In the Navy.....

tough girl Kaitlin, she totally looks like she can kick my butt in this pic. Especially in her new 150 dollar boots (that look soo hot with her pajama pants.)

Shhh internet or 3 people who look at my blog, its a secret. Kaitlin is joining the navy, Kaitlin is my 19 yr old niece who is more like a sister too me. Its been amazing watching Kaitlin grow up and being a part of her life. Seems like only yesterday i went to her t ball games and watched her chase butterflies in the outfield or fix her hair. She's always been a funny kid especially when she used to cry when my mom did her hair and she was upset cause she looked like a helicopter. I love that she never pretended to want to do sports and that she was the best to go shopping with. I'm ashamed of the time i told her her real name was Kaitlin Peterson and that her real parents were coming to get her. She was 4 and still remembers it, I scarred the girl for life and she still loves me. What more can you ask for in a niece. But most importantly i've enjoyed watching her grow into a woman, and just a gorgeous person over all. I admire her for who she is and how hard she works to get what she wants. Now she's joining the navy and i feel nothing but pride and love for my little Kaitgin Herndon. I'm gonna have to get some tshirts and start caring about the Army-Navy game! Go NAVY!! I love you Kaitlin!

We're gonna party like its 1999

Woo Wooo WOOOO Christmas WOOO as Kaitlin says!!
Christmas was INCREDIBLE we partied like crazy.. here are just some of the after party pics. Nothing says party like crashing on some teddy bear rockers.. and of course wearing a lampshade on your head!
WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas time is here..

Right now i'm sitting in the middle of my living room, which is filled with wrapping paper, presents and plastic bags. I'm thinking i went a little overboard with my buying this year, suprise suprise.... I have a stocking filled with stuff for my freaking cat (ok so maybe thats to distract her from mauling my hands....)
but I think i'm finally done my shopping (i still want to get Mason a little gift to give him on Christmas Eve.) The next few days are going to be spent wrapping, cooking, carolling (at Drea's) and with family. All ending with my favorite Christmas Eve service, there is nothing better than that candlelight mass. My best memories in life are of Christmas Eve with my family as a kid. We would go to my grandmoms church in Island Heights after spending the night at my gram's where Santa would come on the firetruck. I think its just so beautiful being in a church with just candles lit. i love the ambiance of it, there is something so reverent about singing and praying in candlelight, I can't wait this is the best time of year!!!!

Who knew!??!

Hmm so do yall remember a guy named Clay Aiken from American Idol. The ultimate Cindarella story from that show, nerdy guy turned into some amazing teen (for lack of a better word) idol.
Well Sunday i'm in church and one of the lady's gives me and Lisa (one of the coolest girls in the youth group) 6 tickets to Clay Aikens Christmas show. Of course i bring some of my girls from the youth group being the incredible youth leader i am ;)
Well little did i know it would be a lesson in how freaking old i am.. One of the girls started literally crying for joy when we told her.. It made me so happy to bring her that it meant so much to her, but i was amazed that Clay Aiken could have that affect on someone. Well anyway we get to the show and there are soo many women who are in LOVE with Clay Aiken. This was a little disconcerting that there were grown women who were obsessed with him.. Hee hee to think someone might be writing these same things about Tom Jones (HOW DARE YOU IF YOU ARE, YOU HAVE NOT BEEN TOUCHED BY THE MAGIC OF TOM!!!!)I was a little upset because you could totally tell he thought he was hot stuff, i was like come on, seriously, have you looked at yourself... YOU ARE THE SAME PERSON GET OVER YOURSELF!!!
I was very proud of my girls though because instead of stuck on himself Aiken they were smitten with the piano playing hottie openning act, William so and so...
See camera phone pics above and below.. :P

snow days

So today i woke up got dressed left and started driving to work, it took me forty minutes to go 3 miles so i turned around and drove to my parents house. I called work and let them know i wasn't coming in and i spent a wonderful morning hanging out with my my mom and dad. They are alot of fun when you don't live with them! I walked in and my dad came down and made waffles for us and then my dad and i played chinese checkers. Which he promptly decided was not his favorite game because i beat him twice. Today is a good day, i miss the snow days of school and sitting around and doing whatever i want. I spent the healthier part of the morning playing games with my dad and reading. Its been gorgeous!!!

Can't help but think of the time i had a snow day when i was younger and went sledding with Tamara and her family. There are huge sand hills down the road from my house so we would always go sledding there, they were soo steep that you wouldn't even need snow to go sledding. We used to go all the time in the summer time, we would have to hide from the people who worked there because it was a rock quarry and we were trespassing. Well this time there was a ton of ice and i scream down the hill on my little sled. Well i'm going maybe like 300 mph and there is about 15 ft of flat ground before there is another little hill. I'm going entirely too fast so i take off of that little hill and what do you know there is a ditch behind it. My sled flys away from me and i'm soaring like 10 ft in the air spread eagle. I slam face down in the ditch beyond amazingly i didn't even get hurt. Thats just one of the times i almost died with Tamara! :)
Actually, i think snow days as an adult are better than those when you're a kid!! I'm kinda up for sledding right now though..

Sunsets

Somehow the bueaty and luster of sunsets are lost when you're in an office watching them. There is this tree that is down the aisle from where i sit and when the sun is hitting it right it looks really pretty. Thats how i spend five days of the week watching the sunset. I think maybe its the flourescent track lighting that makes it not soo special. I don't know i dont think there is much that isn't made more bueatiful when not in the context of work. Well anyways this is a sunset from Duck NC taken a few weeks ago.
Miss Olivia is biting the heck out of my hands right now, so maybe i'll have another post this week about typing with only 2.5 fingers. And to think i almost bought her chia cat grass today at CVS. She's bad enough without kiddie drugs..

Miss Olivia

A few years ago one of my friends got a cat, and when i say cat i use that term loosely what i really mean is demon spawn that meow's. When i would see my friend there would be horrible cuts all over her hands and it looked like she was mutilating herself. I would ask her and she would say how Oliver and she were playing... I thought she was nuts, and on more than one occasion i told her to get rid of this kitty. Well things changed and i moved into a small house in the woods by myself and wanted an animal. I figured the best thing to get was a cat cause i could ignore it and leave for days and it would be ok as long as i left some food or water. I got this tiny little kitten and my friend came over to see her that night. I was torn on a name and we joked that i should name my cat Olivia. Well dumb me i name my cat Miss Olivia. My kitty soon turned into the most demented crazy kittens that i've ever seen. On more than one occasion i've gone to work with scars on my hands from my precious little kitty. She even decided that she had an inherent dislike to a whole family of my friends, they Byrds. Whenever any of the Byrd's would come over she would let out the most unearthly noises. Tonight i was thinking of when i used to tell my friend to get rid of her kitten and i realized that she could never because she felt the same about her Oliver that i do about my Miss Olivia. And i started praying that i have really good kids cause it would be soo much harder to get rid of your kids than your cat.

cleaning and in order

I just spent the whole night reorganizing my house well at least the last hour or so. I've b een reading "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey, wow disturbing. Its probably one of the most graffic books i've ever read. I'm wondering how good of an insight it is into that type of situation (the main character is in a drug rehab) I had to stop reading cause my heart was hurting for everyone who has these problems and i realized i haven't folded my clothes in hmm about 3 weeks. So i did some laundry, made my bed, watered my Christmas tree and folded my clothes.
Its amazing how much a book can color your attitude, i was just reading "Lords of Discipline". I spent the whole time walking around like i was tough or just pretending i was. :) So far the cursing isn't so bad in this one. Next book is going to be something tame, maybe my travel book!
Germany here i come!!

no updates

Sorry i haven't been updating alot recently, i had wireless at the house in north carolina and came home to dial up, sooo sad!!!
I'm at my friends house right now "helping" them pack up to move, i'm a great friend aren't i!

the other love of my life

OBX

I like this manual focus thing, oh and football on the beach too!

turkey incognito

Erika and i are undercover today.....

eyebrows

So i was talking about how i burnt my eyebrows off before, and i thought i would tell you the story. When i was younger i would watch my nieces and nephews while my older sister worked (she is 15 yrs older than me so i'm closer in age with her kids) While on one of these days i decided i was going to cook for them on the grill, i was about 10 yrs old. There are reasons they tell kids not to use gas grills, i am one of them. Well i wasn't sure how to use it so i turned the dials on, nothing... turned them off and tried again, nothing.. I'm annoyed at this point, the kids are around me and starving for hot dogs, and there is a cold grill. So i do what any kid would do i go grab some matches and toss one in the grill... POOHHFFF There is a huge fireball screaming out of the grill and covering my face. I freak out and run inside after i turn off the grill. My hair is all singed and i don't have any eyebrows, and i'm pretty sure i'm in BIG trouble! My parents didn't have too many rules growing up but afterwards i was thinking that maybe playing with the gas grill was one of them. Soo i brush my hair to get all the singed ends out and make the kids some PB&J (like i should have in the beginning) and tell my parents about ten years later when my eyebrows finally grow back. By the way they never fully grew back i still have little scars in the middle of both eyebrows.
hmmm maybe this is the reason Anne doesn't like me making smores in her gas fireplace....

My Gracie

This is my first forray into the wild world of photo editing..
Cant mess up a cutie like my gracie!!! :)

whats in a name

so my lifes ambition is to start an orphanage in some country. This has always been my dream in life to show love to kids who normally wouldn't have any in thier life.
I think a fun thing to do though, is to name the kids really weird names. You know like dishwater, crazyface, pumpkin doodle, etc. Sounds pretty mean but come on now, they wouldn't be english speaking anyway and it would give me a chuckle.
Well i think i was beat to the punch.
In recent history i have come across a woman who is named bich dung. Yes lady's and gentleman her name is female dog poo. This is quite possibly the funniest thing i've ever come across... ok as far as names go anyway. What kind of monster names her kid this!?!?!?!?
So anyway i wrote my friend about this and the fact that i got engaged recently and when he wrote back i got to thinking about when good old bich dung gets married. I really pray that she marry's a musical guy that writes a song and sings it to her on her wedding day. They will be in a church with candles, flowers and music and the love of her life will be singing how much he loves dog poo..... my only wish is that somehow in some way that i will be in the back of that church cause that would be a story and a half for my kids.

dial up

i hate dial up, i'll update the pics tomorrow i'll be with wireless, my first love

newbie

Ok so i'm a newbie here and i'm going to try to post some pics...
this is one of my favorite pics of my gracie, she is my gorgeous niece!!!
who calls me "my Kristi" as in come here my kristi, i love you my kristi..
is there any way to get a bigger Christmas gift???? I really don't think so!!
I have seven nieces and nephews so prepare for more pics soon, i just got a new digital camera so i got to figure all this jazz out!

cars, trees and eyebrows

Well lets just say this past month hasn't been normal, ok well this past year hasn't been normal. I'm not exaclty the best at saying no to people so i spent the earlier part of the month over commiting myself.... FUN!!!! I was watching this lady with downs syndrome for two weeks at her house, this is of course when i got home from my regular job. Anyway i finally got home, YES SWEET HOME!!!
Well after i disinfected my house (another story for another day), I was overjoyed to be in my little scary cabin in the woods!!! That is for about hmmm 24 hours until i go to vote for govenor of NJ, well first of all let me just say i DID NOT WANT TO VOTE FOR ANYONE, they were all smacks but after ALOT of cajolling(yeah isn't that a great word!) I started driving EVEN FURTHER INTO THE WOODS to the voting place. Well deer and car collide and the deer literally exploded. I see the deer legs go flying off into the air. It was pretty gross. After i screamed like the woman i am, i decided i didn't want to stop in the middle of the freakin woods by myself to check out my car and i drive on to the voting place. Get there and vote for a smack, go out and look at my car, i screwed her up good!!!! Call my brother and tell him he owes me 500 dollars for talking me into doing my civic duty and then drove home. Finally get home and look under the hood and see that i seriously crapped up my car!! Long story short i'm driving a rental Wednesday.
So i'm getting ready thursday to make dinner for my friend Chris, driving home from work pull in my driveway(YES NO DEER!) Well about half way up i realize that i'm driving on live wires cause a freaking huge tree fell in the middle of the driveway pull out. Drive over to my parents and walk through the woods home (yes i am a hick). I decide that, you know what i'm up for a freaking adventure i'm still making dinner. So i call Chris and tell him to avoid electrocution and he comes on over. I make a stupendous cajun shrimp linquini (i love to cook), which amazingly i cooked entirely with about 20 oz of water (pumps don't work w/out electricity). Fast forward.
Last night i come home and call Dan Z. and invite him over, then Chris calls so i tell him to come over too. I light some candles and make a teryaki chicken and shrimp stir fry. We sit around for awhile and shoot the breeze. We decide to go over Dan's house to have some coconut wonderfulness. Dan leaves and i start walking around my house blowing out the candles. Around this time i realize how freaking smokey my house is. I go into the bathroom and the wall is literally ON FIRE! I have absolutly no sense for fire, i always do exactly what you are not supposed to do, i'm soo not a stop drop and roll type of girl. I take a deep breath (possible because i'm smoke free!) and blow as hard as i can and make the fire bigger. Molten wax flies all over my face and i throw the candle in the toilet. Well i try to throw it in the toilet i end up breaking it on the toilet and half of it flies into the trash. Same deal though thankfully the fire goes out. BUT my sink is completely covered in blue wax, my wall is literally smoking, and my face looks like chopped meat. It could be worse my house could have burnt down and i could have burnt my eyebrows off AGAIN!

Hmm what do you think, i'm thinking that maybe Gods trying to tell me something. I don't know what but theres got to be SOMETHING!!!
Ahh so theres my recent life and my first post, sorry it was soo freaking long!!!
Dirkey