Letter Writing – A Lost Form of Showing Others You Care

So my dear friend April (who recently just entered the world of occasional blogging here at A.D.’s Blog) does something that I think is very uncommon in today’s society. She writes letters. I truly love this about her!

Today I got a letter from her and I have to tell you, IT. MADE. MY. DAY. She always picks the cutest card to mail the letter in and the prettiest matching paper to write a nice little letter. She is so good at this, probably because she is just a genuinely sweet, creative and thoughtful person.

Unfortunately we don't always get to talk on the phone as much as we would like and though we email, there is just something extra personal and special about a hand-written letter. There is something so fun about pulling your mail out of the mailbox and amongst the bills, ads and junk mail you find this special envelope containing a letter from a friend. It is truly great!

I wish I was someone who did this more often for my friends. There should be no excuse, but I am sure I can come up with at least 20 right now. So , I think I am going to try to remain in closer contact with my friends by writing the occasional letter to them. Just random thoughts, pleasant stories, or just a kind “Hello” to bring a smile to their faces. Yep, back to the simpler times before the ease of technology took over our lives. Of course this doesn't mean I am stopping the emailing...I mean, come on.

Do you write letters? Would you rather write letters or do you enjoy the instant gratification of texting, IM, or emailing?


I know before I start writing letters I need to email and call my friends more often….it’s a flaw of mine, but do know I care and I try!

Photo Parade - THE END

Ok, this may seem random but this picture represents THE END of my attendance at makeover/make-up parties & taking advice from others that "yes, those colors really do look good on you".

A few years ago a dear, sweet lady I use to work with invited some of the girls from our office to a Mary Kay makeover thing. I don’t really wear make-up and when I do it is a little on the eyes, powder and some mint chapstick only. However, I thought it would be fun to try a bold evening look so they set me up with the color palette that "best" suited me and the steps to "perfectly apply" the make-up.

Well this is what happened. It was HORRIBLE. It looked worse up close, I was a mess…a hot tranny mess. I am fair skinned anyway so I looked even more pale (if that is possible) with this dark make-up except for the little patches of blush on my cheeks. My lips were way too dark and then the eyes…oh the eyes were crazy. Maybe I did it wrong, but when there are 10 steps needed just to apply eye shadow then I think that is about 7 steps too many! It also felt like I was wearing tons of make-up - which I hate. It was really just too much and not the right colors for me.

But we still had fun & a really good laugh, didn’t we Mickey D.? And luckily, for the innocent bystanders in the area, it was dark when we left and the only person other then the people there who had to see me was my husband. Who, by the way asked when I returned home that night if I just got back from Clown College. Answer: No, they don’t even use that much make-up.

So goodbye makeover parties. It was fun, but I just don't think we were meant to be.

I am Just Saying….

…..I wish I had invented Post-it notes. I LOVE them. They are genius.

Post-it notes were invented by 3M's Art Fry using an adhesive developed by a colleague, Spencer Silver. Lucky bastards.

Some Rebates Are Just Not Worth It.

So here are two examples of rebate offers that Terry and I got this weekend that I just find funny.

#1 – I got a printed out rebate on my Staples receipt for …..wait for it…..$1.00! Yep a whole dollar! Yippee. Now I know a dollar is a dollar and if they would have just given me a dollar off at the store (which seems more logical) I would have been pumped. But by the time I mail this off with my 42 cent stamp my rebate Check for $1.00 is more like 58 cents. I mean, come on. Really! I think I will pass…..and I think that is what they are hoping for. No one is going to want to waste their time for $1. I don’t think mail in rebates should be less than $5, everything else should be given discounted at the store. The best part was the cashier was like – “Oh you got a rebate! You just fill this out and send it in to this address and you will receive….um…a dollar.” You could just hear the tone in her voice change as she thought it was a waste too. I replied,…”Oh, I can’t wait to spend that rebate check!”

#2 – Terry enjoys the candy Mallo Cups. Why, I have no idea - blech. So there is a little cardboard card inside each pack of Mallo Cups. (I still haven't decided if this is for real or a joke) Each card has a 5 point value and the card says that if you save 500 points (i.e. 100 cards) then you can send it in to receive a $1.00 rebate check. Again with the $1.00 people. But the best part is that Terry and I did the math. A pack of Mallo Cups are approximately 89 cents. If you have to get 100 that is $89.00. And then you have to mail them and lets remember you have 100 thin pieces of cardboard so you are looking at spending at least a $1-2 on postage to mail. So we are at around maybe $91.00 so that in 4-6 weeks you can get a $1. Eat up babe!

Oh how I love illogical things.

I Love...

Excel Spreadsheets!

Yes, I fully embrace my dorkiness.

So yes, I love excel spreadsheets. I love to create them and mess around on them. I enjoy creating them to calculate things such as my budget or bills, lists, or whatever I feel needs to be organized in list form. (It is part of my obsession with lists)

My newest excel spreadsheet is a list of foods I prepare on a regular basis and how much the foods cost me on average to prepare. That way I am able to tell ahead of time how much I will be spending at the store for groceries that week. It calculates out the meal, the ingredients, the quantity of each ingredients, the price per ingredient, and the total cost both per ingredient and per meal. AWESOME!

Friday I spent a good chunk of my evening in front of the computer formulating this excel sheet. Yes I did this on a FRIDAY night. You know right before I watched Stargate Atlantis, Pysch & Monk with my husband. Talk about a wild Friday!

So if anyone wants an excel sheet created for anything – I volunteer my services ;)

A Change is Coming (long post)

This is where my mind has been the last few weeks:

So a little background about my husband. He is a manager at NAPA in BG. He has been with the company for nearly 12 years. He completed about 1 ½ - 2 yrs at BGSU where he was studying chemistry. Shit happened and he made the decision to put his degree on hold and work full-time. (Thank goodness or I may have never met him!) I met him in 2000 while I was in college. During the time we dated he took a couple classes at Owens here and there, but he just never found something that interested him and motivated him to complete a degree. I may be bias, but my husband is extremely smart which can also be a hindrance b/c though he could do pretty much anything he wants he over-analyzes everything and gets bored with things that don’t keep him stimulated and constantly thinking/learning. And there is no point in wasting your money & time on something you are not sure you want.

So fast-forward to the past couple years. Ever since they got new management at his work in 2006 T. has had to deal with broken promises, decreased pay, a lot A LOT of bullshit, extra long hours and just a stressful work place. During 2007 I had lost my job and then started something new in the fall so it wasn’t the best time for him to leave his job. So he deals with it, because that is how he is. He is amazing because I am convinced anyone else would have left that situation long ago to look for something else…but Terry is loyal and knows that he can’t just leave b/c things are tough. He decided to stick it out until the right moment came along.

Now present day. T. & I were talking one evening a couple months ago and he told me he has figured out what he wants to do for a career. Now for the past 8 years he has said one day he wants to open any or all of the following shops: coin, wine, record, or antique so I had it in my head that is what he meant. But boy was I wrong….

(out of nowhere conversation)
Terry: “I know what I want to do with my life. For a career.”
Me: “What are you thinking?”
T: “Well don’t let this catch you off guard but I have been thinking about this for awhile now and I really see it being a good job. A job that we can make a future with.”
Me: “Ok. What is it?” (Intrigued)
T: “Ok, I think I want to be a mortician. Go to Mortuary school.”
Me: “huh”…silence (I was not expecting that answer and I was letting it process)
T: “I mean someone has to do it and I like science and anatomy. And I think this would be something I will be good at.”
Me: “You know, I am really not that surprised. In some weird way I can see you doing this.”
T: “Yeah, me too. Cool. I think I am going to look into this.”
Me: “Well at least you should always have job security.”


So there it is ….my husband is about to go on a new and exciting journey! I am SO unbelievably pumped for him because I know this is something that will make him extremely happy career wise, something he has not been for some time now. To finally see him with some career goals, making plans for a future and excited about this new direction in his life makes me SO proud.

It will be an interesting transition, but it will totally be worth it. He is still looking into tuition and details for Owens and is looking to finish his associate’s degree starting in January for the next year or so and then he will be down in Cincinnati for about a 1 ½ (5 quarters) to complete his degree at the College of Mortuary Science. (His curriculum is actually pretty interesting, well except for the embalming classes.) It will be interesting being away from my husband for that long (if we stay up here)….I mean obviously we will try to get together on as many weekends as we can, but that is all part of getting to where you need to be, right? Sacrifices from both ends need to be made to complete a common goal – the goal being our future.

So now our plan is, get Terry through school. That's it. Of course I still want to go back to school to get my Masters in College Student Personnel, and we want to move go to Ireland and possibly have kids….but none of that is possible without this first step.

I know this isn't the biggest news ever but it is truly exciting for us! We have just kind of been in limbo about so much for the last year and a half it is so fantastic to finally have an idea of where we are going! And for my husband to finally be ready and excited about a new career is awesome!

On a side note. I WILL NOT be living in a funeral home. Nope, not happening.

So Tired I Can't Think of a Title

How old do I think I am to believe it is ok for me to stay up till 4:30 am Friday AND Saturday night (only getting a combined 10 1/2 hours of sleep both those nights) and till 1am last night?!?!

Sure, we had a wedding and friends in town, but what did I think I was in college again?? It is noon at work and I swear I have fallen asleep 5 times at my desk. I am to old for this shit and am just exhausted. I will be going to bed as soon as I can get home.

Seriously, what was I thinking?

I Think I Need This...

It is the Pancake Puffs Pan!!

Terry & I saw a commercial for this last night and we both decided we needed to get this. Website is here.

"The Pancake Puffs™ Pan is revolutionary, just pour, flip and fill to make the perfect Puff every time. For only $19.99 and just $9.99 shipping, you'll get the Pancake Puffs™ Pan, the recipe book and a set of flipping sticks! They make meal time more fun for the entire family! "

Make an Endless Variety of Pancake Puffs™:
Buttermilk Pancake Puffs * Blueberry Pancake Puffs * Meatball Sandwich Puffs * Fruit-filled Puffs * Pizza Puffs * Pigs in a Blanket Puffs * Banana Bread Puffs * Brown Sugar Puffs * Applesauce Puffs * Cinnamon Raisin Puffs * Sugar Puffs * Apple Puffs * Crab Cake Puffs * Brownie Puffs * Strawberry Cake Puffs * Omelet Puffs

This just looks way cool! And the clincher for me was at the end of the commercial they said..."It is Pan-tastic!" Um - Awesome! How did they know I loved cheesy marketing like this!

Terry's 11 Inches of Love

So tonight was the night that Terry donated 11 inches of his hair to Locks of Love!!!

I think it is fantastic and really makes me happy that he actually WANTED to do this. (Not only because it is for a good cause but because I get to use this post title!!)



Before










Cutting the hair









It is SO cool to know this hair is going to go to someone who needs it.









Now his much shorter hair and a little nub of ponytail hair :)

If You Need Me I Will Be Watching Movies

Update: The movies were shipped monday, we got them Tuesday, watched two Tuesday night, will be sending them back today and hopefully will get more in the next couple days! This is great! P.S. When I told Terry I would just wait to watch one of the movies friday he said "Jenn, we have to watch them now so we can get more. I want to watch as many movies as I can as quickly as I can." When I told him that was not the point of Netflix and asked him why he wanted to do that he said, "Because I can". And there it is.

So this weekend T & I finally decided to subscribe to Netflix! We have heard great things about it and thought to give it a try. We always get frustrated between the cost of renting at Blockbuster and never finding what we want there.

Our first batch of 3 movies will be sent today!!

Better Off Dead
Dario Argento: Vol. 1: Phenomena
Premonition

I know, not the most exciting choices but T & I have different movie tastes so this is what we get.

It was funny watching Terry choose his movies. He was researching and making well thought out decisions before adding them to the list. Me on the other hand just started clicking! Oh, the other great thing that I was unaware of was the fact that some of these movies you can just watch online! How great is that.

I think that Netflix is going to be a great addition to our family. I can’t wait for the mail in a couple days!!

What’s A Girl To Do.

So I have a love/hate relationship……with my purse.

It is a rather big purse. Though I have tried smaller purses, they do not work for me. I can never fit everything I want into them, well at least without stretching them out to their capacity. Over the years my purses keep seeming to get bigger and bigger. And now I have the biggest purse (valise) I have ever owned.

I love big purses because you can put whatever you want into them. My oversized wallet, checkbook, beauty products, bottle of water, a notebook, a small dog, everything! But I also hate my big purse because I always seem to loose things I am looking for. My chapstick, my phone, keys, change, a small dog. It can be SO annoying.

And it is annoying for others, like when I am the one who drove and because my keys have fallen to the unknown depths of my purse I have to climb into my purse to try to look for them while people wait for me. Of course, they do love my purse when I can put tons of candy and pop for an outing to the movies or even when I can fit the entire Encyclopedia Britannic collection into my purse just in case we may need reference material while we are out and about. See it is love/hate.

One day I hope to become more of a simple person and not feel the need to take everything I own with me when I leave the house and therefore be able to get a much smaller purse. But I think until that day comes I am going to continue hulling around my satchel and the 10 pounds of accessories I carry inside it. I mean, that hand held vacuum does come in handy sometimes.

(That pic above is when I dropped my purse on the ground….thank goodness someone found it!)

Because I Can't, I Have To.

So our restrooms at our office are out of order. We have some sewage leak thinging (technical term) outside of our office - blech.

It started at 11:45 am today and a contractor won't be out until tomorrow between 10-12...boo.

I went over to my trusty hotel where I eat lunch on occasion to use their facilities. But now it is nearing 3pm and I am starting to get that feeling again. Of course I think because I have been thinking about NOT having the restrooms available when I need them that it makes me have to go more!! (I know, weird)

Of course our one boss told us that when we have to go we can just go home for the day. Which is great but no one wants to be the first to leave...so us girls are all trying to hold it - at least until it gets closer to the end of the day. I wish they would just tell us to go home!

I Know I Shouldn't But.....

.....I may have gotten excited when a Michael Buble christmas song found its way onto my Yahoo radio today! Yeah, I know it is just turning August and it is still over 4 months till Christmas, but I love me my Christmas songs and I love Christmas so this was a nice little treat.

It also reminded me I need to get started on my shopping! I like to have most of it done by the end of October so that all I have left are some last minute, small gifts come Nov. & Dec.

YAY!!!

So it is finally here, The Tales of Beedle the Beard…from the Harry Potter books! YAY

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers’ attention in the book known as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now, thanks to Hermione Granger’s new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore. Never before have Muggles been privy to these richly imaginative tales: “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,” “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart,” “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump,” and of course, “The Tale of the Three Brothers.” But not only are they the equal of fairy tales we now know and love, reading them gives new insight into the world of Harry Potter."


Click here to pre order from Books A Million or from Amazon here TODAY!

The standard book, pictured above is only about $10 or less….however the very fancy hard cover book is $100! I know what I want, but I also know which I will get.

Update: I really thought I was the first to post about this, but alas MD beat me.