. It really is a satisfying project, one I've done lots of times before. But not on the couch. I got ready to dump my first batch of excess melted wax into the cup (successfully, I might add) when I realized I had no paper towels to wipe the wax off the outside of the candle. So I set the cup of wax on the couch on my blanket. Stupid, I know, but that's what I did. And it spilled hot wax onto my favorite blanket. A lot. I tried to wipe it up with the paper towels I was in transit to get, but it didn't work very well.

So I googled solutions to the problem. Many sites suggested freezing the area with ice cubes and scraping. Tried it, didn't work. Other sites said to iron it with a paper towel or brown paper bag between the blanket and iron to gather the wax. I tried this and it worked really well, but there is still some wax on the blanket. And I now have a big brown stain (the candle was apple cider) on my ironing board.

So, the moral of the story is don't put a cup of hot wax on the couch on top of your favorite blanket. The moral of the story isn't stop melting candles because, let's face it, it's kind of fun!

And on the up side, my blanket smells really good now! :)

Just because it makes me laugh :)

Don't worry...the tree did not burn out any lights. But when you plug in the tree, this is what you start with. We have one extension cord running to a plug on the left and two extension cords running to a power strip to the right. Don't ask me how the middle part of the tree is what goes in a different direction. That's just how it happened. Actually, now that I think about it, I can explain it. But I won't. Unless you really want me to.

I asked Emily the other day what color she saw when she looked at the tree. She said yellow, which is the color I see the most of when I look at the tree. I jokingly told her that I was going to redo the lights and make sure the different colors were more evenly distributed! It's just not fair to green or blue or red!

Duly Noted

This was on our door at the apartment today. I didn't realize that when I throw my cigarette butts on the ground, it offends people! :)

I laughed because we really don't get notices from the apartment very often. There are a lot of other things that I feel like should be addressed, but I guess they have to start somewhere.

Name Brand Snob

I'd like to think I'm thrifty, but I'm not. I mean, I don't think anyone would accuse me of being thrifty anyway. But I wanted to set the record straight. I go to the store and think, "Hey, the store brand is (insert double digit cents) cheaper than the name brand. I should get that." Sometimes I do, and there are normally three reactions when I eat the food (which is where most of my name brand issues come from):

1. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! I can't even finish that! This doesn't happen a huge percentage of the time, but it used to drive my step-mom nuts. Once she tried to serve me spaghetti made with the store brand sauce. Now, I was a Ragu girl at my mom's, so it's not like I was used to super high quality stuff, but that stuff she served was like reddish-orange water. Not going down my throat. The latest thing I bought (which was not ingested) was Walmart brand cooking spray. Leaves everything with a sticky brownish residue--both pots and food. I refuse to use it anymore. So if anyone wants a half-used spray can of the stuff, I'm your gal.

2. Hmmm, I can't tell the difference. See, I'm not a complete snob. There are some things that just make sense to buy cheaper. Bread, for example. Milk (most of the time). I actually prefer the gallon size store brand orange juice to Tropicana. Ice cream, most of the time.

3. I'll eat it, but I probably won't buy it the next time. I'm sure this is where the majority of my experiences fall, but I can't think of very many examples right now. The latest, and the reason for this post, is the steamable bags of vegetables. I bought the store brand because it was about 30 cents cheaper and I figured there wouldn't be a difference. Maybe it was just this bag, but the vegetables lacked flavor and were kind of chewy. So, I probably won't give them a second chance. I'll just pay the extra 30 cents next time.

Maybe one day when I'm shopping for more than myself, I'll be more conscientious, but for now, I'm sticking with snobbery!

PS. Should my title be "Name Brand Snob" or "Store Brand Snob"? I'm questioning it enough that I'm trying to think of a new title!

Emoticons

I am a huge believer in using punctuation and smiley/frown faces to convey my feelings. I'd blame instant messenger for this, but I'm pretty sure I used smiley faces to make a point even when I was sending snail mail. That being said, I don't think I believe that it is an adequate way to convey feelings. I have a 14 year old client right now. We were discussing communication and how her family communicates. She told me that she communicates her feelings best through text. I argued that you cannot adequately grasp the tone of voice someone is texting in and it is better to communicate in person. To which she replied, "Yes you can. Smiley face. Wink face. Frown face..." So, apparently we no longer need to communicate face to face. Just so you know. In case you were wondering why I start texting you while you are standing right in front of me. It's just how I communicate!

Wednesday Randomness

I had several things that I wanted to put on Facebook tonight, so I realized I would have to put the overflow on here! :)

I feel like I'm having sympathy pains for people with braces. The inside of my cheek is scraped up just like when I wore braces. Which I don't anymore, so I don't know what happened. I'm thinking that maybe I bit it, but I'm not sure.

On the way home from my mom's house on Saturday, I broke out the Christmas music. I started with Straight No Chaser's version of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." Look it up on YouTube if you've never heard it.

Two of the radio stations in our area play all Christmas music until Christmas. I can never decide if I like this or not. I think it depends on the song. For example, I'm pretty sure that "Jingle Bell Rock" is the worst song ever, but it is the favorite song to play on the radio. Just FYI if any of the radio people are reading this: I immediately change the station when this song comes on. It's a version of "You had me at hello..." It's called "You lost me at rockin' around the Christmas tree..."

I'm Thinking of an Ornament...

Here are the new ornaments I added to the tree this year. This is my 2010 ornament from my mom. :) I wonder what 2011 will look like?

This is one I bought at Tanners when Mom and my aunts were in town.

This is one I bought in Arizona last year while I was there for Christmas.

Another one from Tanners. I can never pick just one.

Another one from Arizona. Again, I couldn't decide on just one.

And the title of today's post comes from a game we played as kids. Kind of like "I Spy" but finding ornaments on the tree. Now you just have to say, "I'm thinking of an ornament..." and people groan. I think I liked the game a little too much as a kid! Actually now sometimes the game goes:

Me: I'm thinking of an ornament.

My brother: That one right there (without even looking at the tree).

Me: Yes! How did you guess that! (with exaggerated enthusiasm)

Good times.

Christmas Decorating Extravaganza!

Emily and I decided that even though we love lots of lights on a tree, they are also the necessary evil to decorating for the holidays. Kind of like the edges to a puzzle. You know you have to do it, so you just get through it because you want to get on to doing the puzzle. That being said, putting lights on the tree was not without its drama again this year. But what Christmas experience wouldn't be worth telling about if it wasn't for the drama. Right? Please tell me I'm right. I mean, are memories don't survive the "perfect" year of decorating. But we sure can remember the years there was drama.
This is how far we got with the lights before Emily had to run to the store. This was technically her second trip because the first was to get extension cords and a power strip. But officially we have the same amount of lights on the tree as we did last year. But two of the strands didn't work, so we had to replace them.

While I was waiting I took some pictures of the process of decorating. Here is the organized box of all my ornaments.

Another box of goodies.

All my ornaments laid out and waiting to go on the tree.

Some of Emily's chaos. We stopped to eat and realized there was not a single piece of furniture that we could sit on (even the table was covered) so we ate on the floor!

The final strand of lights! Hip Hip Hooray.

I look so happy. This was after my one and only meltdown. Where all but the bottom two row of branches went out. Lots of trial and error later, and one threat to not put any lights on the tree, we figured out we had blown a fuse in the extension cord. Who knew you could do such a thing! :)
Emily hanging some ornaments. Isn't the backlight pretty!
Me hanging an ornament. Ignore the lounge clothes. As I told Emily, you don't decorate yourself to decorate a Christmas tree!
The finished product! :)
We turned off all the lights. Two things we decided:

1. We don't really need any other lights on in the apartment to see with!

2. We might not need to turn the heat on until January because, while it doesn't feel like the tree puts off heat, it seems much warmer in the apartment! :)

Cable Coma

I don't have cable at home, for good reason. When I come to visit my mom, I feel like I go into a cable coma. I sit and flip through the endless channels because I can. And I watch things that I don't need to watch. Today I was in cable heaven: NCIS marathon and Bones marathon at the same time! And I did just what I hate my father to do. I flipped back and forth between episodes during commercial breaks!

The moral of the story: I would never get anything done if I had cable!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever." Psalm 136:1

I am currently reading through the book of Jeremiah, and as I was reading this morning, I was praying that, in the midst of the consequences that Israel was facing, God would reveal to me the continuity of His word and how, even in the midst of these consequences, there is reason to praise. And in chapter 26, I found that God, in the midst of his prophesying through Jeremiah, was still willing to relent if the people would turn back to Him. What a gracious God we serve!

Today I was thinking through the things I have to be thankful for. And there were so many. And it was so fun to read through Facebook posts of the things my friends and family are thankful for. Thank you Lord for a day to think about what we are thankful for!

I'm a Nerd / This is my 700th POST!

So, I have a friend who uses the sticky notes on her computer. For those of you who don't know, they are a post-it note that is on your desktop. You can even change the colors. I made fun of her for using this when I first saw it. However, a few months ago, I created one with the start of my Christmas list. And then about a month ago, I started another one for a list of what I want to buy everyone for Christmas (luckily, none of my family lives close by to accidentally see what they are getting for Christmas!). The nerdy part: last week I figured out the way to line through the items as I buy them. It's a high-tech to-do list! And I have to say, I take back making fun of my friend. It is a good reminder. Although it does sometimes bother me, so I have to hide it from view.

And for my 700th post, I will let you in on 7 things you might not know about me:
1. I could live in a hoodie sweatshirt all winter if I was allowed.
2. I bought the same Bible twice because the other one started loosing pages but I didn't want to "break in" a new Bible. At least this way, I knew where certain things were based on their location on the page in the old and new Bible. I have a visual memory. Even if I can't remember chapter and verse, I can remember left hand side, first column, near the top.
3. Most of the time, I would rather go back for seconds on fruits and vegetables then get dessert.
4. Every spare surface in my living room and bedroom is filled with picture frames. Which is why I don't like to dust.
5. I only really obsess about Chick-fil-a because I don't have one close by. Once it comes to Peoria, you won't hear me talk about it that much.
6. Holding a baby is one of the quickest ways to cheer me up. I've been known to call friends with babies and invite myself over when I've had a particularly bad day.
7. I used to love flying but now it's kind of a nuisance. A necessary nuisance when your family and friends are scattered across 3 different states, but still a nuisance.

Happy 4th Birthday John! :)

This was what I found on Facebook this morning. John's birthday present from his mom and dad. Hopefully he opened my books and puzzles first! :)

While he lives far away and I don't get to see him very often, just seeing pictures of him brings me joy! I love that little boy smile and those dimples. And his enthusiasm. I can't believe it's been four years. And I can only say for 3 more months that he's my favorite nephew! Then I'll have two favorite nephews.

Thanks Chris and Ann for adding such a blessing to the family!
It's hard to believe he was once this small!
Happy Birthday John!

Another first

I posted a while back about seeing an ATM filled for the first time and the rarity of seeing a billboard being changed. Today I saw a free-standing mailbox being emptied and I thought, "Have I ever seen this?" I couldn't recall a time, so I think it was another first. Sometimes when I mail things in those mailboxes, I think about not seeing them get emptied. Will my mail actually get where it is supposed to go? But it always does, so apparently they do get emptied when they say they will, even if I rarely see it happen.

Statute of Limitations

Is there a statute of limitations on dream content? Because I have had some pretty weird dreams this month. And they've included some memories that I would think would not surface anymore in my dreams. Like, I haven't worked at LifeWay in almost 6 years, but I still have dreams about the store every couple of months. Or how I had a dream about my high school boyfriend. The details of that one are kind of funny, except that it was just weird. I dated him 15 years ago. But, I'll share, because I laughed this morning at the weirdness of the dream. Apparently I was talking to my mom on the phone and she was trying to talk me out of marrying him today. Like, he showed up and I was just going to marry him or something. So, I agreed with her. And then Emily and I were watching NCIS and there was a knock on the door and I asked her to let him in and he came in and made himself at home and we were about to start watching NCIS again and I just plain as day told him that we couldn't get married yet. And he said okay. But then I guess we still wanted to get married fairly quickly because I told him I was worried because Kari and I had been talking about weddings in general and she said that she couldn't book another wedding until the spring (more because she was tired of them, not because there were no days available) and I didn't want to make her do one more wedding if she didn't want to. And then I think I woke up. So, all in all, a very strange dream. Except the part where Emily and I were watching NCIS. That was perfectly normal :). But really, of all the guys I have known or now know, why would I dream about someone I haven't even seen in at least 13 years? All that to say, I definitely believe there should be a statute of limitations on what is allowed into my subconscious!

Happiness in a cup!

One of my favorite things is hot chocolate. I recently discovered the peppermint hot chocolate at McDonalds and have already invested quite a bit of money in said hot chocolate. They use cool whip and chocolate syrup. So I thought I would recreate some of the greatness at home. You can't see it, but I also have marshmallows under there. With some caramel hot chocolate. Hopefully I won't be bouncing off the walls instead of sleeping. I might have something else to say later about whether its still happy. :)

Bon. Fire.

I have a friend who recently bought a house with some land and he had everyone over for a bonfire last night. This was part of the email he sent out, "I'll be lighting the bonfire @ 7:15 and you probably don't want to miss that, if you now the kind of stuff I like doing!" So, I knew the bonfire would be big. But I didn't know it would be explosive. We all stood ample distance from the huge pile of brush, because we really do know the kind of things he likes to do. He lit part of it and then he stood back a ways. Turns out he had a gun and a propane tank. A couple shots later, we had quite the toasty fire going! A friend took these pictures. We just kept thinking that it looked like she had zoomed in really close, so she finally got a few people to stand in front of the fire. And the pictures still do not do it justice. It was a fun evening. I don't know if I've ever seen a fire quite that big before!

Kari looks like she is doing a fire dance but she was really saying, "It's really hot right here!"

F as in Frank

I have one of those last names where spelling it over the phone is almost impossible if you want it spelled correctly because the letters sound similar to other letters. So, I've adopted my own phonetic alphabet. Here is how you spell my last name: F as in Frank, O, R, S as is Sam, B as in Boy, E, R, G. Most people can get that right. But it got me curious about the military phonetic alphabet. Here is how you would spell my name. Foxtrot Oscar Romeo Sierra Bravo Echo Romeo Golf. And then, of course, I was looking at all the other letters and some of them just seem odd. Hotel. India. Kilo. Lima. November. Uniform. Whiskey. I kind of wish I could have been a fly on the wall for the discussion when they came up with which words to use for each letter! If there were women involved, it probably took weeks. If there were men involved, it was probably just the first word they associated with each letter. Either way, some of the choices are just...interesting.

I love me these cats!

One thing I miss almost as much as Dad, Amy, Daynah, and Josh not being in Peoria, is Samson, Isabell, and Sophie not being in Peoria. I enjoyed my snuggle time with the cats while I was in Arizona. Samson was being camera shy and wouldn't look at me. Or even acknowledge that I was calling him.
He had also just finished eating and was licking his chops :) This is the entrance to Josh's bedroom. Samson likes to hang out here.
Sophie surprised me when I walked by the laundry room (or closet). But who can resist some freshly washed towels!
I love this picture because she is sitting on the Ticket to Ride box. I would have to do some digging, but I think I have a picture of Isabell sitting on the same box. If I find it, I'll let you know.
This is one of Isabell's favorite places to lay. Crammed into the corner of the desk right beside Amy's computer. And she would lay like this for hours. Because that's exactly how I want to spend hours of my time, especially when there are beds and pillows and couches all over the place!

Sorry for the absence

Unless you didn't miss me. Then I'm not sorry at all. :)

I've been without Internet for 4 1/2 days. But it felt like an eternity. It stresses me out because I don't have access to my email at work. So I feel like people are trying to get in touch with me and I don't know it. The sad thing. 4 1/2 days, not one personal email. Apparently, no one missed me in the email/Facebook realm. But I'll pretend I was missed.

You should probably be glad my Internet was out on Thursday, because my plan was to come home and have a complete meltdown on my blog. Complete with crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It was a bad week. But now I'm over it and you don't have to hear about it! Aren't you lucky. If you still want to hear the gory details, just call me or send me an email. I can tell you some good, albeit whiny, stories.

But the one thing I discovered through it all is that McDonald's makes an AMAZING peppermint hot chocolate. Okay, probably not over-the-top amazing, but enough that I've had to refrain from going there and getting some every day. Because I love me some peppermint hot chocolate!

Next I shall blog about all the fun stuff I've gotten to do over the last two weekends. Last week, up until losing Internet, I was too busy to blog. Then when I had time, I had no Internet. So I haven't been able to fill you in on the fun happenings of my life.

And now I shall go find some dinner. :)

I will grin and be happy...I will grin and be happy

Friday is our annual retreat at work. I usually look forward to retreats. Getting paid to sit around and eat food and get to know coworkers better and eat more food. My kind of retreat. So, when I remembered it was on my calendar, I got excited. That is, until I got this email today:

"Just a reminder - Our annual BHS Retreat is this Friday, Nov 4th from 10 - 2 pm at Scott's Prairie. We will be outside for a significant amount of time so please dress appropriately for weather. I would wear shoes you don't mind getting dirty/muddy and be prepared for rain. Also, you won't regret bringing cameras - phones will work just fine."

All of a sudden, I feel a cold coming on. Or, at the very least, a bad attitude. Seriously? Outside? Wear appropriate shoes? Don't forget your camera?

Have I ever mentioned that I don't like 1. team building games, 2. things that might make me look foolish (that people would want to take a picture of), 3. Doing things because someone is making me?

But, now that I have vented...I will grin and be happy. I will have a good attitude. I will not complain to anyone at work. I will look forward to the food portion of the day. And if that's too much to ask, I will only exhibit slight stubbornness.

Saturday in 15 pictures or less :)

I'm back from vacation, but I thought I'd let you know how the rest of the weekend went. Saturday started with french toast for breakfast. And then the boys were stuck in the house for the morning because there were a bunch of volunteers doing work around the Acres. So, they suggested a pool tournament. I was all in, even though I knew I would quickly lose. These guys are serious about there tournaments. A bracket was created. Complete with choosing order of play using playing cards. I won the right to play the first game against Cru...

Lucky for my advancement in the tournament, he's the youngest in the house. Dad helped him a lot, but I still managed to win. Phew... While I waited for the next game, I played some Speed with Emerson and talked about life. I admit...I may have gone into therapy mode for 2.5 seconds. But I warned him ahead of time. And stopped as soon as I could :).

Another of the young kids, Douglas. So, I ended up coming in 3rd place. Pure luck. I played Joseph for 3rd place and he scratched the 8 ball. I kinda don't like winning that way, but I guess that's how the ball rolls (heehee...pun intended). Dad, of course, won the tournament.

Amy gave some haircuts.

Me and Douglas. He is a TALKER. I mean, seriously, could talk to a rock for an hour without realizing it never talked back! But he's cute too. :) And you quickly learn that you don't really have to listen to him while he's talking. He's just happy to be talking to you. I did listen sometimes, I promise!

Finally able to go outside. Skateboarding, rollerblading, biking. None of the kids seem to mind the 90 plus degrees outside. I, however, quickly took my pictures and then went back inside!

We then made caramel apples. Well, Amy and Emerson did. Daynah and I supervised and took pictures :)

Ready to be caramelled!

Yummy! They were good!

Saturday night some members in the community put on a fall festival. I didn't take any pictures of the kids dressed up or having fun. I was too busy holding a baby :) One of the relief couples had a baby a few months ago and he is super cute! Oh, and guarding all the prizes the kids won. That was the job of the evening. At the end of the night, Emerson wanted me to take some pictures of him jumping hay bales. Turns out my camera doesn't take good night pictures.

Kind of looks like it's snowing. As a matter of fact, when we had the blizzard last year, Emily and I took pictures at night and I thought the camera was taking pictures of all the snowflakes. Turns out, not so much.

Here is my second attempt. Emerson is in the right hand corner.. Kind of scary, but slightly cool too! :)

After the festival, one of the other houses came over for a bonfire. The boys played football. In the dark. In the rocks. They didn't seem to mind.

One of the many pictures I tried to take of the fire.

Sunday we went to church, a barbecue at the park, and then hung out at the house the rest of the day.

Monday, we picked up Josh early from school and went to Amy's parents house for me to see it. We went to Chickfila for lunch. I got on an airplane and came home. I forgot that I would be on Arizona time, so I stayed up way too late to have to get up early for work today. Luckily, I didn't have anything scheduled until the afternoon, so I slept until 8 and went into work at 10.