Friends Near And Far

Well, this weekend our long awaited trip finally happened! We got to go and see Carrie. We had this trip planned for a long time, and it had a few false starts, but this time it really came to pass!

My sister Becky and Laura and I left bright and early Saturday morning and headed away. Despite the gloomy rain, we were happy to be on our way to see our girl!

We met her at AppleBees for lunch, and had some well deserved Appletinis and Margaritas, then headed back to town for some R&R in the hotel room sans kids. What a great girls weekend! Good friends, a few Smirnoff Ices, a deck of cards, and a hotel room -- seriously. What more could we ask for? It was a blast.

Since Carrie and I don't get to see each other that often, it was especially a treat for me, even though I had to share her with Becky and Laura! LOL! It was a lot of fun. I even got to see her adorable boys for a bit at the hotel, then we all went out to lunch today, and we saw the boys and her HH for awhile as well.

It was a great time, although it went way too fast for me. I have already talked Brian into planning another trip, for him and I and the kids, in another month or two, to go see Carrie again. Life is too short to spend it away from our best friends.

A few family pictures

We had some beautiful weather this weekend! I thought I'd put a few pictures up of us all.. Here are some random ones : )

100 things about me (maybe)

OK, so I'm going to try this. I have no idea if there is even 100 things I can think of, so I am not promising a darn thing. I'll give it my best shot! :)

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1) I am the youngest of 3 girls.

2) I am several years younger then my middle sister, so it really felt like I was an only child growing up on a lot of levels.

3) I'm best friends with my middle sister -- my oldest sister and I aren't really all that close, but her daughter and son are in my heart in a big way.

4) My parents are a huge part of mine and my kids lives.

5) My mom is my other best friend.

6) I talk to them (my mom and my middle sister) every single day -- sometimes more then once.

7) When I was young, all I ever wanted was to grow up, get married and have babies. Lots of babies.

8) God had other plans for me (on the baby end)

9) We struggled to have even one baby, but were blessed after infertility with a beautiful baby boy (miracle #1)

10) When he was 2 years old, we got pregnant again (miracle #2) without drugs!

11) We lost that baby 10 weeks into the pregnancy. We were devastated.

12) We named him Keelan Lark.

13) Keelan Lark ~ Slender little bird that sang a beautiful song and then flew away

14) Getting pregnant again wasn't possible, although we didn't know that then.

15) We were blessed with a baby girl via private adoption 3 years later. It is by God's grace that we are her adoptive parents (Miracle #3)

16) We wouldn't change a thing about the whole process -- except of course we wish we didn't have to wait until Heaven to meet our little Keelan.

17) I struggle with depression.

18) I love people.

19) I get nervous if my house isn't clean, and I am always looking for a better "system" to clean it with.

20) I love my computer!

21) I love to read.

22) I love to sing!

23) My favorite Christian group is Selah http://www.selahonline.com/

24) I went to college and have a degree in Liberal Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences/ with an emphasis on Early Childhood Education.

25) I taught Pre-K for 6 years before getting married and staying home.

26) I nannied for a bit while we tried getting pregnant.

27) Now I stay at home with the kids full time, and it's the hardest, most rewarding, happiest, some days most difficult, best time of my life. (Can you tell I'm all over the map on this one?)

28) Someday when the kids are both in school (my oldest in in kindergarten, the little one is only 1), I want to work part time again, but I always want to be Mom first.

29) I am a purse girl.

30) I wear makeup everyday. My never go without is lipstick. I can skip the foundation, mascara, and eyeshadow, but never the lipstick. (I usually wear the others too. Not always the foundation, but now that I'm getting older, I'm finding it's harder to skip that like I used to...)

31) I'm only at 31???

32) I'm not a skinny person.

33) I recently lost 40 pounds and have been maintaining that for about a year.

34) I would still like to lose about 20-30 more.

35) I'm not obsessed with losing weight anymore (like I was in my youth)

36) I want to be healthy so that I'm around for my kids and grand kids.

37) In my heart I'd love it if I could be a vegan or vegetarian (but know I'd never have the guts to really go for it!)

38) I'm trying to convert the family to non-hydrogenated, whole wheat, non-enriched products.

39) It hasn't been easy, but it's working.

40) I think.

41) I have 2 what I would call my best friends (outside of my family) and one other really really close friend. I guess I would say 3 best friends.

42) I don't like mean people.

43) I have a great husband.

44) He grocery shops! (which is why it's a bit hard to get him to totally convert to the whole wheat thing -- he is buying the bad stuff sometimes! But hello! He's shopping for me! Can I hardly complain?)

45) I can't eat peanut butter (it gives me horrible migraines)

46) I never wanted peanut butter until I was told I couldn't have it (isn't that always the way??)

47) Does anyone even care about any of this stuff I'm writing about? LOL

48) OK I'm out. Maybe at some point I'll think of some more and add to my list.

49) Oh ok, one more.. I don't think I should have done this list, because now I've discovered that I'm boring and uninteresting as well!! heehee

The quest for perfection

I am on the quest for the perfect mascara. Well, if I'm being honest, I'm on the quest for the perfect lipstick too. And just the right headband. I keep seeing ads for mascaras that promise to make your lashes look full and beautiful, so I buy into the lies and go out to the nearest drugstore and purchase them, only to be disappointed yet again. I bought L'oreal Voluminous masacara in carbon black. I bought it because my sister had bought it and her eyes looked so beautiful I swear she could have been wearing fake lashes. That's how good they looked! So two of my girlfriends and I literally ran to Walgreens at midnight just for this mascara. Ehh, well. None of us have had the same luck with this particular brand that my sister has. Now that I think about it, Becky's eyes look pretty good (much better then mine) when she's not wearing any makeup. She's one of those blessed people that look like she's wearing eyeliner even when she's wearing nothing. Yeahhh, so why didn't I remember this before running out and spending almost $10 on probably the clumpiest mascara I've ever owned? *rolling eyes*

Onto the next product. I'm more of a lipstick girl anyway. I love the brown-ish pinks, those are my colors. Raisinberry, along those lines. So, my friend Laura gets free samples from her Lancome purchases. Gives me one of the lipsticks. It's truly the best lipstick I've ever had--I love it better then anything I've ever used!! YAY! Lipstick bliss! It lasts me a month or so -- then POOF! It's gone. I've been trying to match it ever since. To no avail. The name means nothing to me -- so I guess I'll have to break down and spend $22 on a tube of lipstick (just don't tell Brian)...

And lastly, my friend Carrie (who keeps me in style, or at least tries to, LOL), tells me that headbands are all the rage. So I've been looking for one that will a) be comfortable and b) look cute and c) stay in and not drive me insane and remind me that I'm wearing a headband. I know, that's a tall order!
Last night I was at Wal*Mart and found a cute one made of metal (silvery) that has a cute design on it. We'll try it! I bought one last week at Penney's that is cute and black, but way too wide for my head. Made my head look like it got caught in a vise.

So, we'll keep looking. Queen Latifah is advertising a new mascara -- she tells me it's not the mascara, but the secret is in the brush we use... Well, why didn't I think of that?? ;) And I'll continue stalking women down who have good lipstick and ask them what color they're wearing (seriously! I do that! I've gotten a few weird looks but mostly women get it).. and I'll keep buying headbands. At least till Carrie tells me they're out of style, then I'll stop.

Oh the things we do for love! Err, style! :-D

Cathy "needs"

Okay, Carrie, this is just for you! ;)

You go to Google. You type in your name with the word "needs" after it. Then you list the top 15 entries.

The top 5 needs of mine are apparently the following:

1) Cathy needs a Senior HR Mgr from IBM to come talk to her about organization. (Um, I'll admit. I could be a bit more organized. But do I need a Senior Manager to get me going?)

2) Cathy needs to be a role model for her own expectations and standards to set a clear example to others. (hmm, not a bad idea!)

3) Cathy needs no introduction. (Well, that says it all)

4) Cathy needs to get out more. (No doubt!)

5) Cathy needs to make the great leap out of the middle ages (frowny eyebrows at that!)

6) Cathy needs TLC (yep sometimes I do!)

7) Cathy needs a human companion around most of the time (hey I'm a people person!)

8) Cathy needs a man. (Not true! I've got one -- a yummy one, a good one, the best one! ;) )

9) Cathy needs more information (never TMI for me!)

10) Cathy needs to block neurodegeneration and show behavioral recovery in a tauopathy mouse as the next step toward therapy. (uhh, okay. I think I actually have a brain ache now from reading that! :) )

And with that one, I am ending this, because it was brutal finding only 10 things that "Cathy needs" on Google! LOL! So be it. Apparently Cathy only needs 10 today!!! heehee