Mikey Mike

Happy 1st Birthday to Mikey!!!!

Yaaaaaay!

Thanks a lot, Satan.

Satan is trying his damndest to sabotage my diet.

Yesterday, there were irresistable brownies in the lunch room...I'm talking brownies with all kinds of chips and chunks and goo on them. I had two, thanks.

This morning, there was a baby shower for one of my co-workers and there are bagels, cupcakes, muffins and pastries about 20 feet from my office. I haven't had any...and I decided I'm not going to.

THEN...my boss brings me a big box of Belgian chocolates that he just brought back from his Europe trip.

I can't escape!!!!

More?!?!?

I'm going to be a big sister for the third time! I found out yesterday that my dad's wife is 8 weeks pregnant with baby #2. I love this little guy (my baby brother Mikey who will be 1 year old on Wednesday):

like crazy, so I can't wait to see what they make next!

Everyone keeps asking me when I'm going to start...could be soon?

In the Half Light

Days like this make me love New England. It's overcast, dark and misty outside. I swear I love this weather because it's in my bones, in my blood. My ancestors are bards who come from the rainy cool highlands of Great Britian. I'd love to go there someday but I'm absolutely terrified of planes (and for no good reason because I've only had good experiences on them). I think maybe I'll take a large boat there in some years. Hopefully it'll be a one-way trip John works for a huge global conglomerate so it's not completely out of the question. I don't think it would be very difficult for him to get reassigned somewhere else in the world. I just want a little house (and by house, I mean castle) in Argyll with nothing but green surrounding it set somewhere near the ruins of my old family castle on the shores of Loch Fyne.

Here:

Here are ruins of Caesteal Mhic Eobhuin:

Ahhh, dreams.

Oot and a boot.

When I woke up this morning, I had the urge to just go for a drive with John and get lost. We ended up leaving the house around noon and we did, in fact, get lost. We found a town not too far from us named Nichawaug of which neither of us had ever heard. I do know that we passed through Nichawaug at some point but there were no signs to indicate that we got there. There was a sign that said 'Nichawaug, 7 miles' and very much later a sign pointing the way from which we came that said 'Nichawaug, 3 miles'. John and I re-named it Nichawaugwa because we thought it was funny.

First we drove to the Brookfield Orchard and went inside to look around the store. It was so quiet there today, there were hardly any people there and we spent a good half hour shopping. We bought this tall glass jar that's made of smoky glass and is quite interesting. I don't know what I'll do with it but for now it's sitting on the kitchen counter looking cute. We also got 15 new books (like we need them!) for $3.00! Oh, and 2 watermelon candy sticks.

I had the camera with me so here are some shots for your viewing pleasure:

The road to the orchard:

A view of some of the trees in the orchard:

The orchard store:

Here is a barn I spotted on the way there and I took this picture as John was driving...not bad for a Kodak EasyShare! I thought for sure it would be blurry!

Then we found this cemetery somewhere near Nichawaug and/or Oakham:

Lastly, some pretty flowers that were in the cemetery:

We came home and watched 'Valiant' which was a really cute movie :) I took a nap, watched some old American Idol I had on Tivo since March (yaaay Ace!) and now I'm just hanging out with John. I should clean up a bit because I have my mother and brother coming over for dinner tomorrow night and my brother hasn't seen the new place yet!

We didn't go to church today and I'm not sure if I want to go back to our current church. Everything just seems all wrong there and I don't feel like we're respected, especially John. The Pastor thinks it's funny to insult people and I just don't think that is right. John and I have been talking about visiting other churches, I'm just worrying about running into the same drama elsehwere. Plus, we've made so many friends where we are now and there are people for whom we care deeply but we want to be somewhere we can learn and grow and use the gifts God has given us. It's just not happening at Hillside. No final decision has been made yet, we're just talking at this point...

Lots more picto-blogs to come! I'm going to be taking pictures of everything!

New do

I have the best hairdresser in the world! He works at the Adesso Salon in Worcester and his name is Frank and if you need a haircut, go to him!!!

Anyway, here are just a few shots of the front, side and back of the new do.

John and I went to see X-Men 3 after the hairdresser and the movie was really good! Jean Grey was awesome, I wish I was her. Well, except I don't wish I was dead. Sorry if you haven't seen the movie yet!

I'll cut you.

Yay, it's Friday!

Tomorrow, I'm going to chop my unruly mane. I don't think I will ever cut my hair above the shoulders, but it's going to be pretty close. I think cutting hair above the shoulders adds like 10 years to your appearance. I really wish I could grow my hair really long and have it be all flowy and curly but it just ain't gonna happen. (I also really want to spend my days prowling flower fields in fancy gowns and painting landscapes in the sun, but that won't happen either.) My hair is too fine and it looks lame if it goes anywhere past the middle of my back. Plus, the blond is growing out and I really don't want to dye it anymore, so I'm going to chop off as much of the blond as I can without looking like a butch...

We have our usual company coming over tonight, maybe this time we won't watch stupidgayretardedqueer superhero cartoons! OR, miracle of miracles, maybe Trish will actually show up to DDR with me! Trish is the plan canceling queen but I will at least say she has legitimate excuses about 61f the time.