Memories

For some reason today I found myself thinking about my brother John more than usual. Maybe it was the sudden switch to 'fall air' that made me think of him getting ready to go elk hunting in Colorado with my dad or the fact that his cross country season would have been well underway. Whatever the reason, I've been thinking alot about how I miss him but also laughing about things he used to do. While I don't have the time to recap them all, I was able to scrap together some pictures from the last couple of years. Every single one of them made me laugh my face off and cry at the same time while sitting in a coffee shop.

John Noll and my cousin Ben in Savannah, GA. John was never very good with children, hence why Ben has a pointy stick in his had. Just kidding...

Yep. Family vacation to the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC before my Freshman year of college. Long day. John must have asked the Biltmore workers a thousand questions about how the thing was built

For my graduation trip we stayed outside of Boone, NC which is home to Appalachian State University. How could John not pose with Yosef the Mountaineer, App State's mascot?

Yep, the camels came to Boerne, TX every Christmas to be part of a live nativity scene. Literally right next to our house. I think we were having a conversation about camel spit when I took this picture. Who knows why

The infamous Cheerwine picture.

For all of you who don't know, Cheerwine is a delicious cherry flavored soda that is bottled and sold regionally. John had only had it once in his life but like anything 'southern' he was obsessed. I could probably do a whole post on his obsession with Bojangles and BoBerry Biscuits... On my way to St. Simon's Island for Spring Break '09, I stopped at a gas station and purchased a bottle just for him. I thought he was going to kiss me when I gave it to him. He is obviously just a little too excited in this picture.

Thanks for reading and laughing with me. The days are still full of sadness and the pain is always present but the world keeps spinning and taking me with it. I find deep comfort in knowing that I am not walking through this alone and have done my best to keep my eyes fixed on The One who will continue to bring me and my family through this horrible mess. So thank you for your continued prayers. They are still greatly needed and appreciated.

Ding Dong! Wolf. Bears

Today has been a lazy Saturday. And I definitely needed that. I literally did nothing all day. I rolled out of bed at 10:30AM stumbled to the couch and proceeded watch the first season of Community all day long (thanks Betsy, Sarah, and Leslie!). At some point this afternoon I started thinking about dreams. No idea why. But I started thinking it was funny that the last 4 vivid dreams I've had all included bears and even one polar bear. And although the bears were not doing anything like this in my dreams,

It was still weird to me that I had so many bears appearing over and over in my dreams.

And since I had absolutely nothing to do I decided to take a look at some dream interpretation websites just for fun. Seriously, you should try it. Some of the explanations were unbelievably ridiculous but some were probably right on the money. Some people are very serious about dream interpretations. I guess that is fine. I never really got too serious about the matter just because up until lately, my dreams have been mostly entertaining.

But anyways, This is what I found:

Bear

To see a bear in your dream, symbolizes independence, the cycle of life, death and renewal, and resurrection. You are undergoing a period of introspection and thinking. The dream may also be a pun on "bare". Perhaps you need to bare your soul and let everything out into the open.

To dream that you are being pursued or attacked by a bear, denotes aggression, overwhelming obstacles and competition. You may find yourself in a threatening situation.

To see a polar bear in your dream, signifies a reawakening. Alternatively, the polar bear symbolizes your frigid and cold emotions.

http://www.dreemmoods.com/dreamthemes/animals.htm

Bear that which has two sides: one destructive and the other playful, caressing, and loving (294-87). Other possibilities: 1. grumpy. 2. over protectiveness. 3. failing stock prices ("bear market"). 4. hibernating, retreating.

http://www.edgarcayce.org/are/dreams.aspx?id=2484#B

Bear

Animals · Dream Dictionary

Because they hibernate, bears can symbolize cycles; birth death awakening motif; power or overpowering (the big as bear); your own cyclic activity or abilities. Is it time for your to awaken into activity, or to hibernate and renew your energy? Mythologically, bears represent mothering – the archetype of the Great Bear.

http://www.dreamota.com/dream-dictionary?letter=B

I'll be honest and say there were a few things in there that could be true. Like hibernating. I guess that is the same thing as resting right? And being introspective. I'll work on that one. Also bears in dreams apparently represent mothering. Is there something I should know? Am I about to pop out some kids I don't know about? Only joking.

Falling stock prices?? Really? I don't even own stock. That's taking it too far. I do love that each explanation gave and either/or scenario. Guess that could cover ALL the meanings.

Like the explanation about polar bears. It could mean a reawakening OR it could mean frozen emotions. Yes....that about covers it.

All of this to say it was interesting what these websites said. The rest is/was GREATLY needed and time to think about things and regroup myself was appreciated.

Here's to Lazy Saturdays and the Internet!

and bears...

¡Bienvenidos a Atlanta!

Lot's of things have happened in my life since my last post. Namely that this past weekend I celebrated my 21st birthday. Even just typing that is weird. But good.

It was definitely a birthday to remember (and yes, I remember it). Unfortunately I have no pictures to speak of.

But anyways.. My good friend, Leslie Sloan, rounded up Betsy Corry and Sarah Spooner and they kidnapped me for a weekend of birthday festivities. Friday night was spent around a campfire at the Sloan's house. Saturday we ended up in Atlanta where the lovely Megan Hafer resides. First stop, TACO CABANA!!!!!! I know you have read my obnoxious post about this magical fast food Tex-Mex place that only exists in south Texas. That is, except for the one that somehow magically appeared in Atlanta. And I'm pretty convinced that it was just for me. While there are some major differences, it is real enough to make an obsessive person like me feel right at home. I felt like it had only taken us 3 hours to drive to San Antonio, Texas and were all sitting outside at the 'patio cafe' enjoying far to much deliciousness. And that was only the beginning...

Because I didn't turn 21 until midnight Saturday/Sunday we had some time to kill. So we ended up taking a quick trip to Underground Atlanta. Hmmmm.. I wish I had taken a pictures. It is an underground shopping area that used to be very popular and from what I hear, fairly cool. It was something special for sure. It definitely looked like it had seen better days and we were definitely out of place there. But it was still a good time.

The rest of the evening included getting lost alot, eating at a fantastic burger place and then taking 'disco naps' at Megan's place while watching Saturday Night Live reruns. Disco naps were a good call. Then we freshened up and headed out on the town.

A fantastic surprise of the night was that we met Aziz Ansari and I got a picture taken with him. For those of you who don't know this name, he is Tom in Parks and Recreation and also hosted the MTV music awards this year. If that doesn't help just go Google him. Anyways, it was pretty exciting even if we had to wait forever to meet him.

Afterwards we went out on the town for a few hours. My first appearance as a 21 year old in public was epic for sure. And don't worry, I was in good hands.

Sunday, my actual birthday day was spent driving back and using the GPS to look for random roadside attractions which led us to what was apparently Georgia's largest flee market but really it was like 5 of the same stores repeated about 100 times. It was hilarious.

It had been a long time since I laughed as hard as I did this weekend. It was so fantastic to get away and to be celebrated. So here is to you Leslie Sloan, Betsy Corry, Sarah Spooner, and Megan Hafer!

Job well done.

"That's a DoubleNester!"

About 4 days ago my ENO Hammock arrived in the mail. I was so excited. This summer lots of the interns I worked with had them and I fell in love with them. But after getting it, I realized that I have no place at my apartment to hang it up. Fail. But there are plenty of other places and oportunities for me to enjoy it.

What was really awesome was the weather literally changed from summer to fall overnight on this past Friday night. All weekend the weather has been absolutely perfect. Perfect for putting up your hammock and spending an entire afternoon in it. And that is what I did.

Yesterday I ended up at the Sloan house and after being there for about 45 minutes I made it my mission to find the perfect hammock hang up spot. I definitely found it. With the help of Asher (5) and Lucy (almost 4), I hung it up and crawled in it. Of course the children wanted in on the fun so I pulled them both in with me and we got right down to relaxing. Not. Asher kept telling me that we needed to kick someone out and he kept saying it should be me. So I got kicked out of my own hammock. That's when I went and got my camera and took this picture:

Yeah, they were just a little excited to be hanging out in my ENO Doublenest Hammock. The weather was perfect and it was a lovely Sunday afternoon. Eventually, I asserted myself and climbed back into the hammock with them with hopes of taking a Sunday afternoon nap. Lucy immediately curled up right next me. But not Asher. He had other plans. We then spent the next hour playing Dad and Kids. He was the Dad and Lucy and I were the kids. Our names were Rosey and Matilda. I am not joking. It was hilarious. And then the hammock turned into a spaceship and we traveled around outerspace. Classic.

We literally spent almost 2 hours all sitting in there together until Asher jumped out and started being crazy and got himself put in timeout for awhile. Lucy eventually wandered off leaving me to enjoy my new hammock in peace. I fell asleep instantly and took a good 30 minute nap. It was glorious. A perfect fallish day.

Later, after Leslie returned from a grocery run and Lucy was being crazy, Lucy and I went back out for some more quality hammock time. We sat out there for 30 minutes talking about all sorts of crazy things and then we had a big sing along. It was hilarious and super cute.

All of this to say, this hammock has only been used once and already is the best purchase I have made all year. Hopefully there will be many more stories to blog about involving this hammock. And if you don't have one, you should get one. Like right now. REI carries them and they are available online. The hammock plus the slap straps run you about $90 which is less than what you would spend on one of those kind of comfortable rope hammocks that you can never move anywhere.

Leslie Sloan did. And I have no doubt they will get every pennies worth out of it.

You could be doing things like this with it:

Happy Almost Fall!!

I Did That

One thing about me: I have never tapped into my "creative" side very much in life. In fact, I would say for the longest time I was probably the most uncreative/artsy person you know. Put in no motivation, and lack of funds and you've got a real mess on your hands. But seriously, it was awful. I use 'awful' because since coming back from Colorado this summer I was suddenly strangely motivated to "do things." Like by a dust ruffle, hang up a picture, look for "cute" things for my room. Look out.

This summer my friend Virginia Evans got married and is now Virginia Leppo. The guy she married is really great and I know they will have a fantastic life together. I bring her into this post to say that I borrowed a dresser from her in January and just never got around to getting another one. For lots of reasons.

I headed out to Colorado this summer thinking I would only be gone for 4 weeks. WRONG! Ended up staying for almost 11 weeks. Worth it. That being said Virginia got married and came and collected her dresser. Rightfully so. I returned home with no dresser and no money to spend on one.

I spent about a week hopelessly looking for one and then all of the sudden 3 free dressers fell in my lap. I snatched up one of them thanks to my friend Sarah Spooner and immediately began thinking about what to paint it. Here is the only 'before' picture i have of the dresser. It was already primed so that was nice.

Much to my surprise, the word "yellow" immediately popped into my head as a possible color to paint it. This is laughable b/c I never in a million years would have thought to paint MY dresser yellow. Then Leslie Sloan sent me a website with a dresser on it that had been painted 'Mustard Seed Yellow.' I decided to go for it.

Saturday I made the journey to Lowe's to gather all of the necessary materials for this Labor Day Weekend Project. I was very successful except for the small fact that Lowe's ran out of the paint base I needed. Fail. So I went to Home Depot. They have better paint anyways. I found the exact color I wanted and left the store with enough to paint 10 dressers. I tend to spill things so I thought I should just get enough to go around.

Brought all the supplies and my friend Deanna back to my apartment and began to paint the heck out of that thing.

On top of painting my dresser as a project this weekend I was also dog sitting. In between coats I would run into town, feed/let out the dog and then run back to keep painting. It was quite comical.

When it was all said and done, this is what I have:

Not bad eh? I'm not even going to pretend that I am not proud of it. For all of you artsy fartsy people, this is legit for me. My sisters both have awesome artistic ability and some how I was too busy running around with no shirt until I was 7, playing basketball 24/7, and playing 'army man' in the woods to even appreciate the finer things in life. I think I've come a long way from that.

At least, I hope so.