Work. Gotta love it.

That rockstar drummer is my boss, Brian. And who's the babe on the guitar? That's my co-worker, Rachel. This is what we do. This is called work. (Being on the "Walmart Team" also means working with Sam's Clubs and Wednesday we had a product demo for Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Lotion and so we wanted to go check it out. Somehow we got a little lost...)

This picture is the best - again, Brian and Rachel (same song, different angle) but guess who's in the background? JASON ROREX!!!! HAHAHA!!! And like 30 seconds later, he's like so what are you doing, and my other boss Megan said "She's at work."

Another funny thing about this picture is that (and you can't really see him) Jaime the preacher for Red Bank's Hispanic church is looking over his shoulder right in between Rachel and Brian. I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!

Catching Up!

Remember last week when I told you about my morning? (Okay, minus showering, brushing teeth, etc - c'mon, those are minor.)


Well, here's my little stinker hooked on to the fridge (so he'll actually sit for 5 minutes to eat).


And see, I wasn't lying about him spilling his water - EVERY DAY!!



Anyway, this weekend Jason's family and I went to the TN game!! It was a later game so we spent a long time just waiting for everything to begin. And (unfortunately for J) his mom LOVES to take pictures. I am all for it because I'm all about scrapbooking, blogging, and everything else, but... um... as you can see from the slightly annoyed face below... Jason is less than thrilled with the 257th picture of the day.

Our McCain/Palin stickers - and one that said "NOBAMA (however you want to say it)"

Sunday, Jason and I headed up to Gatlinburg where I finally rode those ski-lift chairs for the FIRST TIME!! :) It was fun.

My other little stinker.


Oh yeah, and then we decided to drive to NC to the casino - just for fun!! We set our little budget (very little, mind you) and played the $0.05 and $0.01 slots for little while. We won $25! (Okay, then we spent it, but we won it!)

WHAT A CRAZY FUN WEEKEND!!!!! :)

(Oh yeah, I have to tell Jen this - I saw HSM with my mom on Friday night. Amazing. Ah-mazing. ::sigh::... too bad I'm way too old to express my true feelings for this movie.)

Oh my my my - if you need a good laugh!

Please visit this List of the Day: Great Olan Mills photos.

And get a tissue to wipe the tears away.
And don't do it at work.
Because you'll laugh out loud.
And others will look at you strangely.
Very strangely.

Just go look at it okay!?!

:)

Yummy Corn Chowder

Believe it or not, I really like to cook. Now, this meal doesn't really need a lot of skill, which is just about perfect for me, but it's a yummy fall soup. I thought I would share my $9.02 dinner (notice all the walmart brand stuff) that makes 8 servings. :)


1 can of sweet whole kernel corn (drained)
1 can of creamed corn
2 cans of chicken broth
1 can of cream of SOMETHING soup (I used chicken, you can use mushroom or celery too!)
1 can of evaporated milk
some ham
potato cubes or pasta (which I forgot to put in mine, but will do next time)


Cook the ham enough to fill your apartment with the smell.


And basically mix everything else together. If you just moved out and you only have two small pots, then mix it all together in your mixing bowl...

((look at my cute ice cream scoop!! IT'S A COW ASHLEY!!))
...heat up what you need... (boil for 10 minutes, then simmer for 20)


...and scarf it down before remembering to take a picture.


The end.

P.S. Yes, I drink my juice out of the bottle. I live by myself and feel that I have every right. (Oh yeah, and I don't like to wash dishes...)

Every Morning

Hello all. I just thought I would share a couple things that regularly happen around my good 'ol apartment.

Every morning:

• I get up (early), get ready, and take the dog out to pee (he does!! YAY!!). But then even if he has to go #2, he wants to come inside, get about 2 sips of water, and then whine about how he has to poop. Then we go back outside, he goes, and we come in for breakfast.
• Since I have no dining furniture (and because Dash wants me to stare at him while he eats) I sit on the kitchen floor and eat toast or a poptart while he eats breakfast.
• EVERY MORNING he takes his little paw and pretends as if he needs to dig his water out of a well, spilling it all over the kitchen floor (which gets cleaned every morning now, mind you).
• Something super cute related to all that is that he also thinks he needs to dig for his food, so he'll dig at his bowl, or take a piece out, set it down and then dig at it, just to see if he can get it out of that deep, dark, fake wood linoleum flooring. It's quite adorable. :)
• Okay so I take Dash out in the same shoes EVERY MORNING - they look similar to these: except mine are hot pink and lime green tye-dye. And EVERY MORNING (it's literally happened 6 times in 2 weeks) I walk out to my car in my spiffy work outfit, complete with clown colored crocs. Upon realizing this, I have to go BACK inside, find different shoes, say the whole "Goodbye sweetheart - you're a good doggy" routine, and head back out the door.

EVERY MORNING. :)
(I love it.)

Praise Praise Praise!!

To update you on my friend Lindsay: She is HOME!! They got to go home on Wednesday, just a few days after the wreck. She is still in pain but recovering like a champ. I wanted you all to know about THAT praise and this one:

BABY KATE IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kate Elizabeth was born yesterday at 11:47 am and from all the adorable pictures I've seen, she is the most precious thing!! I had been sick on Wednesday night, and still feeling a little icky yesterday, and dadgumit was I MAD that I was like the ONLY ONE who didn't get to see her yesterday!!!! ::sigh:: I hate that it turned out that way, but until I knew for sure that I was 100% better, I didn't want to get Kate, Becca, or Keith sick if I had something contagious.

Today I'm feeling A-OK and ready to love on the newest addition to all of our families. I consider her my niece just as if it was my own sister that had a baby, because we are all a family. And I can't wait to spend the years watching her grow up in a loving family -- with all the aunts any kid could ever want!!

Prayers Prayers Prayers.

Hey friends. Yesterday, Jessica (Jason's sister) called me and let me know that one of the girls that was in my cabin 2 years ago was in a terrible car accident this weekend. She's doing so much better - recovering more quickly than they expected, but still in terrible pain from head injuries. Below is a link to her care pages blog with updates on her progress. If you want to learn more about what happened, go to the bottom and click the older updates to start from Saturday/Sunday when the accident happened.

Lindsay Nation

PLEASE keep Lindsay and the Nation family in your prayers. I know that you will.

Remember that each moment is precious and you never know what could happen to you, your family, or your friends. Let someone know that you love them today. Don't keep things bottled up inside that need to be said. I know that I'm preaching as much to myself as anyone else right now, because I'm so often caught in the lie that "it won't happen to me," but the truth is, we only have so long on this earth and we have to start using our time in the most valuable ways we can. Do things that are monumental for the Kingdom. Show others that you truly care about them and about where they will spend eternity. This precious girl could have passed away this weekend, but God has more that He wants to accomplish here on earth through her. She is a trooper and loves God so much, and I am blessed to know her and her family.

Sigh. Sometimes traumatic events just make you think, huh?

Day Trip to NC

After emailing for a few weeks with my Aunt Ginny, my family decided that it was time for a visit! She lives in Miami but has a cabin in North Carolina (about 3 hours from us), so it's much easier for us to visit her in NC instead of Miami. Dad, Mom, Nick, and I hopped in the car yesterday and made the trip to the cabin.

The beautiful views out the front window!

We ate at the Frog and Owl restaurant in Franklin and I was a little bit concerned about what they served... but it was really yummy!

The downtown area was so cute, but since it was Sunday, nothing was open!

My goofy little bro bro. You can't tell but he's standing in front of this little shop that had kilts and other Scottish apparel. Nick is mimicking the mannequin who is wearing a beautiful skirt.

The adorable garden area in the town square.

The amazing view from the back porch of the cabin.

Ginny's puppy-babies: Xi (pronounced Zee), Taz, and Dirk (from left to right).

The super cool swinging bridge right down the hill from the cabin.

The reflection off the water.

Our family picture! (Dad, me, Aunt Ginny, Nick, Mom)

We had a BLAST!!

(FINALLY) Pictures from the Move

HERE IT IS!!!! Finally - pictures from the move. Something I wiggled around on the internet box finally "clicked" and now the wireless is working! YAY!

Remember this? Yeah, me neither.

This was my car on trip numero uno.

Packing up the BIG load!!

My bedroom - BEFORE and AFTER!

(Okay there's still some need for more AFTER-ness to this after.)

The kitchen!! (...again, a room lacking the ooomph factor.)

The cutesy cute bathroom!! I love it. :)

The other side. (Yeesh! at that 70s counter-top!)

Well, that's all the apartment pictures for now. I'M LOVIN' IT!!!!!!!!!!

I. Need. More. Change.

No, I'm not trying to buy something from the vending machine. Gah.

I really want a new template/background/theme for my blog.

Any ideas???

Something with substance.

Today we (some of the sales dept.) had lunch with Katie, our co-worker who had a baby boy (Owen) on September 15th. She looked amazing - so happy, loving on her little boy, and in general she is just a joyful person. He will be 4 weeks old on Monday, and in the car on the way back to work we were talking about how crazy it is that maternity leave is a mere 6 weeks. I can't imagine that in 2 more weeks she'd be 100% ready to jump back in the work world, which she's actually not doing - she's taking vacation and other time to be home a little longer. Anyway, I started to think about it and I guess you can just interpret all my rambling:

I have always wanted to be a mother. I mean, from the time people started asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I have answered "a mommy". Except of course for that feministic time in late middle/early high school when I said "the CEO of a major corporation"... yeah, except for that.

Now that I'm working, I really enjoy the work life: the schedule, the money, the co-workers, the money, the intellectual stimulation, the money... but it makes me wonder. In the future (let's say the far away future for fear of scaring the love of my life) when I have a baby/babies, will I:
Stay home for sure?
Stay home for several months and then go back?
Stay home and work part time?
Go back to work as scheduled?
And the thing is, whatever you think you'll do before you actually have the baby, will probably change when you have it. I mean, you might think you want to be home full time and realize, wow - this isn't for me. Or you might think that you will certainly work when your leave is up, but get to that "6 week" mark and think, how could I leave this baby?

I'm just throwing all this out there, and I know that what I think I'll do now will probably change, because my thoughts and opinions on so many things seem to change with the years. I've always been a night owl, now I have to be in bed by 10:30 or I'm freaking out that I won't get enough sleep. I used to hate to exercise and now I wish I had the opportunity to go to a class every day. I used to love school, and now I'm (sort of) dreading going back in January. I used to always have to be with others, and now I really enjoy alone time. All these things have changed, and will continue to morph as the years go by.

Who knows. Right now, I'm still a single, selfish, working, apartment dwelling, puppy loving girl who's happy where she is. :)

Wordle? Is that even a word...le?

This is my wordle. I used my blog as a reference for the words and this is what I got. HOW COOL!!!!!!!!!! I love that it says Qui from "Bon Qui Qui". Anyway, I think I'm going to make one of these and FRAME it, since I don't have anything on my walls.

Hope everyone is having a FABULOUS almost Friday!!!

Does this mean I'm a grownup now?

HIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!! Didja miss me?! Okay, well just to go ahead and warn - no pictures today. Sorry. The thing is: I have internet, it just doesn't work yet. Why my computer can't seem to just connect with an ethernet cord, why it has to be so snobby and only accept wireless - I don't know. Luckily for me, my good buddy Ray-Ray (who might have a blog, but you can't access it because of his privacy settings... just sayin.) is letting me have a wireless router!! WHOO HOO!! Saving $30-50 is always a joyous occasion in my book. :) So now he's given it to Alex to give to me, but I never see her and haven't had a chance to go up the mtn. to get it. Soooooo all that to say - no pictures today.

Here are some one-liners about my MOVING DAY WEEKEND!!!!!

• Moving was cRaZy.
• I was a stress ball.
• THREE HOUR Walmart trip - not strolling around, but power shopping.
• Not caring what kind of ziploc bags my mom put in my stinkin' cart.
• My beautiful bed that's easier to make than at home. :)
• MY OWN SHOWER!!!
• MY OWN CLOSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Becca and Keith to the rescue at Walmart, when I was at my lowest point. :)
• Sam and Jason doing all the heavy lifting on moving day.
• My mom's sweet spirit and fun attitude towards the whole process.
• Having that precious little puppy all to myself!
• Teaching that "precious little puppy" that we don't use the bathroom in the house. (he's doing great!!)
• Watching Iron Man on a lazy Sunday afternoon with my two favorite guys (Jason and Dash).
• Making COOKIES whenever I want!!

I promise I'll post pictures of each room as SOON as I get the chance!! :)

Countdown: 0 DAYS!!!

Okay my good friends - today is the day!! I'm working a little more than half a day today, then it's over to the apartment to set up my new home!! I was feeling VERY bad yesterday and ended up napping for an HOUR when I got home from work. Luckily I got a bit of a second wind and was able to do a lot of last minute things that needed to get done.

I will post pictures throughout the weekend (once my internet is installed...) and keep you all updated!

YAY!!!! :)

Countdown: 1 Day!!

I'm exhausted.
"Wait what? Sarah, have you moved already? Is that why you're so tired?"
No, sadly, it's the day before and I'm so dadgum pooped that I can't even fathom how much more packing needs to be done tonight. Sheesh.

Bedroom stuff? Check.
Bathroom stuff? Almost all the way check.
Kitchen stuff? Mostly check.
Living room stuff? Oh jeez-la-weez, how many rooms are there?

Just kidding. Well, sorta - the living room is looking to be the most empty room so far. I have a sofa and a love seat; my coffee table and end table are on their way, but not here yet; I have a TV but no stand; oh and that's it. Two couches with a tv on the floor. Yee-haw my friends!

Sorry if I sound so crazy right now, I'm a little spent today, and the idea of SPENDING more money to finish the living room makes me feel like burying my money in a mason jar in the backyard. But alas, this is the life of one on their own, and I definitely can't complain to my mom and dad because they'll say "See, I told you this was going to be expensive." Yes, I know it's expensive, but I've done very well on a budget so far! I would love to bore you with a long list of all the things I still have to do and buy, but instead I will leave you with a YouTube video that makes me laugh. (A lady at work showed it to me a month or so ago and Anna posted it the other day, so I've got to show you.)

Bon Qui Qui at King Burger

Watch 3 times and enjoy the laughter... and don't interrupt... rute.