Keeping With The Fall Theme For October!! Plus pictures from when K & I were kids!!!

This weekend I realized that our new(ish) printer/copier was also a scanner. I also came to the realization that I could now scan all of those pictures I had just found from when I was younger and save them onto our computer so we could have copies to keep forever. I then realized that since these pictures were on our computer, I could now post embarrassing pictures of myself and family members on my blog for the whole inter-world to view! I mean seriously, what a lot of realizing I did this weekend.

So here is the first blog inspired by pictures. I have a feeling over the coming months you will be seeing more blogs posted that allow me to incorporate classic pictures of myself from back in the day. You are welcome.
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As I was going through pictures this past weekend I found a series of Halloween pictures from when K. and I were younger. I noticed a common theme to these pictures; all our costumes were homemade by our mom. Now I have ALWAYS remembered my Halloween costumes because of the fact that they were homemade and totally unique. I mean seriously, how could we forget wearing these costumes?!



Answer, we couldn't because they are awesome. (I think I had one of those inflatable swimming rings around my waist to give my pumpkin more volume and my sister was the cutest bunny EVER!)


I have always loved that my mom has been able to make things from scratch for us. Whether it was a Halloween costume, blanket, hat, dress, a pound puppy, outfits for our toys….she has always had this creativeness and talent for making homemade things for us. As for the costume, I am sure it would have been a lot easier for her to just go to the store and get some cheap looking Halloween costume that everyone else had, but what is the fun in that. No MY mom would spend the time (after working all day, making dinner, and cleaning,) to make us our very own, special Halloween costumes. Yes, my mom is a special kind of amazing.

This is something that you can bet I will try do for our kids someday. Ok, mom will have to help me…but I am sure between my mom, sister and myself we will have the cutest dressed kids at Halloween EVER. Well maybe not cuter than me, but pretty darn close.

Here are a few of my favorites. There are a few more on my facebook page that I uploaded this last weekend!


A full shot of my famous pumpkin costume! It is my all time favorite, so much so I wore it a couple times!!


Here I am as a masked cheerleader. Please notice the duct taped "J" on my shirt. That. Is. AWESOME!!! (I think I have a mullet.....oops)



This is me in my mom's wedding dress. Favorite part about trick or treating in Ohio. That you get to wear layers and layers of clothes under your costume. I don't think the orange sweatshirt takes away from the sheer white wedding dress AT ALL.


Me as an angel. I think I am an angel.


Kristen as Princess Jasmine. It is nearly perfect, but K. opted for the short blonde cut over the long black hair :)


K. as catwomen. No, she does not like to play for the camera at all!!



Do you have a favorite Halloween costume from when you were a child? Or a favorite Halloween story from your childhood? (wow, large enough font Jenn?!)


My favorite thing about Halloween from when I was a child is of course the homemade costumes and also when we got to carve our pumpkins! Newspaper on the table and a big 'ol mess. Perfection!


*I had this scheduled to post, but I am glad to see on other blogs there is a Halloween costume theme! I LOVE it because I adore Halloween!!!

And In The World of Celebrity Gossip....

(I needed a break, so here is a little bit of this and a little bit of that in the world of celebrity news to keep things fairly light.)

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It looks like Jon and Kate Plus 8 is over after November! HOLLA!

Yes, i feel as though this is blog worthy, as I am sick and tired of hearing about this stuff and think these children would be much better off TV and out of the public eye. I am also tired of seeing Kate and her pointy hair all over the place and seeing Jon's douchebag face all over my entertainment gossip sites.

Hopefully by the new year, the two of them and all their shenanigans will be out of the tabloids. And so help the TV station that gives either of these two a show or something that keeps them in pop culture.

~~~~

Who else would I like to see out of the tabloids by the first of the year?

For starters how about anyone who is related to or even friends with anyone with the last name Kardashian. I also would like the Cyrus family, anyone on The Hills, Michael Jackson and his family, anyone who has not done anything of real importance in Hollywood within the last 6 months, and anyone who has a nickname given by the media (i.e Li Lo, J Lo, Brangelina, etc..) gone and off the websites NOW.

Thank you very much.

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In other gossip news Garth Brooks has said he is coming out of retirement!

I am not a huge country music fan, I like more old time country when I do listen to it, but there is something about Garth Brooks & his music that I just ADORE! I have every CD he has done and just love him. I am very excited that he will be singing again and can't wait to hear what new music he has!

I mean, really, who didn't sing out loud with their friends "Friends in Low Places", or get the shivers with "The Thunder Rolls", or love "The Dance". *sigh* I love him.

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The 80's band a-ha is calling it quits after next year. (yeah I didn't know they were still together either) You remember then, they are that Norwegian trio that had the hit song "Take on Me" with the really cool video with pencil-sketch animation? I seriously LOVE that video.

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And in sad news, wrestling icon, Captain Lou Albano dies. If you didn't watch wrestling you had to have known him as Cyndi Lauper's father in her video "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"(they just wanna, they just wanna) Here is the video!

It is Pumpkin Pick’n Time!

So every year T & I have a tradition (hey Mickey D, I thought of a non-Christmas tradition in our family!) of putting on warm sweatshirts and jeans and going over to the Pumpkin Peddler on Route 25 the beginning of October and picking out our pumpkins. I have to say we take pumpk’n pick’n very seriously in our household. We are usually at the farm for no less than 30-45 minutes walking around and looking at all the pumpkins available. It is SO much fun! Honestly, we can’t wait till we can do this with our kids someday! (We are seriously the only adults without kids every year, but I think we have just as much fun as the kids that are there.) We make it our mission every year to find the most perfect pumpkins for each of us; I think mine are the better ones but this isn’t a competition…but if it was I feel as though I would win.

After we pick out our pumpkins we like to get hot coffee or apple cider and then we go home, listen to music and get all our fall decorations out and decorate our house! This year we had to postpone decorating our house as T. had homework for his class to work on, but I think we are going to get all the decorations out this week!

But we did get our pumpkins and here are our pumpkins in their wagon at the pumpkin peddler, they are HUGE! (these are very lucky pumpkins to be coming home with us)



Here are our pumpkins at home. T’s is the shorter round one on the stand as he likes to go with a more traditional round pumpkin and mine is the taller one on the porch as I go with taller ones with more room to carve. Since K. was out of town for our trip to the pumpkin farm, we picked hers out for her. It is the one in the middle behind ours. You may have to enlarge the picture to see it. We thought it was perfect for her.



At the pumpkin peddler they also have hay rides and a little place that sells some cute Halloween decorations. We got this cute Halloween door decoration. It has little metal bells in the pumpkins that jingle when you open the door. I LOVE this!



I saw this one and instantly thought of A Couple More Hours! Do you see it has a button eye? (I was going to get it for you but the side had a big scratch, sad)





And if you are looking for fun Halloween decorations, go to this site HERE. I love the stuff they have. The vintage decorations are my favorite, but they have many other types of Halloween stuff as well and stuff for other holidays. (Don't get me started on Christmas!)

Here are a few things I feel would add to our halloween collection!












So have you got your pumpkin yet? Are your fall/halloween decorations out? Do you have any favorite fall decorations? Have you heard me mention I LOVE this time of year?

Happy Birthday My Husband!

(Yes, this is an Iron Maiden Birthday Cake - I totally want to make one of these!)


You know babe, as you are now on the tail-end of your 30’s I thought I would try to give you some encouraging words so you do not fret about turning another year older and getting another year closer to 40. I know age isn’t always an issue with you but I wanted to give you a little extra encouragement this year!

So I did a little research and it seems that most people like to say: “Age is just a number, you are only as old as you feel” when they want to offer support to old slightly more mature people. However, I thought about this for a few minutes and after 9 amazing years with you I feel I know this simple phrase would turn into a major discussion and the realist in you would not like this because you know that it is not at all true.

If I told you “Don’t worry, age is just a number, you are only as old as you feel” you would most likely say: “no I am as old as I am, I cannot say I feel like I am 25 and therefore I am 25. It doesn’t work that way Jenn. And besides, what does 25 feel like anyways, it is all relative to the person and what they remember feeling like at that age based on a few select memories but it is by no means a standard for everyone all the time.” This statement would then be followed by a 45 minute dissertation that would include a philosophical conversation about age, followed by a brief history of how the Aztecs use to calculate age in their society, which would move into the scientific discovery of a species of fish found in the Atlantic that never seem to age, shifting to Tesla’s theories on age and how Tesla never seemed to age because he was a time traveler from the future, moving to discussions of gravitational time dilation and theories of relativity, which would then trigger ideas of how age is just a relative idea and why should so much emphasis be put on birthdays when they are nothing more than a marker to keep track of how long you have been in this realm of existence. (phew…Though I don’t know if anything I said above is actually factual, it is the idea of what he would talk about and I am not exaggerating, infact I may be under-embellishing.)

And though I know this conversation would be very fascinating, I think instead I may just say what I say every year and that is....
Happy Birthday Terry!!!

You are an amazing husband, a wonderful partner, and an individual who I truly admire! I am so proud of you and I wish you many many more birthdays and I am so happy you were brought into existence in this reality we share together!

Love Always,
Jenn

Smart Cars – They Don’t Seem That Smart

This is a Smart Car.


Oh wait, no, I think I may be confused.


THIS is a Smart Car.


So here is the thing, I would never EVER buy a Smart Car. Besides the fact that I just think they look ugly and they are too expensive for what you are getting; I think there is nothing about a smart car that looks safe or comfortable.


So because I enjoy lists and hate Smart cars I have decided to compile a list of reasons why I think Smart Cars are Dumb.


1) My friends’ kids have toy cars bigger than a smart car. (see pic of the little tikes car above)

2) Have you ever seen a smart car driving next to a semi-truck on the highway when everyone is going 65 miles per hour? If you have, then that image alone should be enough to scare anyone away from a not-so-smart car. I mean seriously. Are you trying to kill yourself.

3) When I see a person climb out of or into a smart car I think of a clown car. It really looks awkward and uncomfortable and not meant for someone over 5’2” or who isn’t a practicing contortionist.

4) I believe my Grandpa’s Hoveround is safer and goes faster than a smart car. And is a hell of alot cooler, did you see that commercial where the lady just spins in circles?! That is awesome.

5) I am fairly certain a person could just come by and pick up your smart car and easily walk off with it….if they really wanted one THAT bad.

6) Fact: You would not be able to make it over a speed bump, let alone an actual hill. Though in good news if you can’t actually drive up the hill you can just carry your car up the hill.

7) Question: Do you think based on the amount of space inside the car, that there is even room to have a full airbag, or do they just use a balloon? I am going with a balloon.

8) I believe the Smart car goes from 0 to 60 in a mere 5 minutes and 42 seconds*. That is almost as powerful as most lawn mower engines, almost.

9) I think if you took a turn too fast your Smart car would flip. And too fast for a Smart car is most likely 20 mph. And by flip I mean just fall over on its side.

10) If it hails, rains too hard, or a leaf falls on your smart car it may dent it.



Now, I shouldn’t be all hate'n on the Smart car as it does have a few good features, albeit completely pointless features, but good features nonetheless.

1. It takes only 6 – 1.5 volt (D) Duracell Batteries to run your smart car. Seriously, what a bargain.

2. You don’t have to worry about anyone stealing your car, because really who wants to be caught stealing a smart car.

3. You can get your smart car with a convertible top. Because that is, um, really cool and stylish….I think.

4. You and your 5 year old can have races between your smart car and their electric Kids Wheel car. Though your child may have a slight advantage.

5. You don’t have to worry about driving the car pool to work.

6. Because they made a mini bus smart car and that is just awesome. I seriously must have this.



7. In the winter you could just store your smart car on a shelf in your garage.

8. There will be less dead squirrels on the side of the road, because there is no way that a smart car could kill a squirrel and if someone did hit a squirrel it would cause a lot of damage to the car while the squirrel will remain unharmed. (And frankly, squirrels know this and are not at all afraid of smart cars.)

9. Shopping trips to the local grocers will be cheap, as all you have room to fit in your car would be one bag of groceries and a ½ gallon of milk.

10. You can fit 5 smart cars in one parking space.



So maybe the smart car isn't that bad. Oh who am I kidding, Smart cars SUCK! And if you have a smart car and this offends you I am sorry. Sorry you have a smart car and know I am right! ;)



*This is not an official number, I was just being funny. I seriously doubt the car would actually EVER reach 60 miles per hour. And for the record, I refuse to acknowledge a Smart car as an actual car.

Because All We Can Do Is Laugh About It.....

This is a forward I got from a friend.


The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

The economy is so bad, I ordered a burger at McDonalds and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"

The economy is so bad that CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

The economy is so bad if the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

The economy is so bad Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.

The economy is so bad McDonalds is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

The economy is so bad parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.

The economy is so bad a truckload of Americans were caught sneaking into Mexico.

The economy is so bad Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

The economy is so bad Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore. (haha, my favorite one!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today is the birthday of one of the most beautiful, marvelous, inspiring, funny, fantastic, genuine, compassionate, people in the entire WORLD!

(no, no, no not me…but easy mistake as I am the spawn of said person)

Happy Birthday to the world’s greatest MOM!!! Mom, there are never enough words to describe how wonderful you are and how much you mean to us and to SO many people. We feel so very lucky that you are our mother, because I don’t think there is anyone better!!! Thank you for all the love, support, laughter and kindness that you have given to us. You are truly the most amazing person I know!

Love Always,

Terry, Jenn, Kristen, Sebastian & Belle xoxoxo


We can’t wait to see you in a couple weeks to celebrate!

Happy First Day of Fall!!!

Fall is my most favorite of all the seasons and now it is officially here! YAY

Oh my dear, sweet Fall…..I love you so. I am so glad you are finally back and I am looking forward to the next few months we have together. You bring so much joy and happiness to my life, you are truly the BEST of all the seasons…and I don’t care if the other seasons know I think that.

Here are some of the reasons I fell in love with you in the first place:


The weather changes and we have cooler days and nice chilly evenings.

Having the windows open to enjoy the cool, fresh air.

The leaves changing color – SO pretty. (I love going home during the fall because we have the prettiest trees back home)

Wearing fall clothes! Scarves, sweatshirts, jeans, boots, sweaters….ahhh – love it!

It is not light out at 9pm.

Those Fall days where it is really really sunny but really cool, perfection.

Drinking Apple Cider (both hot and cold)

The Smell of Fall

Halloween!

Apple Cinnamon Spice Candles.

Big pots of soup or stew for dinner.

Sitting outside by the fire…..we can do that now!

Thanksgiving!

Though it is not an essential or all weekend long activity, I do like watching football during the fall months.

Snuggling under the blankets on those extra cool nights.

Not sweating or freezing the minute I go outside. It is just perfect.

Pumpkins!

The return of new TV shows.

Hay rides, corn mazes and anything outside

Going shopping at outdoor malls in preparation for Christmas. The fall is the only time I really enjoy shopping.

Fall decorations

And pretty much everything else that I may have not mentioned!!


If you love fall, please share your favorite things.

I Love....

This weekend T & I purchased a little something special for our patio. We got a fire pit, and I have to say I (we) LOVE it!

Why did we get a fire pit, you may ask. Well because T & I like to sit outside during the cooler evenings and just chill and talk and there is something about the crackle, smell, and warmth of a fire that makes that time outside that much better.

Saturday night we sat outside on a very cool night for over an hour and a half and while I drank a nice warm hot chocolate, we spent the evening talking and listening to the fire.

It was SO calming.

Here is a picture of our lovely fire in our new fire pit. My hubby did a fine job getting that thing started!



We got a medium sized fire pit as we do not have a huge patio. We also wanted something that was not cheap looking, but not expensive - this was perfect and very reasonably priced. It ended up being a perfect size for the space we have and it produces a good amount of heat for the area we use. (It doesn't get so hot you can't sit around it but warm enough to take the chill off you during the brisk fall months.)

If anyone would like to come over and drink some hot chocolate, wine, or T's very own hard cider and sit by the fire, please feel free to stop by! :)

I would also say every couple should get one of these, as I think the time spent around one is therapeutic and calming and great for your relationship to just have that time together.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TERRY!!!!

From early on in our relationship.....



...through our engagement.....



....to the moment we became husband and wife....



....we have continued to be partners in this relationship, walking together side-by-side....



.....while also remembering in this busy life to just stop and make time to be with each other.......



......so we remind ourselves of the vows we took.....



...so that even through the highs and lows, our life together will continue to be full of lots of love and laughter....



.....And I feel so blessed that I can call you my husband and that we get to share our life with each other!






Why I love you….

- Your smile and unbelievably infectious laugh.

- You never try to be anything or anyone other than yourself….you are always and around everyone, just you.

- Your hugs.

- The opinions you have that are your own and not always what is viewed as “the norm” and the way you are able to express them to people in such a logical and intelligent way.

- That when you talk to people about sensitive topics like religion or politics you are respectful of others opinions, state your own opinions, get people to listen intensely to what you have to say and though you never try to make people change their beliefs you bring in other viewpoints that make them think past the basics and really get into the heart of ones beliefs. This is such a special gift.

- Your very sarcastic and dry humor.

- That you will always be a child at heart.

- Your gorgeous blue eyes.

- That you collect and listen to records, collect coins & silver, that you love antiques and appreciate things from the past…your tastes are those of someone 30-40 years older than yourself....but that is ok!! :)

- Your eclectic taste in music - you love metal, classical, blues/Jazz, old time country (i.e Hank Williams), and Christmas Music…oh and the Spice Girls :)

- That you know how to deal with me and my wonderful mood swings.

- That we can talk for hours and that I can listen to you talk for hours on every subject from sci-fi to Religion, to politics, to food, to cartoons. (this is the thing I first fell in love with)

- Your ability to retain nearly all the information you read or hear.

- Because you truly love and care about my family.

- That you are laid-back and easy going and because of that, together we balance each other out perfectly.

- Your beliefs.

- Your collection of t-shirts.

- That we both recognize the importance of time together and time with friends and there is a perfect balance between the two.

- That you have a Godzilla toy on the dash of your car.

- That you can make me smile with just a look.

- That patience, compromise, understanding, trust, honesty, friendship, respect, and love are not just words to you, but things you believe make for a strong marriage.

- That you are going back to school so you can do something you want to do. I am SO incredibly proud of you.

- That there are SO many different layers to you and the longer we are together the more that unravel.


And for so many MANY more reasons than these is why I love you and so happy to share this journey with you! I can't wait to see what the next year has to hold.

I love you xoxoxo! *MWAH*

Holy Crap, We Got A Lot Of CRAP!

Alternative title: Where did all this shit come from?!

Over the past 6 months I have noticed in our house that we have been collecting more and more STUFF. We always had a lot of things, but those things were piled away in boxes and therefore, didn’t exist to us. But this past year I have noticed that the stuff seems to be multiplying and making its way into the living spaces of our house to the point where it is now taking over our house.

1) First we tried the “move one pile of crap to another room” organizational method. This allows the once overfilled room to look great and we don’t have a problem with clutter until the next room is full. Then when that room is full we would move the extra piles to a different room. We continued this until we realized….we had run out of rooms.

2) Next we tried the, “just move it to the storage unit” organizational method. This was great until we went to the storage unit and realized we couldn’t find a damn thing.

3) We also tried the “shove it in a box/put it in a closet/hide it under the bed/place it behind furniture” organizational method. This worked very well, until we needed to find something we had shoved in a box, put in a closet, hid under the bed, or placed behind furniture. Not fun.

4) When it got to the point of complete frustration we considered other options like just selling our house and including all our crap with it or just leaving the stuff in our front yard and letting people go through it…neither of which seemed like the most logical way to solve our problem.

So we decided it was going to have to be done the old fashioned way – take time, go through everything, and throw away what we no longer wanted/needed. sigh

Now I have made it my mission for the past few months to remove ALL excess clutter (excluding my husband of course) from our house in an attempt to re-adjust our feng shui, re-center our Qi, simplify our life, and just get rid of all our extra SHIT!

So I decided the best way to do this was one group of clutter at a time. I started a couple months ago and I decided to go through all my clothes first. I brought over 3 large tubs & 2 big trash bags from the storage unit and a couple smaller bags of clothes from our house. (And to think with all those clothes and still nothing to wear) In the end I filled up two big tubs of clothes I want to sell next year and two bags for the Goodwill. Ahhhhh, more hangers available for new clothes.

Next I hit the big bags of receipts, old check books, past bills, and other documents that I have put in a “need to shred” pile/heap over the last 3 years. After a week and a half of shredding documents Enron style, I ended up shredding everything in the pile and filling up nearly 3 large trash bags. Ahhhhhh, it feels good to shred documents.

This past weekend I decided to conquer the massive amounts of shoes I have. My sister and I took my 64 pairs of shoes (eeek, that is a lot) and all their boxes down to the living room and we laid out all the shoes. I put them in groups: heels, flats, boots, tennis shoes, etc.. I then went through and picked out the shoes I didn’t like anymore, that didn’t fit, or that I had pairs that were very similar and put them in a bag to give to family or to sell* when we have our garage sale next year. (*I didn’t think I could sell them but I heard this was ok, but what is the rule on selling previously worn shoes?!?!) Some of these shoes were circa 1998 and WHY I have never gotten rid of them before is beyond me. But when it was all said and done I got rid of 29 pairs of shoes! I also had enough clear plastic boxes for my shoes and tore up all the original shoeboxes I had kept when I had bought the shoes (22 boxes). Ahhhhh, more room for new shoes!

Then Sunday I continued my cleaning and I went through every old magazine we have kept over the last three years. Normally we just throw them in a basket in the living room or put them in the library aka the bathroom. I divided magazines so each person had theirs and let everyone throw away what they no longer wanted. T & I threw away at least 30 magazines…K. still has to do hers (slacker). Ahhhhhh, goodbye potential fire hazard in our house.

I know by the sounds of it, you might think our house was one big mess…but really we had learned the art of hiding our crap. But now, it just looks great and it has created a lot more room in our house so we can get more stuff! ;) Next on the agenda, organize recipes that are on paper. I am typing out and saving in a word document our stack of recipes we have printed out or have written down over the years that are stacking up in the kitchen.

It seriously feels SO good and almost therapeutic to get rid of all that extra stuff that we obviously don’t need and is just taking up space!

Sex and the City 2 - Should They or Shouldn't They....

I am a huge fan of Sex and the City, so much so that my wonderful hubby got me the entire series a few years back. I really liked the movie and though I am excited for another movie I am not sure where this new movie is going to go without being too ridiculous and wonder if they should have just left it at one movie and not a sequel. My doubts were increased a bit when I saw these photos released from the filming.

From the looks of it, they may be doing an 80’s flashback, like when the girls met?! Though I love me a good flashback scene, I am not buying it 100%. Mainly because a couple of the women look even older instead of looking younger! Particularly Samantha & Carrie. (Photos below) Charlotte and Miranda seem to be able to pull off the “I am in my 40’s trying to look like I am in my 20’s” look well enough, but the other two just look like they are in their late 40’s and in a bad Halloween costume. Not cute. I mean I think they are all beautiful and look amazing normally, I just think Kim & Carrie look older, not younger in these photos. I wonder if the special effects department can do something about that?
















Also, here are some potential secrets from the movie. Who knows if any of these are remotely true, but this is what they are saying.

A GAY WEDDING! - The shooting schedule calls for an elaborate wedding scene to take place at a Connecticut inn. All signs point to a gay union between Stanford and Anthony Marentino. Slated as the entertainment: Liza Minnelli! *Stanford marrying Anthony?!?! Maybe.

CARRIE GOES HOME - Carrie and Big might be having issues. The evidence: Several scenes are being shot at the location that serves as Carrie's old apartment from her single-gal days. One report says she and Big will have problems rooted in money trouble, another report says he will have an affair, and another says Carrie will become pregnant. *duh, I could see any or all of these things happening…there has to be drama in Carrie’s life.

MILEY CYRUS MAY HAVE A SUPPORTING ROLE - The teen pop star has gushed about being a SATC fan -- and now it looks like she may get the chance to guest-star. One day of shooting has been carved out for her, according to the schedule. "They've asked her," says an insider. "But she hasn't confirmed.” *This better NOT be true. I will be beyond PISSED if she is anywhere in this movie. Not cool SATC, NOT COOL.

JASON LEWIS BACK? – There are reports that Jason Lewis, Smith Jerrad, will be back. *He is hot, I would like to see him.




And on a side note: My sister just started watching the SATC series a few weeks ago. Aw, my little girl is growing up! I do have to say that as fun as it is to watch this with my sister (who as a reminder is 8 years younger than me) there are a few episodes we come across where I feel a bit weird watching with her….almost like I want to say “close your eyes and cover your ears, you can’t see this!”, then I remember how old she is and I get over it…...for the most part.

I Love and I Strongly Dislike…

I Love:

1. Sleeping with the air conditioning on and it is nice and cool in the house and I am all cuddled up under warm blankets.

2. Edwards Pie’s (I realize I am a self-proclaimed pie hater. And yes I still hate any fruit based pies or meringue based pies. However Edward’s has cream pies….and they are amazing. My favs: cookie & cream pie, key lime pie, Hershey’s chocolate cream pie. mmmm)

3. Three day weekends and four day work weeks!

4. Baby showers, my friend’s babies, baby clothes, baby toys….ok pretty much all things baby related!

5. That I have lost some weight! It is a start.

6. That as I was listening to NPR this morning and in-between stories they played a 60 second instrumental, slightly slower version of Beck’s “Where Its At” song. (two turn tables and a microphone) Awesome.

7. That fall is pretty much here and fall clothes, shoes and accessories are in the stores!

8. The perfect Saturday “to go” breakfast which consists of a Venti non-fat vanilla latte from Starbucks and a Bagel B.E.L.T. from Tim Hortons. Yum.

9. When you spend a lot of time on a crochet project (or art project) and it turns out perfect! Seriously, I made this hat for fall and it is PERFECT. I love it.

10. Kettle corn from the Black Swamp Arts Festival. (get yours this weekend!)



I Strongly Dislike:

1. When you are all snuggled up in bed in a nice cool house and you are laying in the perfect position….....and you have to tinkle.

2. Having to wake up to go to work in the morning when you are SO incredibly comfortable where you are at.

3. The first day back to work after a three day weekend.

4. That I still have a lot more weight to lose.

5. That schools did not allow kids to watch the President’s speech yesterday, even though it was known nothing political would be talked about. Heaven forbid kids are given the chance to think for themselves.

6. When you are at the bottom of the deodorant and as you are about to use it the deodorant falls out and onto the floor and breaks into pieces making it unable to be used.

7. Plantar Fasciitis/Heel Spurs. It has been 6 months - Um ouch.

8. When you get soup to eat and it is WAY too hot to eat. I am talking it is near boiling and you have to wait like 10 minutes to even try to eat it.

9. When your maintenance light on your car comes on and you are ignoring it but then your observant husband gets in the car and sees it and asks how long it has been on. My Answer: What light? Oh that one, it just came on like a day ago. Honest answer: It has been on for about a month or more.

10. When you are excited because you think you have extra money in your account but then realize when you go through your account that your darling hubby forgot to give you a big stack of receipts and then not so much with the extra money.