Love Notes craft

For our one-year wedding anniversary, Justin and I got to use the wedding jar Justin's friends gave us for our wedding.  The idea of the jar is you write each other little notes throughout the first year of marriage and stick them in the jar.  On the day of your anniversary, you read the notes!  On the outside of the jar, your last name is on one side, and your wedding date is on the other.  You display your last name throughout the year and the date on your anniversary to commemorate it.  Such a neat little idea.  I loved his little love notes so much, I wanted to display them so I could read them all year!

I figured out how I would like them laid out in a frame.  Justin used sticky notes for his love notes, folded them in half, and wrote "I heart" on the top fold, then wrote why he loved me on the bottom fold.  So, I figured I could put one top fold as "I love you because of these following reasons" at the top of the frame, then follow with the others as bottom folds.

I laid the notes out on our kitchen table to get a color scheme worked out.

Then I measured them across and vertically to get an idea of what size frame I needed.  I had a 50% off coupon to Michaels, so I knew where I was headed!

 

They measured 6 by 6 inches.  So I bought a 6 by 8 frame.  I thought I may want something as a background, so I found a pretty piece of scrapbook paper on clearance for a quarter.

Here's what I ended up with.

Here it is on the bathroom wall.

Cute, right?

Sorry about the pictures in the bathroom, there is NO light in there!  But now I get to look at it all the time and be reminded of Justin's love for me all year long. :)

Why my other job sucks.

Kids, here's a lesson for you.  When you want to start working, which is something everyone should do, be entitled to do, and be able to do, make sure you work for someone or somewhere that automatically takes taxes out of your paycheck.

For a little over a year now, I have been working for an Internet solutions company called Web Strategies as a consultant.  Basically, whenever someone over at WS has a project they need help on, or just flat-out don't feel like doing, they send it my way and I take care of it.  The work is fine, not too much at one time, and my boss is awesome.  She's a cool lady, and Justin was my liaison to her for me to get hired.  I really enjoy my job and the fact that I can get paid for a job I do in my PJs.

But then tax season came this year.

All last year, when I would get my paycheck, I noticed that my pay was very close to what I had calculated it to be.  This wasn't good because I had accounted for taxes and I knew in my gut that taxes weren't being taken out.  Even though I strongly suspected this, I didn't do anything about it.  I figured that as an employee, if anyone got in trouble it would be Beth since she was the employer and was responsible for tax stuff.

This is not the case, you see.

Back when Beth first hired me, she had me fill out tax forms, but they were bare-bones tax forms.  As in, she needed me to fill these out for my position in the company to be legal.  I of course thought these were forms that handled the whole tax thing, and didn't think anything else of it.  I had never had a job that didn't take out taxes.  In these forms, I was called "consultant."  This word translates to something called, "Independent Contractor," and I didn't realize this.  IC means that you work for yourself, you are your own boss, and therefore you are responsible for your own taxes.

Where am I going with all of this?

Well, when Justin and I went to do our taxes, because I was now considered an IC, we had to pay my entire year's worth of taxes right then and there.  I didn't have a W2 for this company, I didn't get anything back.  I had to pay what should have been taken out.

I cried.  Hard.  In public.  Ugh.

I argued with the tax lady that I didn't own the company, and that I worked for them and not for myself.  She argued back that since I worked from home on a computer that was not solely purchased for this job that I was considered an IC and that we had to pay my taxes.  Granted, we only owed $70, which could have been so much worse!  Think about what you get in a tax return!  Jeez.

That's why my job sucks so hard.  But that's just the bigger half.  The smaller half is the actual income.  The tax lady also told us that if I earned less than $400 this year, we wouldn't have to file my shit under this awful form that cost us almost $100 to file.  God was I humiliated.  I have been crunching numbers ever since.  In order to earn less than $400 this year, I can only "work" half an hour every week.  That gives me an hour every two weeks, which makes $15.  In one month, I can earn $30, which is my monthly cap.

Here's the sucky part.

In the month of January, before we had our taxes done and I still thought I could mark up some decent time on my time sheet, I worked 4.5 hours instead of two.  I have to make up for that somewhere along this year.  So, on four different weeks, I can't mark any hours for myself.  Basically, I have to sacrifice an entire month without pay.  Not that that would hurt me.  $30 just isn't a lot of money.

I'm thinking about asking Beth if maybe we could treat this as an internship instead of a job.  She wouldn't have to pay me, and I could still work for the sake of learning.  I don't know yet if I'm going to do that.  She called today to discuss adding some things to my plate, as Whitney, a girl who works in the WS office, is quitting, and someone will need to make up for her slack.  So now, I'm going to be taking on other tasks on top of what I already do and don't bill myself enough time for, and I can't mark time for any of it.

Maybe I should just quit.

Being a grown-up sucks sometimes.

Freakin' Obsessed Friday

1. Desperate Housewives.  This is my favorite show.  They are currently in their last season, and there's only 4 episodes left, including the finale.  So I thought I'd go back and refresh my memory on the other seasons via Netflix before it all goes away.  I'm just falling in love all over again.
2. My little scooter craft.  I haven't written a post about this yet, but I will.
3. The latest KK book.  The Kingdom Keepers are my favorite books.  The latest one, Shell Game, is coming out on Tuesday, and it just so happens it is being delivered to my door!  I'm super excited to read it.
4. Tumblr.  I've had a Tumblr for a while, and over the last few weeks, have just not been very into it.  I was subscribed to a blog that posted lots of pictures everyday.  At first, I really enjoyed them, because she posts very lovely things, but she just posted so many darn many of them!  It got to the point where I'd have to go through 30 pages to get caught up every time I logged on.  So I got smart and stopped following that blog, and now I check Tumblr everyday again.

Ugh, it's been forever!

Sorry for not being more up-to-date last week.

My mom came and visited me! :)

She came up and stayed for a whole week!  It was wonderful.  I'm kind of surprised we didn't sew anything, but I'm looking to transform a headband tomorrow, and I'll have to write a post about it!

Again, sorry to my one reader for not posting in a while.  Hopefully we can get back on the writing train next week.

Book Review: Firefly Rain

Firefly Rain, by Richard Dansky

Firefly Rain is the first novel by Richard Dansky, the head writer for the Tom Clancy video games.  The book follows Jacob Logan, a man originally from the town of Maryfield, NC, who moved away to pursue big city dreams in Boston.  After having a successful office job, Jacob is let go and forced to return home.  Both of his parents are dead and buried in the back yard, so it's just him in the house now.  Carl, the man Jacob hired to look after the house while he was away, pops up every chance he gets and gets creepier and creepier.  Carl mentions things like keeping a promise, and talking about the town as though it were a person.  Everyone else in the town treats Jacob funny upon his return, and things are just out of whack.  With a weak twist and a surprise ending, Jacob keeps a promise he made a long time ago.

Warning: Spoilers follow here.

After experiencing several odd occurrences, Jacob realizes he is being haunted by the spirits of his parents.  His car gets stolen, yet he never hears anything.  Doors open and close on their own.  Things that were locked up in the house show up with no explanation.  The fireflies that used to pepper his property in droves fall dead as they near the border of the land.  After being spooked for a couple of days, Jacob calls his friend Jenna back in Boston.  After telling her everything that has happened, he asks Jenna to come down and visit him.  She does, and that's when things get bad for Jacob.  Carl, as well as a few other members of the town, corner Jacob into the woods and tell him that he is going through all of this because he once promised his mother that he would come back, and while she was living he didn't.  Carl's promise that he mentions frequently was to Jacob's mother, to bring him home and make him stay there.  The house went for a long time without a Logan living in it, something that hadn't happened for the last three generations of people.  Because of this, she haunts the town and keeps people that Jacob knew as a boy from dying so that they can force him to stay in town and not run off again.  In order to make up for not keeping this promise, Jacob must either fall in love with Adrienne, a girl in town that would force him to stay, or kill Asa the dog, who has been terrorizing him and taken in by evil fireflies.  After he tries to kill the Asa, Jenna suddenly charges out with his shotgun and shoots the dog in the head.  Carl and his gang run up to the house from the woods and tell Jacob that since he wasn't technically responsible for spilling the blood, and since he refuses to be forced into love with Adrienne, Jenna must now die as she poses a threat to any relationship he could strike up with Adrienne.  All the men that confronted Jacob now take turns beating him so that he can't save Jenna from them.  There is a loud bang from the house as Adrienne's body floats through a window, Jacob's mother channeling her.  She tells the men to stop, and after confronting Jacob about staying, he says he'll try.  She finally lets the men from town rest in piece as they should have done long ago, and Jacob goes to the hospital for his wounds, returning home with a good chance for a relationship with Jenna.

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The first two-thirds of the book were great.  I finished the book in two days, a new record for myself, and was sucked into it almost immediately.  The way Dansky describes paranormal scenes in the house are creepy, and the scenes with the fireflies are well written, as well.  But once the book got to the point where Jacob hears the dog outside and Jenna finally gets to town, the book wasn't as good anymore.  I take great issue with the dog having to be killed.  What did the dog do?  Why not put Sam through something like the others?  Was the dog sick and being kept alive as well?  The book doesn't say.  We never find out why there was an indention in his mother's pillow, or why she willingly let Adrienne into her bedroom when she hated her before.  After so much of the book being about his stolen car and who was driving it, the driver turning out to be his dad's spirit is a cop-out, especially since his mother's spirit needed to channel a living body to communicate directly with the living.  It doesn't make sense, then, that his dad could somehow materialize to drive a car or steal it silently.  And why did Jacob kill the fireflies after his parents died, when he was an adult and not a little kid?  He doesn't know.  Wow, that's a great answer.  Basically, I feel like the book promised something really big and the ending just didn't deliver.  A quick, gripping read, but don't expect a stellar ending.  4/5

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For Next Time

The Postcard Killers, by James Patterson & Liza Marklund

NYPD detective Jacob Kanon is on a tour of Europe's most gorgeous cities. But the sights aren't what draw him - he sees each museum, each cathedral, and each café through the eyes of his daughter's' killer. Kanon's daughter and her boyfriend were murdered while on vacation in Rome. Since then, young couples in Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Stockholm have been found dead. Little connects the murders, other than a postcard to the local newspaper that precedes each new victim. Now Kanon teams up with the Swedish reporter Dessie Larsson, who has just received a postcard in Stockholm - and they think they know where the next victims will be.

-barnesandnoble.com

Luck of the Over-Enthused

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Even though I am almost 100% Irish, I've never viewed today as something celebratory.  We never went all out to celebrate it in my family, and as I got older, it just became the day that most people look forward to to excuse their drinking habits.

But there are those, my friends, who seriously go all out for this holiday!  Did you know this?  There are people out there who exchange gifts, throw parties, and even create a Santa-esque Leprechaun scene for their children.  Wow.

A Facebook friend posted pictures of his family's Leprechaun shenanigans today, and I don't really understand the concept.  He decorated his home with toilet paper, dragged his child's stuffed animals out into the living room, where a St. Pat-style Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) hung from their ceiling fan, made little green "foot prints" around the toilet seat where green water lay below, and wrote St. Patrick's Day greetings to his child in lipstick on the bathroom mirror.  Not to mention having green milk in the fridge and the Leprechaun leaving another green solution in the fridge as well.

O...k?  I guess I just don't get it.  This same couple threw a St. Pat-themed wedding for themselves as well, decking the halls with anything green they could find.  Clearly this holiday means a lot to them, and that's all fine and well, I just don't understand what the Leprechaun visit means.  (Or why he used their toilet?)

We had fun taking some pictures of Bonnie today in her St. Pat scarf.  She was adorable and was really good taking pictures, but would not look at the camera once we got outside!  Who knows.

I love that all the shamrocks are made of hearts!

Isn't she cute? :)

Luck to you all!  May you drink all that you desire, and have luck when you need it most!

Book Review: The Green Mile

I finally finished this book.  And oh, my.

This is one of the finest books I've ever read.  It took me 7 months to read it.  And it was worth it.

The Green Mile, by Stephen King

This book is about Paul Edgecomb, a man who works at Cold Mountain Penitentiary on cell block E, otherwise known as death row.  The book takes place when Paul is very old, and living in a nursing home.  Paul recounts his days on E block in a manuscript for his friend Elaine to read.  After serving several years on what they call The Mile, Paul meets a man named John Coffey.  Coffey is accused of killing and raping two little girls and is sentenced to death by electric chair.  Not to mention, he is a huge black man, something that pretty much works against him automatically in the 1930s.  After finding out that Coffey possesses magic healing powers, Edgecomb works against the system to prove Coffey is an innocent man.  Along the way, we are introduced to many colorful, hateful, and surprising characters.

Warning: Spoilers follow here.

At first, Paul thinks that Coffey is guilty.  After getting to know him, Paul realizes that Coffey is able to cure people.  Even though Coffey cures Paul of a wicked kidney infection, cures the warden's wife of cancer, and later is discovered to have been trying to cure the little girls he is accused of murdering, there is no way for the men on E block to set Coffey free against the chair.  Nobody would believe a black man wasn't guilty.  He dies at the hands of Old Sparky, and leaves some food for thought and a year no one at Cold Mountain will ever forget.  Paul realizes in his old age that everyone in his life has died, including his children, wife, and friends from the Mile.  He wonders how long he will live, and once he realizes that Mr. Jingles, a mouse from the supply closet at Cold Mountain that Coffey brought back from the dead, finally dies, he realizes that he, too, is going to die someday.  Not wanting to die without telling someone his biggest secret, he writes the story of John Coffey as it happened to him, which in turn is The Green Mile.

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Man, this book.  Upon seeing the movie when I was around 16, I labeled it as one of my favorite movies of all time.  After I realized it was a book, I had to read it.  It was given to me one Christmas in college, and it sat on every bookshelf I ever moved it to.  Back in August, I finally decided to read it.  It has taken me this long, mostly due to things like forgetting about it, working, or catching up on TV shows instead of reading.  But this book is SO good.  It's gripping and shocking, and hats OFF to Frank Darabont for following the book!  He did a very good job at that.  I sincerely hated Stephen King before I read this book.  I felt like he was very overrated, but this book means to me that he is as good a writer as people make him out to be.  I may have to read other things by him now!  This book is wonderful, and that last line is chilling.  5/5

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For Next Time:

Firefly Rain, by Richard Dansky

When Jacob left home for a new life, he pretty much forgot all about Maryfield, North Carolina. But Maryfield never forgot him. Or forgave him.

After a failed business venture in Boston, Jacob Logan comes back to the small Southern town of his childhood and takes up residence in the isolated house he grew up in. Here, the air is still. The nights are black. And his parents are buried close by. It should feel like home—but something is terribly wrong.

Jacob loses all his belongings in a highway accident. His car is stolen from his driveway, yet he never hears a sound. The townspeople seem guarded and suspicious. And Carl, the property caretaker with so many secrets, is unnervingly accommodating. Then there are the fireflies that light the night skies . . . and die as they come near Jacob’s home. If it weren’t for the creaking sounds after dark, or the feeling that he is being watched, Jacob would feel so alone. He shouldn’t worry. He’s not.

-barnesandnoble.com

Freakin' Obsessed Friday

1. Pinterest.  Or as Taylor from The Lumberjack's Wife says, The Pinterest.  I had Pinterest for a few weeks before it got super popular, but didn't really use it much.  After a while, I got the hang of it, and now I have to check it everyday!
2. McDonald's Shamrock Shake.  Holy cow, this thing is good!  Justin found a recipe for it so that hopefully we can make it after March when McDonald's takes it away.  Get yours before the 31!
3. GCB.  This is a new show on ABC that comes on Sundays at 10 pm.  I really like it so far and am getting excited to see where it goes.  I really think that one lady's husband is gay.  But we're only two episodes into the show, so we'll see!
4. Songs from A Goofy Movie.  Specifically Stand Out, the song that Max sings in the opening scene at the assembly.  I found the full version some time ago on YouTube and am obsessed with it.  I just can't stop listening to it.  Tevin Campbell is amazing as Powerline. :)

Getting to Know Me

I got this survey from another blogging service I use.  I thought it sounded fun. :)

1: Apart from blogging, what do you like to do in your spare time?  I enjoy watching TV, mostly on Netflix, reading, and taking pictures.

2: Name a favorite of each: food, drink, color.  Beef Stew, sweet tea, purple.

3: If you married rich and your spouse gave you $100,000 a week, what would you spend it on?  After I paid off my student loans and any other debt my family had, I would either put it into a savings account, donate it, or spend it.

4: Name a favorite of each: book, movie, TV show.  The Kingdom Keepers, The Green Mile, Desperate Housewives.

5: If you were given the opportunity to spend 48 hours with absolutely anyone (living or dead), who would you spend it with and what would you do?  Both of my grandmothers.  My paternal grandmother died when my dad was 17, so I never got to meet her.  My maternal grandmother died of ovarian cancer when I was 12, and I would love to talk to her again and see what she has to tell me.

6: Name a LEAST favorite of each: food, drink, color.  Ham, orange juice, hot pink.

7: What do you spend most of your money on?  Usually boring adult stuff like gas in the car, or deodorant, or things of that nature.  If I have a little to blow, I usually buy knick-knacks with it.

8: What kind of underwear do you prefer wearing?  Just usual cotton undies.

9: Name a LEAST favorite of each: book, movie, TV show.  I Take This Man, Twilight, Twin Peaks.

10: If you were on a plane beside your favorite celebrity, what would you do?  Ask them weird questions like the ones here and hope they answered me.

11: What is the strangest thing you have in your room? (You are not allowed to explain why you own it.) A headless, porcelain monk.

12: What is a weird habit you have, or people have told you that you have? (Weird, not bad. No nail biting or any of that nonsense.) I rock back and forth whenever I'm sitting Indian style.

13: What would you consider to be the biggest insult to yourself?  I find someone being closed-minded insulting no matter what the issue is or whether or not I agree with it.

14: What are five things you absolutely have to have in your dream house? Big TV, Netflix, computer, lots of knick-knacks, lots of framed pictures and art.

15: If you could be reincarnated as any animal, which would you chose and why? A fly, so I could keep tabs on my loved ones.

16: Which band (current or past) would you want to go on tour* with? (*Travel with, not perform with.) Several.  Either: Good Charlotte, Nirvana, Billy Joel, Elton John, The Eagles, or Bowling For Soup.

17: Name a favorite of each: band, album, song.  Good Charlotte, Cardiology, Cathryn (Damn This Situation).

18: Why is your favorite band your favorite?  Good Charlotte is my favorite band because they are awesome and I've loved them for 10 years!

19: How many concerts have you attended? Which was your favorite? Least favorite? If none, who do you want to see live the most?  Goodness, I've attended quite a few concerts!  The GC concert in Myrtle Beach was one of my favorites, but the GC concert in VA was my least favorite.

20: What is one of your favorite song lyrics? (Who is it by?)  "Silently the senses abandon their defenses," from Music of the Night in Phantom of the Opera.

21: Who do you ship?  I ship Barney and Robin, Shawn and Jules, Lynette and Tom, and Penny and Leonard.

22: What band merch do you own? If any, whose is it and when did you get it? If none, whose do you wish you owned?  I own lots of GC shirts.  I believe the total is close to 14.

23: How did you learn of the band that is currently your favorite?  Haha, Justin liked them in high school and because I had a crush on him, I suddenly liked them, too.  But then I ended up actually loving them and now here we are!

24: What celebrity do you idolize the most?  Faith Hill.  She's real and clean, and you'll never see her face on the cover of a smut magazine talking about how she cheated on Tim McGraw.

25: Which member from which band would you most want to lather in Nutella?  C'mon.  Joel Madden.  But, he's married now, so I'll also list John Cooper from Skillet.

Durham Sucks Less...

...because we discovered we have a Zaxby's!!

I don't think you understand.  Particularly if you don't live in Durham, or live in a place that's had a Zaxby's for a long time, like any other place I've ever lived, ever.

When I moved here in 2010, I was instantly depressed over how much Durham seemed to be lacking in the food department.  The previous two places I had lived were Spartanburg, SC, and Rock Hill, SC, both of which I now know had one of everything you could ever want to eat.  Because I've lived in Spartanburg my whole life, and was subjected to having whatever I wanted to eat whenever I wanted it, it didn't occur to me that if I ever lived anywhere else, they wouldn't have it, too.  When I went away to college and that town also had everything, that only confirmed that things like Denny's and Jack in the Box and Sub Station II were everywhere.  God, was I wrong.

After finding out Durham had none of those things plus some, I was upset about it.  I uprooted myself to a completely new state and there's not even anything to eat here?!  I thought.  Zaxby's was one of those restaurants that hurt the most to be absent.  Not to mention, Durham is not only a college town, but the college town of Duke University!  Yet there aren't any places around here other than Cook Out that cater to the late night hungry college crowd.  I still don't think that makes any sense.

The lack of places to eat has been a topic of conversation for Justin and me ever since we've lived here.  And we made sure to make it a point of conversation with everyone that would listen.  One of those listeners was Paula, one of Justin's co-workers.  This past Wednesday, Justin sends me a text telling me that Paula claims she saw a Zaxby's in Durham.  He looks it up on the Zaxby's website, and sure enough, there is a listing.

And so.  Today.  We found it.

 

Yes, people of Durham, we are finally movin' on up!

Can you believe we've gone without this for over 2 years??

And that's not even the end!

Upon finding the Zaxby's, making sure it was up and running, touching the brick and mortar to rule out mirages, and tasting the heavenly food, we noticed a place next door called Goodberry's.  We really wanted to walk over there after lunch and see what it was, since it looked like an ice cream parlor and I'm never not in the mood for ice cream!

After we ate our chicken finger plates, I looked up Goodberry's on my phone while Justin was in the bathroom.  I found out that even though it was a creamery, it didn't serve ice cream or frozen yogurt.  It served frozen custard!  This really intrigued me.  I told Justin that upon his return, and he became intrigued as well.  We walked over, and ordered our dessert.  I got the Strawberry Shortcake Sundae, and Justin got the Snickers Sundae.

Excellent, creamy, custardy goodness.

Oh.  My.

Mmmm!

That was some of the best stuff I've ever eaten.  I couldn't believe it was custard!  Both of our sundaes were made with vanilla custard as the base, and it was the most unreal tasting goodness I've ever had.  It was a lot like ice cream, but thicker, and creamier, and sweeter.  It was ah-mazing.  We will most certainly be back.  Maybe tomorrow... ;)

So, congratulations, Durham, you suck a little less.  Keep up the good work.

Freakin' Obsessed Friday

1. Spring is coming!  Bonnie and I spotted one of the first tell-tales of Spring while on a walk, little white flowers!  The first day of Spring is the 20, which isn't too far away!  Very exciting.  Except for hubby, he has bad allergies. :(
2. Fresh Take breading.  I love this stuff.  It really makes chicken and pork chops so dang flavorful!  I had just discovered the recipe for the Crispy Cheddar Chicken, and within the same week, saw the commercial for this breading.  It does all the work for me!
3. My dragonfly mug.  My mom gave this to me as part of set of things from Cracker Barrel, which included the mug, a plate, and a kitchen towel, all of which have the same yellow and brown dragonfly design.  I love it and drink out of it often.
4. Ninth Street.  Can I just say that I love that this picture is unfocused?  I love it.  Justin and I live less than 5 minutes from Ninth Street in Durham, and I take any chance I get to go there.  It's a short street, maybe two or three blocks, but there's such neat stuff on it!  Especially Vaguely Reminiscent and Francesca's.

Props also go to the Retro Camera app for Android for the already-squared and matted pics this week!  I think it looks nicer, plus it's my own photographs, so no copyright stuff to worry about. ;)

I. Am. Frustrated.

This week has been hard on me.

I get my period next week, and the week before is always pretty brutal to me.  So, first off, I don't feel very good.

Second, I am missing some pictures.

Back in 2010, before Justin and I got married, we traveled down to Charleston, SC, to attend the wedding of Phil and Whitney.  I had never been to Charleston (unless you count that 8th grade field trip, where we had to stay in groups and all we did was ride a horse and buggy), and was excited to see the city.  We stayed with Robbie and Erin, another couple that we had gone to college with, also attending the wedding, and they showed us around.  I of course took a heap of pictures.

I was looking for my Charleston pictures two days ago, with the intention of sending Robbie and Erin a picture of them that I took while we were down there; one that I had neglected to mail them since we visited.

At first, I just couldn't find them.  I figured I had just hurriedly put them in another location while I was cleaning my laptop off at some point.  But then, I looked.  And looked.  And looooooked.  They are nowhere to be found!  I've been at this game for two days, and I am really sick of it.  I've asked Justin and my mom to investigate their own computers to see if maybe I had left them on there instead.  No.  I've checked, rechecked, and triple checked both of my hard drives, literally looking in every folder possible.  No.  Not there.

That's not even the worst part!

Once I couldn't find these pictures (they were taken in April of 2010), I began looking for other pictures around the same time frame to see if I had just lumped them together on accident.  And that's when my current horror was realized.  NOTHING from that time frame is here!  I have pictures dated up to March of 2010.  The next thing I have is our wedding, which was in November of 2010.

THERE ARE SIX MONTHS WORTH OF PICTURES MISSING!!  And I don't know where they are, or how to locate them.

Oh, I am SO upset.  I don't know where they are.  Please, someone, anyone, anywhere, please say a prayer for me.  Please just ask whoever you pray to, to help me.  If for no other reason, than just my sanity.

Ugh.

Just Another Pleasant Valley Sunday

In case you didn't know, Davy Jones of the Monkees died last week.  It made my heart very sad.  You see, the Monkees were my first favorite band.  Their greatest hits CD was the first one I ever owned.  They turned me into a daydream believer, and one of my favorite things to do as a child was to pretend I knew all the words to "Going Down."  I hate the way Davy went out, too.  A heart attack seems so unfair, but, by the same token, it's better than him being murdered or something else horrible.  Godspeed, Davy Jones!  You will be so missed.

No more sad news, though!  How about that continuing weekend coverage? :)

The rest of my weekend was so relaxing.  The rest of Saturday night consisted of McDonald's and Psych.  Sunday brought the weekly trip to the grocery store, delicious Taco Bell, and even more Psych.  God, I love that show.

Oh!  That reminds me!  I've found another show that I like!  It's a new show called GCB, and it comes on ABC right after Desperate Housewives.  Last night was the series premier, and I'd seen TV spots for the show for several weeks.  The first thing that caught my eye was the producer from Sex and the City and the writer from Steel Magnolias teaming up to create this show.  Those are two of my favorite things!  And the premier was good, it set the stage well, and developed the characters well, too.  I'm excited to see what happens next!  Of course, the thing I probably love most about it is how true to life it is.  The title stands for Good Christian B-words, and, if I'm not mistaken, is based on a book of the same name.  I was raised and grew up in a southern town where the person you are in high school defines you for the rest of your life, and even though being Christian is a good cover, people use it when it's convenient or when they want to look mightier than you.  So yeah, the show really hit home for me.  Another reason to look forward to Sunday night TV! :)

I think that's about all the good this little pictureless post can do.  I'll write about my latest craft later today, though.  Happy Monday!  (I know, an oxymoron if ever there was one!)

Coonhounds and Subs

 Here's what I've been up to this weekend.

Bonnie and I went for a walk yesterday afternoon right before Justin headed to play Magic.

I had the most YUMMY sub.  The fantastic part is, my mom brought it to me...from Spartanburg!!  My mom, my BFF Molly, my brother Luke, and my mom's dog Dolly made the trek up here to visit me yesterday as a surprise!  My mom brought me my favorite sub from Sub Station II, since Durham doesn't have one.  It was SO good.

But that wasn't all!  Maybe you've seen in my About Me page where I say my favorite smell is Febreze Noticeables' Falling Leaves and Spice.  I told my mom this, several several times, and was on a very real mission to collect 12 of them, so I could have the scent year-round and not just during Fall.  I scoured the area for them, looking every chance I got, and I still think I bought the last one in Durham.  My mom had a box with her, wrapped in purple paper.  I opened it, pulled some newspaper packing out of it, and found this:

Um.  Holy cow!  I wasn't sure what to do, I was so shocked!  My mom said she happened upon one of these by mistake in Wal-Mart, of all places, this long after Fall, and asked them how many they had left.  She bought all they had!  That woman is a jewel, I tell you.  She is the perfect mother!  And now I have my year's worth!  Man am I a happy girl. :)


Then, this morning, Justin and I had an oil change to go to.  While we were waiting, we fancily dined on bottled water and bite-sized m&ms cookies.

Perhaps you've seen the commercial for them, perhaps not.  But Jimmy John's is a sub place known for how quickly they get your food to you.  Justin and I, admittedly, were on our way to Subway for sandwiches (I've been on a sub kick this week; first Jersey Mike's, then Sub Station II, and now JJ!).  But JJ was right across the street, so we decided to try it since we've never been there before.  WOW.  I ordered a #16, and Justin got a #14.  I ordered first, and simply told the very nice cashier I wanted a #16.  He said OK, asked Justin what he wanted, he told the cashier, all very normal, nothing was rushed or out of the ordinary, it was just like we were ordering lunch anywhere else.  Before Justin could order his, mine was sitting there on the counter!!  I'm not even making that up.  That was THE fastest service I've ever seen, not to mention it was tasty!  So, props to JJ!  Go try them!  There is truth in their advertising!

Look at my sweet puppy. :)  She actually let me photograph her!

Wonder what else this weekend might bring!

Freakin' Obsessed Friday

1. "Ray Charles," by Chiddy Bang.  I heard this song on the radio some weeks ago and really loved it, and then didn't hear it again for a long time.  This week, I heard it more than once on the radio, and now I can't stop listening to it!
2. Handcent.  This is an alternate text messaging service for Android.  My favorite thing about it is how customizable it is!  You can finally change the color of the text bubbles (not to mention the background of the text window, and the font)!  Plus, the message comes up even if your phone is asleep, so you don't have to slide the arrow and wake up your phone to reply to a text.  SO handy.
3. Psych.  I've heard about this show for a while, but never watched it.  I haven't had cable for almost two years, so when a show comes on anything but a broadcast channel, I can't see it til sometime later, when it's on the Internet or Netflix.  Psych is on Netflix, and when I found that out, I started watching it.  I love this show!  I love the humor and the friendship between Gus and Shawn.  And also pineapples.
4. Crafting.  The reason I haven't written much this week is because I've been a busy crafting bee!  I had several projects that I had been putting off for various reasons, and I really wanted to get some of them done!  Most of them are for my mom, so I can give them to her the next time I see her.  I'll make a post about that later.