31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 17

Okay, so...the 31 Day Photo Challenge is taking far longer than 31 days and, truthfully, I'm just feeling a little bit burnt out on it.  Day 16 is supposed to be a picture of someone who inspires me.  Really?  Someone who inspires me?

Here's the sad truth:  I got nothin.  I can't think of anyone who inspires me at a blog-worthy level.  If you're reading this and thinking, "Wait...I'm awesome!  I'm inspiring!", please don't be offended that you didn't immediately spring to mind on this one.  It's not that you're bad people or that you're not rockin-awesome.  I'm just not much for being inspired, I guess.

So, anywho, I'm gonna go ahead and skip Day 16.  Day 17 calls for a photo of something that has had a huge impact on my life recently.

This is my backyard.  You may be thinking, "Reva, do you mean to tell us your ugly dead grass has had a huge impact on your life recently?"  "Turk?"  "The Villa Maria?"

Um, no.

Although, in a roundabout way, the grass kind of symbolizes what I'm talking about.

Here's the thing:  I suffer from depression all year-round, but it is significantly worse during the long, cold, winter months of Michigan (I totally live in the wrong place...).  What I have is known as SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder.  The cold and the lack of sunlight contribute to my overall winter funk.  I've not been "professionally" diagnosed, but in this age of information at your fingertips (gotta love Google and the world wide interweb), I really don't feel like I need to pay my doctor to tell me what I already know.

After just about a week of warmer weather, my husband commented on how noticeably my mood had changed.  So, if anyone questions the validity of SAD, they can suck it, Trebek, because I am living proof that it exists.  But, at least for the next few months, I will bask in the sun and be not quite so moody and funky.

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 15

A picture of something I'd like to do before I die.

I would like to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

My two favorite artists are Andy Warhol and Norman Rockwell and, while I do love some Warhol, there's nothing like that nostalgic, warm-hearted feeling that comes when looking at a Rockwell.  Known as a "storyteller with a brush," Rockwell had a tender, often humorous way of capturing real life.



The following are some favorites - I swear I'll try not to keep you here all day!

Puppy Love - one of my absolute favorites!

The Gossip - hilarious!

Girl At Mirror - so true to life...

Four Freedoms - some of Rockwell's most famous work

The Black Eye - she just looks so proud of herself!












"I'll never have enough time to paint all the pictures I'd like to."  --Norman Rockwell

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 14

A picture of someone I couldn't imagine my life without.

Check out this handsome devil!

Back off, ladies - he's mine!

This man puts up with a lot from me - my moodiness, my stubbornness, my overactive tear ducts, my inability to cook (I'm getting better!)...among other things.  I have never felt the need to keep anything from him, we have fun together, and we're fully committed to having a successful marriage with God as our foundation!  What more could you want??

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 13

A picture of my favorite band or artist.

The truth is, I really struggle to pick favorites.  Of anything, really.  As a general rule, I claim green as my favorite color, but...in some applications, I prefer purple.  Or red.  Or blue.

I really like colors! I even like yellow sometimes.

Favorite food?  Not a chance.

With so many rockin' awesome things in the world - natural or fabricated - who can pick favorites? There's just so much to love - and I hate to pigeonhole myself!

Maybe I just fear commitment...

But I REALLY love music, and I love music of all varieties.  Rock, punk rock, indie, alternative, country, rap, hip-hop, soul, funk, blues, oldies...the list goes on!  So to try to choose a favorite band or artist is a real challenge for me!

But, it's your lucky day, dear blogosphere!  I've compiled a sampling of some of my faves.

The Beatles                                   Garth Brooks
Maroon 5                                     System of a Down
Jason Mraz                                   Michael Buble
Diane Birch                                  Queen
Adele                                           Hawk Nelson

Three Days Grace                        Breaking Benjamin

Bruno Mars                                 Joe Cocker

Duffy                                           Marc Broussard
Amos Lee                                   Trisha Yearwood
Relient K

Okay, okay - I'll stop there.  You get the idea.  I really like music.  A lot.

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 12

Let's pretend that I didn't just take a ridiculous blogging hiatus and that I've been right on top of everything in my life, mmkay?

Day 12 - A photo of something I love.

Hmm...

Well...

I love a whole crap-ton of things, and I'm finding it difficult to decide what to write about.  I mean, literally, as I'm typing this, I'm still trying to decide: What is it that I love enough to blog about??  The ham & onion cheeseball I'm currently noshing on?  The sound of raindrops on the rooftop?  French fries?  Red Skittles?  Shel Silverstein books?

Okay, okay, I've got it!  He loves to lick everything, he destroys tennis balls on the regular, he's a 25 lb. weapon of mass destruction, and he just jumped up onto my lap and gave me a big ol' slobbery kiss. 

Turk.  Turkey Doo.  Turkmenistan.  Turk Monster.  Turkish Delight. Turkish Gold.  Pupper Doo.  My puppy-love.

*SIGH* 

Is he or is he not one of the cutest stinkin' creatures you've EVER seen???  Seriously.  It's no wonder he gets away with murder.  He's too cute.  The hubs and I can never have children because we're too ridiculously good-looking that surely our chidren will be knockouts as well, and we'll never be able to bring ourselves to discipline them.  "What's that, Tommy? You're painting a battle scene on the dining room wall with assorted condiments?  Well, that's alright, darling, because you're attractive.  And attractive people don't get in trouble on this planet.  Eat your peas.  Oh, you don't like peas? Well, by all means, leave them on your plate as a glaring reminder of all the money we waste on vegetables to keep you healthy when all you want to eat is Lucky Charms with chocolate milk.  Go ahead.  Cause you're cute.  Can I get you some Lucky Charms?  Or perhaps a candy bar would better serve you?"

I'm just kidding.  We'll beat our kids if that's what it takes to get them to eat their peas! 

Just kidding.  Again.  I don't even like peas.  I won't even buy peas.

So that's my dog.  I love him.

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 11

A picture of something I hate. 

Well, those of you who know me are aware that I would probably be considered more irritable than your average person.  But, for this post, we'll be focusing on my hatred for spelling and grammar errors.  This hatred actually breaks down in to categories.  For example, if someone just isn't really great at spelling and/or grammar and they send me a text message or an email with a typo in it, I may laugh.  I may even make a joke out of it (cause sometimes they're just really funny, am I right?).  But it won't fill me with the same kind of rage that comes when I see intentional errors, like those dang "I can haz cheezburger" cats.  I HATE those cats!  And their little bunny friends, too!  The pseudo-word "kwikstop" makes me throw up in my mouth.  You're not being cute, and you're not setting yourselves apart from the competition (at least not in a positive way) by replacing "quick" with "kwik."  Now you just look like a moron.

Okay, so we've got innocent typos coming from people with stubby thumbs (those cell phone buttons just keep getting smaller) or people whose strong suit just simply is not spelling and grammar.  Then we've got the idiots who think it's cute to spell things incorrectly.  And then we've got the people who are trying to be taken seriously, but are too cheap or too ignorant to hire a proofreader.  These are the people who put out ads, books, articles, signs, etc. with unnecessary apostrophes, superfluous quotation marks, and not a single comma to be found.  And sometimes those misspelled words can be quite...embarrassing.

So, there you have it.  One of my many pet peeves. 

And a cute little comic, to boot:

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 10

A photo of me and the person I do the craziest things with. 

Right.  So, I don't really do "crazy" anymore.  I'm too practical for that kind of nonsense.  Or maybe I've just gotten boring... :s

Regardless, I chose a photo of me and the bestie - because we USED TO do crazy things together.  Some of my absolute best memories and worst hangovers were with her...but I don't want to say too much.  I'd hate to embarrass her.  Plus, she's got a significant amount of dirt on me ; )

This is one of my favorite pictures of the two of us - it was a really super-fantastic day and we were both lookin' foxy!  Love you, Beena!

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 9

Oy.  It's been nearly a week since I've blogged...making Day 9 actually fall on, like, Day 16.  Ah well...life happens and I believe I warned you at the beginning that this was a blog of little guarantee.

On to the business at hand - A photo of the person who has gotten me through the most.  I have selected my beloved husband for this one.  While we've only known each other 970 short days, he's wiped a lot of my tears, made me laugh till my guts hurt, and promised to love me till death do we part (and looked smokin' hot doing it).

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 8

I skipped another day ... so sue me.

Day 8 - A photo that makes me laugh.

 
This sad little display is from my sister and her fiance's birthdays last year.  Her birthday is the day before his, so my mom made one cake for the both of them ... and the thing was just pathetic (Mom, I swear, I love you, but a gem like this cannot remain unmocked!).  LOL  It was all sunken and flat and ... just awful!  So when she asked me to "decorate" the cake, this is what happened.

Listen, those silly little frosting tubes are not made for legible handwriting.  Which, truthfully, just added to the hilarity.  Probably didn't help that I was hysterical the whole time I was trying to "decorate" this ridiculous cake-tastrophe (I just made that up). 

This makes me LOL every time I look at it ... I hope you LOLed too :D

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 7

A picture of my most treasured item.

This is my engagement ring/wedding band set (and Michael's wedding band on the bottom).  The reason I chose it as my most treasured possession is that it's irreplaceable.  My rings came from Michael's grandmother who, along with her brother, purchased the rings for her mother about 40 or so years ago.  When her mother passed away, Grandma got the rings back and held onto them for her oldest grandchild (my husband).  Funny thing is, Michael & I had started paying for a new set of rings from your run-of-the-mill mall jewelry store because he had forgotten all about his great grandmother's rings.  In early January of 2009, we went to visit Michael's grandparents and got to talking about marriage and rings and ... when Grandma showed them to me, I almost died.  I had always wanted an antique wedding ring (okay, I don't know if 40 years constitutes antique status or not, but you know what I mean - a used ring with a story behind it), but just didn't really think it was in the cards, so we started paying for new ones.  Then to find that, not only was Michael set to inherit his great grandmother's rings, but that they were GORGEOUS??  Seriously.  I don't think I could have picked better rings for myself.  They are beautiful and they are sparkly and they are unique.  There's a chip in the large center diamond and I secretly love it.  I think it gives the ring character and lends to its vintage charm.  I'd be interested to know what she (great grandmother) was doing when she chipped it. 

As a side note, I found it quite endearing that Michael proposed only about 2 weeks after we came home with the rings.  I truly hadn't expected it to happen so soon, but he just couldn't wait.  When the man knows what he wants, he gets it.  It's his M.O.

Michael's ring was also given to us by his grandmother, and had previously belonged to a family friend.  His is actually sort of triangular in shape, which is supposed to keep it from spinning around his finger.  At first, he found it sort of uncomfortable, but seems to have gotten used to it.

Love our rings.  Love our love.

Okay, now for the fun part.  I've been told that if you step back and look at this photo from a little bit of a distance, it looks like a ship on the horizon of a very calm body of water.  Chew on that - it's delicious.

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 6

A picture of someone I'd like to trade places with for a day...

Um...this one is really hard for me.  On the one hand, it would be really easy to say that I want to trade places with, say, Miranda Lambert.  Be gorgeous, have a gorgeous fiance (Blake Shelton), have boatloads of talent and boatloads of money...and still be down-to-earth and not suck at life.

However, I can't help but think that, after a day of fame and money and all that fun stuff, it might make me resent my "normal" life - coming home to a stack of bills and my mediocre existence won't sound like much fun after that.  Hey, judge me if you must - I'm just being realistic.

Therefore, on the other hand, I could trade places with, say, a homeless person.

I imagine that would make me appreciate my situation a bit more.  In fact, just considering it is making me feel a little better about my life ... and worse about my attitude.  Who am I to whine about my overdue phone bill when I have a warm house to sleep in and running water? 

Besides...I'm not sure I can pull off blonde...

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 5

...which is actually Day 6 because I skipped yesterday...and took quite a lashing for it from the bestie, who insists I should be blogging at least twice a day!!  LOL

Okay, so Day 5 calls for a photo of my favorite memory.  Are you joking?  How am I to be expected to pick ONE favorite memory from the arsenal of awesomeness that has been my life thus far??

So, here's the one I picked ... just understand that there are a million cherished memories in my head and in my heart and it was difficult to pick this one....

But here it is - the day the hubs proposed :D

The reason I picked this one is that, first of all, my friends were there.  And since my friends are so important to me, I felt like they should be involved in my "favorite" memory.  Secondly, um, duh.  I got engaged to the love of my heart!!!  He was so sweet - he planned for everyone to meet at Applebee's after the girls went to see Bride Wars (how fitting...) and had been in cahoots with the bestie so that she could record the proposal.  I found out later that the two of them had spoken by the restrooms and he was panicking because I already had a ring on my left ring finger.  She assured him that I would take it off if given the opportunity to replace it with one with all kinds of sparklies in it.  LOL  She was right.  I actually didn't even give him a chance to put it on my finger - I snatched it out of the box and put it right on!  20 months later we were FINALLY married!  Happy happy day!  Just for good measure, here's a picture of that day, too:

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 4

A photo of my night.  To me, this seems oddly worded, but I can only assume that I am supposed to display pictures representing my night...tonight.  So...okay...Michael & I went to Costco and Target...so...here ya go.

Wait for it...

BAM!

 Ridiculously good-looking couple!

BAM! 

Wholesale shopping!

BAM!

Evil corporate empire! 

...I don't know where that came from...

I will take this opportunity to explain why we drove 20 minutes from our house to get groceries when we live 5 minutes from a Meijer:  God provides in unexpected ways.  My husband lost his job last month and we are...well...really poor now.  We were very nearly out of food to eat and had no idea how we were going to buy groceries.  BUT -- ta da!!!!  Michael remembered the Costco Cash card he had received when we returned the TV we originally purchased and replaced it with a similar, but slightly less expensive one (so Costco gave us a card with the difference on it).  AND we remembered the Target gift cards that we had received as wedding gifts.  So, we've got chicken nuggets to last us a lifetime and I got a 75 gallon drum of oatmeal for $4 from Costco (have I ever mentioned my love for gross exaggerations??).  I have shampoo and conditioner and ... my husband spoils me absolutely rotten because I also got the completely unnecessary but BELOVED Coke Zero.  So, life goes on, and I trust that God will continue to provide for us and, hopefully, he'll bring the hubs to a new place of employment.  If not, we're gonna have to hope that Bed, Bath, & Beyond starts selling food, cause those are the only gift cards we have left :)  He he he...

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 3

A photo of the cast of my favorite show ... except this is my blog and I play by my own rules ... so here are pictures of the casts of my THREE favorite shows! Ha!  Take that!

Dexter

Weeds

My Name Is Earl

Good thing this was a quick post - it's WAAAYYY past my bed time!

Peace be with you.

“Football players, like prostitutes, are in the business of ruining their bodies for the pleasure of strangers.”

Two blog posts today, you lucky dogs, you!!  And this is an interactive one!

I think it was somewhere in the 2nd quarter of the Super Bowl last night that I realized that I, a lifelong poo-pooer of sports in general, was beginning to take a genuine interest in football.  Steelers, Packers - I didn't care - I just liked watching the game.  And I'm so blessed to have a husband who's willing to listen to my stupid questions ("What does 'sack' mean?"  "What's a 2-point conversion?"  "Are those lines really on the field or are they just on the TV?") and answer them lovingly, without laughing at me.

Okay, so here's where y'all come in -- I need a team.  It's not going to be the Lions, so don't even say it.  Michigander or not, they're just bad.  I could go for Green Bay, as I am technically from Wisconsin ... and green is my favorite color, but I don't know.  It doesn't feel right to be so glib about my selection. I need to research, I need to know history, I need to know about the quarterback who moonlights as a math tutor for underpriviledged children!  If a team has 3 members with statutory rape convictions, I probably don't want anything to do with them.  I need good, wholesome, passionate football players, people!

So help a sistah out.  Who should I root for and why?

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 2

Day 2 - A photo of me and the person I've been closest to the longest.  I chose my mom for this one - she's always been a great mother and, now that I'm an adult, she's a great friend!  Love you, Mom!

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 1

Okay, okay, so I'm gonna participate in the 31 Day Photo Challenge.  Now, I've Googled this challenge, and every list that I find is different ... so ... basically, I can decide to make each day whatever the heck I want!  Muahahahaha!

I don't know why that's so sinister ...

Day 1 - A photo of me with 10 random facts ... hmmm ...

1.  Um ... I love coffee (see picture).  I'm kind of a creamer snob, though.  I front the big bucks for liquid Coffee-mate French Vanilla creamer.  Always.  We could be on food stamps with 7 babies in diapers, and owe the IRS $1,000,000,000,000.00 and I would still buy liquid Coffee-mate French Vanilla creamer.

That perhaps was a bit of an exaggeration ... I would never have 7 babies ... but you get the idea.

2.  I have an unhealthy paranoia that I will die young and/or in a freakish way.  Car crash, house fire, rape/murder.  Seriously.  My head is a scary place.  I attribute this partly to watching too much crime TV and too many horror movies.

3.   I never thought I'd marry someone named Michael because I thought it would be weird to have a husband and a brother with the same name.  I guess God showed me, huh?

4.  I often wonder what I'll look like when I'm old.  Hopefully I don't die young in a freakish car crash, house fire, rape/murder (Imagine - I'm in a car that crashes into a burning house in which a psycho rapist/murderer is hanging out.  It could happen.).

5.  I love Quentin Tarantino movies and oddball cult classics. 

"What does Marsellus Wallace look like?!"

6.  I don't know if I want to have children.  My puppy sometimes makes me think that I do not.  Partly because he can be a pain and I think children have to be worse (I can't leave them in a cage for hours, can I?), and partly because he's so fun and affectionate and adorable - what do I need kids for?  Anyway ... I'd hate to have them just because I'm "supposed to."

7.  I fantasize about quitting my job every single day of my life.

8. I am left-handed ... and I like that about me.

9.  I've always been afraid to try drugs because I'm pretty sure I would really like them.

10.  My husband always makes fun of me and says that I'm "hood" because I know a lot of words to a lot of rap and hip-hop songs.  Evidently, that surprises people.  I don't strike them as the hip-hop type, I guess.

Little Suzy Homemaker

It's my first day blogging and you'd think that I'd be here telling you all about myself and what I intend to blog about, and how much I love my husband and my life and my dog, but...no.  All I want to talk about is my tea kettle.  You see, I'm recently married and, as one of my shower gifts, I was given a tea kettle.  A tea kettle that I registered for, mind you, but had not used until today (I've been married for 4 months...had the tea kettle for probably 5 or 6).  It's been sitting, idly, on top of my stove since I moved in to our house.

My stepmom is to blame for the whole thing.  You see, she purchased the tea kettle for me and then she gave me this delicious Spiced Russian Tea (think fancy orange Kool-Aid, served hot).  Oh. My. Stars.  This stuff is crazy good and I was all Lusty McLustyface for it today, being that it's borderline Arctic in my 115-year old house. 

Please bear in mind a couple of things before I finish my silly little story.  First, I am embarrassingly easy to thrill.  Seriously.  I once peed my pants over purple nail polish.  No joke.  Okay, okay...it is a joke.  But for real...I love the little things in life.  Second, I do NOT, in any way, "know my way around a kitchen."  Honestly, for the first few weeks I lived here, I couldn't even find my way TO the kitchen.  The point being, not only had I never used my tea kettle - I had never used any tea kettle.  Ever. 

I put the water in it, I turned the burner on high, and I walked away.  And then...wait  for it...

...wait...

...here it comes...

It whistled!!!!!!

What's that you say?  All tea kettles whistle when they're ready?  Well, smarty-pants, I sorta kinda maybe thought that was just...I don't know...old-fashioned tea kettles...?

I told you it was embarrassing.

Okay, I'll be back sometime.  This is a blog of little or no guarantee.  I make no promises about frequency of posting, I can't vow to never blog about my dog (in fact, that seems highly unlikely, given that I have no human children, so he is the source of my poop and vomit stories that mommies seem to like to share so much), and I may or may not get mushy about my husband (what was that about vomit?).  But, let's be honest.  I'm not here for you.  I'm gonna blog for me and, if you read it, I hope you enjoy it.  And if you enjoy it, I hope you say so.

I'm out like a trout.