VIBEin'

WE BOUGHT A NEW CAR!!! Okay, so it's not brand new. I don't think we'll ever buy a brand new car. But this is new to me and probably the newest car I've ever bought. What kind of car is it that your little heart desires you ask? A trendy sedan? A rugged SUV? Ummm, no. A station wagon! Yup, that's what I REALLY wanted! But this thang is cute! It's a 2004 Pontiac Vibe and it's BLUE! (The color is really the most important thing don't cha know?) It was on the Darlings wholesale lot because it needs brake pads and two tires. And I won't discuss details, but let me tell you...it was a GRRREAT price! We're talking like 3,000 under what it usually retails for! This is what the super cute little thing looks like! True to form I did not attack this in a spur of the moment, haphazard kind of way. Oh no, there was research, there was planning...there were spread sheets comparing mgp's and safety ratings people! We started considering a new car when the old Saturn starting needing maintenence more frequently. We did our research and asked around and decided on a Pontiac Vibe as our next car about 6 months ago. Then we just kept our eye out for the right one (right milage, year, price etc.) Why did we choose the Vibe you ask? Let me tell you. It's between a sedan and an SUV. It gets great gas milage. It's quite roomy. It's kind of sporty and it's a little utilitarian with the hard plasitc backing on the fold down seats. So whether we're going camping or hiking, sequestering a muddy dog in the back, carting cargo around or packing up a few chitlins and their stuff (see previous baby post http://lifeafterstaff.blogspot.com/2007/10/expecting-baby.html) it's perfect! Can you tell I'm a little excited!?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love this comic! I stole it from my mother's blog. I thought it would give my friends a good chuckle and particularly thought it was humor Steve would enjoy.

Hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving no matter where you were or who you were with! Jason and I slept in, which is 7am for me these days! (That's just so wrong! I used to be a champion sleeper but I've been having sleep issues with this new job so 5am is normal, 6am is great, and 7am is sleeping in! Ask Jason how he likes that!) I baked a cream cheese filled pumpkin roll for desert because I don't like pumkin pie, then we had a leisurely breakfast, I threw together some candied sweet potatoes and headed over to my sister's house where we were all gathering. We had great time together cooking and talking, laughing and of course eating. Then Jason ate and ran as he headed out to hunt (no luck yet...bummer).

Then I went with my sister to three horse barns to do her rounds with her. She's so talented with horses! We visited one place to check out a horses swollen leg and she sweat wrapped it. Then we went to a barn to feed, water and hay 6 horses and on to the big 'un to feed, water and hay, I don't know, 30 or more horses. I love tagging along and helping her out. We even took a peek a few horses that I may get to start riding because they need to be excercized and I might go for a ride with her Saturday! I can't wait! She dropped me back off at my mothers where I met Jason after his unsuccessful hunt and we hung out there a bit before we headed home. I was a lovely day!

Raise the Bar High!

First I would like to formally apologize to all of the husbands/boyfriends for any expectations your women may now have of you. Blame it on my husband, because much like the whole ballroom dancing lessons thing, Jason has once again raised the bar high!

To begin with, he stayed up late into the night on Thursday, in order to secretly bake me my all time favorite cake (german chocolate) and then he hid it until yesterday. Yes, that's how out of it I was. Even though our bedroom is two feet from the kitchen I had NO idea that he had baked a cake. Apparently when he tried to sneak quietly into bed that night, I groggily woke up and said, "Did you bake banana bread?" To which he responded, "No. I mean, yes. Yes I had a craving for banana bread so I stayed up and made some." However, I have no recolection of this conversation.

Then he cleaned the house for me on Friday and told me I would get 26 birthday kisses on my birthday. So I woke up Saturday morning to find the house scattered with 26 balloons. I also found an envelope with a tac in it, and instructions that told me to pop the balloons every time I wanted a birthday kiss. Inside each balloon was a chocolate hershey kiss and a note with a different reason for why he loves me! Yeah. He's wonderful. (I still haven't popped them all. I'm drawing it out:)

And lastly he took me out to a birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant and then to a movie that we both wanted to see. Dan in Real Life. Which, by the way, was one of the BEST movies either of us have seen in a really long time. We were intermittently cracking up and crying through the whole thing. GO SEE IT! What a great day! What an amazing guy! Oh man. What am I gonna do for his birthday!? Quick people, I need some ideas!

Quarterlife Crisis

Don't worry. I'm not going to go buy a red sports car and run out and pierce something...but today's my birthday and it didn't start out like I had planned. I was very excited leading up to it but for some reason I'm in a pensive, life examining, mood. You see, we're in a phase of life right now that has a lot of change and transition and I think that has a lot to do with it. It's got me thinking about who I am, what I like, what I want in life, what my priorities are....etc.

I guess I feel like I've been a sort of jack of all trades, master of none. I'm outdoorsy, I rock climb, I love photography, I scrapbook, I knit, I work out (sometimes), I'd like to still ride horses, I was in ministry, I want to be in social work (but at what job I don't know!). I guess I feel a little ADD with all my stuff. It's like I do all these things but don't really devote a ton of time to any. And for that, I am being quite hard on myself.

I guess I think I SHOULD decidedly pick the certain activities that will help to define who I am. And that, if I'm going to claim to be something (crafter, photographer, rock climber) I SHOULD do those activities on a regular basis and devote a ton of time to them or else I have no right associating myself with them. That's very works based sounding isn't it?

So what is the cut off of apropriate time spent in order to consider one's self a crafter or what not? So what if I like a ton of things? So what if I have very little extra time in my weeks to do those activities and can only fit a few in here and there? And so what if some weeks I'm just so dang tired I want to veg out instead? I can still associate myself with all of my likes/passions! I can logically tell myself this is silly, but I'll still be hard on myslef the second after. Thanks for listening to my ramblings of my quarterlife crisis!

He Makes a Great Cowgirl!

Oh my! I still chuckle out loud as I remember last night....It all started so innocently. I went shopping with my mother-in-law Diane, my sister-in-law Erin and Erin's roommate. Actually...I didn't shop. Diane shopped, for Erin and I for my birthday and Christmas. (It's usually the same scenario. She really enjoys buying gifts for others so she keeps telling you to find something else you like, and you keep telling her you don't need anything because she's already spent way too much on you and she doesn't take no for an answer.) She's quite generous that way! Anyhoo, the day of shopping was tiring but fun and we all had a good time together. The men folk stayed home and watched manly football. But they joined us that night for Dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, (again a treat from J's mom and dad.)

This is where the real fun began. At the end of dinner the waitress comes over (I think she's coming to give the check.) and I hear her say, "I hear it's your birthday." Now...I was literally thinking she was talking to Diane at first because Diane's birthday is shortly after mine...it took a minute to register...she was talking to me. When I realized that, I immediately began trying to disapear into the corner of the booth, my face turned 10 shades of red and I practically yelled, "NO!" as I strongly and viamently denied that it was my birthday because #1) It was NOT my birthday and #2) I know what they do to birthday boys and girls at Texas Roadhouse. "No really," I pleaded with the waitress, "it's not my birtday! My birthday is next Saturday, I'll show you my liscence. I swear!" And she was like, "Oh, but you're celebrating this weekend." as the whole table urged me to get up onto the western saddle in front of the whole restaurant.

Now... I have never, ever been the "like to be the center of attention" kind of girl (unless it was for doing extremely well in school or on a soccer field or in a ski race) There was no way I was getting on that saddle. Seriously...no chace in you know what! In fact, I said, "No. I'm NOT getting on it." To which the waitress replied, "Is there anyone who wants to ride in her place?" And that I was all for. I looked to the person nearest to me on the left (which was Jason) pointed to him and quickly said, "Yeah, YOU do it." It took a little coaxing from me and his family, but he did it. He got up there... on that saddle... for me! (Oh, I love this man!)

And then it happened. The waitress turned the lights on him, and began announcing to the whole restaurant, "WE HAVE A VERY SPECIAL COWGIRL HERE TONIGHT, with someone riding in her place." Our entire table erupted in laughter and I turned 10 more shades of red and tried to squeeze further in to the corner of the booth. "HER NAME IS SARAH AND SHE'S TURNING 26 YEARS OLD," the waitress continued, "EVERYONE SAY 'HI SARAH!'" The whole restaurant yells, "Hi Sarah!" to my husband...sitting on a western saddle...at the head of our table. "ON THE COUNT OF THREE, EVERYONE GIVE HER YOUR BEST 'YEE HAAW'" The entire restaurant yells, "Yee Haaw" and I am completely mortified for my husband, yet crying in laughter at the same time. And that my friends is how amazing Jason is. WOW! Do I owe him....for like the rest of our life!

Genetics Shmenetics

Some of you may wonder where I got this affinity for organization and ridiculously planned out shopping. Well, it's not genetic I'll tell ya that....at least from my mom anyway. My mom HATES shopping and waits until the absolute last minute to do it. And she has a REALLY hard time deciding what to buy because she worries way too much about whether or not the person will like it. (Me...if I see two things a person might like, I take five seconds to decide and if I haven't made my decision by then, I eenie meenie minee mo it and get a gift receipt in case they want to take it back.)

Well, all of that to say that my mom's aversion to shopping actually works out great. Because on my whirlwind of a shopping day yesterday I saw a sweater that I ADORE! I tried it on and loved it even more! My birthday is in a week and knowing my mom had not gotten me anything yet (since it was not the day of my birth or the 24 hours preceding it) I hopped on my cell phone in the dressing room...still wearing the sweater...and gave her a ring. It went like this:

Me: Hey mom. I'm at Old Navy wearing a sweater that I really love! (Then I went into a lengthy description of what it looks like) It's 30 bucks. Want me to buy it and you can pay me back and that can be my birthday present?

Mom: Sure! This is great! I could shop like this all day!

Me: Sweet! Thanks...I'll show it to you sometime!

Mom: Great! I can't wait to see what I bought.

And there you have it. Mom doesn't have to brave the ridiculous crowds or fret about if I'll like something. I get exactly what I want without having to return anything or make a list or try to describe what I like! It's a win win situation. And now...for your viewing pleasure (and so my mom can see what she got me for my birthday)....ME! In my B-E-A-UTIFUL new sweater!

Oh, and P.S. I changed the user name on my blog to just "Sarah" and put a picture of just me up because let's face it, Jason hates writing, and It's really just my blog.

You might hate me...just a little

...when you're finished reading this post. "How could I ever hate Sarah, even a little!?" you ask shocked. Well, it's because I am done with my Christmas shopping! Yep, you read right. In fact all of my presents were bought by 12:40pm this afternoon and now, they are all sitting in my guest room....wrapped!...with color coordinated bows!... and gift tags! Oh what a wondrous thing!

Here's how it went down. Now, consider yourself warned...this kind of shopping is not for the faint of heart. It takes skill, it takes organization...it takes planning baby! This morning was like a finely tuned military operation. The list was made detailing what present would be bought for each person. Then it was decided which stores said presents would be purchased at. Driving routes in town were taken into consideration so as not to have to make any left hand turns and in order to help avoid the most congested areas as much as possible. Then, a plan for which stores would be visited in what order (I'm not kidding people. I wrote this down!) was put in place. And the result, out the door by 8:30 am, in and out of stores efficiently before the large crowds began to swarm, and all of my shopping done, with a pumkin latte from Dunkin' Donuts in hand by 12:40 pm.

It was a beautiful thing. I even had time to visit a friend, wrap all my presents (btw I LOVE wrapping presents a ridiculous, perhaps even unhealthy, amount! If you have anything you want wrapped, give me a ring, you'll make my day!) and bathe and groom my dog! Now I'm gonna relax, visit with Jason's family tomorrow afternoon and enjoy my Monday off!

Halloween and R.O.U.S's

If you are a fan of the movie Princess Bride (a.k.a. one of the best movies ever!) then you know what an R.O.U.S. is. If you have not seen the movie, then I'll let you in on what they are...Rodants of Unusual Size. Well, we have R.O.U.S's here at our home. I'll get to that later.

Halloween was fun. I tried to start a new tradition where we carve elaborate pumkins (because I am incapable of doing things half way). With much convincing and putting up with so much whining I thought I had spontaneously had a 2 year old, Jason and I carved pumkins together. (I made him smile for this picture.) We handed out candy to the 9 trick or treaters that came by and then we headed out to dancing. We're still really awesome. The teacher used us as an example again and then the other people clapped for us. It was a little embarrassing but inside, secretly I was loving it. We have now added a behind the back turn, leaders underarm turn, leaders return turn, a travel step, and my personal favorite....a cuddles to our swing repatoir. Additonally, we have added a contra step, crossbrace to our waltz ensamble. We demonstrated some of our mad dancing skills for our friends at a friday game night, and Esther took a picture of us. So y'all may get to see us dancin' after all.

Now back to the R.O.U.S's. After skillfuly and painstakingly carving our pumkins, (Mine was a cat and a pumkin in a window. Jason's was a bat.) I set them out on the stoop, only to return home the following day to find that the GINORMOUS gray squirels around our home and been gnawing away at our creations! These are no average squirels. They are huge and they are viscious! These are the same R.O.U.S's that I watched last year as they literally wrapped their fury little arms around the gords we had set out and knock them off the porch steps and roll them away. I should have remembered the bold little buggers and kept our pumkins protected! But alas, I did not. So I had a half-headed cat and Jason had a deforme bat glowing away on Halloween night. We've tried to teach Hunter to chase the little critters down, but they're too darn fast for him. Perhaps we'll have to resort to trying to stab them with knives attatched to the end of broom sticks. (Oh, I haven't told you that story about Jason yet have I? I'll save that one for another day :)