Budding Author?

Our Eeggs and Chiks

Today one of our eggs hatched. When the chick came out, it was wet. But in awhile it was dry and all of the yoke was gone.

The chick ran all over the place.

When we left all the other eggs hatched. The End

Kindergarten Megan was rather observant! Ha! Apparently our teacher typed what we wanted to explain through art.

Kathy or is it Cathy?!

Meet Kathy/Cathy...
She was one of my favorite dolls growing up. She's fairly large and may need to wash her dress and brush her hair, but she's had a rough life recently. Poor Kathy/Cathy lived on my bed. She'd keep watch over my room and really enjoyed her life. However, a few years ago (maybe even a decade) she was moved to a higher elevation.....the attic. Poor girl. Only she wouldn't fit in a box, so mother tied a piece of yarn around her neck and hung her from the rafters so that any critters that ended up in the attic would not eat her. The care was there, in a twisted way. :) Kathy/Cathy has since been moved back to the main house and is doing much better. I enrolled her in therapy and mother has apologized profusely for how she treated her in the attic. Kathy/Cathy is back on speaking terms with mother and is grateful to no longer be hanging around....ha ha.
As for her name. Apparently I used to name my dolls after the people who gave them to me. I asked mother how Kathy/Cathy came about and was told that Chuck who worked at the printing company, his wife gave me the doll. So, there ya have it!

I miss you dawg!

My Mom came to visit a bit over a month ago. While she was here, we were doing something and ended up watching the first round of the NFL Draft. We found it humorous that the gentleman drafted 12th to play for the New Orleans Saints, after listening to a letter his father wrote him, began to cry and say "I miss you dawg!" We weren't really sure what that was all about, and really, where's the respect when you refer to your parent as "dawg" (yes, it must be spelled dawg because that's what it sounded like, not dog) but apparently the draft picks father wrote the letter from jail.

Moving on!

It was so nice to have my Mom here! We pretty much just hung out by the pool, did a little shopping, ate dinner outside while listening to a concert, walked to Chick fil a for ice dream cones, went to church and had a cookout with some friends from eGroup. It was great! And, mother proudly told everyone that she has a lot of vacation days so I'm sure she'll be back soon for more fun!!! :)

Thanks for the ceiling fan & lots of laughs!!!

I miss you dawg! :)

Epic Fail

Let me just start by saying it's only Wednesday and I'm ready for this week to be over!
Monday I spent 3 hours waiting in line at the DMV only to FINALLY reach the counter and discover that my car title wasn't signed so I needed to obtain the signature and come back. Well, since my mother lives in DE and I'm in NC, that's not so easy. Not to mention the fact that my current car registration expires March 15. Yikes! I called mom and we decided that I should have a friend sign it or forge it but since I had to work at 2:00 I didn't have time to have someone else sign it. So, I did what any desperate 3 hours wasted standing in line (which is a post for another day!) person would do and I left the parking lot, went to grab a snack, forged my mother's name with her permission and went back 45 minutes later. However, I wasn't able to skip to the front of the line and judging by the length of the line, I didn't have 3 more hours so I left. Now, I get to go back this coming Monday. UGH!
***
Tuesday I don't even remember! I know it was just yesterday but I was out and about attending different meetings so I know I spent a lot of time in my car...OH and I got VERY lost and had to call the place for directions since my GPS is no longer working. Chester, my GPS literally just decided to stop navigating my ways. I don't know what his problem is but he best snap out of it! :) It's tragic.
***
Today. Oh today. Today is such a sad day. I had to make a delivery to an awesome company and since it's located next to one of our corporate partners, I decided to pop in and drop off a sweet treat. Well, I left the first place and headed to the next parking lot and as I was driving it started to rain. The parking lots are HUGE and all of the close spots were taken so I wasn't able to park that close to the door. It is now POURING so in heels and carrying a box of sweet treats, I decided to RUN to the office door. As I'm running, carrying a box and dodging the colossal rain drops...my heel gets STUCK in the split of the sidewalk. STUCK. As in WEDGED in between the concrete blocks. It is raining so hard that a puddle is forming in my shoe. Mind you, at this point I am close enough to the front door that the security guard is watching this all play out. I go back for my shoe, carry it to the main entrance, dump the water out, put it on, get buzzed in and basically shake off like a wet dog. Mr. Security Guard makes a not funny to me joke about not having a towel and I tell him who I need to see and I wait for that person. Well, person comes down the stairs and just starts laughing. We decided that it was a good thing that we've dealt with one another for over a year and they know that I am usually put together and not sopping wet with soaking wet hair matted to my face/head and a sloshing shoe. I digress....

I go back to work and start to get stuff done and finally, at 7:45, pack up to leave. I come home (it's still raining), park my car, grab my phone, keys and a NICE bottle of wine that a customer gave me and open the back door to grab my purse and work bag and turn around and it happens. The wine bottle is slipping. The wine bottle is gone. It's pouring. The road smells like GOOD RED WINE. My pants smell like red wine. My shoes smell like red wine. It was tragic. I don't think I'll recover for awhile.

And now I'm not off to go pour myself a glass of wine. Instead I'll be licking it off the pavement or wringing it out of my pants and shoes. Not cool, Megan. Not cool.

Kids these days

Let me preface this with the fact that I am not the smartest person in the world, nor am I close.

However, when I was in high school and seeking after school/weekend employment, I certainly did not commit the following crimes:

*walk in wearing jeans that are tattered and torn
*have crazy hair
*wear flip flops
*chew gum
*say "umm"
*look at the floor while speaking
*come in on the phone, ask for an application while I put the phone down, accept the application, pick the phone back up and continue talking while walking out of the establishment

When I turned in an application and resume:

*I used spellcheck
*I read over the documents to make sure everything was spelled correctly
*I did not cross out words using a pen and turn it in with the crossed out words
*I did not submit a resume on paper that had a "page 1 of 1" or url at the bottom of the page

If I was seeking a donation from a business for a club that I was a member of:
*I handed the manager a letter from the sponsoring teacher that had a current date on it
*I explained what the club would be using the donation for
*I did not just waltz into the establishment and say "could you give us money for xyz"

Perhaps I'm old fashioned and conservative but the future of America scares me.

I happen to work in an industry in which high school students ranging in ages 15-18 and college students ranging in ages 18-22 hope to seek employment. However, I have a hard time taking someone seriously when they submit resumes with multiple spelling errors, are unable to formulate a correct sentence, submit resumes and applications that look like they've been chewed by the dog and/or are not "properly" dressed. Hoodies and frayed jeans, baseball hats, tshirts and flip flops are just not proper "job seeking" items of clothing.

In high school I remember my Honors English teacher freshman year explaining to the class the proper way to make a first impression because after all, you only have one chance to make a first impression. I remember being instructed and guided through the resume building process freshman year so that I could update my resume throughout high school. It was a tremendous help once college application/scholarship season came around to have that continually updated piece of paper. Kids these days text too much and speak in what I like to call "160 character limit" and frankly, that's not going to cut it in the workplace. At least I hope it won't. But I really hope parents and teachers alike start to teach students how to apply for jobs, how to compose their resume and how to conduct themselves when they are seeking employment. Learning those skills young will certainly help them throughout high school, college and beyond...or at least I think so!

And completely not related to my kids these days rant but still humorous and worth sharing.....
I had a female customer tell me at the register that I was a very nice young lady and she liked the way I dress so I would make a great match for her son. REALLY?! Yea, definitely turned 1000 shades of red. Can we say AWKWARD! :)

Waxhaw

A few weeks ago, Adrienne and I decided to visit Historic Waxhaw for the afternoon.

It was a rather amusing trip to say the least and we saw the longest train ever!

It was a bit chilly so we went to the Dairy Barn for some Hot Chocolate. It was kind of like Cracker Barrel on the inside...they even had a cd player on the floor that filled the place with the sounds of crickets.

Sadly, we didn't ride Quick Silver ha ha

We found the coolest bookstore!!!!

And the man working told us everything we needed to know about books and Waxhaw. I think he may be the mayor...and if he's not, he should be! He even offered to take some pictures. I think our visit was the highlight of his day!

We walked across this bridge and as we walked you could her the birds chirping/tweeting.

They must live under the bridge.

The moon!

Thought this was cool

Yea, all the black specks by the water tower are the birds that live under the bridge...

And the massive train...

Overall it was a fun, random, trip!

I think everyone should visit "historic" places every now and then.

Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner

On Saturday, Adrienne cooked her very first turkey!

We named Saturday dinner "Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner" and it was AMAZING!

However, first I must report our Black Friday Craziness because it was memorable!

On Thursday, we walked over to Starbucks and noticed that 5 people were already in line at

Best Buy.

AT NOON.

ON THANKSGIVING DAY.

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!

In line. 18 hours BEFORE the store even opens! On Thanksgiving.

Now, I decided I would've be impressed had someone had a grill/turkey fryer/tent in the parking lot and treated their insanity like they were tailgating, but not so much.

So, at 9:30pm that night, we decided to drive by Best Buy to track the line.

We counted maybe 20 people.

Well, Adrienne and I decided that we would get up and go shopping at 6:00am but we didn't really have much of a plan. I had to work at 9:00am so I didn't want to do anything crazy, but we didn't want to miss out on anything either. It turned out that we had been up since 2:30am and since we were still awake, we decided to go to Target for the fun of it, but first we drove through the Best Buy parking lot and the line had tripled! It was crazy!

So, we drove to Target and decided that the line outside was too long so we were going to go to the next target (which is literally 5 minutes down the road if that). We got there and the line wrapped around behind the building. It took 10 minutes for the last person in line to enter the store. Needless to say, by the time we made it in, men were already at the register with their massive tvs. Target employees handed us store maps as we entered and it was just funny!

4:00AM....ready to embrace Target...for the FUN of it!

So at 4:45am, when we noticed the line wrapped around the entire store and we found "normal" items, we decided to hide our loot and come back for it later, ya know after the sun came up! We hid some DVDs, Catch Phrase, Flannel Sheets and whatever else we fit in the "ribbon bin". Clearly, we found important high dollar items! :)
We left Target, headed back down the road, hung out at Starbucks and were 1st in line at Jos A Banks when they opened. Adrienne had a blast and completed all of her shopping for her bro and husband. I however, almost fell asleep amongst the color coordinated ties but was in attendance for moral support! As we left, the sun made an appearance and I realized that I needed to shower and head to work (I did take a 3 hour nap from 11:00-2:00). I took a 45 minute cat nap and had a great day at work.

However, after work Adrienne and I headed back to Target....18 hours later...and found this:

ALL of our hidden loot!!!!! It was a Christmas miracle! And it was all still on sale! Woo hoo!

SATURDAY:

It was time for Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner! Here's A with her AWESOME turkey! Seriously, for never cooking a turkey, it was DELICIOUS!!!!!
5 side items. 1 oven. Skill!

She was really proud of how it turned out.
"WOW! It really does look like a turkey!"

Overall, as much as I missed not being home with my family for Thanksgiving, I had a GREAT and certainly memorable Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for the friendship I found in Adrienne and Jeff and thankful for the crazy shenanigans. And I'm thankful that Jeff understands that Adrienne and I are 1 dance move short of a musical comedy. :)

Oh....I also learned to hoola hoop after Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner!

More on that later....

Kick off your shoes

First off, you should probably know that I am very organized and I like to plan things in advance. I love my color coded agenda book.

However, what I'm about to type will shock you.

I received a text message from my friend April while I was at work Saturday.

At 2:30pm she asked me what time I got off of work and if I had plans.

Well, let me tell you...I had the most random yet exciting weekend that I've had in a long time!

I left work, went home, threw random clothes in a bag and hit the road!

90 minutes later I was in A & K's driveway

and we were on our way here:

Keith and April waiting for the fun to begin!

April and I!

Now April and I have been friends since my freshman year of college, her senior year. We've had a ton of fun times together. I mean, I was her MOH when she and Keith got married, so clearly, the 3 of us get along great! However, we learned that things don't change as we age which is great! April and I dance and have a grand ol time and Keith hangs out watching and shaking his head!

Sunday for lunch we went to one of the fine dining establishments I miss the most...

Tokyo Express

and I enjoyed Teriyaki Chicken with Fried Rice, Broccoli and Carrots. Sweet Tea to wash it down.

April and I went grocery shopping, home to bake some cookies and just lounge and then I went to visit the kids I used to babysit.

We watched the Panthers win, ate dinner and then Susan and I decided to be creative and make Tyler's Halloween costume. He's going to be an Indian (MJ's going to be a Cowgirl). Well, we stopped in the gas station for the Sunday paper since it always has a 50% off coupon for ACMoore and my college suite mate Katrina (who I saw at Steph's wedding) happened to be in the same gas station on her way to Chapel Hill! however, I saw her car, looked around the store, couldn't find her, checked out, called her and she had already hit the highway so we missed one another...but how random!
Anyway, next to ACMoore is a massive Halloween store so we bought Tyler a costume (he's only 22 months old) and found this:

Overall, it was a random but amazingly exciting/fun weekend!

It's kind of nice to not have a schedule.

The fabric store

Adventures with the one and only ABC

would also be great entertainment for my Reality Show

The other day, Adrienne and I went to a local fabric store to look for fabric to make cushions for a window seat in the library room of ABC & JMC's house. Clearly, we didn't really know all that was involved with fabrics and the whole window seat gets directly sunlight/fading issues/fabric weight/indoor outdoor and all of that happy stuff.

Really, we just wanted to walk in, be inspired and pick some fabric!

This sign also helped...

And carrying around this yardstick made me look really official!

Perhaps me thinking (from afar mind you) that ABC found fabric that was Princess prints got us off on the wrong foot...

But the best part of the excursion was Adrienne finding these birds (in green and black) but liking the lattice fabric (I kind of hinted that I really like it....a lot) so we got samples and did some moving and well, if the store has cameras, we are probably on YouTube by now. While putting the birds on the black and white, we kind of knocked down the entire display. Everyone stared, we were a bit shocked...we looked around and within 30 seconds we were hysterical. Sadly, no one else laughed.

I really think the following fabric would make AWESOME dresses!


Sadly, I don't have a picture, only a fabric sample of "Lovely Lattice by Waverly" in green that I think would be an AMAZING strapless dress with a black cardigan and black heels! Or White! Or Navy Blue! Yes folks, the fabric was that versatile!

Needless to say, A brought some fabric samples home (we had quite a few that I didn't photograph) and now she and J have to decide what they want.