Trying to stay on track-30 days of me

I have had a hard time staying on track with my blog. It seems to often that my busy job, fire house commitments, and life get in the way. I have seen this "survey" on too many blogs to list, but I thought I would give it a try. Maybe it will be inspirational on days that I want to post, but don't want to vent about work to the entire world!



Here goes:

Day 1: Your favorite song

Day 2: Your favorite movie

Day 3: Your favorite television show

Day 4: Your favorite book

Day 5: Your favorite quote

Day 6: Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 7: A photo that makes you happy

Day 8: A photo that makes you angry/sad

Day 9: A photo you took

Day 10: A photo of you taken over 10 years ago

Day 11: A photo of you taken recently

Day 12: Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 13: A fictional book

Day 14: A non-fiction book

Day 15: A fanfic

Day 16: A song that makes you cry (or almost)

Day 17: An art piece

Day 18: Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 19: A talent of yours

Day 20: A hobby of yours

Day 21: A recipe

Day 22: A website

Day 23: A YouTube video

Day 24: Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 25: Your day in great detail

Day 26: Your week in great detail

Day 27: This month in great detail

Day 28: This year in great detail

Day 29: Your hopes, dreams, and plans for the next 365 days

Day 30: Whatever tickles your fancy!

Not your average work week

I have decided that the worst day of the entire year, is the first day back to work after vacation. And further, the better the vacation is, the worse it makes work! Don't be mistaken....I love my job, but I also love the beach. It was nice to have an official "end of summer" vacation to get recharged for the busy fall ahead. We enjoyed the week of Labor day in Nags Head with Jared's family.
This week I was running around at work completely scatterbrained as if I had no vacation at all. Well, I have now made it through this crazy week, which finished today with the kickoff session of Leadership Fredericksburg. I greatly enjoyed meeting all of the Fellows and getting this program off the ground.

But, to live vacation one more time I have some pics below.



Tucker had some adjusting to do to the water. He slowly but surely came around. I think this picture sums up his week. He was quite content with his trucks and building roads in the sand. As you can tell he also liked the holes.

Miss Hollywood rocked her sunglasses that Gaga and Papa bought her when she got to go with them by herself. She was a good sport with the sand and water. She also enjoyed her brief time in the hot tub and learned to swim and do the back float pretty well.

I took this picture on the last day and I thought it was so cute I wanted to post it. Maybe we will see it again at Christmas Card time. To my Cap 1 friends..can you believe how big the kids have gotten? Time flies.

I got my hair permed the Friday before we left and it made it interesting dealing with the ocean breeze! Much easier with my poker straight hair. We had a great vacation and I can't wait for next year already. I looked for Kristen's whale salt and pepper shakers at a place I saw them in June to mail a surprise to her, but they were sold out. I tried KZ!

I did get a little plaque that holds a picture on it and it has this quote on it: The time you ENJOYED WASTING is not wasted time. T.S. Elliott

I put it on my desk in my new office to remind me that down time is good...and maybe I should waste more!

Fourth of July "Fun"

Jared had to work early on the Saturday before the 4th so I thought I would get a head start on the cookout we had to go to Sunday. I thought it would be cute to make some patriotic cookies. It has been since Christmas since I used any creativity in the kitchen thanks in large part to my super busy job. I have lost some of my touch in that time, but in the end I did have a few good ones turn out. I tried really hard on a few Statues of Liberty, but no luck! Here are a few that I ended up with. I didn't want to take my good platters to the party, so excuse the orange tray.


I was particulary thrilled with the silver sprinkles I found at the store. I picked them up without really knowing what I would use them for, but they made for a great flagpole!

I got tired of the patriotic shapes quickly so I decided to add some "summer" themed ones to the mix. I was most proud of my watermelons, which I had about 20 of. I also made some lollipops and ice cream cones from hand without a cookie cutter. Now it is safe to say I have had my fill of sugar cookies until Christmas.....well maybe fall/Halloween!

I will be blogging tomorrow on big news that Jared and I have been talking about for a year....and NO it's not a baby.

What I've been working on

Since January I have been helping a longtime friend prepare for her upcoming wedding. The wedding was planned for this past weekend, May 22. As we met weekly the plans slowly came together. She knew a few things: she wanted it to be fun, pink, and she knew who she wanted to be there. We started out with a church, reception hall and guest list slightly too large for either of the first two! Luckily she, the groom, and her mom were super easy to work with and were always saying thank you, even when I sometimes didn't think I did much.
Well after all of our laughing, stressing, and hard work it came together. It did rain, and rain hard, but she got down the aisle and through the ceremony without fainting, which was a fear for her, and then they hopped into the familiar territory of a BGVFD firetruck. It just so happened Jared was the driver, so he called out their new name over the radio. This typically wouldn't be a big deal, but Heather is a 911 dispatcher, so they were able to record it for her to have.
Here is a shot when most decorations were done.

This was one of the appetizer tables.

My Mom and I did all of the reception decorations. We decided to do a table split and did some with candles and some with flowers. Heather loves tulips, so that made up half of them. We used the vases from my wedding with a spring twist. This picture was before they opened up all the way.

I am pretty proud of these candles. Last Tuesday, Brooke and I sat down and made these candles. We took plain white candles, wrapped them in painter's tape, and then put glue where we wanted glitter. After that we rolled or shook glitter onto the candles. We were unsure how they would turn out, but when the boys came down stairs and complemented us, we knew we were on track. The trickiest one was the pink, but it was totally worth it.

For all of the centerpieces we sprinkled bath salts around the mirror to make it sparkle. As the night wore on they melted a little and looked like diamonds. I was happy with it.

Overall it was worth all of the efforts. I worked 2 long days, but I was so glad to be a part of this event. Heather and Wayne are so happy and were so appreciative of everything I helped them with. Everyone kept asking when my next wedding was.................and I answered a LONG time from now! I have had my fill for a while!

Spring!

Once again it has been a long time in between blogs..its the job! I have been working at least 50 hours a week and sometimes more....so when I do get home, I try to spend active time with Dudley and Jared instead of being on the computer. This is a post I have been meaning to put up for a few weeks, I have had this Easter/spring display since I took down my Valentine decorations! I knew I wouldnt be at home to put it up, plus I had just bought most of it so I was anxious.

I moved my aloe plant to a new location and put this on my plant stand. My original intention was to put it on the mantle, but it was too tall. I am much happier that I ending up with it on the plant stand.

I picked up these cute "chocolate bunnies" at Home Goods in Short Pump, when I was having lunch with KZ on MLK Day back in January. I love them!

Finally, I put some cherry blossom branches in a vase, and hung my new Easter eggs from Pier One on them. It looks colorful and cheery in a corner that is otherwise white and gray. I think I will leave this up for a while....I love it and so does everyone who comes over.....proud of myself for coming up with this on my own....I didnt even see it on display at the store :)

Looking forward to this!

With all of the snow and bad weather we have had, Jared has worked the last 28 straight days...yesterday was his first day off, and he has been back at it since 6:00am today. One would think with this much snow, and being home alone for so much time I would have had the chance to blog. Oh well, where here is this update. This one definately goes out to KP...maybe we will be albe to hang out!

Last year we went to the beach the week of Labor Day with Jared's parents, and Josh, Brandy and the twins. We had such a great time despite the terrible weather. We were very glad we had a covered hot tub when we hit rain day number 5. As we were leaving, the discussion for next year came up and of course I was excited. With our joint love for Nags Head Jared and I spent some boring winter nights looking at houses online with the hope that at this point we could find the most options for the price range we wanted to stay in. We did. We found 6 houses that we loved. We sent them to Josh and Brandy and they picked the top 1. Then I sent it to Jared's mom, who so graciously foots the bill for the week. We knew that this house had been booking quickly for this summer so we hoped she would act on it quickly. It was much closer to the water than last year, had a heated pool, and our group favorite covered hot tub. After about 2 weeks she had not yet moved on it, and MUCH to Brandy's and I's dismay it was booked. :( We were less than thrilled, but I decided to find the next best choice.

One of the original 6 options emerged as the one we should have chosen all along. The amenities were nearly identical. We liked the location on the beach, the house itself, and it was $695 cheaper for the same week. If you have even glanced at the residential construction business lately you know that this was welcomed news! So, I sent it to Joyce, and we booked it within a day or two.

Now, I am looking forward to Labor Day! Not only is their a "pact" in place for that time (you know who you are), but there is a Jimmy Buffett concert the day before we leave. Since it has been such a boring January and February, at least I can look forward to September! Well, and June too as it is our first beach trip for the year! And, my long lost friend KP will be on vaca the same time, same place....I am sure we can find time to put some drinks back!

Watts Really Been Going On!

I have been a bad friend and worse blogger. November and December have been a blur as my job has taken off and so have the activities of the holiday season. One activity that has consumed a portion of my time was the Bowling Green Christmas Parade. I was asked a while back to be on the committee and had been going to meetings regularly to help plan and organize. This is the first year in some time that the Town had managed the parade. It is the first time in my lifetime that the parade has been in the evening. We had an overwhelming response. It was great!

Why am I telling you this? Well, Wendy (mom's neighbor and our good friend) and her sisters convinced me, Morgan, and Tyler to help make a church float. This is for the church we grew up in, and where Jared and I got married. They have not participated in recent years, and the church frankly could use some good advertising!

We took on the idea of a float. Morgan and I came up with the idea after Wendy told us she wanted us to do a "Reason for the Season" float. We decided to go with a Happy Birthday Jesus theme and to create a giant paper mache cake. Wow. We worked on it non stop for 3 weeks. We won second place overall and it looked really cute lit up at night. Here are some pics of it! This picture doesn't do it justice for when it was lit up at night. My friends have not posted their pics yet, and I did not want to delay posting any longer!