Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

(Below is the Christmas card I designed for this year)

Christmas Quizical

I always see these cute little Q & A's on other people's blogs and I think they're so fun to read. I came across this Christmas one and as I found myself answering it in my head as I was reading, so I decided to hop on that train...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, all the way. I rarely give gifts in bags (I first typed this bags in gifts...Christmas Eve nap necessary maybe?) Wrapping gifts went up a notch this year with crafting pom-poms and stamping (see a few posts below).

2. Real tree or Artificial? I think I may have a slight allergy to real, but definitely real.

3. When do you put up the tree? I don't have a tree, but for me no decorations of any sort before Thanksgiving. November 25--game on.

4. When do you take the tree down? Decorations down by the 1st ideally.

5. Do you like eggnog? Don't love it nor hate it. There's just something slightly off-setting to me when I pour something in the glass, and go to rinse it out and it leaves a film that only soap takes off. However, I am making an eggnog cake today.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My mom was (is) a great gift giver. Christmases were fun!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No! :( I do not have one yet (nor many decorations). That being said, starting with a clean-decorating slate is exciting for me, and I love getting to choose just what I want. I remember my family's generic nativity scene as a child (which my barbies would visit) and I know that I really want to find something a bit more meaningful for me. I would love to pick up a nativity scene from Israel or Africa, or this GORGEOUS scene made out of driftwood that is at a store downtown. But until it is 75% off, it won't be mine.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Male cousin and nephews; they are all teenage boys. That's all I have to say about that.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Roommate and my mother.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Nothing is coming to mind...blocked out maybe? I do remember one of the more shocking gifts as being an anatomically-correct boy baby doll when I was young.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf, and Love Actually. And How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Dr. Suess version, not the Jim Carry version. Yikes).

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When I see something on sale. Or that's just right, so usually in the spring.

14. Ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Peppermint-Mochas from Starbucks. And only in the red cup. With half the chocolate. And non-fat milk. And no whip. And no foam. Yes, I'm that girl when ordering at Christmas time.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Depends.

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night and O Come O Come Emmanuel.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Prancer, Comet, Cupid...Blitzen?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? This year: yesterday, when taking a trip to Trader Joes and Publix for a few ingredients and it turning into a 2.5 hour trip (which is usually a 30 minute trip).

23. Favorite ornament, theme, or color? Classic.

Hiking

One more thing that happened in the past couple months is that my birthday twin and I turned 26! We spread out our celebrations over 2 weekends (I have learned from wise people over the past few years that it's good to spread these things out), and we started the celebrating with a hike up Blood Mountain. While in hometown we had been enjoying unseasonably warm weather, for a while it was cold. And it was COLD the weekend we went hiking. The bulk of N.'s and my conversation on Friday night involved how many layers we were going to be wearing. 5:30 a.m. came early enough (to a remark later of, "why do we never do anything late?" [see HH trip]) and we were off! We drove and drove, parked, and got going.

Well, we got going after N. saw the sign about bears in the area, "what do you do?!?!" and trying to sort out the way, N.-"are you sure this is the trail?" Me, "no."

But we made it! And it was beautiful!

All the pictures from this trip were from N.'s iPhone; I was advised by N. to not bring my camera. Something about "falling" and "breaking it." It's like she knows me or something.

P.S. Final layer count: 7

catch-up.

Hey, blog. It's been a while. Oops.

What's been going on...

-some design gigs for some friends and photo-shoots (some even paid!)

-planning & running a women's retreat (yeah!)

-traveling north because of a family member's death

-reconnecting with some family because of said incident above

-house sitting (wee!)

-Thanksgiving

thanks Moores!

-Christmas crafting (see post below)

-indulging in my love of Pinterest, where amongst many jewels, I have found:

the recipe for my new Sunday morning staple, Greek Yogurt Pancakes

and inspiration on how to make a Halloween toilet monster for my roommate:

-Also, I recently discovered Jane Eyre. OMG. The newest version of the movie...OMG. This sparked me reading the book (late, I know), which is calling to me now.

black friday wrapping party

I feel so accomplished when I do things on my Pinterest boards, don't you?  It's just so satisfying that the hour+ I spend searching results in something tangible.  My friend Mary took it a step further recently and organized a Christmas present wrapping party based on ideas that she had gleaned from Pinterest.  I know, I wish you had been there too because it was SO MUCH FUN.  :D

Enough of talking, more of the showing.  The basic ingredients in this craft party were brown postal paper to wrap the gifts in and then festive and fun paraphernalia (stamps, yarn, paint, candy canes) to decorate the gifts and handmade cards with.

I discovered a love of making pompoms.

Some of Mary's masterpieces:

 

Some of the favorites I made:

Collage of Mary's work:

Collage of mine:

AND there will be a round 2 soon!  Woo hoo!  This party went on as long as you had presents for, and I hadn't done my Etsy orders yet.  They are on the way though and I can't wait to make them pretty!  

Looking for some great handmade gifts?  You should check out my friend Katie's beautiful work here, http://www.etsy.com/shop/LinenLaidFelt.   She makes books:  guest books, photo albums, journals...they're beautiful!  I have a custom photo album order in for a family member for Christmas and I can't wait for them to get it!

Looking for a skirt?  My friend Catherine makes them!  Here is her website.

There are not pictures of it (crafting is hard work!), but we also made handmade Christmas cards.  Again, it was such a fun day!

Closet overhaul.

A new guy got hired at work. In the two weeks he set up shop, he managed to decorate the kitchen space more than my entire dwelling space had been decorated in thirteen months. Cue some external motivation to get to decorating. And what do I start with? The hall closets. Right when you come inside, there are two closets on your left. Up until a couple weeks ago they were a disorganized mess without doors. One of those, "I'll take care of it later" projects.

A few pictures (I'm almost embarrased to show this level of disorganization...):

I know. BAD.

Every wall and the bigger furniture in the house is cream. The doors to the closet that were waiting to be hung up are cream, and that's just a little bit of too much. And it's a tight space, so I really wasn't super keen on the doors. Fortunately roommate didn't care too much in either regard and she didn't balk at my suggestion of curtains for doors AND she liked (too strong a word maybe...tolerated? okay with?) what I found on super sale at T.J. Maxx so yay for curtain doors:

It's ridiculous. I grin almost every time I see them...they make me THAT happy. They're a pretty blueish-green color. They brighten that space up a bit in a subtle way. Decorating hit.

The inside got a revamp too. It started with the space just being sorted properly. I put some shelves and baskets in there, and covered a bit of cardboard to put down on the wire-shelf to be able to support shelves on top of it:

Please disregard the scruffed up wall. I can't see it with the (pretty) curtain-doors closed and I don't care enough to magic eraser it.

"actually good"

Achiever is one of my top five strengths on the Clifton strength finder test (along with empathy, developer, discipline, and responsibility). It inspires me to do things at work like say to myself, "oh, that bulletin board hasn't been changed in a few years, let's offer to re-do it!" Yep. I wasn't told to, but there was this display that hadn't been changed in a number of years and it just needed a make-over.

My canvas:

I spent some time on Pintrest hunting for ideas. I got the main bit of inspiration from some great vintage travel posters. The board was about international missions and had had a map on it with push-pins on it where the international students had traveled from. That element had to be retained, so I spent time hunting down maps from the different continents and then listing out the countries.

Add some 3D art with some letters, panels, burlap, and a little word art,

and voila!

My favorite part of constructing this thing was when main boss man goes, as I'm showing him a panel, "that's actually good." Thanks.

a mess.

A mess. It's what I was by the end of the day today.

It all started at birthday lunch. Birthday lunch at work is a monthly event where we gather as a staff and go to a restaurant and main boss-man buys lunch for those who had birthdays that month. We tried a new restaurant today...SO good. After lunch a few of us wandered into a new vintage/local shop while wandering (I mean, purposefully striding) back to the office. This fun little shop had fabulous dresses. As that I am a sucker for a full skirt with a pretty neckline, I made a beeline for a polka dot number. And Daynes found, well, something she's been looking for for a while.

The leopard belt was only a bonus.

Pardon my inability to look at a camera in these pictures...there were a number of cell phone photos going on, and the dress didn't quite zip all the way up the side (I'd have to loose some ribs to get it to zip) so I was focusing on not showing my side (and with happened later, that is hilarious now).

We leave the store (without a purchase) and are heading back up to work. We're walking past a glass wall of a restaurant when a wind gust happens. And I mean GUST. Gust to the extent that my dress went flying up before I had a chance to catch it. And you know how when that happens, you can think, well maybe nothing was seen? Well, the aforementioned GLASS WALL let me see me and my underwear's reflection perfectly. In addition to my colleagues reactions who were unfortunantley behind me.

Carrying on, we happen across the King of Pops cart, and we all pick a pop. It was warm, but not to warm today, but this thing melted all over me. I'm getting back to the office with this thing melting down both arms, down my face, and all over my dress. My consolation in this is that Katherine didn't fare so well with hers either. But her outfit wasn't dark navy blue...

Come to the end of the day and you have me: cruising through the office with a large band-aid still across my head, drinking water out of one of those huge hospital mugs, and my dress covered in melted popsicle. A mess.

a smattering of stories.

This morning I was late to work because I had an acne cyst go bad. Real bad. I spent about 10 minutes running though my house hunting for neosporin before I gave up the search, stuck on a band-aid, and went into work. I fly up the stairs at work and am speed walking into my office when I run into all my coworkers sitting on a bench. They see the band-aid and start laughing. Between giggles one friend goes, "did you get on a treadmill this morning?" They know me well. :) Then I was referenced to the girls on the movie Clueless who apparently covered up blemishes with band-aids. Hah. Hah. And now I'm adding that to my rent list...

Preggo Katherine (the friend in the post below) is quite pregnant and food is always a good conversation. Today at lunch she was talking about food stories with someone else in the office (who has two children). The lady was talking about how one time when she was pregnant she went to cabinet after cabinet to fridge hunting for something to eat, before finally stopping and crying in the middle of her kitchen because she didn't know what she wanted. As others were laughing at this story, I gulped. Minus the crying, I exhibited the EXACT same behavior last night (btw, there is no chance of baby here). I too went between cabinet and fridge and pantry a few times before just standing and thinking in the middle of the kitchen (again, no crying) before settling on my best-food-friend (plain) greek yogurt. Yikes.

This is my friend Julie (and her two girls),

She is amazing. Great wife & mom. Very wise. And hilarious.

Case in point...last night at church this cutie,

her son, came up to me and said, "Ms. Diana, did you make the...cookies on the table with the different colored icings?" Me, "Yeah I did, why?" S. goes, "well would you please give my mom the recipe?" Me, "Does that mean you liked them?" S., "yeah!" (and subtle look back to mom).

Best food compliment ever. And funniest, when I realized that maybe his momma put him up to it. The answer was of course, yes. You think I could say no to that?

bumps

You don't know something till you try (Mostly. Somethings you do know without having to try, such as smoking kills and eating an entire gallon of ice cream isn't worth the gym time to make it up). I am continuing to try different types of photography and I've had the chance to do some maternity photos recently! I have two friends who got married at around the same time about a year ago, and both are going to be delivering their first babies around the same time too (soon!).

Try #1, Katherine and Mike!

Katherine and I were hired around the same time at our workplace, and I'm so thankful for that! She is great! She and her husband recently purchased a home (new job, marriage, new house, baby all in a year...one of her strengths is adaptability, to say the least) and I did some photos of them at their home to send a family. They are precious!

Try #2, Ashley and Tate!

Attempt #2 at photos came with my friends Ashley and Tate, who I worked with at the UGA Wesley Foundation. We met mid-afternoon at one of my favorite places in Athens (farm!) and I had SO much fun with them. I was looking at the photos again to select photos for this post and started laughing again.

These sweet new babies definitely have some great parents!

dragging.

I like mornings. But some mornings are tougher than others. Like today. I got up to go to the gym and I was dragging. I'm stumbling across the parking lot and another woman is getting out of her car at the same time. She steps out and goes, LOUDLY, "GOOD MORNING, fellow gym rat! Hahhahhahahahah! I call everyone who goes to the gym gym-rats!"

Did I mention how it was morning? How I was dragging?

I'm fairly certain I jumped when she started with "good morning!" And, this is bad. I didn't say anything. I kinda smiled (I think. It may have been more of a grimace.) I think I forced out a "ha." And went inside. Bleh.

5 in 4 days

I have gone to (the same) Publix 5 times in 4 days. 5! In 4 days!

Publix trip #1, on Friday to get dinner items ("smallest sirloin in the meat case", bag of spinach leaves, fresh green beans, and blue cheese). Publix trip #2, on Saturday, get items for spinach and artichoke dip in a bread boat (aka a baguette). Publix trip #3, on Saturday, go with a friend to get groceries. Publix trip #4, on Sunday, get items for another spinach and artichoke dip to make for church.

As I menu planned on Sunday night, I realized that I did not have 3 ingredients for the 2 meals I plan to eat off of all week (they are not particularly complex--[1]curried chick peas and [2] roasted broccoli and sweet potatoes). I didn't have any broccoli or sweet potatoes on hand (aka, no meal #2) so I resigned myself to going on Monday after work.

At work part of my job entitles being a "gopher" as I "go for" this and "go for" that at certain times, and as I was heading out the door to run some errands I ran into one of my boss ladies who was headed out too and I volunteered to run her errands. And one of them was to Publix. Haha, fab.

Another food related story...while I was making dip #2 this weekend I was vigorously shaking salt into the bowl. I say vigorously because I use kosher salt, which takes a wee bit of force to get it out of my salt shaker. As I was with one hand shaking salt into the bowl and with the other working on pulling apart the defrosting spinach (and where my gaze was at too) I all of a sudden feel myself covered in something. Something grainy.

The cap on the bottom of the salt shaker had come loose and salt was EVERYWHERE. On the stove behind me. All over the floor. All over the counter. In the KitchenAid bowl. Down my tank-top (and in my bra as I later discovered). One feature of kosher salt is that it is large, so I was able to fish out the bulk of the excess salt from the dip (and it didn't taste salty when done, whew). Raining salt...can cross that off the kitchen-malfunction experience list.

B.H.H.

B.H.H.

I'm suffering from it. It's a condition (I did just google it to be sure it wasn't a real-life, highly unfortunate condition. It's not. The closest hit I got was "Boston Harbor Hotel"which only reinforces my B.H.H.). What is B.H.H.?

Beach. Holiday. Hangover.

I had a brief holiday at the beach last weekend and goodness it was wonderful! I don't think there is ever enough beach time in my life. The first day at the beach (Hilton Head, FYI) Nutan asked me, "would you ever get tired of living here?" I'm glad she was driving, as my head whipped around to stare at her with a dropped jaw. "Have you met me," I replied. No. I love it. I love the ocean air, the atmosphere, the heat, the water, the sand, the seafood...oh gosh.

The recap!

Friday

We left Friday (not at 4:00 a.m. as the original plan, but more around 6:something). I woke up checking the weather. We left checking the weather. Storms from Irene were forecast for Friday but clear days on Saturday and Sunday were still predicted. We had an easy back-road drive (with some of the sketchiest sites I've ever seen) and arrived to overcast skies. We checked in early onto our hotel and then raced to a restaurant (grumpiness was fast coming). We went to Salty Dog Cafe and ate our way into a walking food coma (no regrets). We wandered around for a bit and the skies got darker and darker. It'd rain, then stop. Rain, then stop. Nutan and I were visiting a few stores and one of the teen shop girls shared her weather insight with us, "it's supposed to be like this all weekend." I shared with her the forecast we'd been obsessivley checking all week and she goes, "well, locals know the real deal" or something like that. Not appreciated. Nutan and I leave the shop and then it really pours. So we decide to go shopping at the outlets. After being equipped with new make-up and new running shoes (and walking through every store [rain, remember?]) we decide it's time for our next feeding, where we proceed to overeat on hush puppies and she crab soup (my second cup of the day).

See, dark clouds:

You're missing a picture where I'm soaked through. I had gotten a horrible case of the hiccups (the screetching kind) in Marc Jacobs, so I ran to the car to get water, and while in route it began to downpour. By the time I got back to the store, it had stopped. Bleh.

Saturday

We wake up to...BRIGHT SKIES! BLUE SKIES! The day began with a beach walk/jog, breakfast, and beach time. Beach-beach-beach time. Not too much water time because of some deadly rip currents. Then dinner. And more beach time. And ice cream. And then bed. Pretty tiresome...

Sunday

Even brighter skies! And hotter! Solo beach jog, breakfast, and beach time! No more rip-current warning, so water time! And, we found a .50 kite at Wal-Mart when we bought our chairs (necessary) that actually got off the ground. Said bye to the beach. Where we were had a changing area so we got changed into travel clothes, packed up, ate-up, and headed home.

My life needs more beach! But as I was driving home on Sunday I was so missing those I love in Athens! And that made coming home more than worth it.

Yay friend!

shenanigans continue.

As mentioned in my prior post, the upstairs crew was attacked by the youth staff with nerf guns. Accordingly, we (Courtney, Katherine, Cookie & I) retaliated.

After they had left for the day, their nerf-gun weaponry somehow found their way into our hands. Weird, no?
We coordinated our stealth wear, and went home to rest up.

The next morning Courtney came in with "the final word" a 12-loader nerf gun. We got our plan ready (entrance, attack, and exit plans). Then it was time. We snuck down...there was crawling to avoid detection...then GO.

See our stealth wear...

And then I accidentally shot boss-man in the face (side-note: having been shot a few times in the face, I can attest that it doesn't hurt [in my experience at least]. It just smarts for a second and mostly just surprises you!).
I already exhibit behavior that can be called "jumpy." That behavior is now amplified in that whenever I hear anything (door open, something fall) I'm jumping and getting ready to duck and cover.

here's today.

Just one of those days. You know. One of those where by 4:30 p.m. you ask yourself, "what just happened?"

Let's begin at the beginning.

6:20 a.m., out of bed, overslept a wee bit. Remember I have to be at work an hour earlier than normal, and realize I am awake too early to have to be awake for getting to work early, and awake not early enough to exercise. Instead of doing something productive, I hop back in bed to read the news.

6:40, working my way through the U.S. news, see something about a tropical storm. Oh wait, another story. About it being a hurricane. And then the newest story about how it is the first hurricane expected to make U.S. landfall in 3 years, and potentially on the east coast. Gulp. Beach trip this weekend that I've been working towards for weeks (and hoping for for months) is on my mind.

6:50, say a prayer for the areas affected (I'm disappointed at the idea of loosing this vacation, but know there is a lot more at hand), and go to get ready. While getting ready I flashback to a conversation with my travel buddy when we were booking our hotel a few weeks ago:

Nutan, "do you think it'll rain?" Me, "you can't control that, but it'd probably pass quickly anyways."

Now, it's a stinking hurricane.

8:00, get to work. Watch the news blurb on the storm, decide to stop stuffing my feelings, frustrated cry a bit, and carry on. Sorta. I wasn't too perky for a while.

Program planning staff meeting for 2.5 hours. And that was short. (Seriously).

Meeting ends, call hotel to talk about cancellations, work, break for lunch, print and share this hilarious article about printers that I saw on my friend Erika's facebook while at lunch, work, listen to a Nerf gun war outside my office, introduce some of the boss-folks to Pintrest, work.

Hear about the earth-quakin in Virginia and help a boss lady with finding out information about her daughter who goes to UVA.

Participate a little in the nerf gun shenanigans.

Try to work again on the to-do list that hasn't finished itself yet. Decide this is the perfect time to wipe off my desk. See how dusty it is behind the computer monitor and while I'm swiffering the back of the desk, I loose my internet and mouse connection. Literally. I sent those stinkers (routers) flying off the desk. They hit the wall and immediately fell between the wall and my desk (which is about 1,000,387 pounds and unmoveable). I climb on top of my desk (the desk is huge) and I'm getting my arm good and stuck when a coworker comes to my office to tell me she's going to go get some peace and quiet by pulling attendance pads. Did I mention that I'm on top of my desk, stuck against the wall when she comes to tell me this?

Everything gets set back up and I get to working. I have also decided (reflection note, maybe I should have stopped making decisions at this point) to sit on the giant medicine ball instead of my desk chair--it is supposed to be really good for you if you have an office job that requires lots of computer work. Coworker comes back, and a couple other coworkers stop and are talking with me outside my office. I go to pull my hair into a ponytail while we're talking, forget I'm sitting on a freaking ball, completely loose my balance, and go sliding under the (huge) desk. I slid so fast that I am now stuck under my desk. And don't forget that people had been talking to me so I had plenty of witnesses to all of this. Which I was later thankful for, since I was literally STUCK (and their assistance freed me!).

Things settle back down, and I get to copying and get those copies to the folding machine. Stay about an hour late at work, but for all that went on today, completely feel like it's necessary. Go for a walk. Go into Trader Joes hungry and without a grocery list. Leave without a lot of damage done and go home to make savory scones-spinach and cheddar and cheddar and bacon. Get the bacon to frying. Can't find my savory scone recipe. Remember that I've never made savory scones, just savory muffins. Also remember that I don't have spinach. Can't locate an acceptable looking savory scone recipe so I make 50+ cheddar-bacon biscuits.

And here we are.

picture bonus

I had some serious camera loving on Friday night, and when I went to put the pictures on my computer I realized that I had more on there than what I thought. Wee!

Storms!

Roommate has been at her dad's house helping him out for a while, so I've been home alone a lot. Nothing out of the ordinary is going on, it's just a lot quieter than normal (since I'm just reading most evenings). But one night I decided, 'hey, I want to watch a movie!' Then a storm came and knocked out the power. I went to the back wall of windows to check the sky out (because when I went to the front door I got pelted with rain) and I was shocked at the color difference in the sky. The top picture on the right was the right side of the sky, and as I scanned across it went to black.

That being the case, I pulled up the desk chair and watched the lightening for a while.

Oh!

And then friends came to town:

(And they were back in town again last night. Yay!)

I baked another Joy recipe this month...Mississippi mud cake.

I do not like food that has names that are associated with what I consider gross things (for instance, I hate and will not eat gummy worms because of the "worm" bit. Sick.), but this was a very good exception.

And per mentioned, I had a lot of camera loving this weekend when I had a photo shoot with a family who I just love. I have a ton more photos, but I will leave with this one...

Copier thinkers

At work we have a black & white copier/printer and a color copier/printer. We had gotten in the habit of sending a lot of our black/white things to the color copier (which is nicer), but we needed to curb that behavior to extend the copier's life.

One morning this week I went into the copy room and I saw some new teachers in the room who were using the color copier for their black and white items. I kindly explained the copier differences, they warmly received it, and we all carried on. A couple hours later I see one of the same teachers back using the color copier for her black/white copies. I say, "oh, are those black and white copies?" To which I get a response of, "YES. But they are going on COLORED paper."

...

Me, "...um..."

(silence; thoughts racing of "how do I not sound like a smart-*%& in respondingto this" and "really?!")

Finally, me, "color paper goes in both."

Then I ran to the other program assistant offices to share the story.

Early morning.

Last night I went to Publix at around 8:30 p.m. to get a couple of cake ingredients (I keep a stocked baking pantry, but definitely do not keep buttermilk in house). As I was checking out the cashier asked me, "do you know how to cook?" One, I was caught off-guard. I was already pretty exhausted (why? I do not know.). And I was going back through the (same) line again because I had walked out of the store without buttermilk (which was #1 on my list). And as I tried to sputter an answer, of "huh?" she said, "your cookbook in the cart, The Joy of Cooking." OH! Yes. I think I replied with an "oh yeah, I can...new recipe...thanks and bye." And then I fell asleep immediately after putting the eggs and buttermilk (ha!) into the refrigerator. So this morning I woke up at 5:30 to make said cake.

I finished the cake.

Made the frosting.

(Two new recipes, thanks Joy. All 1,000+ pages of you continue to make me happy).

Went to work (because I forgot to do two things on Friday. And I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to run in in gym shorts and a t-shirt. Of course EVERYONE would already be in).

Went to Target (and BTW, apparently they forgot to turn on the automatic door sensor because I cruised right into them).

And it's still before 10 a.m.

Woo-hoo!

Eww. Eww. eww.

Warning: This is the grossest post that I have ever written. You have been warned.

I was hesitant to share a story from this morning. I definitely wasn't going to put it as a Facebook status. It's pretty, no, really gross and I didn't want EVERYONE to know. And it wasn't going on Twitter, which I'm only really using these days as a way to enter in contests, look at local restaurant specials, and make sure my roommate is still alive. But the saying I told myself is worth sharing, and what better avenue than this one?

Is your curiosity on high, or have I lost you?

Well, here is what I said to encourage myself today, "any day that you have dog poo splattered on you by 9 in the morning can ONLY go up."

Yes. That happened to me this morning. And yes, I just gagged again reading it and remembering it. But it's true. The day wasn't off the charts, but having such a eww-low so early really bumped everything up a bit.

The story...I had been asked to run by a friend's home to let their dogs out before I went to work. Immediately upon getting inside I was hit with the vilest smell ever and though, "oh-no." Then I saw it. Dog diar...I can't even type it. I couldn't leave such a mess for the poor homeowners to come home to, so after all the dogs got outside I grabbed the roll of paper towels and a plastic bag and tried to clean it up. I have no freaking idea how it happened, but when I went to clean the mess (from as far away as possible) it splattered. Onto my leg. (Gag again). I still have no idea how that happened. I just know it was disgusting. And that I scrubbed off part of my tan with Clorox cleanser.

3.

Oh hey! 3 posts in one hour. When you're on a roll...you stop eventually. This is my eventually for today.

On day three in Scotland we went to Loch Lomond (loch = lake) and climbed Ben Lomond (...a hill. I prefer to think of it is mini-mountain, but whatever). It. was. BEAUTIFUL. The fellowship, the scenery...oh gosh, it was lovely! It was so pleasant being with our friends and one another (good, good people.). I got some of my favorite people pics here, and they are on FB. Here are a few scenic ones...

This was part of the climb. TOMS are just not made for that sort of climb...at least mine were not. I fell once (not here, praise the Lord). Fortunately it was just in mud and my shoes and jeans took the brunt of it (instead of my camera or sweater).

Scotland recap continued

Oh how ambitious I was when I started my Scotland recap. We'll see how many days I can blog about. The blogging took a hit when I went house-sitting and my internet didn't play friendly and I couldn't get on. I think I was feeling very "bloggy" a couple weeks ago, and now I'm dozing off most nights at 9:00 p.m. Woo. Hoo. (And, I have some good recent things to blog on, friend visits, grilled peaches...) But back to Scotland. Woo hoo!

Moving along quickly...

Church was Sunday. Church was awesome, being with our family across the pond. Afterwards we picnicked inside (when the Scots say it's unseasonably cold for them, you know its cold) and went for a stroll around the nearby glen (park). LOVELY! And then back for tea (dinner) and resting (it did not get dark till around 10/11:00 p.m. and I was definitely thrown off a wee bit by that).

(Pictures from the glen)