Please Vote

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to drop a quick note to ask you to please vote for my blog at "Picket Fence Blogs." You can do so, by clicking on the button on the right, under the heading "Please Vote For My Blog." Any clicks are greatly appreciated!

Lots of Love.

A Sign from God in the Mayo

Yesterday morning, I woke up in a snit.

The sky was a murky colored grey, the humidity hung in the air with thickness and I just didn't feel like getting out of bed. I am sure my husband thought I looked something like this:

When I finally did get out of bed, I pouted and clomped my way to get my cereal, switched on the TV and chewed in silence while poor Kev tried to make conversation with me.

After he left to go to work, I shuffled over to my computer, yelled at poor Finnegan for sleeping on my desk and in my way and continuned on doing the mundane tasks for the day.

I have no idea what caused me to be in this mood. I think part of it was due to me receiving bad news from a friend, but I also think part of it was me thinking how different my life turned out than what I had orginally planed.

When I was in high school, I had these huge aspirations to attend Columbia School of Journalism in NYC, get a job working for Rolling Stone Magazine and live in my own apartment in the heart of Manhattan.

What really ended up happening was I attended college only 45 minutes away from home, I am a freelance writer for the local newspaper (even though I get a ton a work) and Kev and I bought our little house right across the street from where he grew up.

Instead of subways and bright yellow taxis, we have our Jeep and live where quads and ATVs go up and down the street.

I don't think I made a bad decision, I just think I made a different decision than what I had orginally set out to do.

Where we live, the opportunity for me to build a "career" out of journalism is difficult because there aren't that many oportunities.

We could have moved somewhere else, but I wanted to stay close to family because I have always been super close to my parents and Kev has been with his. Plus, I know we are going to have children and I would like them to be able to have the close relationship with their grandparents that I had with mine because we lived so close.

So this perfect storm of emotion just sat and marinated in me all day until about lunch time.

When I stomped into the kitchen to make my two point weight watcher turkey sandwhich, which is really yummy, I started to put the mayo on my sandwhich when I saw something.

Believe me, I was not trying to make a smiley face out of my mayo, in fact I was probably going for anything but the smiley face. The bun top was actually turned on its side when I made this.

Now call me kookie, call me crazy, but I took this little mayo smile as a little sign to calm down because everything will work out.

It is sometimes in life's craziest moments that we need to stop and take a look around us and see what is really there.

So maybe I didn't get my dream job, but I still have a job that keeps me busy, gives me a very flexable schedule that allows me to travel and I get to meet lots of interesting people.

I might not live in an apartment in the city that never sleeps, but we do have a really cute little house, with a garden, lots of room to expand and it is in the neighborhood that we really wanted to live in.

Not to sound cliche, but as the saying goes if life gives you lemons, then make a huge pitcher of lemonaid (and maybe add some vodka to make it more interesting.)

"Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly and leave the rest to God."

Daring Tips

I know this might sound shocking to some, but I have not always been a daring domesticate.

I know, I know, I will give you a moment to recover from your shock. But in the almost 33 months that I have been living out of my parents' house, I think I have done a pretty good job figuring things out.

I would like to share with you, some of the different household faux pas, that I learned the hard way.

In no particular order.

1. Always check your oven before turning it on. If you are like me, and you have so many cake pans, cookie sheets, muffin pans, silicone bake ware and you have no place to store it all, you might just turn to keeping some of these items in your oven. Don't be like me and have your cake pan with a plastic cover near your eating element in your oven when you turn it on. It will melt. It will warp. You will end up throwing it away.

2. When you buy something or get a gift, that is electronic, don't hold on to the box until kingdom come because it might break under warranty and you will need the box to return it. If you stock pile these boxes, not only will your basement look like a depression era shanty town, but when you go to move, you will be over whelmed, end up calling your parents and crying asking them what the heck to do with all the boxes and where to start.

3. When we first got married, I went full speed ahead into June Cleaver mode. I was baking pies for dinner every night, making heavy homemade comfort foods and making pancakes for breakfast almost everyday. Needless to say, this is the quickest way to put on a lot of weight fast! Believe me, there are ways to show your spouse and children that you love them without hugging their heart with cholesterol.

4. When you are first married, or buy your first house or move into your first place it is very tempting to offer to have every social get together at your nest. Resist this temptation. Not only will it put a strain on your wallet, but it will also be a strain on you. Planning and hosting a party is a lot of hard work. My suggestion is to pick one event to host and go all out.

5. No matter how big your house is, you will never have enough room to store all of your crap. Just start sticking it under the beds, on the steps to the attic and even get a storage shed for your yard if you have to.

Those are just a couple of tips that I have learned and thought I would share. There are many more, but I wouldn't want to bore anyone with them. Maybe I will put them in a book someday and then people can pay to be bored to death! :)

It's Some Major Award

I am super excited!

Today I won my first blog award! *Insert little girl squeal here.*



An awesome blogger by the name of In My Opinion bestowed this amazing award upon me this evening.

It is the type of award that asks you to tell seven interesting facts about yourself and then pass the award on to other bloggers.

So, here are my seven interesting facts:

1. Just like "In My Opinion" unlike my header (and my bio photo on the left) I do not have dark hair. Actually, I am a light blonde kinda girl.

2. I am OBSESSED, and I mean OBSESSED, with Walt Disney World. My husband and I try to plan a trip there every year to soak up enough magic to make it through the next 365 days. I don't know what it is about the place, but it makes me forget all my troubles and helps me regress back to my youth. When I reach senior citizen age, I am going to move down there and get a job.

3. Youtube is my go to place when I want to learn how to do something. When I wanted to learn how to sew with a sewing machine, I went to Youtube. When I wanted to learn how to carve turkey, while tipsy, on Christmas, I went to Youtube.

4. When I was about four or five years old, the love of my life was Indiana Jones. I would watch his movies over and over again, and I thought that I was going to marry him. Even though, I didn't get to marry Indy, a lot of people have said that my husband looks kind of like Harrison Ford, so I got pretty darn close. ;)

5. My absolute nightmare would be to wear an itchy wool sweater, while giving blood, while suspended in the air over a pit of snakes. I am just throwing that out there.

6. My husband and I are high school sweethearts. We met while working on the yearbook together. He was my editor.

7. My ultimate dream in life would be to be a professional singer. However, I am too nervous to get up and sing by myself in front of anyone. Guess that puts the kibosh on that!

Now on to my nominations.

I want to nominate some bloggers who work hard at being entertaining, genuine and witty:

- Wild ARS Chase

- Banter Battery

- Hipstercrite

- and i'm no miss

- A Homemaker Speaks

- One Stop Giveaway Shop

How Has Your Day Been

When I first tell people that I work from home, I can almost see their thought process. Visions of me sitting on the couch eating bon-bons all day dances through their head. Even though I wish this was the case, it really isn't.

So, in order for people to see what I do all day, I thought I would track a typical day in my life, Monday, July 26.

2:45 a.m.: I get woken up by Kevin gently tapping me and saying that he is leaving to go to work. I think I mumble something, get up and see him off to work.

2:47 a.m.: I give a pep talk to the cats to tell them how we are going to sleep. There will be no chasing each other around the house and diving on the bed, there will be no knocking stuff off of the dresser and no clawing at my back because I will not feed you any earlier than 7:30 a.m.

7 a.m.: Alarm goes off. I hit snooze

7:05 a.m.: Still not convinced it is time to get up, I hit snooze again.

7:10 a.m.: Alarm goes off and Finnegan jumps on my back and proceeds to purr and "make biscuits" on my back. I continue to lay there and ignore both.

7:15 a.m.: I finally agree to get up. I shut off the alarm, the TV and the cat. I go into the kitchen and feed the cats their breakfast of Chicken and Cheese Friskies. The cats now think of me as their favorite person.

7:30"ish" a.m.: I sit down and do my usual ritual on the Internet, (check email, Facebook, blogs, back to Facebook, back to email to see if I got anything new in the past three seconds, and then repeat).

8:00 a.m.: Take my laptop into bed with me, and start to write my daily blog entry.

8:30 a.m.: After I realized I can't copy and paste what I want, I yell at the computer, swear, scare the cats and go onto my desktop computer.

8:45 a.m.: New blog posted.

9:00 a.m.: Kevin home from work for lunch, which is really breakfast.

10 a.m.: Decided to give the management team of The Clarks a call because the email address they gave me has not solicited a response from anyone. (My deadline was Friday). When I call, there is no one there, but voicemail. I hang up and figure I will call back later and decided to work on interview questions for another article.

10:13 a.m.: I have developed this horrible twitch below my left eye. I will blame it on The Clark's management team.

11:08 a.m.: Just got off the phone with The Clark's management people. They said they never got the email and they will see what they can do before Tuesday. The person I talked to on the phone said they would get back to me today. My eye is still twitching.

11:46 a.m.: Went to call for an interview about our local Relay for Life and when I dialed the phone number it said, "This number has not been assigned." What does this mean?!

12:00 p.m.: I had better luck and was able to finally complete one of the five interviews that I have today.

12:30 p.m.: Watching one of our cats treat one of the cat trees like a stripper pole. This has brought me some amusement.

1:10 p.m.: Ate some lunch as Kev went off to the banks and to his doctor's appointment.

1:43 p.m.: Finished two Relay For Life interviews back-to-back. I am on a roll! Going to make one more call for an interview. I have to wait until Tuesday to do one of the interviews because the person is not available. Still haven't heard about The Clarks, but my eye has stopped twitching! Yay!!!

1:54 p.m.: My luck has run out. I got voicemail on my last interview of the day. I will try and call back later. But for now, I am going to take a nice hot bath.

3:29 p.m.: Watching "Everyday Italian" wondering if Giada can feel the imaginary daggers and harpoons I am throwing at her. I can't stand her. She is so fake and too smiley and I feel the need to flip off her line of cookware whenever I pass it in Target.

4:24 p.m.: While watching "Super Nanny" Kev looks at his legs and studies them for awhile. He then turns to me and says, "Look at this. I have no hair where my socks go. Look at it! *pauses* My legs are really fuzzy." I don't know what is up with his newest obsession with his lower extremities, although he has been up since 2 a.m.

4:54 p.m.: Found out that coming at the beginning of August, Style Network is going to have a new show called "Too Fat for Fifteen." My love of fat camp can live on every week!

5:15 p.m.: Sat down to an awesome meal cooked by my husband. Even though he worked all day, and went to work extremely early, he still wouldn't let me help him cook. I love him!

5:30pm: The hubby continued his awesomeness when he skinned the chicken for tomorrow's chicken noodle soup. His awesomeness amazes me!

5:35pm: I accidentally looked into the sink and saw the discarded chicken skin in the sink and almost deposited my dinner promptly onto the floor.

5:45 p.m.: I got an email back from the manager of The Clarks and said that they are available for an interview tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. Thank God that is scheduled!

6:00 p.m.: Playing some Gabriel Knight on the lap top. I LOVE old school computer games!

9:00 p.m.: After playing a little GK, we start to get a slight headache from the 16-bit graphics and decide it is time for some Futurama on Netflix.

11:00 p.m.: It is time to go to bed and watch Iron Chef. Not the wimpy American version, but the hard core Japanese version. Tonight's secret ingredient: COD BATTLE!!!!

So as you can see my day is one jam packed adventure after another! (Well, not really.) But, as the former Gosslins used to say, "It's a crazy life, but it's ours."

Tuesday Tag-a-Long

Welcome to Tuesday Tag-a-long

Today is the day to try and follow a new blog! (Hopefully, it will be mine! :) All you have to do is click the follow button on the right. I always return the favor by following those who follow me!

Happy Tuesday Tag-a-Long.

The Write Stuff?

I am a firm believer that everyone has a story to tell or one good book that is trapped inside waiting to come to life on paper.

How many times are you stuck in traffic or trying to fall asleep at night when your mind wanders and you suddenly think of something that would make a good story?

This has been the case for me.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house which is only one street over from where I live now. Unfortunately, because of their passing the house has been sold and it is no longer the magical place from my childhood.

But, anytime I go outside in our backyard, I can see the house and it still calls to me and brings back wonderful memories.

It is my plan to use some of these memories and weave them into a fiction book that I am slowly working on when I get a moment or a quick burst of creativity.

The book is going to be about a woman who comes home after the death of her grandfather to help to prepare to sell the house. While she is cleaning and organizing the house that she spent so much time at during her childhood, she comes across many memories that not only remind her of simpler times but also tells the story of the great love between her grandparents. After she learns about her grandparents she takes a closer look at her own crumbling marriage.

I have been writing on a program called StorYBook. It is a great program, that is free, that can help you organize your thought process.

Today, I thought I would just share a few snippets from what I have written. These two parts are not right after one another in the book; I just happened to pick them out and put them together here.

Also, these are just very rough, rough drafts. I just typed them up as they came to me.

As Elizabeth Flynn pulled her suitcase out from under her bed, she managed to disturb several dust bunnies in her wake.

"Why is it that no matter how hard I try, I can never seem to get rid of these guys," said Elizabeth to her furry grey cat, Finnegan who was happily pouncing on the dust balls.

Once she had the suitcase situated on the bed, she zipped it open and proceeded to fill it with clothes from her closet.

As she was making trips from her closet to the suitcase, she kept replaying the conversation she just had with her mother, over and over in her head.

"Elizabeth, I hate to tell you this but I have some bad news," said her mother, Lucy. "Your grandfather passed away tonight."

Elizabeth remained silent on the phone while her mother continued.

"He had a heart attack while taking the garbage out and fell and hit his head. Mrs. Maddison found him, called an ambulance and waited with him while help arrived. The paramedics tried so hard to revive him but he was gone."

While her mother was talking, Elizabeth's mind drifted off to sweet memories of her grandfather. She thought of all the times he had taken her to the local airshow, all the times they watched birds in the front yard and of the last time she had visited him which was nine years ago when her grandmother had died.

She couldn't believe it has been nine years since she had seen him. She felt sick at how she had just let the precious time slip through her fingers without once visiting him and only calling him on holidays and his birthday.

Now she would never get the chance to see him again.

"Elizabeth are you still there," asked her mother?

"Yes mom, I am just trying to take it all in."

"I know it is a lot honey. Your grandfather was a very special man and the world will not be the same without him. Viewing will be on Wednesday and the funeral will be on Thursday, so you will need to get a flight here as soon as possible. Also, there is something else I need to talk to you about when you get here. Let us know what time your flight will be in and your father and I will pick you up."

After Elizabeth hung up the phone, she immediately booked an early flight for the next morning.

Elizabeth was brought back to reality when she heard a knock on the bedroom door.

"I just wanted to see if you needed anything," said her husband James as peeked his head in through the partially closed door.

"No. I think I am fine. Actually I am already to go," said Elizabeth as she zipped up her suitcase and handed it to James so he could take it out of the room.

"You ready to go, Finny-cat," said Elizabeth as she scooped up her fuzzy grey traveling companion to put him in his carrier so she could take him on the trip.

Ever since she brought the cat home from the shelter, the two have been inseparable and she was not about to live him now when she need him the most.

Elizabeth had decided to adopt that cat as a companion because James was always traveling for his job.

Being a foreign communications consultant at the computer company that he worked for meant there were many days and nights where she was left alone.

Elizabeth knew that James felt sorry for leaving her, but he did not want to give up his job because the pay and benefits were too good to pass up.

He would often apologize to Elizabeth by buying her expensive jewelery, sending her on spa trips and giving her a a beautiful home.

But, no matter how many gifts she was showered with, Elizabeth wanted things to go back to how they were when they first met.








Elizabeth drove her orange SUV down Buttermilk Lane to her grandparents' house.

The trees that hung over the street made almost a canopy that allowed the sun to filter through like a natural stained glassed window.

The street was lined by modest houses that were well taken care of and had lush grass carpets that were beckoning for people to run barefoot through them.

Elizabeth almost reached the end of the Cul De Sac when she turned right and up on the driveway of 140 Buttermilk Lane; the place her grandparents had called home for over 40 years.

The house is a modest, one and a half story brick Cape Cod. It has a small front porch with a rod-iron railing.

The front door has a cottage style screen door that always reminded Elizabeth of something straight out of a fairytale.

Also at the front of the house, is a large bay window where her grandmother, Emily used to grow many of her plants.

Elizabeth always admired her grandmother's green thumb and cursed that she did not inherit her uncanny ability to help plants thrive and nurse the sick ones back to health.

On the right hand side of the house, stands the detached one car garage that housed the Wicks' light blue Cadillac.

As Elizabeth peered into the window of the garage door, she could see that the old "boat of a car" was still there waiting to take its next trip to the local market.

When Elizabeth stepped out in the backyard, she felt like no time had passed between her childhood and now. The backyard had stayed almost exactly the same.

The spacious  yard still had a large swing that both Albert and Emily would spend many long evenings swinging quietly and enjoying each others' company.

The picnic table that Albert and his son Ted had made, many years ago, still stands next to the ancient gas grill that would cook up some of the best burgers and hot dogs in the county.

The three large Maple trees that Elizabeth and her best friend Noah would climb during the summer, are still standing proud almost like guardians of the yard.

In the right back corner of the lot, Albert's garden shed sits and waits to be opened for the season right next to the garden bed that her grandfather had cared for for many years.

At the back of the shed Elizabeth sees the garbage cans that her grandfather was tending to when he had his heart attack.

She stood there for a long time wondering what his last moments were like, and what he thought about, when she heard a voice behind her.

"Your grandfather passed on to the other side as a happy man," said the voice.

When Elizabeth turned around, she saw her grandparents' neighbor and dear friend Dolly Madison standing behind her.

Dolly was all decked out in a fuschia colored, velor jogging suit with bright green stripes running down the sides. Her leopard printed sunglasses gleamed in the sunlight, while her short and tightly curled blonde hair gave her an almost angelic appearance in the sunlight.