stupidity and refrigerators don't mix very well....

Well, can you guess what I did recently? Well actually Saturday? I went to shut the refrigerator door after putting away the orange juice. We left to go to Cashiers for the weekend and when we got back home Monday night (5/26/08), the refrigerator door hadn't been shut all the way! Our "new" refrigerator door doesn't shut unless you actually use your brains. I apparently wasn't using my brains and didn't make sure it was all the way shut. Everything in our refrigerator is ruined now because of my stupidity!!! Yep, I have had to throw out everything! And now am going to be writing a huge grocery list of all the necessities that were ruined.

Here is what my list looks like so far:
~ milk
~ eggs
~mayonnaise
~ketchup
~mustard
~ cheese
~ italian dressing (yes this is a necessity to me since I am a salad queen)
~ orange juice
~ lunch meat
~margarine
~vegetables (the ones in the fridge turned brown and black)


Our apartment complex is not level. It is a bit inclined. Not enough to notice it when walking, but if you were to pour out a cup full of water directly onto the floor, it wouldn't spill in all directions it would head south in a straight line. So when we got our replacement refrigerator, its door was hinged on the wrong side and now it no longer closes on its own when it is open. It won't close when being swung closed. It has to be manually closed all the way in order to insure its sealing. I have been promised by our landlady that she will get a guy to come and rotate the door so that the hinges are on the other side (making it easier to move in our kitchen as well). That was about three months or so that I was promised that. I beginning to wonder how easy it is to do the whole thing ourselves...

I've been tagged

Here are the rules:
1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I am deathly afraid of heights. Even seeing other people go near balconies and lean against the rail makes me nervous that they will fall. It is mainly a neurotic problem of mine. Haven't really found out what it is. Something to do with my terrible gait and balance. I have nearly fainted being up four stories high at the High Museum of Art in downtown ATL. We were finished touring the place and had to walk down the narrow ramp four flights down. I had to sit down because I felt dizzy while Mr. Price asked the elevator man if I could go down with the old people. I could, and I did. Mr. Price and that elevator man were my heroes!!! I found out, that the reason the man was on elevator duty was because he too was afraid of heights!

2. My hobbies consist of: crocheting, knitting, cooking, playing the piano, talking, sewing, reading, getting involved in unique and different crafts, home decor, and blogging.

3. I am obsessed with bricks. When I see a stray, unclaimed brick, I grab it and plan on using it for a bookend. And let me tell you, I even have my Mom and Dad asking for me to make bookends for them out of bricks. All because one day I decided to crochet around a brick and call it a bookend. I do not have a brick bookend in my name anymore because I have given them away as presents to Mom, Dad, Sarah, Hannah, and one to Brittny (who used it as a door stop). If you see and know of stray bricks, I would love them!!!! I own two door stops, but no bookends (YET) and have a couple that I will crochet around soon and dub as bookends. I can't have enough bricks. I have used even half of bricks and make bookends out of them. Even half of a half has been useful to me as a paperweight.

4. When my fingernails grow long enough to where there are the natural white tips on them, I must clip them soon or it distracts me. I can feel them when they are that long and they feel annoyingly strange. I have been this way since I was eleven. It used to distract me on Sundays and I would end up biting them until they were short enough and then I could concentrate on the sermons.

5. I can't sleep without socks on my feet and haven't been able to since I was two years old. I have had to wake my Dad and Mom up in the middle of the night, while we were staying in two hotel rooms in Virginia, just so that I could borrow a pair of socks because I had left my socks in the car. I was 18 when that happened!

6. I have two cats and am now a cat lover and wish I had another cat, but because of living in an apartment that is small and because of the rules, we can't have more than two. Life isn't worth living without cat hairs in my life even though I am allergic to the hairs.

7. I love books and owned just over 700 before getting married. Between my husband and I we have over 1000 put together!! Most of his are in his parents garage attic, and mine are mostly around the apartment with only three or four boxes full in my closet.

well I am not going to list anyone, because most everyone has already been tagged once and twice.

So far...

~I have done two loads of laundry today
~I have not eaten breakfast because I am lazy and don't want to make it
~I have made up the bed
~I have washed all dishes
~I have not mopped the floor like I said I would yesterday
~I have not made tea cakes like I promised I would for tomorrows tea party with my neighbor
~I have utterly failed at writing a to do list for myself today but am enjoying this list
~I have one load of laundry left to do
~I have read six chapters of The Last Battle for the first time in my life and am enjoying it greatly
~I have practiced piano everyday this week
~All week I have successfully prevented Nathan from getting into his violent sleep walks just by asking him random questions that make him think!
~I have succeeded in producing a second blooming on one of my Kalanchoe plants!!!
~I have also succeeded in blooming my African Violet
~I have been very happy with married life
~I have been blessed by God in so many ways and am truly thankful for all that I have been given in my life

May 21,2008- how my day is going so far

Ok so I wake up and guess what I find out? That I was supposed to be at the chiropractor's office YESTERDAY at 2:00!!!!!! Clumsy me! I had thought it was supposed to be today that I was going! This is the first time that I have forgotten and I have been going there regularly for two months now. I called up the office and left a message apologizing for my forgetfulness and pleading for forgiveness while wondering if it was possible to reschedule. SO I will be waiting in torment until next Tuesday to go in to the chiropractor for an adjustment.

Aside from the horror of missing an appointment, I am happy to share with my readers that I am going on a picnic with my husband today!! Nathan is getting off work at 12:30 and we will be spending nearly the rest of the day all by ourselves and all over Franklin, NC. We plan to go to Wal-mart after lunch and buy some clothes. Yippeee!!!!! I love clothes shopping. I used to hate it, but I love it now. This will be the first time that I have gone clothes shopping since before Christmas. Even though it is Wal-mart. But hey, they do have some cute clothes. I probably will only be buying one article of clothing, because of our financial struggles we have had for about two months. A five dollar shirt is affordable though.

After the Wal-mart trip we will scoot ourselves back into downtown and just meander the among the shops, probably deposit the $20 check we were given on our anniversary that I have neglected to deposit all this time. If I can remember to bring it with me. I am looking forward to this happy occasion of getting to spend precious time with my husband. We don't get to spend much time with each other at all except for a couple of hours in the evening and hardly any time on the weekends.

Oh, and I almost forgot, we will be having Jake over for dinner around 6:30 and will be going to see Prince Caspian in the Franklin Ruby Cinemas at 8:00. That I really look forward too, but will enjoy every minute I get with my husband alone before dinner and the movie. Jake has been waiting to see this movie and really doesn't like going alone, which I don't blame him. It is nice that we don't have to travel far to get to a theater. Even if it is a small and not stadium seating theater. The nearest "nice" theater is an hour away.

Most things up here you have to travel far to get to. Like the nearest mall, theater, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, Starbucks, Borders, American Bread Company, and any kind of mall type shopping. The only thing we have up here is Wal-mart, K-Mart and Lowes. Then the local shops and chain fast food restaurants like Hardees, Wendy's, and Mcdonald. There are three Ingles and one Bi-Los for grocery shopping in Franklin. And surprisingly, the K-mart is more popular than the Wal-mart and they are both old stores. Not the super marts like they have in GA. Our thirty minute drive neighbor town, Sylva does have a super Wal-mart thankfully for when we do need something that none of the other stores have.

Ok I am rambling and need to get lunch made and dinner in the crock pot.

News from the Forrester Front!

So I am currently reading Three Musketeers and have found it an incredible adventure and so amusing to read. I have found also that I may have a talent for baking homemade bread!!! I didn't get an excellent shot of the bread and had forgotten to take one before eating a slice of the warm bread. The braids did not come out like the pictures in the book showed, to my dismay, but it was still fascinating to see the end results of my efforts. I will try to perfect this one!

What I heard when I woke up!

Today, I woke up feeling special and knew in my heart that today would be a wonderful day! And indeed it already has been a wonderful day. Today is a milestone in my husband's and my history. Today, we celebrate our first year anniversary. It has taken months of waiting and counting for this day, but it has finally come and I don't want it to end. Nathan woke me up at 6:45 with whispers in my ear, "Hello, my one-year anniversary wife! I love you! Did you sleep well?" What a wonderful way to be woken up. All these months Nathan has been the most loyal person in my life. He has woken me up every morning, helped me to my feet, and assisted me to the kitchen in order for me to make our breakfast. I couldn't have done it without him and often wonder how I managed to walk immediately after waking up each morning before I was married to him. There are so many things that I love about being married and rejoice that the Lord gave us to each other. We hold a special relationship with one another. One that will last until death parts us on earth.

I want to share with you a few things that I love about Nathan.
Nathan, like his name means, is a gift from God to me and those around him.
Nathan is special, talented, has a wonderfully big heart, knows how to make me smile even when I don't want to be cheered up. He is comical. And even though he does splash water all over the mirror when he wets him comb to fix his hair (creating smears all over the mirror), he still remains my best friend and I could never get angry at him for the little things he does that may drive me a little bit crazy. I love all those things he does that are a bit wacky or insane. Everyday, he loves me and I love him back. Everyday, he not only tells me that he loves me, he shows me that he loves me. Not a day goes by where we don't share true loves kiss and hug.
Nathan likes to pick on me nearly every day, but that is what makes him even more love-able and cute. He knows when he needs to be serious and when I am hurt.

How can I tell him enough how much he means to me? I love him for all that he was, is, and will be. I love him in our everyday and all day. Even if I am frustrated or upset with him, which is not often, I love him. I could never see us separated and know that our love is deep and will last. Not even in my dreams am I angry with him. He is the only man I care to love like I do now. And the only man that I want to grow old with. God bless him! He deserves so much for what he does for me and for loving me as much as he does.

Recent Accomplishments

About two weeks ago, my husband Nathan asked me why I hadn't been on my sewing machine in a long while. Good question! I don't believe I have been on it since Christmas. I decided it was best for me to bring out my sewing machine and try to get something done. The problem was that I didn't exactly know what I wanted to sew. I remembered that I had bought eight bandannas for a tablecloth idea I had seen in a Martha Steward book. I walked into my bedroom and spotted them on my chest of drawers still folded and waiting to be ironed. There were four red and four navy blue bandannas of the common paisley pattern. I fetched my iron and table top ironing board out from our linen closet while tucking the can of nearly empty starch under my arm and plodded to the kitchen eager to start on my new project.

I really don't enjoy ironing too well, but do it only when I find I have to or am excited about something that I want to do. This project needed to get done, but had been stalled at the time because I didn't want to iron the wrinkled bandannas. Upon taking out my sewing machine, I had found I really did miss sewing and was eager to plunge into this project. Ironing took all of five minutes to accomplish plus wrinkled napkins that had been waiting to see the iron for a month.

I cleaned off the counter and got everything set up and ready for me to begin. The foot pedal and electrical cord installed and the bobbin and needle already threaded, I began a little journey that ended in a cute-as-a-button red bandanna tablecloth that I placed immediately on our small, round kitchen table. This was too much excitement for me to handle alone. I couldn't wait for my husband to get home and see. When he did finally get to see it, we were using it for lunch and then later for dinner. I have been using it for breakfast and dinners since the day I installed this new luxury into our kitchen. I hadn't used the table since my "monster" of a kitten ;) had taken over that table as her own. This time, I fought back and showed her that it is my table and squirted her incessantly with a mister bottle for the next couple of days until she finally came to understand that it was unsafe to go treading in that territory.

A day or two later, I covered the seat cushions for the chairs around the table by pinning down navy blue bandanna around each cushion to complete the ensemble. I now have a doily in the middle of the table on the tablecloth and a fake vase of red flowers to complete the centerpiece. I am in love with this new look to our kitchen and want so much to have a tea party for two on this table.

I am now working on a seat cushion for my piano made out of bandannas and quilt batting. It may take more effort and a lot more energy and thinking, but I will carry it out to its end and not stall and procrastinate on this one. It will cost my back the more I stall. When I sit down at the piano for longer than thirty minutes, I can feel the stress in my back and neck from the hard seat of the bench. I needed a seat cushion and had looked online for some, but in the end bandannas from the dollar store only cost me $4 and a huge bag of quilt batting was given to me for free. That is a far greater deal than what I had seen on the internet. I hope to be done with this project in a couple of days. After that, I plan on making a reversible lap quilt that is blue bandannas on one side and red on the other. It will only take me eight bandannas to make that and very little time.

It has been easy sewing with bandannas because the bandannas already have a hem. The casualness of a simple bandanna has never looked more luxurious or formal to me than it has been over the past few weeks since I have discovered this new hobby and obsession of mine.