the good things

Yummy cheap pink champagne,

A warm bed, laptop, jeans, music and bloggie friends,

this is a great way to relax after a long day at work!

It is the little things in life that make it complete.

My top 10 good things. (in no particular order)

1. Sushi.

2. Blue Jeans.

3. Opals.

4. My sweet animals, Charlie, Shelbie, Sunny, and Harry

5. Health.

6. The other half to my whole, John (monkey).

7. Good friends like Michele, Liz, and Kate.

8. Music.

9. Family.

10. Faith in God.

I started ANOTHER new craft project, naughty naughty!

Just a sneak peak at a project I am working on. Any idea what these are??????

I wish I lived in Arkansas...(warning pic heavy post!)

Here are a few pictures we took on our trip to Arkansas 2 weeks ago.....

This was taken inside Blanchard Springs Caverns. If I remember correctly these are called ribbon formations.

This is also in the caverns, these formations contain large amounts of calcite, which makes them sparkly and snowy looking.

This was probably our favorite formation, they call it the battleship can you see why?

This is in Cotter, not far from where most of my family lives, I believe this is part of the White River.

Bull Shoals dam.

We rode on a ferry in Peel over part of Bull Shoals lake.

Then we drove to Missouri with my cousin, her husband and Daughter and paid money to have rolls thrown at us! Monkey was really excited to eat here because he had seen this place on a show on the travel channel!

And of course, being the good rednecks we are we just HAD to go see the first, and biggest Bass Pro Shops in the world. This place was unbelievable! (we also visited the Bass Pro in Branson Missouri, but my cousins assured us it was NOTHING compared to this one. Wow they weren't kidding!)

Arkansas is such a beautiful state. There is so much history, and beautiful county there to explore. If I could ever convince my parents to pack up and go back with me, I would be there in a heartbeat. You can take a girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!

Just another manic Monday......

I don't usually mind Mondays, don't get me wrong I don't really look forward to them, but off all the days of the week, I like it more than most. If I could have erased the start to this week though, I would have puled out the biggest pink pearl eraser I could find. It was hectic, it was sad, it made my whole body ache. I knew last Friday that it wasn't going to be pleasant. I got wind of some not so good news that I knew was going to rear it's nasty little head today,and the fact that I knew it was going to happen, and I had no way to help, or warn the person whom it would affect ate at me all weekend. To make it short, one of the tellers that I work with had a shortage a few weeks back that we were never able to locate. It was, unfortunately of a decent amount. We all are certain that she did NOT take the money for her own personal gain. But since the company we work for recently merged with another, and all the suits higher up are worried about their OWN jobs, they came down hard. Too hard. This beautiful young girl who has two young children, and an ex that provides her with not even the smallest sliver of help. She is also doing her darnedest to go to school at night to become a crime scene technician, and get good grades. Now she has no job. It was much more difficult for me to work today when I felt I was working under immoral, unethical people. I fully understand that banks cannot just take losses and not do anything about it. This situation had me so upset for a number of reasons though. There is of course the most obvious one that this poor woman has two kids, no job, and no help. But that there was another teller working there about a year ago that had a terrible attitude, and because she did not follow our policies lost the bank 4 times as much money. She did not get fired until the third instance of the same issue. This was the first time this teller had been out a large amount. Normally she has a near-flawless balancing record. I also don't feel that they gave enough time to locate the outage. I wonder if mister high-and-mighty Napoleon in his fancy window office has ever known what it is like to struggle, probably not.....I will get off my soapbox now.

I do however, have better news to announce. I have decided to walk in the breast cancer 3-day in October this year. I have thought about it for a few years now, but I was so worried about being able to raise the $2300 that they require you donate to walk. But when I found out that the last day of the walk was my sister's wedding anniversary I took it to be a sign, and decided that this was the year to go for it. While she did not have breast cancer, I figure it is a great cause, and if they can manage to find a cure for breast cancer it is a great stride in curing ALL cancers, even the one Angie had. I'll be completely honest though, the thought of walking 3 days straight, and raising such a large sum of money scares the bejesus out of me! I will be setting up a link on my blog where my bloggie friends can help me towards my goal, and just be warned, I will be planning on pestering you for donations! I've got a long way to go, and I need EVERYONE'S help. Also check out Angie's best friend Kate's blog Going The Distance. She is competing in a triathlon this year in memory of my sister also, and I know she needs donations as much as I do.

I hope to have some of the pictures I took in Arkansas uploaded tomorrow to share with you, there just wasn't time to get them loaded today. I told you it was a Manic Monday

On the road again

I begin this post far too early in the Tampa airport. I had to get up at 3am to get here on time so please bear with me if this post is fragmented. It is only a very rare occasion that I am up before the sun rises, or even shortly after it rises. I am NOT a morning person. I never really have been either. My sister used to have to fight and fight to get me up for school. Poor monkey calls me the grizzly in the morning. All of my coworkers know just to leave me be until I am fully awake. I wish it was the sort of thing I could fix. I can wake up and know that I am in a foul mood, but there isn't a thing I can do about it. I try to just keep my mouth clamped until I know I won't bite someone's head off. What exactly determines if you are a morning person or a night owl? Is it some sort of engrained genetic thing? Everyone I know in my family has no issues with the AM They can get up, make breakfast, spend 45 minutes getting ready, and all the while be sweet as pie. I, on the other hand wait until the very last second before I have to get up, throw on my clothes which I laid out the night before so that I did not have to waste time picking things out, and fly out the door. No breakfast, no coffee, just me, and my stinky attitude. Hopefully once I get on this stinking plane, I can cuddle up in my window seat, watch Juno, and take a nice nap. That is doubtful though......

I love these...

I have fallen head over heels for Pashmina scarves. I had a very pretty fox orange one for at least 4 years that I probably only wore one time up until this year. While at church I met another woman wearing the most beautiful cream one, and it looked absolutely divine. At that moment I decided to start wearing mine at every opportunity. My sister was also fond of scarves, and it reminds me of her, and makes me feel closer to her. There is something so elegant and regal about them. It is nice that they are thin enough I can wear them in the heat here in Florida, but if it is a bit cold they still actually provide a nice bit of warmth without having to dig out a coat. Although mine are not "real" pashmina's like these I love them nonetheless. My one pashie has now multiplied into 3 and there is one more that I saw at Target the other evening that I fully intend on nabbing when I go to get some more of my favorite shampoo. I love them just as much as I do trench coats, and these great feather hairpins. I have gained the confidence to wear my trench coats, and scarves, but I haven't yet been brave enough to make myself a feather hairpin and wear it. They are a very bold statement, and I am just not used to bringing attention to myself. At least I have taken the step out of my comfort zone and started. Maybe someday I will have the self esteem to wear something that bold.

I hate packing.

I don't like a single thing about packing. I hate that feeling that I may be forgetting something. I hate having the compulsive urge to unpack, and repack my bag because I don't know if I have put everything I wanted to bring in my bag. I hate having to worry if my shampoo is going to explode in my bag spewing that expensive eight-dollar liquid all over my clothes. I am headed up to Arkansas to spend some much needed time with my family. The weather up there is about 40 to 50 degrees different than this hellishly warm climate. I have lived in Florida for as long as I can remember, and I am ill-equiped in the winter clothing department. Not only do I have to worry that I am bringing everything I (and monkey) need, but I have to make sure that it will all fit into my bag, and still weigh under 50 pounds! I am sure I will forget something, I always do. Monkey is totaly at ease with the whole thing, I think so long as he gets up there with a pair of pants and a shirt he will be happy. Cold, but happy. He is a true Florida native, and he is going to FREEZE. (unless I can find a way to cram a space heater into my luggage...)

UGH I hate packing!!!!!

I think if I had pretty pink and brown toile luggage like this from Luggage Loft it wouldn't seem so bad though....