Happy Easter to all...

I've had one absolutely perfect day besides the inconsistent weather that we are going through right now.  I woke up and quickly got ready for church with just enough time to spare to dart across town and have my first iced vanilla latte since I gave them up for Lent over a month ago.  Man! It was truly the best thing I've drank in a long while.  I think I had the world's fastest record in slurping it down.

This was the start of my amazing day...

So then I meander into the church and hang out with the grandparents until church starts and my Gran and I go down to the nursery since our nursery time just happened to fall this week.  (Our church has no little ones to play with so it's really like our names are just in a bulletin for the rare chance that babies are there)
Today was one of those days!  I got to play with the cutest lil girl ever!  She was the epitome of a cute baby. 
She was hesitant to leave her momma but I sweet talked her and got her playin'...
After church we all went back to my Gran's house for the most amazing dinner ever! We had the best ham!  It was so juicy and just melted in your mouth....my mouth is watering just thinking about it, and I am seriously wishing I had made a plate of leftovers. 

After that dinner, I went to another family dinner and had some dirt cake and played with some more little kids.  I'm odd but I guess I fit in better with the children.  Sometimes I have anxiety issues talking with adults but put me in a room full of toddlers and preschoolers and I am golden.  I played ball all afternoon with this lil boy who is absolutely precious.  I did some serious sweet talkin' so that he wouldn't jump in this big ol' mud puddle.  Yeah, I'm the kid whisperer.  They listen to me most of the time. :)   He showed me how to dance...Too cute.  I'll teach you all now.  Stand up... now hold up the number one on both hands.....now move said hands up and down and spin in circles... yep, he taught me the dance moves to get all of the ladies.  He's gonna be a heart breaker when he grows up. 

Okay, so I have recently delved into the coupon clipping world.  I have been reading different articles and blogs that mention coupon clipping and I was curious.  This weekend I actually talked with a lady that was an avid clipper and she told me amazing stories of getting things for free or for pennies.  So I ask my Gran for last week's paper and start to dive in after lunch today.  I was on a quest for the ultimate deals.  I clip everything in sight that could be useful and make a trip to the store in between dinners.  I was determined to see if I could get something for almost nothing.  I had clipped a body wash coupon that was a SAVE 3.00 one and found that they only had the aforementioned body wash priced for 3.00...needless to say, I got it for free!!! I am still in awe! It's made me a complete believer.  I will now be an avid coupon clipper and save hundreds of dollars a month on things I would have paid full price for.  Yay for bargains!

This was my free body wash~

Anyway, I guess that's it for today.  I'm beat.  I hope all of you have had a wonderful Easter. I will show you my pretty Easter tulips that my Gran and Granddad got me in the next blog.  It'll motivate me to get them planted in the ground.  I might even take a pic of my actual garden for your viewing pleasure.  A real treat, I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats in anticipation! ;)

Woah, woah, woah!

So I just found out that my basement is the happy home to a spider that is larger than my hand with my fingers spread all apart! If anything freaks me more, I don't know what it is.  This creature could be a pet; it was so big, my uncle and my mother wouldn't go near it except to photograph it's enormous size and then run away quickly.  So now I have a big ass LIVE spider chilling down there and I have since closed off all of my vents and tucked all of my covers into my mattress and futon... Google wolf spider.. I don't want a picture of that creepy thing in my blog. Ugh! If only I had a nice neighbor I could call on at moments like these...Anyone want to live in a nice town with little to no attractions but live beside a super cool chick who will have fresh produce this summer? I can tempt with fresh strawberries and garlic!  Hmmmm, also potatoes, raspberries, herbs, and tomatoes!  All you have to do is kill big hairy spiders and lend an occasional cup of sugar from time to time. 
I'm currently sitting Indian style on my futon with all the necessities up here...(laptop, phone, charger, pillow, blanket...) My bedroom is right above that portion of the basement and that is the only vent that doesn't have one of those nifty little shut off valves.  Camping in the library tonight? I think, yes! Excellent idea.

At the salon today I had a really fun conversation with one of the older ladies that works there too.  She caught me up on all of the happenings on "Days of our Lives" from the past ten years.  I got comic enjoyment out of this immensely.  I used to be a huge fan of this show and my best friend and I would tape it during school and then alternate which house we watched it at each day.  I wore out so many VHS tapes by taping over every episode once that thing was full. I was an unusual 12 year old.  This friend and I also played counselor to all of the kids in the class at recess.  Even had them lay down on our make believe couch.  We were odd children but everyone loved coming to us with their problems.

Some leading ladies of Days of Our Lives for your viewing pleasure...
 
Another big show back then was "Passions"...another one of our favorites



I guess this will be a short post for the evening, can't seem to focus on anything and stay on the 8-legged watch.... Hope you all have a better night than I'll have!

yay! it's friday...

This week has been a long one for sure! Lots of good things were created this week by moi and I'm pretty proud of them! Not tooting my own horn or anything, well I kind of am. Oh well.
First creation was a homemade veggie pizza with fresh mushrooms, onions, peppers, and garlic!!! Man, I love cooking on grocery day. It was a toss up as to what sounded better with so many options to choose from.




A special thanks to my sous chef, Jen, for diligently chopping up the veggies :) hehe

Last night I had a hair emergency call and found myself working major magic in my kitchen for three hours. Results turned out really pretty but you're just gonna have to take my word on it, as I don't have photo documentation of that one. But let me tell you this, some hairdressers have no clue as to the logic behind why things happen and better yet, how to fix them. If you have orange hair then there isn't a dagon thing you can put on it to make it blond besides more bleach. Purple shampoo is only going to make the blond hair turn purple and they'll be a Lakers fan with orange and purple streaks!!!

Anyway, today has been a good day. I did some prom hair and it pays really well. The girl I did was such a sweetheart too. Some of the others were drama to the max.
Here is my work :)




Welp, I guess I'm gonna go for now but it's been such a good day, hope you all are having a good one too! :)

I've officially had a Monday

My day was like this:
*Wake up at 3:30 a.m. :
   sweating because it was so hot in my house and I don't have air conditioning
*Relocate to library where the fan is at
*Wake up at 5:45 a.m. from a dream where the library was super clean.  Quickly found out that it was a dream and definitely not reality. Promptly willed myself back to sleep
*Woke up finally at 8:30 and lazed about until 9:30 and deemed it an acceptable time to get up

I find my motivation to work out and about in my yard whilst eating my half baked ice cream. If you haven't tried it out, I strongly encourage you to do so.  This stuff is amazing. The only stuff I'm willing to suffer through the pain of lactose intolerance for anyway.

 

After a few quick bites of gooey goodness I am ready to start my day.
I cut my front and back yard (which is quite a feat, as I have a good deal of back yard)
and from doing this I am filled with such a sense of accomplishment.  Let me tell you, I feel empowered.  I can do anything! Anything within reason, that is...
After lawn mowing I decide to weed my flower beds and make them useful as herb gardens instead of the litter box that they have become.  Not a pretty task digging in cat shit all morning, but my mom came down to help me and the task went by quickly.  She also let me go plant shopping in her garden and gave me tons of pretty things.

 I have primrose that was from my great grandmother's garden

 Oregano as my very first herbs in my herb garden bed
 Garlic-It will be amazing to have fresh garlic to cook with this summer, I'm so excited!
 Fresh strawberries for breakfast! Oh yeah! Oh, or spinach salads!

Candy tuft

Sedum

 and last but not least Chives

After the gardening I quickly showered off and rushed off to do paper work for the completion of my program only to lock my keys in my car!  I have never ever locked my keys in my car and now I have joined the masses.  What a bitch! I had to call my mom to have her call AAA and then drive out to me so that they would come let me back in my vehicle.

But all is good again in my world, as I sit in my rocking chair on my front porch and blog while watching the rain water all of my hard work. I am filled with such peace knowing that I have made my home a better place today.

I hope everyone has had a great Monday and has an even better Tuesday! What's on your agenda for the evening? Mine is a good book and a cup of hot tea.  Mmmmm...I promise I'm not 80, I just act like it :)

What a weekend! I'm over it.

Let me first start out by stating I had a blast at mammoth caves and met a bunch of cool people and made new couch surfing friends. It was absolutely wonderful hearing all of these really cool travel stories!



We took the historic cave tour and it was really informative and interesting. So much fun, right up until the two year old walking in front of us had a bowel movement. Then, it wasn't as fun squeezing through these little paths and having to linger for a few minutes until the line got moving again. Luckily for us, there was a bathroom facility at the halfway mark in the cave. Who'd have thought?!?



Anyway, I had so much fun. There were drawbacks to the weekend though that weren't so fun. Ticks are a big problem there. I have freak outs over anything bug related that sucks your blood (FYI mosquitos are also on this freak out list) so I'm not the ideal camper. I act like a complete female over spiders and ticks. I really wanted to sleep in the van. Of course I roughed it and built character, I reckon. ;)

I made a new friend who taught me to forehand the frisbee. She was ultra cool. I gave her one of my trashy romance novels to keep and told her about paperback swap. I love spreading the word about cool things I've found.

My mom and I have been plotting a trip out west. I'm hoping it goes past the talking phase and morphs into an actual vacation. It would be so much fun to see the west and mark some more states off of my list. I think we would even go as far as Washington since there's a sustainability fair mom is really into. Who knows. I'll keep ya posted ;)

I've almost made it home without partaking in any acts of violence towards the lady we shared our vehicle with on this trip. I'm a rather agreeable person and can be very laid back and easy going for the most part. But this lady is like no other. From the start she blames me for getting us lost, even though she is the one who printed out the directions. Then she decides to repeat everything she says until she gets a response. Annoying is an understatement to say the least. She pees all over the van door when she is squatting on the side of the road because she can't hold it. She also pees inside the tent in a coffee can at three in the morning. These are just some drawbacks to camping with a complete stranger. If you need more examples just ask, I now have an arsenal of them ;)

Anyway, I'm over it. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have ten minutes until we make it home and she goes her separate way. Shew!

Time for a long minty bubble soak to erase three days of grime and muscle aches and then an early night to bed. Yes, I'm thinking that will be a fabulous idea.

mini road trip

On the road again... I've heard that statement about 10 times now. Shoot me!
Mom and I are on a journey to mammoth caves to a tent surf event with couchsurfing and we are sharing our ride with this lady who is trying on the nerves. Awkward conversation, weird statements, uncontrollable gas. NOT FUN.

Mom and I don't do constant chatter. It grates on us after a while. So we are up front trying to sing with the indigo girls and now, we will just call her lady L, now lady L has decided at this very moment she is going to pick out the cd. Hmmmmmmm. Is my aggravation showing?!?

Anyway, the weekend should get better I'm hoping. My lil sis is coming to hang out tomorrow and go caving with us. If I survive this five hour drive I will be good to go. I did pack my headphones and books but would hate to isolate my mom to the weirdness.

I'm pretty excited about seeing the caves. I haven't seen them since I was a wee lil girl. I wish it were warmer so that we could do the canoeing caves but that'll just have to wait for another day.

I am hoping you all have a great weekend and pray for my sanity ;)
I'll post updates and possibly some pictures if I have cell service.
Peace.