It is raining here like crazy!

This picture could have been me this morning! I was running in and out of the car to the library and then at CVS Pharmacy. The wind was blowing too just like in the above picture. It has lightened up a little but we have had an awful lot of rain since yesterday morning around 10:30! I feel like a duck!! I think we are due some colder weather and no rain tomorrow. No rain is fine with me but the cold weather can go somewhere else! Everyone have a great day!

I love my hairstylist!

Last night I went to have my haircolor and highlight. My hairstylist is wonderful. Yesterday the office was really stressful with all the lay offs but I forgot about everything once I went to the Salon! She always starts out with a stress release neck and scalp massage. I really needed that and it felt wonderful. Then she started coloring, highlighting, lowlighting, toning, conditioning and another scalp massage while she rinsed my hair. I almost fell asleep! She is such a sweet person and worth the $$ that's for sure! The color turned out perfect and so did all the high and low lighting. John really liked it when I got home. It is hard, as I'm sure some of you have experienced, finding a really good stylist. She is consistent and a pleasure to have an appt. with.

Everyone have a great day and a wonderful weekend!

Hair Coloring and Highlights Tonight!!

Tonight after work I'm due for some pampering! I am having my hair colored and highlighted tonight. I go to Harmony Salon very close to my house and they do a fantastic job! It is so nice and calming in that salon. They are an Aveda salon too, which is great for the environment. For being almost 50 years old, I was surprised I hadn't had many gray hairs. Both my younger sisters have been coloring their hair for years due to major gray hairs. (1 sister is 3 years younger and the other is 6 yrs. younger so I was surprised) Well last week I was putting on my makeup and I saw a glimmer in the mirror and wondered what it was! Well to my surprise it was a whole bunch of WHITE, yes WHITE hairs coming in my part!! I immediately called in John and he just laughed and said, "have you seen my hair lately". Well I proceeded to tell him that he was 5 years older than me and I'm not suppose to go straight to WHITE hair! I called my hairdresser and made an appt. for tonight. I know that sounds really vain but my Mom doesn't color her hair and even though she has great skin I think it makes her look so much older. Well after 6:00 tonight ladies I will be WHITE and gray hair free!!!

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday. One of my co-workers just assumed I was catholic because I have an Irish last name. Well my husband has the Irish background (I'm German/Dutch) and why do people always assume because you have an Irish last name you are catholic. We are Methodist. I do believe in giving up something for Lent though. While I was trying to figure out what I should give up a few things crossed my mind: chocolate-no, tea-no, beef-no. I started thinking of other things. I came up with chewing gum. I always chew some gum in the afternoon after lunch and now I guess Mentos or Altoids will have to do. I hope everyone has a lovely day!

Nothing really special going on around here

Things have been rather quiet lately for me. Nothing really specially going on or planned. I like these quiet times. I love to read and right now I'm reading Very Valentine and really enjoying that. I'm listening to Domestic Affairs by Eileen Goudge in my car to and from work. I just enjoying chillin' with John. The highlight of my week is getting my hair colored and highlights on Thursday after work! I'm sure this lull won't last very long! Everyone have a great day!

I have now joined almost everyone else on Facebook!

I am now on Facebook! Megan told me I should have join Facebook and I have already found a few of my high school classmates. I haven't contacted them yet, but I will. First a blog and now Facebook, I wonder what is next!! Hope everyone is having a great day!

I picked up some new audiobooks at the Library

Today John and I went to the Library. I needed some more audiobooks to download to my ipod. I got 3! I picked out Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy, Domestic Affairs by Eileen Goudge and The Sonnet Lover by Carol Goodman. I've already loaded 2 of the 3 onto my ipod but my fingers are getting tired from clicking, etc. I will load the last one tomorrow. Heading downstairs to read Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani. John is at a hockey game with our 2 son-in-laws. Everyone have a great evening!

Here is Flash and Sparkles New Home!

As you read in the post below I broke my 2 fancy-tailed goldfish home. I went to PetSmart and bought them a 10 gallon tank with plants and a little Japanese statue for them to swim around. Here is some pics of their new home and the fishes! The first pic has the black wires showing behind the tank, I need to get more plants to camo those.




Here is Flash!



This is Sparkles!





I think both of these little fishes are happier! I love to watch them swimming around.

The 2 Goldfish now have a new home!

Goldfish Update:

I don't have any pictures to show yet. Last night I broke the huge vase I had my 2 goldfish in. I was cleaning the vase (I had the fish in a bowl), I tapped the granite counter and the vase smashing in a million pieces! I transferred the fish to another larger vase but I knew they were going to need a tank. I went to PetSmart this morning and bought a 10 gal. tank, which came with the whole start up kit. The filter is really quiet and the tank looks great on my other counter. When the fish have become acclimated to their new home and are swimming around, I'll take some pics and post them!

Last night's bookclub was great!

As you all know, I didn't particularly care for the bookclub's selection this month. It was People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. It is a historial fiction but very detailed and it takes a long time to decipher everything and sometimes you have to go back and re-read sections. I hadn't finished it but at some point I think I will after talking with the author. Geraldine Brooks called in from Australia for a telephone interview with us. She is a very likable person. She is down-to-earth, very intelligent, she was a news correspondent for many years in Sarajevo and Bosnia, she's a Mom, wife and very interesting. I had forgotten I read Year of Wonder, which she wrote and liked that. She also wrote March, which won a Pulitzer Prize. I never read that though. She is working on a book right now, which will be title Caleb's Crossing. This will be about the history of Martha's Vineyard in the 1600's. It sounded quite interesting.

Next month's selection is going to be Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani. I happen to be currently reading this book, so that works for me! It is a very funny, lovely book. The leader of our bookclub is pretty sure Adriana will be coming to our bookclub next month too! That will be a great meeting.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Reading Very Valentine now

I have had a bad reading streak lately, but I think it has come to an end. I just started reading Very Valentine and it grabbed me right from the beginning. I'm sure this book will continue to be a good one!

I'm 50% Addicted to Blogging

50%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I saw this on a few of my blog friends blogs. I took the quiz off of Vickie's blog at http://iyamvixenbooks.blogspot.com/. Very interesting quiz!

The Visit with my friend was so nice!

John and I went to visit my friend from church last night. John chatted with her husband while I visited with Patti. She had broken a bone in her foot December 30th. She had been scheduled to have her toe operated on right after the holidays. Then the bone broke so 2/9 she had the toe surgery and everything is mending at the same time. Patti is a ray of sunshine in my life!! She is always upbeat, complimentary, gracious and a tower of strength!! I met her when I first moved here almost 5 years ago at the church. We were on a committee together and we put together a fundraiser called Art After Dark. It was wonderful working with her on that. Patti has become my surrogate Mom! She is only 2 years younger than my Mom. All the things that Patti does for the church and people she knows makes her seem like she's only 55 yrs. old! When John and I pulled up to her house we were greeted my thousands of daffodils. I told him when you look at a daffodil it is like looking at Patti! Sunny, bright, cheerful and happy!! I am glad to have her as my friend! Mend quickly Patti!!

Last Night and Today was very nice!

John and I had a very nice evening last night. We had the lemon chicken I made in front of the fireplace outside! It was so romantic. Then we came in later on and watched Sweet Home Alabama. We had watched that before but we thought it would be a good Valentine's Day movie. We snuggled on the couch and watched it. Today John woke up with a pretty nasty cold so we skipped church, slept in a bit, watched some HGTV, I taught John how to play Chocolatier (a computer game), we read and just plain chilled out! Tonight we'll watch another movie and chill too. To me this was the perfect weekend. I don't have tomorrow off but he will probably be able to rest because attorneys don't usually work on President's Day. His phone won't be ringing then and maybe his cold will decide to leave! I hope so.

Everyone have a lovely evening!!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!! John and I exchanged cards and I gave him his favorite Lindt Truffles. He gave me a heart shaped box of chocolates. We were going to take a drive somewhere but it has been raining and we decided to just stay home and relax! Tonight we are going to play scrabble and watch a movie. I'm making my lemon chicken recipe and if the rain stops we will have dinner in front of the outside fireplace! Should be really romantic! I hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day!!

Tonight is a movie and dinner with Megan

Megan called me up and said her hubby is sick (has been for about 1 week) and she would love to go see "He's really not into you" (I think that is the name of the movie or something like that). She has gift cards at Jo Jo's China Bistro too. John has to work at Best Buy so I told her that would be great! We will also get Valentine's cards for our sweeties after the movie or before! Sounds like a wonderful night to me! Jenny was going to join us but she has to work tonight. She loves her new photography job. She also found out she'll be doing wedding eventually. She is very excited!! I'm glad it is working out for her. I think she'll be able to give up the waitressing too eventually.

Everyone have a "happy" Friday, enjoy!!

I have a Drs. Appt. this afternoon

I'm leaving work at 3:30 today for my Dr. Appt. I have to have blood drawn (checking up on my thyroid) and I need my blood pressure checked. I check it at home but she wants me to come in and have her check it for her records. Hopefully my weight loss will impress her!

John has to work tonight so I'll be doing some household things. I may sketch out a new painting to work on or make some jewelry! I'm really looking forward to some "fun" spring/summer jewelry. I'm going to wear my Valentine's jewelry I made a week or two ago tomorrow to work. John and I would like to take a road trip (just for the day) for Valentine's Day. We just have to decide where! We were thinking maybe Greensville, SC, or Sea Grove, NC or Asheville, NC. We have been to Sea Grove and Asheville. I'll have to check it out tonight on-line.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!! Take care!

Nothing special planned for today

I have a lunch with a big client of the company I work for today. 2 other project managers were suppose to go and the one just let me know he can't join us. It will still be 6 of us. We are taking them to Sullivan's Steakhouse, which should be yummy!

John and I will probably be watching Idol tonight. I hope it is better than last night's show. I was very disappointed. I have decided I really just like the actual contestants singing not all the stuff before that.

Last night John, Teddy and I took a nice long walk around the neighborhood when I got home from work. We will probably do that tonight too if the rain holds off. Well that is about all that is going on in my life today, I know kind of boring! Everyone have a wonderful day!

John and I love that house!!

John and I went after work to look at the house I posted the other day. Well we fell in love with it!! It has everything we were looking for and more! There wasn't one thing that we didn't like. Today our realtor schedule a Realtor's Open House and the couple that needs to find a house pretty quickly is coming back again the end of the week. I hope something happens really soon!

The weather is absolutely gorgeous here today! I wish I was out there enjoy the warmth and sunshine!! Everyone have a great day!

We had the best salmon ever!!

I have to admit I'm really not a huge fish lover. Last night John and I cooked 1 large wild caught Alaskan Salmon on a cedar plank and it was phenomenal!!! I could eat Salmon cooked that way atleast once a week. We also made a huge salad. We were going to eat outside in front of the outdoor fireplace but it was 7:00 when we started and the Grammy's were on at 8:00. We usually don't let the TV dictate what we do but I love music! We usually like to keep the fireplace going longer than 1 hr. too. Maybe next weekend. John thinks he's found someone who has apple wood too, so maybe we can get some of that and light the fireplace next weekend! Sounds like a plan to me!

Everyone have a great day!

Today was another gorgeous, wonderful day!!

I cannot believe how beautiful, warm and wonderful the last 2 days have been!! I hate for Monday to come, but alas it will. John and I had such a wonderful weekend, I wish it could go on forever. Yesterday we went to see New In Town with our friends and then out for Italian afterwards. The movie was cute and funny. It felt good to really laugh out loud! Dinner was great too! This morning John had a meeting at Best Buy from 8-10:30. I cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, dusted and washed the hardwood floors while he was gone. We then went to Brixx's Pizza for lunch. I had their wonderful Fresh Mozarella Sandwich-yummy!! Our Open House was from 2-4. We went to an Open House in the neighborhood we want to buy in. I looked at the house on-line ahead of time and pretty much decided it was too small and it was. It was a cute house and had a nice little yard but there is one in that neighborhood that we really want. Some time this week we are going to look at it with the realtor. He lives in the same neighborhood, so that's really nice! I have already looked at a model just like the one we are going to see and I realy love it. It has a nice porch. John and I miss having a front porch you can sit on. I hope someone makes an offer on our house soon and we could then make an offer on that house! Keep your fingers crossed. 6 couples came to look at the house today and 4 are renting. That would be awesome!!



This is the house we would love to buy!

Everyone enjoy what is left of the day! Have a great evening!!

I recovered 2 outside chairs and made a bracelet!

With the Open House schedule for tomorrow I took a look around the back porch and patio and saw that my 2 screened porch chairs had terrible water stains on them. I had treated these cusions with scotchguard but not waterproofing. I'll know better next time! I had some fabric upstairs in my craft closet that was going to be cut up and put in a quilt, but I thought these chairs needed immediate attention. I covered both bottom, top and footstool cushions with the same material. I used safety pins on the back to hold them on to the cushions. Even though I sew, this was such a quick fix I couldn't resist! I thought they turned out really well!



This is the chair before. The other one looked just as bad. I should have brought the cushions in for the winter but forgot to. When I realized they were getting wet it was too late the water stains had already set.



This is the chair up close after I got it all done.


This is the first chair all done up! I was so happy with it I decided to move to the next chair!



This is a closeup of the fabric I used. These look like brand new chairs with a little color!



This is the other chair all done! I'm glad they turned out so great!



This is the bracelet I made for myself today! I think I'm going to add some more things on it, but here it is for now! I'm going to wear it tonight when I go out with our friends for dinner and a movie. I made my friend some earrings for her birthday, but I forgot to take a pic of them before I wrapped them!

Everyone have a great weekend!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

I am so glad it's FRIDAY!!! This week has seemed exceptionally long to me. I have enough work to do but things just seemed to be dragging this week. Maybe because it's cold outside and you just don't want to go out. This weekend is suppose to be in the 60's here. I hope the weatherman is right. It was 22 degrees this morning but it's suppose to be in the 50's by the afternoon. This has been an very unusual Winter for the temps here in Charlotte. I am so ready for Spring. It is so pretty here in the Spring, not too hot, trees and flowers blooming, etc., etc. I know alot of you all over the country feel the same way and you are piled under snow, ice, etc., etc. I hope we all get our wish soon so we can enjoy the outdoors again!! Everyone have a great day!! SMILE IT'S FRIDAY!!

Don't you wish you were here!!

With all the snow parts of the country is having and just all around cold weather-don't you just wish you were here!!

We don't get that much snow here in Charlotte, but winter I think gets to everyone after awhile! We have had snow dustings twice this year and we have had some cold days compared to other years. John and I were remembering our trip to Antiqua last night and we couldn't believe it had been 8 years ago!! We had a wonderful time-8 days in sun, sand, warmth, relaxation on the beach, reading, reading and more reading! I read 7 books when I was there!!

Oh well I guess I better get doing my work, but it never hurts to dream!! Everyone have a great day!

SNOW in Charlotte again!

Well I can't believe we've had snow in Charlotte again! I have lived here for almost 5 years and this is the first year we have had snow. This is the second snow this year!! There really was only a heavy dusting here this time. You did have to watch out for black ice on the way into work today. I actually think it looks pretty! I know most of you are saying she is absolutely crazy because I know alot of you are just plain sick of it! This snow will probably be gone by tomorrow. It would be gone today but the temps dropped down to 19 degrees, so it will stick around a little longer. The schools here have closed, which I was really surprised about. They probably could have had a delayed opening, but chose to just close. Concord, NC had more snow and that is where Jenny and Kevin live. I haven't talked to her yet, but I do hope she is careful if she has to work today. I think she has off though.

Well everyone please indulge me with my love of the southern snow! Everyone stay warm, safe and happy today!!

What a great Super Bowl Game!

I have to admit football isn't usually my thing, but what a great game that was! Go Steelers! I loved watching the Boss too-he was awesome!! We are originally from NJ and John used to go to The Stone Pony where Bruce originally played with the E Street Band. He just never seems to slow down, I'm sure he is sore after each concert though!

Everyone have a great day! Happy Ground Hog Day!!