Comments?

Okay, I want to know what the deal is with comments. How do you become a blogger who people leave a million comments for? Here's what I am thinking - either you or someone in your family must have a near death experience. This is what I've noted so far. Most of the people whose blogs I read - and they have lots of comments and lots of traffic - are people who have had lots of readers praying for them or their families about some very serious issue. So....hmmm....I guess I will just continue to faithfully write - Landon and I have had some near death issues...but not due to illness :) If you have suggestions on how I can get more traffic and comments, I'll take them.

Show Us Where You Live Friday

Alright, just like last Friday (my future nursery...remember?), today is Show Us Where You Live Friday...all about Offices - I would prefer to call ours more of a Study, since it doesn't even have a desk in it. This is the UGLIEST room of our house, so it's not really a fine time for me to want to jump in on the Show Us Where You Live day...but, just keeping it real, so whatever. It does mean, however, that I will now be forced to participate in all other Show Us Where You Live Fridays so that I can show that the rest of our home is not as ugly as this one room....but here we go...

The two pictures above are kind of overview pictures of the room. This room really is more of a Study since there is no desk. We have a laptop we use, and some bookshelves down in the basement with all of Landon's "preacher" books on them, so up here, it's just kind of a quiet Study room. Our couch folds out into a twin bed...which, by the way, looks like a prison bed when folded out. I'm not sure why that is, but you can just see all the bars of the fold out part and then that thin mattress, and it reminds me of a prison (not that I know this firsthand). The little picture on the left by the couch is me in one of my bridal portraits and then the picture on the right by the couch is us on the Bible Cruise with Pastor Johnny. This room is really sort of a catch all for everything - you'll see as we continue...

I had really good ideas about this window and these curtains. I wanted them to be like flowy, down past the ground - you know, like I've seen in magazines. Well, maybe they look okay, but they just don't look like I envisioned. Although, I do think the color matches the color of the pillows on the couch really well.

This is the side of the wall across from the couch - it has mainly my books in it - Nicholas Sparks, Mary Higgins Clark, Max Lucado, etc. You can also see the printer to the left (which the laptop gets plugged into when printing is necessary) and cords on the right that lead over to the DSL and wireless Internet stuff. On top of the bookshelf is a picture of my grandparents, a big group picture of everyone in our group who went to Israel in 2007, Landon's shofar, and our wedding invitation etched in glass on a stand. I think all this stuff will be much more organized when Landon has a church and puts stuff in his church office. Like, the shofar. That will go in his office at the church.

I want to address this picture because it's special. This is the picture everyone signed when we got married. It's special because it was actually nearly ruined in Hurricane Katrina. Our photographer was able to redo the pictures and save the matte with all the signatures. That's why you should always use a permanent marker when doing something like this - you just never know when a hurricane may flood your home :) Anyway, because that was able to be saved, it's really special to me.

Alright, alright, let me get on with the last embarrassment. This is the closet in the room. It's full of boxes - a couple of games (you can see Gatoropoly up there) but mainly Stihl chainsaw boxes (my family owns a John Deere and Kubota dealership back in Florida) with all of my China in them. I don't have a place to store our fine china and crystal, so it has stayed in these boxes the 3 and a half years we've lived here in Woodstock. Even if I can't get a china cabinet to display the china, I can't wait to just have enough room in our kitchen to put the china in cabinets - so we could use it sometimes. I miss just getting to look at it!!

Well, that's it. My next project is going to be painting this room, and I've just decided this while looking at these pictures. It desperately needs it, and I think will help it look a little warmer and cozier, even if this room is just a hodge podge of stuff.

Do not worry. I will be back next Friday so you can see that our house is actually much better than this one room! Happy Friday!

Bump In the Night...uh, Morning?

In the mornings, Landon knows that my body is "soft". I know that probably sounds strange to you, but that's what I feel like. When I've just woken up, anything that happens to my body has a much greater impact than if it happens like at least 30 minutes into the day. For instance, if I sneeze right after I wake up, that feels like trauma - or if I burn myself with the flat iron, that feels a lot worse happening when my mind and body still feel a little fuzzy. Is any of this making sense??

...Meet Our Bathroom Door...

This morning, Landon had to go to a Bible Study that started at 6:00am. Usually, when I leave for work, he is still in bed, but this morning he was up and awake, getting ready to go. I get up at 5:40am and do not have extra time to dawdle; I have to be out of the house at 6:15. So, this morning, my alarm goes off at 5:40, and Landon is in our bathroom. Okay, no problem. The door was shut and the light was on in there. Well, obviously, I needed to come in and start getting ready to go, brushing teeth, washing face, and so on. Well, thinking that just like me in the mornings, his body is "soft" and he doesn't want to be startled, I lightly tap on the door. Keep in mind, where I am, in the bedroom, is still very dark. Well, not a second after I tap on the door, Landon opens the door - so I think, "Great, he must have heard me, so he's opening the door for me to come in." Nay, nay, my friends. He opened the door and turned off the light to come out of the bathroom because he was finished in there. He did not even realize I was awake yet. He ran smack into me. Stepped on my foot - I mean, was pretty much mowing me over. We did not have a repeat of the infamous night I had some crazy panic attack in the middle of the night at my parents' house, thank goodness - we've grown a lot since then, but it was pretty scary, especially when your body is "soft". Anyway, it was not a great scene - but then, like I said, it wasn't as bad as some other scary moments have been before. So, that's how the morning started out - with Landon mowing me down outside the bathroom door and me scaring him to death. He goes, "Why were you just standing outside the bathroom door???" I said, "I was quietly tapping on the door before I came in so I didn't scare you." Yikes...what a start to a morning....

Current TV Shows

So, basically, the TV situation is bad now that our shows have gone off. We don't watch that many shows to begin with, but we LOVE American Idol and Lost. Well, now both of those have gone off....until NEXT YEAR, I think. This is very unfortunate. So...now we are back to the second choice shows that always come on the season after all of our favorites have been on. One of these shows is....Wipeout. I do not mind watching this show - in fact, I enjoy watching it, but mainly because Landon likes it so much - oh, and if people act really arrogant, I like to see their faces get muddy. Below is a picture of the Big Balls - one of the highlights of Wipeout. It's funny because the obstacle courses don't really look that hard, and it seems like I would be able to jump from one ball to the next...but the people never can! Here's a rundown of the shows I'm watching for summer (not religiously - just taped on the DVR until we get free moments):

(In random order)...

1. Wipeout

2. House Hunters

3. What Not To Wear (ya'll, Blossom was on there last week!!!!! - she's an adult now!)

4. House re-runs

5. Deadliest Catch

We watch these shows together (well, except for House Hunters and What Not to Wear. Landon sometimes watches these with me, but it's rare - I like for him to watch House Hunters and then choose which house they should pick - 1, 2, or 3...)

Okay, and let's just address this, too. Does it drive you crazy if bunches of shows are on your DVR all the time? It drives me crazy - but I've gotten a lot better about it. I would like it if that thing was clear ALL THE TIME! But, Landon will save stuff on there for months - like the last Lost season finale....or Gator National Championship game....stuff like that. I love to delete things...and trash things...and that gets me in trouble sometimes with things like mail and other important paper stuff that I throw away. The latest thing we've lost is a reflector vest thing that Landon wears if he runs to church really early in the morning. I KNOW I DID NOT THROW THIS AWAY. But, we cannot find it anywhere. I mean, we have searched hi, low, everywhere. Landon thinks we may have some way left it in St. Augustine. I don't know. This has nothing to do with TV...sorry.

So...I want to know...what shows could you recommend for me right now in this TV watching slump? What are your current faves?

Basically, to me, the second rate shows have arrived...and this is just unfortunate. I miss you Kate, Sawyer, Juliette, Jack, Hurley, Jin, Sun, even you, Ben, and I miss Paula (yes, even Paula), Simon, what's the new judge's name???....Kara, right, and Randy! What will our life be like when you come back on next year?

Tea Leaves and Thyme

This past Saturday, I had my first experience at Tea Leaves and Thyme, a tea room in town. I pass this place all the time and have wanted to go since we moved here. I met my good friend, Karen, there at 10:30 on Saturday morning and we enjoyed brunch. She had shrimp and grits, and I had pancakes! We also enjoyed two kinds of tea - Raspberry and then a Hawaiian tea - it was delicious! They even had a gift shop with special teas and fun jewelry to peruse after eating. We had a great time. Here's a picture below....I must say about this picture though...I look very odd and sort of "gigantic" in it - we just watched the first Night at the Museum on Saturday night and I am reminded of how they called Ben Stiller "Gigantour" (I know that spelling is probably wrong). This is how I look in that picture - the lady who was taking it told me I looked kind of like the Statue of Liberty with that hat on - I should have taken more notice of that, but instead I just smiled for my picture...I'm showing it to you because I'm real and authentic....but I don't like it. But, nevertheless, regardless of the picture...I had a great time at Tea Leaves and Thyme.

Show Us Where You Live Friday

Baby Nurseries

Okay, one of the blogs I really like to read is Kelly's Korner. I found out about this blog while reading some other friends' blogs and saw they had a button called "Praying for Harper". Clicking this button took me to Kelly's blog. Harper is Kelly's four month old baby (now) who had some complications when she was born. So many people were praying for her, so I joined in. And, Kelly is such a fun and creative blogger, I've enjoyed keeping up with her life (even though I realize that is probably a little creepy since I don't know her - but I don't mean it in a creepy way!!)

ANYWAY...every Friday, she's been doing a "Show Us Where You Live" day, with each Friday focusing on a different room. Well, I keep forgetting to take some pictures of my house, whatever, but this Friday was baby nurseries. She said you could show a nursery you wanted to have, even if you didn't have a baby yet. I thought, "Hello, this is me - I'll get the pictures off the Internet of what I want!" So...this is what an ideal nursery would be to me. As you know, Landon and I have no babies yet, but I'm hoping once we get settled wherever God moves us next, we might be able to get on that.
Here it is...the nursery of my future children (right now they are still in space...)

FURNITURE

Okay, I LOVE this furniture - I want dark furniture - either cherry or espresso, and I so want a sleigh crib! BUT, so far, I have found the sleigh cribs to be super expensive, so we'll see...I am afraid I might bam the baby's head on the shelf above the changing table...so not sure about that part, but I LOVE this nursery furniture!

BEDDING

Okay, I really love this bedding. I guess because I'm a girl, I think mostly about girl stuff...but I love some monogramming, I love some paisley, and I love some pink and brown. Look at how on the skirting it has those little pink balls hanging off - yikes, THIS IS TO DIE FOR!

CHAIR

I don't really know if you have to have a chair - and I think we would have to buy one not as expensive as this one I found on the pottery barn website, but I do love it - it looks so clean and neat - and I really like the dark brown...

LAMP

I love this little lamp - but I would NOT put those new bulbs that are good for the earth in it. I really hate the color those new light bulbs give off - yuck - I like cute lamps :)

BIBLE VERSE(S)

I want some kind of Bible verse stuff in there - whether it's something we get someone to paint on a wall or just a big canvas art kind of thing - I don't think this matches all that well with what I've picked out above, but just to give you an idea of what I was thinking...

MONOGRAMMING

If you do not love monogramming (and are a woman), I seriously doubt you are from the South. I would have everything I own monogrammed and wear it all at one time (haha, hopefully not really - but that's funny to think about). So...somewhere in the baby's room, I have to have her/his monogram on the wall. Either on plates or a decal or whatever.

WHAT ABOUT A BOY???
Alright, just in case of a boy, I really like this nursery bedding, but I'm not sold on it like I am on the girl's bedding above. I do think I like a consistent brown theme, though, whether for boy or girl, so like, my chair, above, would go with either boy or girl.

Alright, that's it for the tour of my future nursery! Sometimes it feels like I'll never have one...hopefully the Father will bless us with a family one day fairly soon...once we get settled somewhere new. Hope you enjoyed my tour!

And, if you'd like to check out my blogger friend Kelly....here's her site:
http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/

DVD Burners and the Mystery Machine

Okay, so my parents have a DVD burner - the kind that you can pop in a VHS tape (haha, I just accidentally typed CHS, like my high school) and then burn that tape onto a DVD. Well, since my friend Malissa is getting married in December, I wanted to show her our wedding video. Our copy was lost in the hurricane, so I wanted to burn my parents' copy on a DVD this weekend for us. Uh, not so much luck. Landon has used that machine before, but for some reason it would NOT work. They tried for at least an hour...it would not work! So...we brought the video back with us to see if we could find someone here to put it on DVD for us. I thought this picture was so funny though - Landon and Daddy in the floor - the smartest men in my life - who I always can count on to figure out ANYTHING - but they could not get that thing figured out...oh, and by the way, Daddy, could you please get up and get us.....?????? I felt like every 5 seconds Daddy was having to get up and get something else for us -that poor man didn't get to rest at all while we were home....I'll let you know the DVD burning progress...

I will now discuss the Mystery Machine. So, Landon and I are driving back from home this weekend, and we stop at a gas station. Landon is about to get out to pump the gas, and I look over and say, "Look, there's a van over there that looks like the Mystery Machine." Well, it looked like the Mystery Machine because it WAS the Mystery Machine. There is actually a van that is just like the Mystery Machine off of Scooby Doo. I loved Scooby Doo when I was a kid. I remember it came on really early on Saturday mornings for a while - I think like around 5:30am or so - and momma would wake me up and then go back to bed so I could get up and watch it - isn't that crazy??? I don't know of anything (hardly) that is worth getting up so early....I mean, except getting up for work, that is (HA - not so much worth it, but no choice there!). Anyway, I was very entertained by the Mystery Machine - I tried to get a good picture, but there was a weird car in the way that would never pull in to a parking place (why, I do not know), and I didn't turn on the flash because um, it could be some creepy jokers who actually drive a Mystery Machine van - or it might be really super nice people, you just never know about these things...especially being from out of town. Alright, alright, enough suspense...here it is:

THE MYSTERY MACHINE