Happy Anniversary to Me!

I know, I know, it doesn't seem like it's already time for an anniversary. Time goes by so fast, doesn't it?!

But John didn't forget, and for our (seven month) anniversary yesterday he gave me this:

Okay, so maybe it wasn't for our (seven month) anniversary, and maybe I didn't even realize that it was our (seven month) anniversary until just now but what other reason would I get such a nice gift on a random Monday in May?

Just cause, that's why!

I am one step closer to becoming a 'for real' blogger, cause everyone knows all of the 'for real' bloggers have nice cameras and even nicer pictures. My favorites are her, her and her, but there are lots more.

(And please don't mind my wet hair in that picture; there was no time to be blow drying when I had a new toy to play with!)

I'll keep the training wheels on it for a while - A.K.A. the "auto" mode - but I plan on buying this and learning all there is to know about it so I can have way awesomer pictures to share.

So while John worked out last night, I got my workout in by running around the house taking a million pictures of anything and everything.

I tried to learn by just using it and referencing the manual here and there, but it's looking like I'm gonna need a lil bit more help than that.

But I did master the concept of the focal point I think. Pretty easy, it seems, at least when the subject is staying still and not running towards me. (AHEM, take note Reese and Tuna!)

So I'll play around some more tonight and then when I get sick of that, I'll play with my other gift I got yesterday:

And it's only fitting that I got these lovely gifts...after all today IS Christmas in May. Did you finish your shopping yet?

U-Turn: Back To Bed

Happy Tuesday!

Actually, so far it's been not so happy...rather frustrating. And I decided (without my lovely employer's consent, mind you) that I would most definitely be able to turn this into a Happy Tuesday if I just did a U-Turn and went back to bed.

However,

But alas.

This morning consisted of this:

I had my semi-annual dermatologist appointment at the hour of 8 o'clock which consisted of rolling around on a padded table in my undies, again. I normally have to be at work at the same time (8:00), but for some reason thought I could at least get about 10 extra minutes of sleep this morning. I mean, what's the point of being allowed to be late to work if you don't get extra sleep, right?

When I did finally leave my house I realized that I had no cash to pay to park when I got to work, since I would not be taking the train today. So I added one additional stop to my already rushed trek to the doctor: the ATM.

Since it requires $5 cash to park, and the ATM only spits out twenties, I decided I'd get out $40 and use the cash to pay for my copay ($25), which would leave me with a fiver to pay to park. Genius idea, right?

I then rushed to the doctor and arrived 9 minutes late. Oops. But, I got called back right away so I technically just saved myself 9 minutes of sitting in the waiting room with nothing to do because I forgot to bring a book. Score 1 point for me!

After the appointment I went to pay my copay when I was told that they had no change because hardly anyone pays in cash. Are you serious?? So I whipped out the debit card and paid that way and came up with the next plan to break my twenty.

I pass a Burger King on the way from the doctor's office to my office, so I decided I'd purchase a soda because not too much else sounds too appetizing to me from the ol' BK...not my fave place. A Dr. Pepper sounded great, so that's what I ordered. Took a sip of my drink and discovered I'd gotten a Coke instead. Sigh.

On the way to the parking lot I usually park in, I passed another lot which is also only $5 and is closer. Great! I'll park here. Took my $5 and walked up to the pay station.

This new fancy schmancy parking lot did not look like that at all, and now takes debit/credit cards. Freaking figures. Have I mentioned I hate Tuesdays?

Happy Birthday Mama!

Today my beautiful and loving Mama turns....another year older. :)

She is my best friend and I talk to her almost daily about everything...last month it was 314 minutes to be exact!

I call her from the grocery store when I don't know where to find something.

I call her from Home Depot when I can't figure out what plants to buy.

I call her (often) from the kitchen when I have my frequent cooking struggles.

My Mama knows everything!

Give me any other day and I can tell you 1,000 stories about how great and wonderful she is. She is so selfless and giving and caring and I honestly couldn't ask for any more. But, when I'm trying to pick one story to tell that epitomizes who my mama is, it's near impossible. You'll just have to believe me when I say she is the most super-de-duper greatest, wondefulest, bestest ever! EVER! Really, she is!

I hope you had a wonderful birthday dear Mama! I love you bunches and bunches! I need you to write me a guide book on how to be the perfect mama, cause you've got it down pat and I can only hope to do the same one day.

Put on your party hat and have an awesome birthday!

LOVE YOU!!

Garage Sales Spring 2010

The family & I have had a lovely garage sale season this year! We got a late start, but have been going each Saturday morning for the past several weeks and have gotten tons of great stuff!

Wanna see what I've gotten so far?

Well, at first I was still pregnant so I was interested in seeing what I could find for baby. I must have had an inkling that something wasn't right, because even though sisters and the mama were showing me awesome deals on baby stuff, I kept telling them I wasn't ready to purchase anything.

BUT, a couple of times I caved.

I got for baby:

3 grocery bags FULL of nice baby clothes, for $1/bag! A church sale had tons of baby clothes for sale and would sell you a grocery bag for $1 that you could fill with as many clothes as you like. How could I have turned this deal down?! And since my brother is also expecting a baby, we figured someone would get use out of the clothes, boy or girl. For $3, I'm pretty sure one of us will get our moneys worth!

A baby wipe warmer for $2. Don't know what convinced me to buy this random item when I wasn't ready to buy anything else yet.

A giant white basket ($2) that will be put to some use one day in a nursery.

For the house, I got:

This stained glass window ($5) that is currently hanging over the sink to see how I like it, but I'm not sure of it's permanent home just yet.

In case the stained glass window gets the boot, most likely what will be going up in it's place is this window ($5)...which the mama originally bought, but then I purchased from her.

These little metal pear hangy things ($.25/each)...not yet in use but will go somewhere in the kitchen.

These stick leaves ($1/each) to be hung in our half bath.

These brand new curtains ($5), which I'm thinking the lady that sold these must have been a closet curtain thief cause she had an entire table full of new curtains still in the package...awfully suspicious, but I'll take em! (Yes, they still need to be ironed...I got too excited when I got them and put them up to see how they'd look and have yet to take them back down to iron them!)

These white candle holder thingies ($1/each), which appropriately filled empty spaces on my new bookshelf and shelf.

This ultra convenient drying rack ($2), so I will no longer need to use every chair in our house as a drying station. (Yes, I realize the dryer has thrown up in the background...that's what happens when you have 2 minutes to find some pants to wear before running out of the door in the morning.)

This lovely springtime wreath ($3):

Yet another pumpkin ($1) for fall/Halloween decorating.

Some Christmas beadage ($.50), to wrap around the banister for Christmas decorating:

These 2 little candle holder things ($.25/each), which I decided I didn't like where I intended for them to go, so if you want them...they're yours!

For me I got:

This book ($.25) that I started reading at the beach this past weekend, and haven't been able to put down:

These bracelets ($.25/each)

For the kitchen:

A cheese grater ($.25)...ya never know when you might need one!

A mini Pampered Chef Micro-cooker ($1):

A Pyrex food keeper-warmer carrier thingy ($1):

For outside:

These three wrought iron hanging baskets...$3 EACH! I am probably most excited about these because a few days before I bought these at a garage sale, I had purchased some similar (but not quite as nice) ones from Home Depot for $14 each! So I bought these and promptly returned the others! Sa-weet!

Some new gardening gloves ($.25) which I've already put to good use!

A beach chair ($2) that just needs some TLC:

For our camping trip coming up over Memorial Day weekend, we needed 1) a tent and 2) sleeping bags. At one sale, we found 5 sleeping bags for $3/each and they ended up throwing in a tent for $5 more! They had only been used once, so I kept 2 and my mama kept the rest!

So, in total, $53.75 for all this stuff. Makes it difficult when I go into a regular store and have to pay full price for something...can't beat a garage sale price!

If the weather cooperates on Saturday, that should be the last garage-saling day of the spring and we'll have to wait until the fall to start back up. This weekend I'm looking to find a nice purse with a couple thousand dollars inside, and I'd be willing to pay $.50. Wish me luck!

Smile, It's Thursday!

This is Cooper. He's the lovely dog-child of my friend Katie, and he's happy it's Thursday so I feel like I should be too. Although, he's on a road trip and I'm sitting at a desk...and tomorrow he'll STILL be on vacation and I'll still be at this desk, so smiling is a little harder to come by for me.

I'll give you this much smile for a Thursday:Not enough? Okay fine - this much, and this is my final offer.
And although the first picture up there (of lil Coop) was taken with a (gasp!) Blackberry, how about another round of iPhone pictures?


This is my view when I pull up to my house most days. Reese and Tuna don't like each other all that much (or actually Reese just doesn't like Tuna...Tuna loves everybody) so to keep the fighting at a minimum, they must stay on separate floors all day long.

This was from standing in line one day at lunch at one of my favorites, Salsarita's. It took all I had to just stand still and not take my umbrella out of my purse and go to town on that pinata. Fair warning to anybody else that may be standing in line today or tomorrow - I'll try to keep myself under control.

Last weekend I was in Florida on a little weekend getaway with my sister and her friend. We went out to a place called Inlet Harbor one night for a drinky drink or two, and I asked my sis if she'd take a picture of me. I swear, I am SHOCKED that this picture came out as good as it did because I had to hold that smile for 34985723495 minutes while my sister figured out how to push the button. Love ya sis!

Here, I was still pregnant and at a party at one of our friends' houses. Everyone but me was drinking, including John, and I was slightly annoyed. [See: facial expression.]

Remember when I tried to get a picture of the license plate that read: Marawana? This is what I got instead. A blur of dashboard.

On the way home from Florida last weekend, we did a little detour around Jacksonville. You may be asking yourself why. Well, it had nothing to do with traffic, or road construction, or anything like that. We decided that the only place at which we wanted to eat lunch was Arby's. And Arby's became a mission that took added about 30-40 extra minutes to our drive home.

But in the meantime, Jacksonville had some beautiful bridges! I missed the prettiest ones, but here's this one....

Watching a missile being launched.

(Just kidding! It was the space shuttle Atlantis!)

And finally, I was attempting to take a picture of the BEAUTIFUL beach this one morning as I was laying out, but it seems I was unable to hold the phone high enough because my ginormous boobs in their spiky bikini top just had to be in the picture too:

Into the Archives: The Blair Witches

(When not much is going on in my present-day Life of Lacey, I'll go back to the archived Life of Lacey. You know, that time way back when before 'blog' was even a word.)

For about a year during high school, I worked at a movie theater as an usher, ticket taker, ticket seller, and popcorn seller extraordinaire. I have only had one job in my life that I did not like, and this one was definitely NOT one of them. I loved this job and the people there. And not to mention the benefits! No no no, not the kind of benefits that first come to mind as an adult...not health insurance, 401K, and all of that boring adult stuff, but FUN benefits. Such as:

• Free popcorn and soda.
• $1 Nachos and/or Hot dogs.
• Free movies anytime for myself.
• Family could come see free movies with or without me.
• Up to 4 friends could see free movies as long as they were with me.
• And last but not least, we got to screen the new movies before they were released.

The screenings typically happened after the movie theater closed on weeknights. During the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I was able to stay and see these movies that typically would start around midnight.

During that summer The Blair Witch Project was released. Before I became a big weenie as I am now, I used to actually enjoy seeing scary movies. Even better if we got to see them in a movie theater at midnight! So one night in July, myself and all of my coworkers stayed to watch the very talked about Blair Witch Project. Little did I know how much that stupid movie would affect me.

After the movie was over I headed home with visions of wooden dolls and witches in my mind. My parents' house is nestled back in the woods; a scene very similar to the setting of the Blair Witch Project. Most nights, my parents would make sure to leave the giant flood light (that illuminates the very dark driveway) on for when I was coming home late. This night, conveniently, they forgot.

I pulled up into the pitch-black driveway, put the car in park, and couldn't bring myself to get out. I sat there with my headlights on worrying that some crazy witches were going to run out of the woods and attack me as soon as I stepped out of the car. I sat in the car for about 1o minutes, thinking every rustled leave had a witch standing behind it ready to pounce. When I finally convinced myself that I could outrun witches (I mean, shouldn't be too hard...they have stubby little legs after all) I made a mad dash for the door and slammed it behind me. I was sure I had just slammed it in their faces and barely escaped death.

Over the next few months (okay, maybe a year) this pattern continued. Turns out, it didn't matter if the flood light was on or not - I was still a scaredy cat every single night. Soon I was taking the stairs 3 at a time and those creepy little witches didn't have a chance.

Today, I am proud to say I have outgrown my witch paranoia. Didn't even have to go to witchy support groups or anything!

However, some of the things I picked up from scary movies have stuck with me...in this case, the movie Urban Legend. Cause every time I get into my car by myself at night, I do a quick backseat sweep with my hand. I am too scared to look while I do it, but I will sweep my hand across the seat and then the floorboards to make sure that someone isn't crouched down and lurking while waiting to pull one of these maneuvers:

But hey, you can never be too careful! If you have any questions I'll be glad to teach you this little tactic... you just let me know!

Happy Birthday Seth!

Today, my nephew Seth turns 10! Happy Birthday Seth!

Seth is loving:
funny:

artistic:

& an individual:

but not to mention shy:

sweet:quiet:
and cute:

Happy 10th Birthday Seth! We love you and can't believe you are already 10...which means 10 years ago tomorrow, I was waking up after senior prom the night before, finding a dead cell phone, and realizing when I got home to a charger that I had a voice mail saying you had decided to come the night before. Way to leave me out of your birth!

But, I'll forgive you as long as you stay 10 forever...no more growing! Deal?!