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!