No Turkey Day, 2012

Every year for Thanksgiving, Justin and I usually eat something nontraditional since we head home for my mom's traditional meal the following weekend.  In 2010, we ate my mother's meatloaf with potatoes and green bean casserole.  In 2011, we ate my beef stew in the crockpot.  I like that, that we ourselves don't just eat the same old turkey and dressing as everyone else.

Also every year (at least the past two), it's just been Justin and me.  But this year, we had a guest!

For Thanksgiving this year, Justin and I had our friend Phil over for dinner.  Our friend Dave joined us after dinner for beer and movies.  A great time was had by all.  Here are some shots of the table.

We had quite a spread.  I made pot roast with Justin's Mema's gravy, deviled eggs, corn, mashed potatoes and key lime pie for dessert.  Phil brought over duck, which had been marinated and basted in Italian dressing.  Nothing like something different!

Such a lovely little "Friendsgiving."  Right now, we are packing to head home for my mom's traditional feast tomorrow.  Hope everyone has a great weekend and continues to be thankful for their blessings. ;)

Halloween Learnin'

This morning at work, I've been reading up on the origins of Halloween-related stuff.  I just find it incredibly interesting!  Here are my favorite tidbits I found today:

• Jack-O-Lantern: This term sort of follows Will-O'-the-Wisp's origin in terms of the name (according to Wikipedia:  The term "will-o'-the-wisp" comes from "wisp", a bundle of sticks or paper sometimes used as a torch, and the name "Will": thus, "Will-of-the-torch").  Where Will-O'-the-Wisp is saying Will of the Wisp, Jack-O-Lantern is Jack of the Lantern.  The story of the Jack-O-Lantern is coined in the tale of Stingy Jack, a man who lived in Ireland several centuries ago and was well-known for causing a lot of trouble by being very manipulative and tricky.  When the Devil heard of Jack's exploits, he decided to pay Jack a visit to see if the rumors were true.  As was normal for Jack on the fateful night he met the Devil, he was drunk.  He wandered drunkenly until he came upon what he thought was a dead body laying in the road.  The dead body turned out to be the Devil, surprising Jack.  Since Jack thought this was the end and the Devil was coming to collect his soul, Jack made a final request to the Devil and asked him for some ale before going to hell.  The Devil didn't see any harm in this and escorted Jack to a local pub where Jack drank to his content.  Afterwards, Jack asked the Devil to pay the tab.  The Devil turned himself into a silver coin, which Jack stuck in his pocket along with a crucifix to keep the Devil from turning back into himself.  In order to escape Jack's pocket, Jack and the Devil reached an agreement giving Jack another 10 years before the Devil would come back and try again for him.  As promised, the Devil shows up 10 years later, and Jack makes a final request; this time, for an apple.  The Devil climbs up a tree to retrieve some fruit for Jack, and Jack surrounds the trunk of the tree with crucifixes to prevent the Devil from coming down.  This time, the agreement was that the Devil would never be allowed to take Jack's soul to hell.  Eventually Jack died of his own accord after the drinking and otherwise bad lifestyle caught up with him.  At the Pearly Gates, Jack was told my St. Peter that because of his deceitful and drunken lifestyle, he could not be permitted into heaven.  And so he was sent to hell, where the Devil could not take his soul, as per their agreement.  To warn others of the risk of being stuck in purgatory, the Devil gave Jack and ember from hell as a light to guide his way in the darkness.  In order to better hold the ember, Jack hallowed out a turnip and set the ember in it, making a makeshift lantern.  And so, the story goes, Jack is forever doomed to walk the ground between heaven and hell with only the one ember to light his way.

• Halloween: also seen as Hallowe'en, a contraction of Hallow Even (or evening).  AKA All Hallows Eve.  Traditions included mostly games of telling the future.  Games such as peeling an apple and throwing the skin over a player's shoulder.  The skin will land in the shape of the letter that the player's future spouse's name starts with.  Also, if unmarried women sit in a dark room on Halloween night and look into a mirror, their future husband's face will appear.  However, if they are to die before they marry, they will will see a skull instead.

• All Hallows Eve: the night before the feast of All Hallows, a Christian holiday where prayers are lifted for all saints: those who were and those who will be.  AKA All Saints Eve.  Christian traditions include ringing bells for the souls in purgatory, and "souling," baking bread or a cake for all christened souls.  Souls in purgatory are given this day once a year as a chance to come back to the land of the living and take revenge on their enemies before moving on to the afterlife.

• All Hallows/All Saints Day: A Christian holiday to celebrate all saints and commemorates those who have successfully made it into heaven.  The day following Halloween.  In more protestant churches, specifically Methodist, All Saints Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in November as a way of remembering deceased members of the congregation, as well as all saints.

Hope y'all enjoyed that as much as I did! :)

Who I Am Today

Sugar.

I've been getting/using a lot of it lately!

Last week, I used this recipe from Urban Nester to make Baked Oatmeal Casserole.

It was a big hit with Justin and Dave, but I would have liked it more without the chocolate.  I'm one of those weird people who doesn't like the chocolate+fruit combo.

Good to the last bite!

With the leftover strawberries and bananas, I made Justin strawberry and banana waffles the next morning.  He loved them.

Today, Justin and I spent the 4th watching Hey Arnold! on Netflix most of the day and having red, white, and blue spaghetti for dinner.

The noodles look a little teal in these pictures, but they were more so blue!

Just before dinner, Justin headed out to go get a birthday surprise for me!  I wasn't sure what it was, but I was really excited about it!

He brought me a Kroger whipped-icing cake!!  It is, like, my favorite thing.

Purple icing!

I also got lovely flowers and a very sweet card. :)

It sure made for a great surprise kickoff to my birthday weekend!

I wish the day had started off as well as it ended, though.  My poor hubby woke up around 5:30 this morning knowing out-right he was going to throw up.  And after waiting an hour sitting on the bathroom floor, he finally did.  Afterward, when we tried to go back to sleep, he threw up again.  That's just not a nice way for anyone to start their day, especially a day off work!  But thankfully, he's doing much better now and didn't get sick anymore today.  Ginger Ale and McDonald's cure anything!

My mom bought me a 4th of July headband.  Rock on.

Hope everyone had a very Happy and Relaxing 4th!  God bless America, and bless us, everyone.

*I'd just like to apologize for some poor lighting in these pictures.  Delilah is on loan to my mother at the moment for photographing a wedding. :)

It's My Birthday Week!

The week of my 26th year is finally here! :)

I'm planning on going to Walmart, or even the dollar store, and getting some birthday stuff for myself.  Like, a Birthday Girl ribbon and streamers to decorate the apartment with.  Because I can.

I'm also going to photograph myself at some point this week and make something like this that I originally found on Pinterest.

I kinda hope I always treat my birthday as a big deal.  It seems the older you get, the less your birthday means to you and the less you celebrate it.  I understand doing this in favor of celebrating your children's birthdays with more gusto, but I read something once that really stuck with me.  It said to appreciate every birthday that you get, because someone was not as lucky as you.

Chilling words, indeed.

Two Weeks Left

...of being 25!

I was skipping through the Internet this morning and through a series of events landed on the Boy Meets World IMDb page.  As usual with these things, I just had to scroll through the Trivia (it's my favorite part).

As I was browsing all the neat tidbits, I saw this small button on the left side.

Buy it at Amazon? I thought.  Impossible!

You see, Boy Meets World was my favorite TV show as a kid, and for most of my adult life I've been trying to buy it on DVD.  But all I ever found was random seasons (like in Walmart), or "complete series" that seemed sketchy (like on eBay).

So, to see the option of purchasing it was unbelievable at best to me.  But I clicked the button, and then saw this...

O...M...G...

I could not believe it.

Not only was the entire series available, but it was for a damn good price, too!  My heart soared, and I was SO happy!

I immediately put the link up on Facebook, and Justin has already called Dibs on it for my birthday! :)

Which, speaking of my birthday, is in two weeks!

As in, two weeks from today!  How crazy is that?

Although, it actually seems like a long time ago that I wrote about my last birthday.  Usually, things that happened a while back seem like they happened just last week to me, but my 25th birthday seems like it has a lot of distance between it and this coming one.

It's just absurd to me that I'm going to be 26 in two weeks.  As you grow older, it doesn't really occur to you that one day you will be 26.  Literally my whole life, I wanted to be 13.  I'm not sure why, I guess it was the appeal to me at the time of being a teenager.  I turned 13, and then I wanted to be 16.  Not even for the chance to drive a car, just to be 16.  I think either 16 or 18 was certainly my finest year to date.  I loved everything about those two years, and I had a lot of fun growing up during them.

Then of course, being in college and whatnot, 21 was the age to be.  I turned 21, and didn't drink much.  I still don't drink much.  But after 21, there's not an "exciting" age left.  There is no hype associated with being 25 or 27 or 30 or 32 or any other age.  21 is where that all seems to stop.

Therefore, I don't think it really occurs to people that there is something after 21.  That is the goal after all, isn't it?  To reach 21?  Then after that, what?  You're an adult?  That's boring.

And now I'm turning a boring 26.  If my future self could have told me when I was 16 where I would be 10 years later, I don't know what I would have thought.  I'm actually an adult.  I'm past the first quarter of my life.  It's just so weird to me.

I don't mind the part about getting older, though.  Getting older doesn't scare me.  In fact, at this age, I'm quite excited for it to happen.  I'm in the middle bracket now, you see.  I've officially made it to the next age group on drop-down menus.  I'm not early 20s, and I'm not 30s yet, either.  I'm in that bracket where no one really takes me seriously but they should.  I know what I know, and I know how to do what I do.  I'm on the verge of having children, but don't have them yet like so many of my mid-20s counterparts.  I'm experienced in my field, but not enough to get a decent job in it.  I'm just in the middle.

I'm anxious to get past this stage of my life and into the more serious one, but not so much so that I'm not going to enjoy it.  I love my life, and the people in it.  Especially the ones that've been around for 25 years!  Everything in my life is good, and I hope God will give me a chance to enjoy it for another birthday.

But you know what?  I'm accomplished!  I'm past getting my license, going to college, being able to drink, and being able to rent a car.  I've done all that.  So, that's something not everyone gets to brag about.  Go, me!  Here's to 26!

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!

Valentine's Decor 2012

Yeah, I am SUPER late to the party.  But February got busy real fast, and I just didn't have time to take pictures of all our Vday decorations!

Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday, and I look forward to it every year.

Better late than never!  Here are some pictures of our Valentine's decorations we put up this year.

These were some hearts I made using scrapbook paper and staples.

I hung these cute paper plates in my kitchen using tape!

Some new additions to the heart garland from a few weeks ago!

Our table setting.

Aren't these adorable?  My mom bought them for me.

Cute napkins.

This vase always has something seasonal in it.  This time, it's heart-shaped boxes from the dollar store.

The awesome wreath my mom made for us a couple of years ago.  Such talent, that lady!

Little honeycomb decoration from Wal-Mart.

Best rocker in the world, most awesome blanket EVER, and cute little LOVE pillow from home.

Aren't these cute?  They're labeled as treat cups, and I have been using them to eat popcorn out of. :)

Little heart tub from a few years back.  Never found a use for this!

So there you have it.  I know, it may be too much cute for one post, but I'm going to stuff it full of cute anyway!  Happy almost March!