definition of a good day

getting to work and finding a free lunch, not pb and j but Scallops.. Yum summer here i come...



leaving work at 4pm...



and babysitting the adorable princess Hannahstasia...

Interlacken

Switzerland seemed so cool, from a train.. Sitting on the Glacier Express watching the Swiss Alps roll past us as we chomped on Bread, Brie, and beer.. (yes that was almost every meal by choice!) But then we realized we would have to sleep somewhere, Jason was scared that his mothers worst fears would finally be realized...


But happily we did find an amazing place with a balcony that had a view on all sides of the Swiss Alps.. We even found a laundramat.. Here is a pic of Jason and I on our journey to smell less and less like we slept in our clothes.....


The POLICE are crazy party people in Switzerland, they are always stopping and FARTING!!! I don't know about you but nothing says party like a designated police farting area!!! WOO!!! (The gnome knows how to party)


First rule about fight club... try to look as tough as i do in this pic.. yeah i know, its impossible..

Yeah still uploading pics..

I'm such a slacker, i've been home for almost a month and i'm still updating..
Switzerland, is by far, the MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We left Paris in style in a private room on the train (well it had our beds) with Baguettes, Brie and Champagne. It really felt like a movie, i've never been on a a train like that. I seriously thought i was in the middle of a murder mystery or something, except for the whole noone dies thing.. :)
From Zurich we took the train to Chur and got on the Glacier Express, which is a panoramic train through the Alps. Seriously the most gorgeous thing i've ever seen!
Here is a pic of Renee on the train you can see what it looks like behind her.










Here is the view












At one point we went through a tunnel and came out and all we could see was white from the snow, we could barely see.










I took this cause it reminded me of Narnia...


More to come later, we went to Interlacken switzerland and had some freaking good Fondue!!!! YUM!!!!!!!!!

Thinking of the future

He seems nice and all but i'm going to watch him closely around our kids at least until they are bigger than a pot roast...

yes we did actually see the sights

Between all the schmoopiness we did see all the standard crap.. eiffel tower, louvre, notre dame, the arch de triumph, the FREAKING MOULIN ROUGE!!! blah blah blah...

seriously it was awesome..

Eiffel Tower sunset on Valentines day, this was taken in the courtyard of the Louvre on the way to the Arch de Triumph.. GORGEOUS!!!


This was on my list of things to see before i died, i have no clue why. it was impressive but why this??? Who knows...


Uh yeah i almost got killed for this one. We walked to Sacre Cour and by walk i mean almost died. We had our luggage and walked up a mountain of cobblestones (literally had to be about a mile straight uphill) It was gorgeous when we got there and well worth it. But we were beat and i was DETERMINED to see the Moulin Rouge before i left Paris, come on I LOVE THAT MOVIE!!!!!!!! Needless to say noone else was amused..


The Eiffel Tower all sparkly like..


Darth Schmoop....

is there any reason i don't love him??

It certainly isn't for lack of dress up, while we were in Europe he was a punk rocker, a tiger, a pirate and finally a clown.. well the clown was kind of creepy but in a cute way.. :)

Europe 2006

Hello boys, girls, and two people who read my blog. One of whom is sitting next to me.. :)

Here is a pic of the first day in Paris.

can you tell i didn't bring my comp

sorry no updates people, Paris is wonderful. I will let you all know whats up and post lots of pictures :)
We have seen all the sights here and have driven Dan and Renee bonkers with our schmoopiness. :) Getting ready to leave Paris for Switzerland now, Got Tamara and Kaiya presents a second ago.. ohh la la....
hmmm ok sigts we've seen, Arch de Triumph, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, other stuff too...
k bye peeps :)

incommunicado

Yeah so i haven't been writing lately because i've been hanging out with this hottie.
Seriously can you blame me?!?!!?

I love those sons of craps.....

I've been accused, thats right people. I've been told i have lost the love for two of my favorite people on the planet. Lisa and Kira...
How could i not have love for them? Lisa is a mini-me and Kira is my lil sis.
I even made up an animal, sounds and all for one of Kira's birthdays. If thats not love i don't know what is.
Seriously I giggle like a silly mongoose when i'm around the two of them so this post is dedicated to my girls...

In other news

The day that we went skiing it was pouring rain but it really made everything look gorgeous, kind of mysterious.. I felt like i was in some movie the whole day. Some crazy girl spy skiing movie..
Awe yeah i would kick some serious butt as a girl ski spy, if i could fit pirate in there that movie would make me a millionaire

Winter Retreat

So this weekend we took the kids on the winter retreat. It was incredible, I really feel like alot of us were changed this weekend, i know that we definitely became closer as a group. Also i learned how to knit from Mary and i skied!!! Without being broken!! Here is a pic of my daredevil self with Nikki and Brian ready to meet our doom on the double blacks...

Five Wierd Things

1.) I like wearing socks in my kitchen just to slide. If I go in the
kitchen barefoot I get slightly annoyed and sometimes I forget and try to
slide anyway. It doesn't work.

2.) I like to sip my drinks from a teaspoon especially if its something
that I like a lot. I like the fact that it lasts so long if I'm only
allowed to have it off of a teaspoon. I only really do this in private so I
don't think anyone knows this one.

3.) I like to freeze everything and then tease everyone else about their
freezer habits. For example at this moment I have pasta, cereal and
crackers in my freezer. Anne and my mother feel the brunt of this freezer
teasing, if they only knew the freezer horrors they would find if they
opened mine. I tease anne for freezing cookies and I have cereal in mine,
tee hee if she only knew, if she only knew.... Ok lets face it my mom
deserves it the woman has loose bagels in hers and it is packed to the brim.

4.) I'm genetically incapable of keeping my house warm. No matter how
much money I have in the bank or how small my house is. Its always entirely
too much money to thoroughly heat it so I keep it at 55 and hand people
blankets on their way in. Surprisingly not too many people come over during
the winter time.

5.) This last one is not so much a habit but a weird trait that
apparently I'm the only one I've ever known to have it. If something smells
offensive to me, it automatically smells like cat urine. I've returned
lotions because they've smelled like cat urine to me, I'm pretty sure that
to anyone else in the free world they didn't, but to me it did enough to
make me gag. Recently I made an entire group of girls in the youth group
throw out their gum before they got in my car cause it smelled like cat
urine and I was going to puke.

Best Boyfriend in the WORLD!!! EVER!!!

ok seriously how can you not like a guy who goes around Hershey Park with a blinking red rudolph nose...
but thats not where it ends
he loves bs!-a dirkin must
he's adorable!!
our hands are the same exact color (creepy but true)
he's adorable!!
he makes me the happiest i've been in my entire life.
and did i mention he's adorable..
Anyways, here are the gorgeous flowers he sent me today... did i mention he's adorable??

Book Review-"A Million Little Pieces

My friends and i have been reading "A Million Little Pieces" here are some discussion questions from the book if you have read it enjoy. If you haven't its a good book, very graffic but gives incredible insight into the life of an addict. Most of us have some type of life experience with an addict of some type this might help you to be able to deal with them better or at least see them in a different light.

1. A Million Little Pieces presents some unusual formal innovations: Instead of using quotation marks, each piece of dialogue is set off on its own line with only occasional authorial indications of who is speaking; paragraphs are not indented; sentences sometimes run together without punctuation; and many passages read more like poetry than prose. How do these innovations affect the pace of the writing? How do they contribute to the book's rawness and immediacy?

It gave the book a rushed sense, when I read it I felt like I was in the frenzied mind of an addict. Especially in the beginning before he goes into rehab and during detox. It was hard to decipher at times as I’m sure going through those things its hard to decipher whats real and whats not.

2. A Million Little Pieces is a nonfiction memoir, but does it also read like a novel? How does Frey create suspense and sustain narrative tension throughout?

I think one way he carried the suspense was in the way the book was written it wasn’t written in an organized formal way it is frenzied and rushed. The story itself made you want to read it, you wanted him to beat this you wanted to see him succeed. I also agree with Kaiya on this by only giving bits and pieces of his past to make you want to know/understand him more.

3. James is frequently torn between wanting to look into his own eyes to see himself completely and being afraid of what he might find: "I want to look beneath the surface of the pale green and see what's inside of me, what's within me, what I'm hiding. I start to look up but I turn away." (p. 32). Why can't James look himself in the eye? Why is it important that he do so?

They say that eyes are the windows to his soul, I think he’s scared of who he really is. He says he really doesn’t remember a time where he wasn’t abusing some type of substance, now he’s suddenly not on anything. He’s never seen who he was without the chemicals and I think he’s scared of it.

4. After meeting with the Doctor (p. 93), James feels as though he's been given a death sentence and reviews his obituary in his head. He finds comfort in plotting his suicide. How does Leonard derail his plans? Were you surprised by their friendship?

I thought it was neat how the friendship developed how Leonard knew where he was coming from and just wanted to help. I think Leonard was an integral part in him getting well, he was a backbone that had been there before who would understand but not let him get away with things.

5. Consider some of the moments of kindness and compassion and genuine human connection that make the book so moving. Why do these moments have such emotional power?

These moments make it real, you can disassociate yourself from a story or a person without these moments. I think the most moving for me was when Lilly leaves the clinic and James goes to find her the care for her was so moving. Her life was so tragic his tenderness towards her was amazing. I also like the dynamic of that one counselor that didn’t get along with James how he helped him find her.

fact or crap

So in looking at all the guidebooks i found this small church in Paris that has an incorruptible saint there. Now an incorruptible saint is a saint who when they die they do not compose. Apparently there are a few of them around and some of them its just pieces of them. Like if some was a great orator thier tongue wouldn't decompose. The one in Paris is a young girl, i don't remember her name but i'm going to look her up in my saint book to read about her. This is one of those things that i'm just not sure about. Sure i believe that God can do everything and anything, but sometimes you just wonder why he would do it. Like all that stuff that was going on in Toronto (like people saying God made them cluck like a chicken) alot of that stuff i just can't see that God would do that. Why would God make a mockery of himself by making people act like fools. I don't get it. I just hold on to the fact that i don't know everything. I know God is good, and i know that he can do far more than i can imagine and i know that He has made me finite, where he is infinite.
I also know i kind of want to see the dead girl to make some type of first hand impression of what i think of it.

goings and goings and goings

So i finally took down the Christmas tree seeing that i haven't watered it in the past 3 weeks i thought it would be the responsible thing to do. Its still on the stand in the front yard, i wanted to put it next to my bedroom window that way it would be like i had trees right out my window. Which would be nice. I'm in the midst of cleaning my house, its gotten pretty bad lately so its gong to be a week long project i think.. We shall see.
Last night i brought in an dresser that Marlena gave me forever ago and stored it in my living room to put all my yarn in. I'm going to rearrange the heck out of the living room tonight i think. Its been the same for two years that is entirely too long.
All in all the holidays and new years were spectacular, i think my best ever. :)
here is a pic from new years of me and my boyfriend Jason.. yeah i know we're cute..


ps where did my eyes go?!?! it looks like i have slits

Anyways everthing is pretty busy here, getting ready to chaperone the youth retreat and anchor myself to my desk, i can't wait for my upcoming trip (paris, switzerland and germany). I literally probably spend 1/2 my day looking up stuff for the trip on the internet and the other half talking to Jason and Kaiya. I'm totally getting a raise soon, i'm such a necessary team player.

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!!!!