Have you seen all the fun new things available in stores, online, and on TV?  There are miracle squeegees, tattoo-like eye shadow (apparently it won't budge even with sandblasting), and shoes that make your nether-regions do gymnastics while you run! Too good to be true? I admit, I get sucked in by gimmicks.  Whenev

The Man has been on the hunt for a watch for several months now.  His old watch, a Fossil brand watch, lasted him several years with a couple new batteries.  However, the crystal has been scratched, and the watch keeps the time but not the date.  He has tried everything under the sun to get the watch to function correctl

The Man and I have discovered over the years that we are true northwesterners.  We're both big fans of layering our clothes and wearing the anti-couture polar fleece.  To anyone not from Oregon or Washington (and to remind those who do live here), the first thing you probably ever learned about the great northwest was tha

The Man and I have received all of our tax information back from our employers, our investments, and our loans, so now we get to do our taxes.  We always do them jointly so that everything gets double-checked, and we've submitted them online all by ourselves the last few years.  You have no idea how much we look forward t

Our wait is finally over. The Man and I married in 2009 with the hope that we would both, someday, be full-time employees with health benefits and vacation pay.  During our first year of marriage, we lived on my paycheck alone.  Thankfully my employer's insurance covers both of us at no additional cost to us, so that

Allow me to begin this saga by stating that I have no pictures of my newly-dyed hair.  It's not because I don't want you to see me or it, but that the difference is so slight it's not really picture-worthy.  Unless I'm in direct sunlight, the new hair color is barely noticeable.  Which is good, I guess, as I don't look w

We've had some high water in our neighborhood recently, so I have been busy watching the news and checking river levels constantly.  The water was up to car windows just four or five blocks away in one direction, and a very swollen Willamette River churned about a mile away in another direction.  Thankfully The Man and I

Want to quilt but have no free time to do so?  Want to quilt but don't have a sewing machine?  Want quilt-like art for your walls but aren't up for a king-sized mural?  Enter Quilt Magic! I am a quilter, and I do have a little of that precious free time for quilting.  I also have a nice sewing machine.  And, crazy me,

The Man and I finally broke down and bought Kindles.  In a way, I feel like we lost a battle.  On the other hand, yay new technology, fewer books to store, and constantly running out of books to read! We were very resistant to the idea of an e-reader for a long time.  The Man had heard that if you buy a book and put it

I know I resolved to post more this year just last week, and then I took a long weekend off from blogging didn't I?  It was for a good reason, I promise! The Man and I had a good weekend.  We were able to spend a couple hours with my best friend and his wife on Sunday.  We haven't seen them in ages, so that was really s

Today wasn't exactly a bad day, but it certainly wasn't a great day.  I liked being off work.  I really liked sleeping in.  I enjoyed editing photos, and I ate great food.  However, I had two appointments today that were less than thrilling. I started off my day at the gynecologist's office for my annual stab 'n' jab.

I'm not a fruit person.  I'll be starving, literally, before I ever eat an orange.  However, I do love apples, watermelon, and kiwi fruit, and I generally enjoy bananas, strawberries, and grapes.  That's it.  That's the whole list of fruits I eat.  No citrusy crap, no other melons, definitely no papayas or mangoes.  T

It was a splurge, the whale.  The Man saw it first, and I was excited enough to throw it in the cart.  When we got to the checkstand, he finally noticed I'd grabbed it and chided me a bit.  A whale?  You have to see this. Our whale sits under the faucet in the bathroom.  It fits snugly around the round part right wher

My sister came over this weekend for a photo shoot.  I took her out to Avery Park and took some pictures in the cold.  We had to work fast so that our noses didn't turn red!  She was very happy to pose for me, and I was thankful to have a subject willing to be patient as I swapped filters, adjusted my camera between ever

So there we were, driving somewhere in silence, The Man behind the wheel, and me, physically in the passenger seat but mentally on another planet.  We hadn't been able to agree on a music selection--as usual--and had given up on conversation for the time being.  I looked over at the sweet man I married with the full reali

I am not a New Year Resolution kind of person.  It always seems silly to me to start something just because it is a new year.  Why not start losing weight right when you think about it rather than on January first?  "Oh this year I will look great in a bikini!"  Um, probably not.  "This year I will stop

I haven't had a week off from blogging... ever!  Sorry it has taken me a while to sit down and post again, but I was super busy this last week being on vacation and all.  You heard me, I took some time off.  Like, really off.  I didn't even travel.  A stay-cation it was, and it was perfect. Between a furlough day, a

Around the holidays, someone in my family usually makes a traditional recipe we have always called "peppernuts."  They are not "pepper nuts."  There is no space.  And there are no nuts.  This is a nut-free food.  I'm told the German name for them is "pfeffernusse," so I'm guessing the reci

Christmas was a very typical holiday for The Man and me this year.  We celebrated with my extended family a couple weekends ago, so that left my little family, his little family, and his extended family for the holiday weekend. With gifts in tow, we sleighed over to my parents' house on Christmas Eve to celebrate with the

I still have some Christmas shopping to do.  I'm usually done by the time the Christmas season even rolls around, but this year?  We are so incredibly far behind!  I have some presents wrapped, some waiting to be wrapped, and some not even purchased.  I'll try to get on this tomorrow, and I shouldn't have any problem, b

I get brain itches.  My brain doesn't physically itch, but it does, in a way, itch sometimes.  And it's really hard to scratch or rub or get to stop itching.  It doesn't often just go away on its own.  The itches must be scratched. I don't really know how to describe what these itches are other than compulsions or real

The Man and I actually went out to see a movie last night, the first movie date we've had since just after we got married two years ago.  We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and enjoyed it very much.  Good plot, excellent acting, great stunts.  We get disappointed when films don't get gun fights accurate, so that was a

I mentioned yesterday that I find Damian Lewis rather attractive.  What I was unable to clearly define was how much I absolutely love his acting.  He was fantastic in Band of Brothers, and The Man and I were in awe of him in Life (curse you, NBC, for dropping the ball on that one).  I've been enjoying his new character

No, I'm not speaking of God today.  Though God may be the answer for some people in every situation, my story isn't about God.  It's about a man named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.  In many ways, he's been the answer in my life. The story begins in high school.  Tenth grade to be exact.  I managed to get into Advanced

Some people define Christmas as a single day of the year, December 25th.  Some people think of Christmas as the day they open presents or eat a traditional meal.  Some people celebrate Christmas the day before or the day after the 25th.  Christmas, for me, happens when my mom's family all gets together a weekend or two b

I've had my Cricut for a few days now and the opportunity to sit down and make a full project.  I've learned a lot in a very short time that I'm not sure I've seen explained elsewhere. 1) New mats are sticky.  If you put a sheet of construction-type paper on a new mat, be prepared that you will never get the whole sheet

Was that a weekend that just few by?  I must have missed it with all I did this weekend. Friday was a treat as my Cricut arrived.  I purchased a Cricut Expression cutting machine on Amazon on Cyber Monday for half-off.  It came with two cartridges, plus I ordered one on Amazon and bought one at a craft store later.  I

We had been researching TVs for months and narrowed down the field to three or four TVs that we really wanted.  Obviously we don't need a TV, so this was truly a want.  Our living room TV was fine, though small and not full-HD, but the bedroom TV was one of those old boxy, heavy, ugly, outdated things that just didn't co

Thanksgiving was awesome.  I spent time with family every day over the four-day weekend, acquired the bulk of my next project, spent lots of time in the kitchen, and shopped just the right amount. But if I have to look at another turkey between now and next November, it will be too much to handle. Wednesday night saw Mom

It is finally done!  I received the pattern for this quilt not quite a year ago from my aunt.  She has been a quilter forever, and she was kind enough to send me the pattern along with a couple books from her personal quilting library.  I determined the quilt would be my next project after I finished hand-quilting my las