Reasons I am looking forward to August 21st, 2008

1. Jessica Terry Burke (and Madison Burke)! We are going to have such a great time together! Can't wait to be with them.

2. A delicious Heid's coney with yellow mustard! You all have no idea how good this is. It is so bad for you, and totally un-organic, but no food in the world makes me happier. Jess and I already decided that this would be our first meal off the plane!

3. The Carousel Mall- a lot of great stores, all in the same place. I love it! It has employed many people over the approximately 20 years it has been in existence, and it attracts over 17 million customers per year. It is great for Syracuse's economy!

4. Seeing fellow graduates of the Faith Heritage class of 1998. It feels like just yesterday that we were together for classes, but now many of us are married, some have kids, and we are spread across the US. Here is a picture of us, from back in the day... Yes, I am wearing a silly camoflage bucket hat, and Jessica is wearing overalls, as usual:)
5. A vacation: I just need one, no picture or explanation required.
6. The great NYS Fair. I have posted about this before, but here is what I am really excited about...
Pizze Fritte: Ummm. Da-licious. No other words to describe it!

Gianelli's Sausage and Pepper's sandwich is pretty much to die for. I usually eat my way through the Fair. Growing up, I loved the rides and the seeing the animals, but as I got into my teenage years, I only went for the food. It is the absolute best!

7. Sarah Marie Moore Marquart: For those of you who don't know, one of my very best friends, Sarah, who I went to college with, married my friend Joel from highschool. She will be at the reunion, and I cannot wait to see her and hug her. We always laugh a lot when we are together.

8. Missio Church: Jordan Stinziano, along with Jim Murphy, two previous pastors of my church down here, planted Summit Church Syracuse, which eventually changed it's name to Missio. All my church friends from growing up, are going there, along with Brandon and Alaina, friends from here, who moved up there. I will be going to church there on the 24th of August, and I can't wait! They meet at Henniger High School, if you live in the Cuse and want to check it out... Here is their website.

a fun-filled weekend

On Friday night, Slim and I went to dinner with Alex and Joe and then back to their house to hang out for a while. We had a great time.

On Saturday, we spent the day trying to get the house in order, because if you didn't already know, Slim will no longer be employed by Summit Church on Friday. He is going to be focusing more on his personal business- Slim*Line Visual Communications. You can check out his website. www.slimlinedotcom.com

On Saturday night, Brad and Amanda took us and Slim's parents to dinner. It was delicious, of course, and then headed to Target to get detergent. While we were there, we decided that we would pick up a movie. We got '21'. It was so so good! I loved it, and definitely want to watch again! Check it out and let me know what you think!

Things I am not liking right now... stolen from Orlando's blog followed by Things that make me smile stolen from Erin's blog

not loving...
1. Scratches from the new sweet pup. If you take a close look at this picture you will see the longest nails. They aren't just long, they are also SUPER sharp! So far I have 4 bruises along with 3 scrapes and one cut. Luckily Darbydoo is a cutie.

2. The humidity. Now I know that I live in South West Florida, and I have for 5 years, and by now I should be used to it, but I am not. It is so gross, almost spongelike.

3. Living far away from my family. I have been missing them a lot lately. Hopefully I will get to go and spend a weekend in August.

4. Friends living too far away, ie. Carly and Kevin, Jake and Heather, Janelle, Jess and Dustin, the Hams... you get the picture.

5. Not sleeping at night. I have always struggled with sleep. Everything wakes me up, and I usually have the hardest time falling back into a sound sleep. Any suggestions?

make me smile...
- kisses from Slim
- snuggling the Dude
- blue skies
- emails from old friends
- gentle people
- movies in the theater
- Slim getting excited about buying a new DVD
- listening to Slim play guitar
- tea
- scones
- wearing a nice cozy sweater
- the feeling of first laying down in bed
- Thursday morning girl's group
- shopping
- new make-up
- jeans that fit well
- butterflies in my stomach
- special prizes
- getting real mail
- fun jewelry
- manicures/ pedicures
- Tropical Smoothie
- going to Target for no reason
- reading a good book
- having no plans on a weekend
- cooking a great meal
- talking to friends
- morning radio shows
- reminiscing
- relaxing with a blank on the couch
- laughing
- talking to mom on the way to work
- taking care of people
- listening to the stories of senior citizens
- the smells of Christmas
- around the clock Christmas music from Thanksgiving to New Years
- babies
- my nephews and niece
- curly hair
- toddlers who wear glasses
- orchids
- calla lilies
- weddings
- talking over coffee
- America's Next Top Model
- airport 'people watching'
- just hanging out with Slim

How about you???

Reasons to love Tropical Smoothie... because I do

1. The buffalo chicken wrap: A small piece of Heaven, here on earth.
2. A fun and tropical atmosphere: There are currently 5 Tropical Smoothies that I frequent, and I must say, they are all very inviting and make you feel as if you are in the tropics... oh wait, we are.
3. Delicious soups: Now I know it comes out of a bag and then gets poured into the warmers, but it tastes like homemade, and that is what counts.
4. PUNCH CARDS: For every 9 smoothies, wraps, or sandwiches you buy, you get one free.
5. Breakfast wraps: Slim loves to build his own
6. Wi-fi: I mean who doesn't love that?!?!?!
7. 1 size for smoothies: LARGE! Perfect marketing ploy, one size and one price only. Everyone has to pay for a large, sadly they aren't cheap.
8. Fry-free zone: Everything there is generally healthy. They don't fry anything, and they use reduced fat cheeses, and dressings.
9. Boar's Head meat: Only the best, baby!
10. Friendly servers and owners: The Tropical Smoothie in Estero is owned by the sweetest family. They treat us like they have known us forever, plus some of the guys have really cool names ie. Striker and Trinity!

Now you know. Why do you love it?

a new friend for Dude...

... hopefully.

Introducing Darby, our new pup.

We adopted her from a family that Slim found online. She is a sweetheart, but thinks that she is going to be in charge of the Dude. She didn't want Dude anywhere near the bed, and the Dude wasn't having that. Sweet Slim slept with both dogs in the living room, so that I could get some rest, hopefully tonight is better, for our sake.

Janelle's Visit

Sorry that it has taken me so long to write about the visit of my dear friend Janelle. Heather and Janelle grew up together, and Janelle came to Houghton for 1 year. She is a Vet Tech in Buffalo, but I am planning on continuing my pursuit to get her to move here. She was a blast to have around, and I am pretty sure she loves this place! Here are some pictures from her visit.

People love drama

That was the most posts that I have ever received. HOW FUN! Hahah.

Well the original anonymous apologized and that is water under the bridge. I would like to be her friend. I wish I knew who she was.

The second anonymous, who wrote the 'you tell 'em' response along with the response that hit on Slim was none other than my dear and darling older brother.

I have to be honest with you. I thought that the first anonymous post was from him because he has the tendency of saying silly things, but he usually owns up to it. It made things really fun this last week, whenever I checked my blog and there was another response, so thanks for that!

On another note. I don't sleep. I feel stressed out. I miss Car and Kev. ho hum.

In response

I am writing this post in response to the person who let me an anonymous comment on my last blog entry...

Dear anonymous...

Thank you for your concern. I really appreciate it. HA.

Apparently, you don't really know me, or you are someone who knows me well and is trying to play some funny joke on me.

First off let me explain...
1. If I offended you by what I wrote on Carly's blog, you have BIG issues. Offended by sweatshirts... hmmm.
2. I actually don't think that anything is wrong with a sweatshirt. I myself wear them from time to time. I made the comment as an inside joke to Carly because we always joke that she is going to turn into some who just throws on a sweatshirt and leaves the house. If you know Carly, this could never be the case. She is very fashion forward and loves to accesorize! My friend Jenn from VA says that everyone wears sweatshirts. IT WAS A JOKE!
3. Thanks for throwing in the Christian thing... very clever. By the way I am a sarcastic person, luckily that doesn't determine my Christianity.
4. Maybe my words sound different to you because you read them differently then they were meant... you were the one who read them, right? I didn't say them out loud to you:)
5. If you want to be confrontational, maybe you shouldn't have used an anonymous tag.

Have a nice day!

Thanks Mel

YOU HAVE TO GO HERE!

AWESOME
blog post that changed my life.
If you want to be like Jesus, you should go here.

Very interesting

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/29/evangelical.campaign/index.html

I would love to know your thoughts. Please leave them as comments.

My husband... the hero

As you know, I am married to an amazing man, otherwise known as "the LAW." (Well in our house anyway)

Here is a cute story to prove this point.

Yesterday, after lunch, I dropped Slim off at his car, so he could drive it home from church. This is a weekly occurrence, because Slim has to get to church really early to play, and I go to the 2nd service, thus there are two cars in the Summit parking lot when it is time for lunch. I head home. On the way home, I call Carly to talk, and about 20 minutes into the phone call, I realize that Slim is still not home. 30 minutes in, I get a beep... it is Slim. He tells me that he is helping a little old man who had an accident by our house. 1 hour later, Slim is still not home. I call again, and he doesn't answer. 1 hour 15 minutes later, Slim calls and says he is almost home.

Here is what happened.

Slim pulls up to the corner of Winged Foot Rd. and Lee Rd. (for those of you who know where they are). There is a little old man, who we will call Walter, to protect his identity, standing in the road staring blankly, outside his car. All of a sudden the car starts rolling, but there was no one in the driver's seat. The car takes out street sign that says caution. Walter then decides to stand in front of the rolling car to try to keep it from rolling into the small pond there on the side of the street. Apparently he thought he could stop it with his bare hands. At this point, Slim flings himself out of his car to scream to this man to get out of the way, because there was no doubt that the car was going in and when it did, the man would have been trapped. Walter listened to Slim and moved just as the car started to enter the pond. The little man then decides that in order to save his car, he should get inside of it and put on the brakes so that it didn't move further into the pond. Sadly, when trying to push the brakes, Walter actually pushed the gas driving the car right into the pond. At this moment, another car pulls up and he, along with Slim pull the little old man out of the water, leaving the car behind.

Slim helps the man try to get a hold of AAA. AAA was having a hard time understanding Walter, because Walter did not have all the information that he needed because his blind wife couldn't read it to him over the phone, obviously. Slim gets on the phone with AAA and gets a tow truck all set up. While they were waiting for AAA to arrive, Walter explains to Slim that he had pulled over to help a turtle get to the water and out of the street, but must have forgotten to put his car in park. CRAZY.

While they were waiting, a whole bunch of people that Slim knew came by... Todd Wermers and Ray Johnston being two. Also, an officer, who wasn't on duty stopped to check things out. He hung around until the tow truck came. Once the tow arrived, everyone was a bit nervous as to how he was going to get the car out. It took a bit of time, but the truck driver got the car out of the wedged position and hung it upside down for a bit to get as much water out of it as possible.

He put the car back down on the road, and much to everyones surprise, there was no damage on the car, and Walter was able to drive that vehicle home! Crazy huh?

So, my husband, continues to be the local hero of San Carlos Park!

I miss her...

...and wish she was here with me to celebrate the 4th, today!!! Slim and I cannot wait to see the Joneses when Libby comes in September.

Carly, I love you and can't wait to meet your little one!