People in Ohio are so nice. Example #1- the priest knew my uncles entire life story. He said it with dates and names and no notes. And he got it right. #2- on our way home we had to pull over for a second and someone pulled over to make sure we were ok. #3- every car going by in the opposite direction pulled over for us during the procession. And stopped! Toto, we aren't in Jersey anymore.
On our way to Ohio we stopped over night in Pittsburgh. We stayed at my aunt and uncles place so we wouldn't have to do the whole drive in one day. Here is my aunt making us dinner.
Fifteen of us went to a chinese dinner to celebrate AJ's birthday. Here is the 40 year old birthday boy in his homemade party hat. His personalized cake came later.
Let me explain Kohr brothers for those of you not from New Jersey. It is a soft ice cream place on the boardwalk in Ocean City... the best soft ice cream place! People line up down the boardwalk to have one. Half of it usually drip down your arm before you are finished but it is still totally worth it. Today I went to a mall I do not usually go to. (I had a gift card for a store there.) This mall has a Kohr brothers inside of it. I have very strong feelings against that. It is not the same if you are not on the boardwalk with a million people and seagulls all around. They shouldn't even be allowed to sell Kohr brothers in malls. It's just not right!
It is the day after christmas so me and my mom went to the mall and target to return a few things. The valentines decorations were already going up. What happened to January?
Yesterday my friend and I were joking about how we felt like we were on the Titanic. Today she gave this to me with the message "even the Titanic had survivors" :-) She also said soon we will get to turn in our karma points for boyfriends. I'm not so sure it works that way but I'll go with it.
I spend a lot of time reading today because I did not feel like exercising and my christmas shopping is done. Check out what happened in todays chapter of the book. It was so exciting!
Here he is making his way around our neighborhood. To bad Matt and Zach weren't there too.
On Friday I was supposed to go to Harpers. I was really looking forward to seeing my friend's band play there. The problem was that no one could come with me so I had to make a decision about whether its a safe enough place to go alone. I decided it is not. What do you think? Did I make the right choice? Which bars do you think are not good for a girl to show up at alone?
Me and my dad went out for dinner and shopping last night. We went to PJs and actually ran into a bunch of his work friends there. Here he is with our wings.
I love getting presents for no reason. My aunt sent me this ornament in the mail. It was exciting to get real mail and even better when I saw that it was a gift. It looks good on my new tree.
Yesterday I went home to make pizzelles with my mom. She said it was a two person job. I still stand by the idea that it is actually a one person job. The second person is just there to chit chat and do other things while keeping with first person company. It would be boring without the second person though. As a little cheer-er-upper I brought some to my coworkers. They loved them! We must have done a good job.
Here is a picture of me learning how to use Danielle's webcam. Special thanks to her for thinking of taking a picture of a picture.
Sorry I missed a few days. I really just was not feeling it. I couldnt get motivated to do anything fun so I really did not have any good pictures. But Im back now.
Yesterday I braved the mall in December with a friend. We really went just to hang out so it was not bad. I have only ever hung out with her at kickball and kickball gatherings so this was a nice change. We learned a couple things about each other. 1) She spends alot of time and money on makeup 2) I do not. 3) She enjoys trying on clothes. 4) I do not. 5) She only goes out to certain resturants cause she watches her weight. 6) I do not. That being said, we had alot of fun. She took me to a bunch of stores I normally just walk right past. My favorite of the new stores was Lush. I had read about it and it seemed interesting, but I never went in because it always smells overwhelming when you walk by. Well I went in and it turns out that it is all home-made biodegradable soaps and things like that. And the workers are so dorky and nice. This is a picture of my favorite soap that I learned about yesterday. It is flourecent and was inspired by the northern lights. How can you not enjoy a bath when your using this.
If you have to tell me on the front of the envelope not to ignore it, you can pretty much guarantee it's junk mail. Note to the junk mail mailers: leave off the "do not ignore" message and more people will read it.
I made my own dinner tonight. It is just like Panera at home. I put my sandwich into the george forman and made it a panini. Watch out Giada here I come.
When we were little my poppop use to make snow globes out of upside down jars. I remembered that when I saw these at the store today. They look just like his. The major difference, though, is that these cost 30 dollars. If he would have sold them twenty five years ago he could have been rich.
I have never been there, never heard of it before, and it is not open yet. However, this restaurant is already my favorite. How can it not be good!? Sounds perfect to me. Genius!
This was the view out of my windows this morning. One thing you don't consider when buying a jeep is the winter. Since you can't scrape plastic you have to drive like this, which is dangerous. Or you have to drive with the windows down. Starting your 28 degree day with a windows down drive is rough. Next week I better take out my winter coat. I miss summer.
I haven't given you a mind puzzle lately. Let's try a different one besides the code messages. Guess what this is! I will give you the answer in a couple days :-) I'll give you a hint: happy December!
Oops. I forgot to take a picture today. The good news is that it was not because I had nothing to take, though. I forgot to take a picture when I was out with my work friends because I was too busy having fun and chit chatting. In this case no picture does not equal a boring day it equals a busy full one.
In my opinion, every room built should have windows. If there are no windows then it is not a room. How are you supposed to concentrate without access to the outside world? I don't like not being able to see the weather or the time of day. Good thing I only have to be trapped in here for a few hours.
Boo to Sunday nights. Here are my roomie and her friend. We all relaxed for our last evening of freedom by watching some Tough Love.
I love old photos but I hate home movies. I always have. No one is ever happy after watching a home movie. All they do is remind you of a good time you had long ago with people who are no longer with you. They make me so sad. My aunt and uncle got some videos from the Ohio relatives so we decided to watch them. I actually watched and I paid attention. I remembered the days in the video so I was not surprised by what was in them. What did surprise me though was how distorted my image of my grandma is in my head. All of the relatives look the way I envisioned them in my head. I mean, my mom had a different haircut and glasses and my dad had a big black beard but overall they all looked in the movie the way they look to me. The first thing that popped out at me from the video was how healthy my grandma looked. She doesn't look that way in my head :-( I guess watching this home movie was actually a good thing for me. It forced me to remember that the things that make me sad were not always that way. I have to change my image to remember the better things instead. Especially around the holidays. I am going to start that positive change today! Here is an old photo to help. My mom and uncle found it yesterday. It appears to be my grandparents' wedding.
Every holiday im usually depressed because everyone else is having big family get-togethers while we eat dinner with each other. This year my aunt and uncle came for thanksgiving which was a nice change. Along with the bigger family holidays comes a bigger show too. This is a picture of the antipasto shishkabobs that we had for appetizers. It seems to me that the usual salad would have been just as nice.
Me and Kate went on a Christmas craft shopping spree today. Our houses are going to look so good! Sparkly, but good. Only 4 more days until it is acceptable for us to make and hang our Christmas crafts. Until then I am going to pile my supplies under the saddest looking tree I have ever seen. Hopefully we bought enough sparkle to fix it, Charlie Brown.
I went to the library's annual book sale. It was alot like black friday for nerds. There were people lined up outside. When they opened the doors there was running, pushing, and shoving. I understand that its a good deal but come on. If I felt like dealing with crazy people in crowds I would have went to the mall and not the library.
This is what we look like after 3 hours of back to back parent teacher conferences. Im tired but overall they went pretty well tonight.
There is a reason girls with Jeeps don't wear dresses. Or maybe there is a reason girls trying to look professional don't drive Jeeps to work. Either way, I give you exhibit A.
The mormons stopped by. Apparently the lady who lived here before me enjoyed their little speeches. I dont know who I was expecting to be at the door but I was disappointed.
Me and Kate have a nice little tradition going. Once a weekend we have a meal together.
Ps. My dad figured out the secret message yesterday so fast. I have to step up and make them a little more difficult now so he has to work at it. :-)
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1) When discussing my future christmas decorations my mom said "you have a theme. The theme is tacky"
2) The birds at the Marlton Diner must die. (See photo)
3) I learned how to use my wifi so hopefully I can post on time and check the weather whenever I want now.
4) I scored a touchdown at football. We still lost by like 80 points though.
5) My dad is the only one that I know of who reads this blog regularly. So here is a special code message for him. See if you can decode it.
19, 18, 23, 26, 23, 23, 12, 2, 12, 6, 14, 18, 8, 8, 14, 22, 2, 22, 7, 18, 4, 18, 15, 15, 24, 12, 14, 22, 12, 5, 22, 9, 8, 12, 12, 13, 15, 12, 5, 22, 23, 18, 13, 26
There was a cricket in the bathroom. Instead of killing it or catching it my mom trapped it in. She was hoping it would "go back where it came from". But how could it get out?
I had off from work today so I decided to try a craft that I saw on the internet. My mom wanted one and I felt like the $130 they charged online was a little much. I made up my own directions but I think it came nice. Check out this silhouette necklace.
This sign at TCNJ cracks me up every time I walk by it. Its a picture of the beautiful new building they are constructing. And in an effort to appear more diverse they have photoshopped pictures of students into the picture also. Maybe they should have had a photography major doing the editing because the people aren't proportional and they have lines around them. Also, in order to see the sign you already have to be on campus which means you aren't being fooled by the diversity in the picture. What are the odds that someone with a seeing eye dog is walking past the new building at the same time as the person in the wheelchair. Come on, TCNJ! Lets put a little more effort into it next time.
I loved daylight savings this morning when I was wide awake for work and it was sunny for the drive. I'm not so happy with it now that it's dark at 5:00.
Look at the new drain cap that I installed. And by "I installed" I mean I called my dad, he cleaned it out, drove me to Home Depot, and told me what to buy. But I was with him every step of the way.
