I Voted!

I voted today! I'm so grateful to live in a country in which I have a right to state my opinion and in which my opinion is counted. Whether or not the candidates I voted for win, I did what I could for them. Although some of them I really had no opinion about, so I just decided which name I liked best or which sent me the least political junk mail. Not rocket science, but hey, I'm not a rocket scientist.

I'm also grateful for the nice man in front of me who let me go before him, so that I could get my toddler in out of the cold (yes, we do have cold weather, even in North Carolina).

And I know it's a little strange, but I'm excited to write in my journal tonight and put my "I Voted" sticker in to mark the day.

State Fair 2008

We went to the State Fair yesterday. I've become a big fan of state fairs (this was my third one). It's so much fun to see all of the cool exhibits, like the giant pumpkins and watermelon, a real life pineapple plant, a man standing in a bee cage surrounded by bees, the animals, etc. I also think the carnival game people are fun to watch. I try to imagine what kind of life they led that brought them to this point in their lives. How many people grow up thinking, "When I grow up, I want to be a carnival game man (or woman)?" The food vendors are great, too. Where on earth could you get so much fried food? My personal favorite is the funnel cake. I'm not brave enough to try some of the others (deep fried snickers, twinkies, oreos, etc), even if I did eat chocolate. We had a good time. There were things for the little ones to do, and we got to see what we wanted to. What could be more perfect?

Private Blog

Just a note for those of you who read my daughter's blog. It is going private. If you would like to be invited to read it, I would be more than happy to add you to the list. Just send me an email or let me know in the comments and I'll get you added.

Announcement

I'm pregnant!!!

Tagged

7 Random facts...

1. Like me friend who tagged me, my husband is the only man I've kissed. There was another time when I was going to be kissed, but I called him by the wrong name and that kind of ruined the moment.

2. I'm an amateur photographer who dreams of someday going professional, and having a people know my name and wanting my pictures to hang in their homes.

3. I really enjoy home decorating. I've never taken a class or read a book, but I like to put colors and art and furniture and accessories together, hoping they'll look like I picture in my mind.

4. I love fun socks. It has been years since I've worn a pair of plain colored socks. And the socks I wear don't have to match my clothing. (A funny tangent: One year when I was teaching, I learned that my class paid close attention to my socks. They even had their favorite pair - my watermelon socks.)

5. I enjoy cooking. I especially enjoy trying new recipes. My family is very supportive and will eat anything I fix, which is helpful.

6. My favorite flowers are daisies.

7. I haven't eaten chocolate for 7 years, and I plan to not eat chocolate for the rest of my life. (Thanks, Annie!)

I tag Andrea, Heather, Kasey, Cami, Michelle, Marissa, and Hannie.

Exciting and Excitement

Last Friday was the first time that someone came to look at our house (that's the exciting part). I was very careful in cleaning up, making the house look it's best. As I was doing this, I thought that the brownie pan with plastic blue lid shouldn't be left out, so I put it out of sight, in the oven. At the time that I did this I thought, "I'm going to forget that it's in there and start the oven", but did it anyway. I must say, as a biased voice, that the house did look incredible. Well, they came and left and I came home to get dinner ready. We were going to have pasta and breadsticks. So I turned the oven on and started the water boiling. About 15 minutes later, I started to smell an unpleasant odor. At that moment, I remembered that I'd put the brownies in the oven. Opening the oven, the smell of melting plastic assaulted my nose. I removed the offending pan, and cooked the breadsticks, which luckily didn't smell or taste like melted plastic. (That's the excitement part.)

Yard Sale

We had our first yard sale today. I had some teacher supplies that I no longer need, some furniture that won't fit in a two-bedroom apartment, lots of books, and other various and sundry items. I had a figure in my mind of what I thought we could make. We more than doubled it. And we emptied our house of many unnecessary items. And other people were blessed with our junk. And I didn't go yard saling (?) today, which saved us from adding more unnecessary junk to our house. And a friend from the ward offered to take my teacher supplies that didn't sell to a local elementary school that could really use it. And she told me about a used book store in town that will give store credit for books you take in (what could be better than that?). Except when I thought about it, we're trying to get rid of stuff, so I offered to let her take in the books for store credit (which sounds kind of like I'm trying to get out of taking them myself, but really I just wanted to let her get the credit for them. I would have taken them in her name, except I don't think it would have worked). All in all, my first yard sale was a success.

Moving

It's official. We're moving...to Las Vegas. No, we don't have a job or a place to live. But it's a lot closer to family and it's where we're supposed to go. So our house here in North Carolina is for sale (anyone looking to move here? It really is a great neighborhood!). Kind of sad, since it's our first home together, but happy in that we're moving on with life. Definitely an adventure!

Hair Clips

Guys, just a heads up, you're not going to care about this post AT ALL.

Okay, gals, my friend bought some hair clips for her daughter and we were looking at them and thought, "Hmm, we could make these!" So we've been making them. Note: The friend is very crafty and artistic. She's a stickler for the small details (I'm not). So she makes really cute clips. I fee like mine are go-in-publicable and pretty cute. Well tonight, my husband was gone for church calling and so I had some time on my hands. Luckily, I'd made a run to the store today and bought some really cute ribbon (turns out having really cute ribbon is a head start to having really cute clips. Go figure!). I made clips and I think that most of them turned out really cute, and thought I'd show them off.

Tropical Storms

We've now been having rain, off and on, for 3 days. It's good because we need the rain, but it does make for a lake in the backyard. No wonder we have moss growing instead of grass! I'm just grateful that we're on the tail end of the storm. I can't imagine being on the front end. It makes for interesting days though. Trying to time running errands in between downpours. Trying not to make my toddler afraid of thunder when I jump as the house shakes (not that I'm afraid of thunder. It just surprises me and so I jump). Trying to keep the floors clean. Watching the rain come down in buckets.