Wednesday Thoughts

Things that are making me happy this week:

*Along Lake Michigan in Ludington State Park, some interesting sand formations formed along the edges of the cliff walls. They look like castles. I'm assuming it has something to do with the freezing and thawing of water?

*It feels like summer now! I keep thinking of Olaf saying, "in suuuummmmer!!" It's so wonderful.

*My favorite restaurant in Ludington is called The Grand, which is a pretty ironic name considering its appearance. The hamburgers, a food I rarely eat, are divine there. The fried mushrooms are even better. I'm not one to take a lot of pictures of my food, but I have to share with you a couple pictures of this place. The decor is so incredibly tacky, it's wonderful. It's perfect. I hope they never change the awful curtains. They served drinks in mason jars before it was cool.

Things that are bumming me out this week:

* Mad Men is over until 2015. That's a lifetime away (for insects and other things with short life spans). I have such a love/hate relationship with this show but overall, it's mostly love.

source

* Maya Angelou died today. I feel weird listing that after something so goofy and unimportant as Mad Men ending for the season, so just know that these are different levels of bummed out. I love her books and poetry. I know why the caged bird sings is one of my very favorite books. A few years back, I got to see her speak at the University of Michigan, and she was great. Dynamic, funny, and articulate. I love her positive message, and the way she encouraged people to be kind to one another. I remember a story I heard her tell on the radio once about how a smile from a stranger made a man change his mind about committing suicide. She always inspired me every time I heard her speak, or read her works. She will be missed!

What's making you happy and/or bumming you out today?

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesday Thoughts

This was supposed to go out last night but due to technical difficulties, I was only able to get it out this morning...

I planned on writing earlier but then my day kinda took a turn like this:

Things are totally fine - I'm just going through some changes at work. When I get stressed out, I realize how grateful I am for family and friends- I know how un-unique I am in that regard but I felt it was worth mentioning.

Although today was stressful, it was a good day. To start, a friend sent me this amazing picture:

If you are a man, or a woman who can grow facial hair, I hope you are inspired by that picture.

In the evening, I went to a camp certification meeting with the young women (girls 12-18) at church. It was so nice outside - it's just amazing to me. After the winter we just had, I can't believe I can go outside and feel the sunshine and feel warmth again. And see the grass! I want to say it's a miracle but I realize spring comes every year. It just didn't feel possible this year.

Happy Wednesday!

Weekend Update

 This weekend I got to spend time with two of my favorite humans: my youngest niece and nephew (my older niece and nephew are also my favorite humans, for the record). They came over Saturday afternoon for a sleepover.

We went to the Henry Ford museum Saturday afternoon because they both wanted to see the Weinermobile and become a human hotdog.

After accomplishing these goals, we explored for awhile, hitting my nephew's favorite spot: the jail cell in the section on suffragettes.

After our museum adventure, we went out to eat at Applebee's, where we all sat on one side of the booth, naturally. They insisted. The rest of the evening was low key. We made puppy chow (muddy buddies), watched The Emperors New Grove, then went to bed.
 
The next morning I made pancakes for breakfast, and my niece, who is 6, "helped." We also had this conversation:

S: I like my pancakes in the microwave.
Me: Well, we have to cook the batter on the stove. This is how you make pancakes.
S: I don't like them this way. I like them in the microwave.
Me: But.... you can't cook them that way. They have to be cooked on the stove. 
S: I only like them in the microwave.
Me: Fine. After we cook them, we'll microwave them.
S, jumping up and down: Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Yay! Yay!

Later when my sister picked them up and they were about to walk out the door, my niece turned to me and said, "By the way, I didn't really like the pancakes."

I miss them already.

Wednesday Thoughts

I've been watching a lot of Murder, She Wrote lately. I thought I'd seen every episode but apparently I missed a lot of episodes in season 8. I've been enjoying the season quite a bit and only have a few complaints:

* this season is HEAVY on saxophone. There's a lot of city scape shots with saxophone playing over them. It's so awful.

* the fashion is very painful. Last night I was shocked to see THIS:

The mullet to end all mullets. This is in the episode titled, "Danse Diabolique," in case you want to see the mullet in action. I'm telling you, it's worth it. That thing has a life of its own.

When you first see it, I can almost guarantee you will have this reaction. Even though you've been warned. It's that overwhelming.

In other thoughts, this morning I was listening to the radio and the DJ asked the question, "which tv character would you marry?" One of them chose Jessica from New Girl, another chose Claire from Modern Family, and another chose someone from a show I've never seen. I've been thinking about this extremely important question all morning and it should be no surprise to you who my choice is:

It's really a no-brainer. Who would you choose?

And lastly in Wednesday Thoughts, it's warm out and I just can't believe it. Is winter really over? Can it be?

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesday Thoughts

I started Wednesday Thoughts yesterday and this gif was literally all I got done. It's from the Woody Allen movie "take the money and run" which I have never seen. But this gif completes my life. I could watch it all day.

Last night I was at a youth activity at the bowling alley. Two of the girls I work with were sitting at a table together talking very conspiratorially. I leaned in and whispered, "so what's the scoop?" They said, "we're just talking about how even though we're the smallest tuba players we're also the loudest. Stupid Josh. Stupid Holden." I just said, "I know - I'm sick of them playing so quietly! Ugh!!!"

Band problems.

 (Also, how cool is it that there's a kid in their band named Holden!? Catcher in the Rye for life. Love that book.)

When I was in high school, I played the trombone. For a long time, there were only three of us "bones" in the band together (there were more in marching band but they were in different school bands). The three of us got along great - Carey, Brian, and me. But somehow, Brian knocked the music stand over all the time. And it was always an accident! He wasn't doing it to be funny! The music would go everywhere and he'd scramble to pick it up while Carey and I just sat there wondering how this happened all the time.

Gosh. Life was hard back then.

I am total juggle mode right now in life. I have to conduct a class at a women's conference this weekend (which I am looking forward to but it's still a lot of work), I have to attend a youth activity tomorrow evening, I have to make a Minecraft cake for my nephew's birthday party on Saturday, and gosh... so much more. I can't even get into it.

I know though that this is just a busy period. In just a few short days, things will settle down and I'll only have a few light balls in the air instead of a bunch of heavy ones. I'm not too worried about it.

I had a dream last night about plunging a toilet. What does it mean!?

Happy Weds, er.... Thursday.

Friday!

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!

(Sorry.)

Here's the thing about Friday - I look forward to it all week. Then when it comes, I remember that it's still another work day. And Friday evenings, I'm beat. Totally spent from a busy week.

I once dated a guy who worked full time and at the time, I was only working a couple part time jobs with flexible hours. On Friday nights when we'd go out, he'd be exhausted by 9:00. I was always kind of annoyed but now I get it. I totally get it.  Ex-boyfriend, I'm sorry I thought you were a Friday night lightweight.

That being said, Fridays are still awesome. Because they're the last day of the work week (you just learned something, didn't you?).

My Friday work days look a little something like this:

Until around 5:00 at which time I do this all the way to my car.

We're almost there.

My reaction when...

...my sister says we should go to Dairy Queen

Thursday Thoughts

Oops, I missed Wednesday Thoughts. I do have a good excuse though.

I just typed up what my excuses were then deleted it because no one wants to hear excuses. Let's just say it involved a bear, a bag of Doritos, an overturned car, and Marty McFly. But you don't want to hear excuses, so I won't go into the details. This gif will summarize my day:

I'm kidding (duh) - it was just a normal busy day.

So, here are my Thursday Thoughts.

It's May. Usually by now the trees are full of leaves and wearing a t-shirt without a jacket is the norm. But NOT this May 1st! Oooooh no, Michigan just can't deliver this year. The trees are still mostly bare and I'm still wearing my winter coat in the mornings.

Ok, this Thursday Thoughts is getting off to a bad start. No more complaining. Here are some things that are making me happy this week:

"It's gonna be May" - this has been going around for at least three years now but it still makes me laugh. And this year, President Obama got in on the action:

"It's gonna be May."

If you don't know the song reference, youtube it ("It's gonna be me" by 'Nsync). You probably won't regret it.

I was asked to be in charge of moderating pranks at girls camp this summer. It's pretty funny considering I'm the one who needs to be moderated. I feel like someone told on me. If I'm going to be an example to the girls, I guess I'm going to have to tone down the pranks I've been planning and go with tamer ideas.

Which means I'm out of ideas.

I googled "camp pranks" and found this website (link). It had the worst ideas ever. Such as:

*put a piece of stinky cheese in someone's tent. When it starts to smell, rumors about their hygiene will spread.
*staple your friend's sleeping bag tightly around them then tickle their nose (I would never forgive someone for doing this to me - things would get violent FAST).
*fill someone's pillowcase with shaving cream. When they lay down, it will ooze out everywhere.
*sprinkle the inside of someone's sleeping bag with powdered milk. The smell of the milk combined with their body heat will cause a horrible smell.
*dig a hole outside your friend's tent and fill it with water balloons then cover with dirt so they don't know and step on it.

Um.... these pranks are horrible and no one wins with them! They may as well have said, "Put dog poop in someone's luggage" or "place a rattlesnake in someone's sleeping bag."

Awful! What are some pranks you did when you were younger (or older)? Only non-awful ideas, please. Ideas where the person doesn't want to murder you afterward.

Happy Thursday!