Pumpkin Fun Day

Originally uploaded by shexcpoolgawdess

We took my nephew Makana to the Pumpkin Patch this weekend for the annual fun day. It's probably the ONLY yearly tradition DH and I have. Since we started, i've always taken a picture of the two of them with the wheelbarrow because nephew was small enough to carry in it at the time. I think though, at almost 9 years of age, he's getting a little big for it. Guess we'll REALLY see next year. Here's a hint though. Don't go to a plant nursery and expect the same thing.

We've traditionally taken him to Spooner Farms in Orting. Lots of fun. I was actually more worried that they'd still be there given the trend of farmers selling out the past few years. But I had emails from this nursery in Puyallup that was going to do a festival type thing so I thought we'd go there. BIG mistake. Nephew not only told me how lame the place was in terms of Kid Fun-ness, but he told me I sucked as he ran away laughing. We realized the folly of our ways, grabbed a hot dog from the rotary people and went back to tradition.

Spooner farms was rather crowded this year. But regardless, the weather was nice (enough that people were there in SHORTS!). We all had fun and at the end, Jack helped Makana carve the first pumpkin. In the end, he was sad to see us go.

It's not worth running from anymore

I get bored at work and tend to read all my blogs there and then catch up on the rest when I get home, but I found this meme on one before I left and thought it was PERFECT for filling in dead time at my desk...


1. What time did you get up this morning? The alarm on my cell phone is set for 515am PST, but I went right back to bed until 540ish.

2. Diamonds or pearls? Pearls. Diamonds send me into a panic because I want to dress up...

3. Last movie you saw at a cinema?Tropic Thunder with DH and his BFF.

4. What is your favorite TV show? Right now is Heroes. I love the twists and turns they've put in the story. Oh! and Supernatural.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? err breakfast? I've forced myself to remember to always have mini croissants on hand. I tried doing the yogurt thing but kept forgetting to take it with me and if I remembered, I'd forget to eat it!

6. What is your middle name? Are you ready? Tounge loose? Waimakaokalani It's hawaiian for Water from the eyes of heaven. prononuced Why-mahkuh-oak-uh-lani

7. What food do you dislike? not much. that I can think of. But I'm sure if you put it in front of me, I'll tell you straight out!

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? a hawaiian artist named Raiatea Helm and her newest CD. Very Bluesy.

9. What kind of car do you drive? just got my brand spanking new first driver's license. I'm looking to own a CR-V though.

10. Favorite sandwich? BLT with shredded lettuce. Or a toasted Chicken Salad Sandwich

11. What characteristic do you despise? People who flaunt their money/possessions/fabulously-expensive-new-boots etc. Amy I'd agree with you, but there's so much of it where I live, I just started letting it go. What I despise the most are two faced people.

12. Favorite item of clothing? DH's sweatpants and a hoodie. He doesn't realize that I snagged them from the wash again.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? a cruise. warm places with lots of history, but not necesarrily the carribean or mexico. Just places steeped in history.

14. Are you an organized person? I try but don't always succeed. There is definitely a method to my madness though.

15. Where would you retire to? I like where I'm at.

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? hmmmm don't know that I have any...

17. What are you going to do when you finish this? twiddle my thumbs some more as I wait for the phone to ring here at work. Browse some more crafty message boards and get my customer list ready to call tonight for my Partylite Open House.

18. Farthest place you are sending this? The internet has far reaching tendrils. ;) I have a friend in Iraq right now just itching for something to do though....

19. Person you expect to send it back first? aime definitely...

20. When is your birthday? Sept 16th

21 . Morning person or a night person? Both.

22. What is your shoe size? 8

23. Pets? I used to have fishies, but DH killed them when we moved into my new place a year ago. now we only have bungie the blue betta. Aptly named bc he jumped out of his tank one day and it was a full half hour before I noticed and found him.

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I have customers! I'm a partylite consultant selling high quality candles (no joke) and I recently took a hiatus. I wasn't sure I was able to get back into the swing of things once I got back in but there you go!

plus? I bought an Expedit bookcase/desk and *heart* it very much!

25. What did you want to be when you were little? an astronaut, a gymnast, a teacher and rich.


26. How are you today? tired and bored. I suspect I'm tired BECAUSE I'm bored.

27. What is your favorite flower? Stargazer Lily's

28. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Every single Thursday. I am always grateful for Thursdays. I like thursdays too, but I look forward to Wednesdays now bc it's my new scrapbooking get together with a new friend.

29. What are you listening to right now? Boys to men - "It's so hard"

30. What was the last thing you ate? yogurt I forgot to eat this Am when I got to work...not the best thing to eat with Mtn Dew.

32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Orange. it's so bright and shiny!

33. How is the weather right now? cold, but sunny

34. Last person you spoke to on the phone? customer.

35. Favorite soft drink? Fresca.

36. Favorite restaurant? It really depends on my mood. usually Sushiland though

37. Hair color? black-brown like my desk.

38. What was your favorite toy as a child? barbie!

39. Summer or Winter? Summer hands down.

41. Chocolate or Vanilla? both.

42. Coffee or tea? tea.

43. Do you want your friends to email you back? Absolutely, even though I sometimes flake on emailing them back.

44. When was the last time you cried? lst night. parts of a book I read were real tear jerkers.

45. What is under your bed? dust, 3 pairs of house slippers, 4 pairs of shoes (at end of bed), a surge protector, foot massager and probably 9 pairs of DH's socks.

46. What did you do last night? finished a good book, cooked dinner, surfed the web, moderated a message board, made a card box for cards I have yet to make, moved some junk around in office, browsed some mag's and slept.

47. What are you afraid of? lots. What my credit report says about me, marital things, money issues....suxors to be a grown up sometimes!

48. Salty or sweet? depends on mood.

49. How many keys on your key ring? I had to look at the key ring. Three...

50. How many years at your current job? Technically just over two years, however I only became an employee at end of Jan. I was a contractor until then.

51. Favorite day of the week? Running out of questions? Wed and Thursday.

52. Do you make friends easily? No. I wish I did, though.

53. How many people will you send this to? Whomever reads my blog.

54. How many people will reply? Not sure.

55. Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends? I love finding out things about ppl. even stangers.

Just that simple

Getting back to the basics...

Normally, my morning routine includes checking blogs in the am. But I awoke this first day of October a little beat. I hit that snooze button and discovered that I had not only turned it off, but DH had not set his alarm. We didn't oversleep TOO far, but far enough that I didn't do any blog reading until early afternoon. Imagine my dismay that I missed a chance at some cool blogcandy from Stacy Julian! Auwe! She's one of my scrap-idols. plus, I love the way she talks (She does guest appearances on a TV show called Scrapbook Memories).

But as the day progressed, I discovered a few other people who I follow presenting similar challenges! I'm excited! PLUS ~ I'm doing Ali Edwards Week in the Life project, so I have TONS of photos to use!

Even though I should still be riding that birthday high, we've had so many high stress things going on that it's nice to focus on some happiness. (That's another reason I love Stacy's blog...she's All Together Too Happy! ;)

Now if I could just get the Expedit to fit together correctly! Tomorrow is another afternoon rush~I have pool league, so I have to rush from work to run & meet my pool buddies for carpool AND still stop by Ikea to figure out why my dowels are too small and too long. *sigh* I was hoping to have it together already and to be busy VACUMING underneath it! ah well. Hopefully, it will be finished by this weekend. (Jack's suggestion of shaving the dowels down the the appropriate size was immediately VETOED as I don't think alterations should be necessary. I didn't spend $300 on this for nothing!)


BTW, photo credit goes to Tia Bennett.

Birthday goodness

let me begin this by saying DH is one of those do or die shoppers when it comes to gifts. Either it will be REALLY REALLY awesome, or he gets you nothing at all. For my birthday this year, we weren't able to get home in time to get into the manager's office to pick up packages. They were there, he was there, but it was after hours so they wouldn't let him in.


But I got home yesterday, we picked up the package and then went to the apt. I went to change and while I was in the bedroom he layed it out for me so I'd see it when I came back into the main room. DECALS!

with one for my phone. He thought this design rather artsy-fartsy and since I've been so inclined lately, he thought I'd like it. (My first thought was of Colette ). Even cooler was that the phone decal comes with a code for a wallpaper so that it is one "complete" design.

Once I got done cooing over it, he showed me this one too


I got a spare set! and I got to choose which goes on first. so I've put the 2nd one on my phone and I'm saving the laptop decals until we decide how everything here is going to layout. space wise (we've been doing some massive moving around)

Angela Lansbury move over.

DH really has to learn to be more sneaky. My birthday is on Tuesday and he IM'd me yesterday asking "Hey which model BB Curve do you have 8830? 8810?"

Not the typical type of question from him so I told him I have the only one Tmobile sells - the 8820. This also happens to be the only non-GPS model.

A short time later he IM's again... which Dell Laptop do you have?


Today right as we're getting home, he mentions... HEY I have a box coming in. Under noooo circumstances, are you to open it!

Doesn't this just reek of giftage?

dolla dolla bills baby!

So one afternoon, I was awaiting DH in front of my jobsite. We carpool, partly to save gas and partly because I don't have a drivers license yet. (more on that later). One of our HR reps walked by and told me I should look into the commute program the company has. I kinda wrote it off, but she remembered and called my desk the next day to remind me. So I go and sign up and discover the city ALSO has one! Since DH also worked within city limits, I signed him also.

Fast forward a few months and I get mail at my desk! I never get mail at my desk. It's from the city & contains the $50 gift card for being a commuter. Sweeeeeeeeeet! Off I run to spend it at my LSS. (Local Scrapbook Store for my non scrapping visitors). Fast forward a few more months and the city revamps the program and relaunches the program. The sucky part of that $50 award is that it was once per person and DH left that job between the time that we qualified for the award and getting HIS $50 gc. That and it was a one time award. BUUUUUUUUT, with the revamp happening, I could get a NEW award!

Today I get an email stating that I qualified and here's my amazon gift code#. How cool is that? Off I go to spend it. LOL. and yes, I did it on the clock I was so giddy for the free moola. My shopping expedition sent me straight to my saved items. I spend lots of time building a wish list and adding/saving stuff to my cart. Eventually I get around to getting the stuff, I just don't like to forget.

You're probably getting bored at my rambling at this point and wondering what I got huh? Well I picked up a desk lamp. Recently on the Cricut Message Board someone extolled the virtues of a cheapy lamp they found at Walmart that worked just as good as an OTT-Lite. My problem with that is that DH and I decided to no longer shop there. So far I've done good. Almost a full year! But I found a lamp on Amazon that worked just as well!

This is Norm. He cost me a whole whopping $17.08 before tax. Compared to the Ott-Lite of the same size?
Hmmm... the immediate differences I see is that the Ott-Lite swivels and I can see the cord in Norm's Amazon image. I also picked up Charmed, S2 & a Mahjongg game for my DS. Both things I'll enjoy, but I'm not as excited about either as much!