two!

two years of amuse bouche! who would've thought there were enough little things to fill my tiny corner of the blogosphere??

i want to celebrate!! so you're ALL invited to my party!! leave a comment and let me know you were here today (and enjoy a piece of candy for me - a little halloween *amuse-bouche,* if you will)!! the more the merrier! (comments, that is, not candy.) (well, okay, candy, too...)




(then you can get back to those last minute halloween details, i promise!!)

then and now

Stone Mountain, GA 1999

Stone Mountain, GA 2008

scheduling spontaneity

i am terrible about taking vacation.

there. i said it. i don't take time off. i don't go on trips. i think about going on trips. but i don't often follow through with the actual commitment it takes to go on a vacation.

also? i'm not a travel-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl. i can talk myself out of the most casual weekend getaway by mucking it up with all sorts of plans. travel plans. hotel plans. eating plans. taking time off from work plans.

and? there's always the financial aspect. it's easy to put off trip-taking when you convince yourself that it's not in the budget, right?

so it is almost unbelievable that we put ourselves in the car and drove to atlanta last weekend. but we did! and, thank goodness!!

a beautiful 4 year old was having a birthday party, and it gave us the perfect excuse to travel. we surprised jack when he walked in the door from school on friday, and we told him to pack a bag for the weekend. (which, you know, ended up being THREE bags, but hey, i'm flexible. i mean, i CAN be flexible.)



on the square, under cover, in gainesville (there's not time to visit everyone when you are traveling spontaneously. and i am just fine with that.)


stocked up on some UGA gear, and headed to Stone Mountain.



enjoyed chili cheese fries, stores full of Georgia red & black, subs from the Publix deli, a halloween/birthday party for my niece, Allison, a home made pinata, a drive by of the first house matty and i lived in, breakfast with another Allison, unending rounds of "name that artist" on XM radio, and 14 hours of family time, just the three of us in the car, practicing spontaneity. it did wonders for us all.



scheduled spontaneity. and not a moment too soon.

spt

100 things about me, #28

i have always struggled with being overweight

399

it may be a bit premature to say i've got my eyes on the prize again. or that i'm putting my best foot forward again. but, i AM running again. or, rather, i HAVE run. twice in the past three days.

saturday, i ran for 41:41 in the cold, spitting rain (is it bad to say it felt heavenly?!?) last night i ran the same route in 41:30.

i am waiting paitiently for euphoria to set in.

(thank you crystal, chris, carlo and kimmie for your gentle insistencies...)

spt

100 things about me, #21

i tend to forget to share my vision of things

how badly did i want to skip over this one? is there any way to sum up this statement in a self-portrait?!?

i am a dreamer, a visionary! i am proud of those words, yet i also recognize the inherent drawback of being a person who deals with end results, and not so much the steps it takes to get there.

part of my struggle is that my visions are beautiful, complex, sometimes expensive, important. of course, important. and perfect. did i mention perfect?? i often feel paralyzed by the importance, the hugeness of my visions. my mind literally reels with the first step, then the what-ifs, then the and-alsos, the but i coulds and the maybe i shoulds... and finally, too often, the why bothers?

my visions are so vivid in my mind, i am often quite startled when they don't come to pass. or come to pass quite differently than how i had imagined. you see, i have my end results spinning around in my imagination, packaged with a bow and ready to be filed away in the part of my brain that is reserved for great successes!! never mind that it will probably take many steps and much help to attain the end result i desire. my *helpers* will simply get caught up in my tide of enthusiasm, and make it happen!

or, will they?

when matty and i attended a pre-marriage course, the one take-away i actually took away was the minister's not-so-gentle reminder that our spouses are not mind readers. and we should not expect them to be. oh, this is easier said than done, for me. and not just with matty. but with everyone, it seems. it is a constant struggle for me to include those around me in the process, even when i expect them to be the process.

i hate that i struggle with this. i hate that it creates a ton of stress for me, and for those around me. i suppose this may be a form of self-defense (what if nobody likes my idea? what if i fail?) is it really easier to weather those self-doubts alone? i'm sure not. and, yet...

photoless phriday

warning: random and disjointed edition!

1) i can't blog. i'm somehow unable to string together coherent thoughts. ah, well, this shall pass.

2) i paid $2.96 for gas yesterday!!

3) i've become slightly addicted to facebook. i am constantly amazed at how quickly i've fallen back into "friendships" with people i've known in different stages of my life. i *heart* the Internet. (this could be an entire blogpost in itself. if, that is, i was able to blog. which i'm not.)

4) i have two zits on my face the likes of which i have not experienced since high school. what the?!? it's made me feel terribly self-conscious in a week where i've really needed to put on my corporate game face. meh.

5) i was at once entertained and horrified by The Office last night. i don't EVER need to see dwight deliver a watermelon again!

6) it better be cold enough to wear a sweatshirt to jack's soccer game tomorrow. i'm just sayin'...

7) i might have reached my limit of fall craft creativity for this year. WAY too many great ideas out there to treat and inspire. must file away for next year, or i won't have anything left for pink christmas!

have a great weekend! i'm off to find a sweatshirt and some clearasil!

spt

100 things about me, # 14

I am very picky about who cuts my hair.

this is definitely one of those items that makes me realize just how far i was stretching when i sat down to do that original list of 100 things. i mean, really, what was i thinking?!?

the only time in my life that i actually had *someone* who *did* my hair was for about two years when jack was two? three? shortly after i was married, i cut my hair (it had been in a very stylish mary tyler moore flip - way too much maintenance for my every day life.) then, i was pregnant, or had a newborn, or was busy, or didn't care? i don't know, but that post-wedding haircut, or hastily trimmed versions of it, seemed enough to carry me through.

and then, i met kathy. i stumbled upon her. she was the "next available" in a salon that accepted walk-ins. she managed to talk me into an ultra short, tres stylish cut. with color!! this was a whole new world for me.

for several years, i honestly lived the life of a woman who schedules regular hair appointments every six weeks. i had my hair colored. twice!! (sadly, i can't find photos - pre-spt and all...) she even gave jack his first haircut. i followed kathy to one, then another, salon. she even made a housecall once, i remember. no one else could touch my hair.

one day, kathy fell off of the face of the earth. she was just nowhere to be found. thus ended my salon days. i think when i wrote my 100 list, i was still clinging to those memories! because, nowadays, i am a Great Clips girl. i don't schedule haircuts. more likely, i wake up one morning and realize my hair has finally grown out of control, and i run to the Great Clips during lunch for a bit of instant relief.

of course, at the Great Clips, my hair is at the mercy of a long, ever-changing list of "next availables." i have learned to come prepared, snapshots in hand, to help better explain the *look* i think i'm going for. and heck, i can get in and out of there for under $20!! on my next list of 100 things, perhaps i will change that to read, i am very picky about how i will spend all that money i save by going to Great Clips!

going, going, gone!

spt

100 things about me, #7...

He used to bring me Reese's Peanut Butter Cups before we were dating.

we met at work, a restaurant called The Hometown Grill, in alpharetta, GA. i was working my favorite schedule, which meant i was usually free to go home by five.

he was the new guy in the kitchen. he didn't even have to show up until four. he started coming in early to eat his *shift meal* before work. he would sit at the bar where i tended to the afternoon golf-channel-watching crowd. he would have to find a way to compete with the *tipping* customers.

there was a BP gas station next door. he began stopping there on his way in. he would buy me Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. it was 1996; there was a special Reese's that came in a yellow wrapper and had a chocolate cookie mixed in with all that peanut buttery goodness. i never see those anymore. pity.

he kept this up for six months before i agreed to go out on a date. i hate to think about how many chocolate-y calories i consumed in those six months...

too fast

i don't know what made me sit down and go through photos tonight. these are totally random (and five years old).




he's pretty lucky i wasn't blogging back then...

spt - 100 things about me

have you got your 100 list handy? yes? fantastic!

no? well, this is your chance to get one going!

i think october is a great month to spend some time with yourself. i know many of us are already hyperventilating about the rush from All Hallow's Eve through New Year's Eve. this is the perfect opportunity to get yourself mentally, physically and spiritually prepared for the upcoming holiday *madness.*

this month, we will consult our 100 lists. it's quite simple, really. on the 7th of the month (TOMORROW) post an spt about item #7 on your list. on the 14th of the month, post an spt about item #14. and so on. and so on.

don't have a list? why don't you start one? it seems like a daunting task, you say? well, if you work up to #7 this week, #14 next week, etc., your list will be more than a quarter of the way finished by the end of the month!

i, for one, was a little surprised when i went back to my list (which i scribbled out about a year and a half ago...) october will be a great time for me to get back in touch with the person who wrote that list. and i might be inspired to add one hundred more things!! who knows?

so easy lelly could do it

the other night, i was cruising the www, and i stumbled upon how about orange, and links to some fun crafty projects. this one in particular caught my fancy. (by the way, i have never been to CraftyPod before, but there is some good stuff here.)

tiny notebooks. made out of playing cards!

i've got to try this, i thought. within an arms length, i actually had all of the materials necessary to make this project (and believe me, that NEVER happens.) shortly afterwards, i had these two cuties put together.



not to be outdone, jack-the-craft-wonder had made 4 (four!) tiny notebooks for his friends. out of Star Wars trading cards! from his own precious collection!



i don't know what 7 year old boys might write about in their tiny notebooks, but, what the heck? four tiny notebooks uses 8 trading cards. taking into consideration all of the pokeman cards, yugi-oh cards, transformers cards, etc., etc., i figure we only have 700bln cards left.

all you den mothers out there, i figure this could be a great arts & crafts project for "Adventures in Books" this month!! i'm just sayin'...