Every Day Should Be Exterminator Day

Jason and I have been discussing getting an exterminator to treat our house for a while now.  We don't have a pest "problem."  It's just that we live around woods, so we do have quite a few bugs and varmints.  Well, the other day, an exterminator came to our door trying to book appointments.  Serendipity!  We scheduled an appointment for last Tuesday.

Here are the reasons why every day should be Exterminator Day:

#1: It forces us to clean our house.  Since we rarely have anyone over (and since Megan is super lazy), our house often goes long periods of time collecting dust and dirt.  This had to be fixed before the exterminator came.  Not only was the guy going to be in out house, but he needed access to the floorboards, so we really had to straighten up.

#2: It led to a really awesome afternoon.  We had told the original guy at our door that I was pregnant, and he made a note of it.  When the actual exterminator came on Tuesday, we learned that meant we had two options -- don't spray the inside of the house or I had to leave the house for two hours.

I had no problem leaving the house.  It was only 5:00 by that point, so I figured I'd go hang out at Caribou or something.  The only bummer was that I hadn't brought home papers to grade that night.  I didn't have any errands to run, either (I had taken care of them the day before).  Then, my brilliant husband had a great idea -- I could wait outside while the guy sprayed and then the two of us could go somewhere together.  Awesome!

I went out and sat in my car and read my Woman's Day magazine while I waited.  Jason finished up with the guy, and we went out on the town!  Um, but what to do now?

We ended up going to Caribou after all, getting coffees (decaf mint condition for me, please!), and walking around the outside of the art museum taking photos and sipping our coffees.  It was great to take things slow, have no agenda (except to waste away two hours), and to escape the temptations that are my couch and tv.  It turned out to be a fantastic evening!  Who knew Exterminator Day would be the highlight of our week?

This is what happens when I tell Jason to "smile with your new camera and coffee!"

Man, I love this handsome fella!

quick self portrait

capturing a sunlit blade of grass during the "magic hour" of daylight

On the Way to Work

Some drives to work are very moving and meaningful (like yesterday's post).  Other days are like today where after my morning prayer, I find a fun, peppy song on the radio.  This morning, I heard this song and it made me smile.  I liked it enough that I wanted to post it, even after I found out it was by Train (a band I usually dislike).

Happy Friday, everyone!

Friday Letters

Every Friday, my friend Amanda writes a letter to things and people from the past week.  I thought I'd give it a shot this week.

Dear Bugs, thanks for finding a new place to live... or at least having the common decency to hide from plain view.

Dear Paint By Letters, thanks for reminding me how much I love to paint, as long as it's not painting walls!
Dear Pam, thanks for giving me artistic freedom.  I think your mountain-themed letters are turning out great so far!

Dear Ratatouille, sorry I had to puree you and add Italian sausage to you for Jason to like you.  Don't take it personally.  He's like that with all veggie-based dishes.  Thank goodness I thought you were tasty, because you made lots of leftovers!

Dear Bing Cherries, why are you so tasty?  I'm not a big fruit person, but I was in the fridge multiple times a day getting you for a quick snack.  Nom nom nom!


Dear New Hedge Trimmers, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  Megan likes her some power tools!

Dear Jason's Coworker Paul, thank you thank you thank you for the FREE hedge trimmers, which saved us a ton of money!  I'm so glad you had a spare one and were willing to give it to us!
Dear Too-Tall, Touching-the-Outside-of-our-House-and-Giving-Bugs-Easy-Access-into-our-House Bushes, consider yourself vanquished.

Makes Me Giggle

I can't remember if I've posted this before, but even if I have, it's worth posting again.  Really, watch it if you know anything at all about Star Wars.

Clueless Girl Breaks Down Star Wars

PS, this is my first time inserting a video rather than just posting the link.  If my attempt failed, here's the link.

Let's Show Some Pride

You know you're at a good school when even your GRAFFITI is encouraging!

Special Surprises

I don't care who you are, everyone loves getting gifts.  Jason always amazes me at Christmas and my birthday because he gets me things I had randomly mentioned wanting months before.  Birthday 2009 (the year of the 26 alphabetical gifts), he also got me trouser socks, colorful beaded jewelry, and a Sudoku book -- all things I had wanted but not purchased.  Wow, he was listening after all!

Monday afternoon, Jason came home with the best kind of a gift -- a "just because" surprise gift!  Some girls may like jewelry or flowers.  My husband, however, knew exactly what I wanted -- a new lunch box!

What a sweetie!

It's Like Christmas!

Jason and I want to get some more pictures for around the house, so I've been going through his photos to find candidates for us to discuss and choose.  In doing that, I stumbled across this picture I had totally forgotten about from last November.

Jason had just learned about this thing called HDR where you take the same picture three times -- overexposed, normal exposure, and underexposed -- and then combine them to make a freaky picture.  We went out to Umstead for some HDR experimentation.  He took pictures of leaves, the lake, even some of me.  I got tired of posing by myself, so I asked him to set the camera timer and come take one with me.

Reasons I like this picture:
~I had forgotten about it, so stumbling upon it was like getting a Christmas present in July
~It's of both of us, and farther away than my arm's length (which is usually how I take pictures of both of us)
~It's full of fall colors, long-sleeved shirts, and pants, which reminds me of the cool temperatures of November.  On a day like today, that's a happy thought!

Being an Adult is Awesome!

Being a kid was great.  Summers were spent playing at the pool and going to baseball and softball games.  School was school, but at least you got to hang out with your friends for seven hours a day.  Weekends were slumber parties and Saturday morning cartoons.  You didn't have to worry about finding a job, paying your mortgage, or staying within budget.

That said, adulthood has its benefits.  You're free to drive your car without permission.  You have an income and can go shopping whenever you want.  You can stay up late, sleep in, ... and eat ice cream for dinner.

You read correctly.  Ice cream for dinner.  Though we don't do it often, there are times that Jason and I skip traditional "dinner" and go directly to dessert.  There are several reasons for this.  Earlier this summer, our A/C was broken and the idea of eating anything room temperature or warmer sounded disgusting.  Other times, Jason wins me over with his ice-cream-craving logic.  He points out that if we know we're going to have ice cream, it's actually less calories (and thus "healthier") to skip eating a meal just for eating's sake and go straight to the ice cream we were going to have either way.  How can you compete with logic like that?

The answer: you can't.  So when you can't beat 'em, join 'em (not that I needed my arm twisted to be talked into eating ice cream!).

Beating the 105-degree heat with a tasty treat!

  Being a kid was cool.  Being an adult is awesome!

Nothing's Faster than THIS Speeding Bullet

I have a startling announcement (more startling than that I'm a curly-fry-sorter).  I went running yesterday.  *waits for your jaws to lift off of the floor*  Yep, after an estranged relationship, my running shoes and I have reunited and seem to have patched things up.  Though I am a lazy person at heart and can spend whole days doing nothing, I really do love running, and I'm hoping to make this a habit.

Reasons I Love Running:
~Equipment = Shoes.  I love that running really only requires you to have shoes.  I love volleyball almost as much as running, but it requires a net, ball, and at least one other person to play -- things not readily accessible to me.  But to go running, all I have to do is slip on my shoes, double-tie my laces (learned that the hard way one time!), and let the rubber hit the road!

A runner's best friends are good running shoes.  Jason bought me these as a birthday gift in 2009 because I was still shamefully wearing beat-up shoes from high school.

~The World is Your Oyster.  For the most part, you can run anywhere.  Maybe not through a construction site or your neighbor's front yard, but most roads, sidewalks, and trails.  That said, this is partially why I haven't been running regularly.  I ran a lot last summer, and my surroundings got pretty monotonous.  I try to stay in my neighborhood, since I don't feel comfortable running at Umstead (state park, for those unfamiliar).  I'm not worried about being abducted, more like twisting my ankle and not being somewhere people could readily see me/help me.

~Solitude.  I never have liked having a "running buddy."  Inevitably, one person's pace is faster than the other's pace, so one either ends up not being as challenged or panting and struggling to keep up.  So I love running alone (Mom, don't call and fuss at me... again, I'm running in the daytime just around my neighborhood!).  Just me and my iPod, cranking out fast-paced keep-me-motivated tunes.

The Black Eyed Peas and I get it started, ha, get it started in here!!!

~Challenge.  Most people think running is monotonous and boring.  Well, not if you constantly challenge yourself.  If you do the same course everyday, push yourself to go farther each time.  Sprint up that hill rather than jogging it.  When your body feels like it's hit that wall, tell yourself "Make it to that stop sign" or "Make it to that green mailbox."  You'll be amazed at what you can accomplish.

~History.  I was never great at sports, though I played quite a few of them.  In junior high, I played volleyball and basketball, and I was a cheerleader.  In high school, I continued playing volleyball and basketball (9th and 10th grade for both), though by "play" I mean "sit the bench most games."  On a whim (and because I KNEW I was horrible at softball, the only other spring sport offered), I tried out for the track team.  It was like love at first run, and I was actually pretty good at it!  I ran track all four years of high school and added cross country my junior and senior years.  Now, every time I run, part of me feels like I'm back in high school, running as fast as I can to beat my competitors and better my personal best times.  So, to reminisce about the good old days, here's some pictures of me during my days of track/cross country.

Here I am finishing a race at Williamston HS.  My school didn't have a track so Williamston's track (about 10 minutes away) was our home away from home.  No, I'm not the prettiest runner, but I was not too shabby.  I ran the mile (1600m, 4 times around the track), two mile (3200m, 8 times around the track), and the 4x800m relay (4 people relay, each person running two laps around the track).  I also dabbled in high jump (which was a disaster) and the 800m (which I liked, but it was too close to my main event, the two-mile).  I went to regionals each year for at least one of the three events, and I went to State Championships in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades.  I actually had mono at regionals my freshman year (I didn't start showing symptoms until later that week), so I didn't make it to States that year.  I did finish my race though, holding my aching, swollen spleen (though we didn't know that's what it was!) the whole time.

Oh, and yes, I did wear my hair on those silly buns on purpose.  My hair is so fine that it falls out of a ponytail when I'm running, so I needed something to hold onto it better.  This was my look most races, though if Kara was home from college she would double French braid my hair instead.

In a baseball/softball town, track people were misfits.  I'm so glad I ran, though, because most of the high school people I still keep in touch with today (like Jessica, Adrienne, and Kyle) were on the track team with me.  Pictured (l-r) is Jessica, Adrienne, and me, relaxing in some shade between races.  I also had at least one parent at most track meets.  My folks didn't really go to many sporting events, but when Kara and I both ran track (her senior year, my freshman year), my parents became "track parents."  They would bring my old red comforters (nicknamed the "magic carpets") and the track team would pile down on them between events.  That's what the three of us are on in the picture.

Anyone who thinks races are boring has never been to one.  This isn't the most flattering picture of me, but I love the action of it.  This is during the 4x800m relay I mentioned earlier.  Evie (red hair) just handed the baton to Stacie (dark hair) for her leg of the race.  I was the anchor (the fourth leg), so I was cheering them on, waiting to have my chance to run.  On the left side of the picture is Mr. Bailey (or "Bailey" as he was usually called), my volleyball/ track/ cross country coach, science teacher, drama teacher, and teaching inspiration.  Yep, he's a pretty cool guy!

Oh, and I should probably explain the title of today's post.  Our school mascot was the bullet (yes, you read correctly), so this was always a saying I wanted on team shirts.  Unfortunately, the track team had no money, so that never happened.  Oh well, blog title is almost as good...

Magic Tabs and Dancing Flowers

While I did not coin the phrase "It's the simple things in life that make us happiest," I'm definitely a big fan of this concept.  That's why I have been enjoying reading The Book of Awesome, based on the blog 1000 Awesome Things.

Reading the book yesterday, I discovered something new -- there's a tab on the end of aluminum foil boxes to lock the roll in place.  Don't believe me?  If you're at home (or if your company has a well-stocked break room), go check. *waits patiently for you to go check*  If this is new to you like it is to me, where have we been all this time?  How many countless hours have we wasted trying to re-roll the foil when it plops out onto the floor at inopportune moments?  If you already knew about this magic tab, why have you never shared this nugget of awesome with me?!?

Awesome!

It's amazing how little simple things can brighten our day.  For instance, my mentor teacher gave me this solar-powered flower as a thank-you gift.

Her teenage daughter saw it at the Dollar Tree and said "I think Mrs. Self would like this." (Yes, she called me "Mrs. Self")  It has a small solar panel, like those on calculators, and it gently bobs back and forth.  The leaves go up and down while the flower sways left to right.

Big deal, right?  It IS a big deal, because this little $1 plastic flower makes me smile whenever I see it.  Right now, it sits on my end table beside my couch, under a lamp that's usually on, so no matter what's going on that day -- good, bad, boring, or exciting -- it just keeps on dancing.

I'm not going to get all philosophical on you, but there's something comforting about that cheerful little flower, be-bopping all day long.  And I take pleasure in that simple little thing.