Blonde moments

My hair is naturally light brown, or some call it dirty blonde, but that just sounds wierd. But due to being out in the sun for 3 weeks in Romania, and a good amount back home, it has lightened up a lot, and is now unmistakably blonde. And of course that means that some people (namely Kevin) have teased me about being blonde. Although, I think on two occasions, I might have deserved that title.
Last Sunday when we went up to Big Star, Kevin was sitting behind me in the car, and he mentioned that he could smell my hair gel from where he was. Nothing I could really do about it right? He told me that I should use Elmer's glue instead as that's what he uses. I told him that I would rather not have my hair turn white and be all sticky. He burst out laughing....apparently there's a gel that's modeled after Elmer's glue....he doesn't use real glue in his hair!!!!
Then on Tuesday before I left for work, I thought I would get the dishwasher started. I suppose I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. Before I left for work, I noticed my dad down on his hands and knees in front of the dishwasher. Suds and water were pouring out of it. Apparently, I had put liquid soap in it instead of dishwashing solution.
Okay, I'll admit it...sometimes I can be a dumb blonde!!! :)

That's my guy!!! :)

On Tuesday, Mike and I have been dating for 5 months. 5 fun filled, exciting months. I wanted to do something special for him, so I told him to pick a place and I wanted to take him out for dinner. He chose to go to Peppino's. Good choice! Our dinner was delicious! He surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. He brought me my favorites...daisies!!! This was the first time I've ever received a bouquet of flowers from a guy :) You better believe I was one very surprised, and happy girl!









Aren't they beautiful?
































































A couple weeks ago at Hagar Park

Bloggy Catch-Up

Oops...must be the dog-days of summer, but I'm certainly slacking on my blog lately! It's been almost 10 days since my last post, and that one was so short I don't know if it even counts. Anyway, I have three things to talk about over the course of the next few days, so stay tuned for: adventures at Big Star, my favorite flowers, and blonde moments!!!


Sunday after church, Mike and I left to go up north to Big Star Lake. His friend Brett's family has a trailer up there and they invited us up to spend the day with them. Another friend, Kevin, came with us. We got to the trailer a little after noon. It was a little chilly out, but the sun would occasionly come out from behind the clouds. We decided we might as well make use of the seadoos so we went around the lake a few times. Mike offered to let me drive, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find our dock, so I just let him drive. If you've never had the experience of flying over the water with the wind blowing through your hair, I highly recommend it :) We hit a few large waves, but for the most part the lake was pretty calm. It got cold out on the water so Mike and I headed back to the trailer for some hot chocolate. Brett and Kevin joined us a little later. And we all huddled around the heater, our feet were so cold!!! We watched some TV and just hung out and talked for awhile. Brett took us out and showed us where he likes to go off roading. He had his new car instead of his truck so we didn't actually go, but I got to see a lot of the area around the lake. Around 4, the guys decided to get the fire started so we could have dinner. I helped Brett's mom get the fixing's ready for pizza hobo pies. We ended up doing more talking than working, cuz there's really not much preparation needed for that type of dinner. The guys built us quite a nice fire and after a while we had some coals that were perfect for cooking our dinner. After dinner, Mike and I went for a walk. When we got back Brett and Kevin were out on the seadoos again. I asked Brett to take a few pictures of some of the houses for me, there are some beautiful houses up there!! Mike and I waited for them to come back. We packed up and headed home. It was great to have a day just to relax and enjoy the time with friends!







The sun was just starting to go down before we left so we watched it for a little bit from the dock












A panoramic view of the lake, from our dock











That nice wall of water? Yeah, that's Brett :)








This is our favorite house on the lake. Wouldn't it be the perfect spot for a Bed and Breakfast???

About time!!!

I finally put a new recipe up on my recipe blog. I haven't updated it since May, and I figured it was about time. Go here to check it out!

!!

Anyone else having problems uploading pictures? I have a new recipe for my site, but I don't want to put it up without pictures....Stay tuned :)

I've got friends in high places....

Anybody else get that Garth Brooks song stuck in their head (cuz of the title)? Anyway, it pays to have friends in higher up places. Especially those who work in greenhouses and occasionaly treat me to some beautiful flowers! I'm referring to Jennifer's husband, Mark. The week of Vacation Bible School he surprised me at church with some beautiful Tiger Lillies! Then last week when I was housesitting, he dropped off even more flowers at home for me! I took some pictures of the Lillies. Aren't they beautiful?!?!

De la Espana....en los Estados Unidos

(From Spain...in America)
When I arrived home from Romania on July 2, life was not, as we say, back to normal. Instead, we had an exchange student living with my family. She had arrived the week before so she already was familiar with my parents and brother. For the next three weeks, she stayed with us as part of our family. In the mornings, Angela went to classes at the highschool. In the afternoon, she went on various excursions with the other exchange students. I believe there were 25 other students living in our community. For the most part, we had a good time. The language barrier was often a problem and we had a few miscommunications. It did help that I can speak Spanish, so we were able to understand some things. Her English was very limited however. We were able to introduce her to a culture she had not experienced before. We took here to our church, to the zoo, the beach and other things around our town. She also got to go camping in Canada with my parents. It was a good experience though and it was interesting to learn about her culture.




Hanging out in our room















Posing pretty
(Brother not pictured because he moved out!!!)











Another family pose

They're coming...here????

Who? you might ask...
None other than one of the greatest and most well known and well loved worship groups of today...Hillsong United!!! Ok, well, they're not exactly coming to A-town, but I just found out that they are going to be in Chicago next month! Of course, I just found out, so I'm not sure if I'll be going yet, but I know that I'm not the only one who loves Hillsong, so I thought I would pass this information on to anyone else who is interested!!!

And another fun thing that I found online:
Just by choosing pictures, this thing tells you about your personality. It pretty much described me to a T!! Give it a shot and see how accurate it is for you!

It's about time!!!

Most of you probably remember multiple posts earlier this year about all my car troubles. Well, I'm happy to announce, those troubles are now over!!! *knock on wood* :) I've been casually looking for a new car since March or so. But in the past few weeks since I've returned home from Romania, I've been constantly checking Craig's List or autotrader or just looking for cars alongside the road. Last week my dad and I went out to a few car lots but there really wasn't anything that I "had to have". Yesterday I had some time to kill so I was browsing autotrader. I found a very nice Mustang that caught my eye. After showing it to a few people my dad and I decided that we would go out today to check it out. I must say that it is a very nice Mustang. It drove quite nicely and was eye catching...especially because it was orange! We test drove it around and we took it to Mike's house. Him and his friend know a lot about cars and thought it was a good car. I was starting to think that I was sold on it. So we headed back to the car lot, but then the car started sputtering and all of a sudden the gas wasn't doing anything! I was able to pull into a parking lot before the car stopped completely. It had run out of gas!!!! So we called and a person from the dealership brought us some and we were on our way again. I had seen another nice car that I wanted to test drive, so we took that one out for a spin as well. Mike and Brett gave their approval on this one as well. (Side note here...my dad got to meet Mike's parents, and it turns out he knows Mike's dad from a previous job! Small world!!) So now I had a decision to make after driving both these cars. I really liked both of them, but there were a lot of things that made one car better than the other...can you guess what car I chose? :)




It's a 2000 Chrysler Sebring...convertible!!!!












I never thought I would own such a nice car!









Haha! Compare the old and new....as much as I love my old Sunfire...I'm sure gonna enjoy cruising around with the top down!









I love the feel of the wind through my hair when I'm driving down the road!










So happy :)

Meme week

I still have a lot of things to post about, but right now I am housesitting while Kim and her family is on vacation. That means I don't have my pictures on this computer, and I don't want to update with out pictures. So you'll just have to wait until next week.
In the meantime, did you know that this week is meme week? So in the spirit of participation, here's a meme for you. Feel free to play along :)

01. What time did you get up this morning? 9:00
02. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
03. Last movie you saw in a theatre? Iron Man
04. What is your favorite TV Show? Fresh Prince of BelAir
05. What do you usually have for breakfast? Lucky Charms
06. What is your middle name? Jane
07. What food do you dislike? Fish
08. What is your favorite CD at the moment? A mix of Hip Hop and Rock that I made
09. What kind of car do you drive? Pontiac Sunfire
10. Favorite sandwich? I don't eat sandwiches
11. What characteristic do you despise? Chronic criticism
12. Favorite item of clothing? Weathervane Jeans
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go right now? Santorini
14. Favorite brand of clothing? American Eagle
15. Where would you retire to? Probably the same place I'm living when it's time to retire
16. Favorite birthday? doesn't really matter
17. Favorite sport to watch? Football
18. Furthest place you are sending this? Not really sending this anywhere, so whoever reads it 20. Are you a morning person or a night person? Both. I can get up super early in the morning (like 4am for work) or stay up super late and night and be just fine
21. What is your shoe size? 9.5
22. Pets? a dog, Tucker
23. News you'd like to share with us? Nothing new or exciting...sorry!
24. What did you want to be when you grew up? an astronaut
25. How are you today? just peachy!
26. What is your favorite candy? Snickers...or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
27. What is your favorite flower? Daisies
28. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? August 3
29. What are you listening to right now? cars driving by, and the keys clicking on the keyboard
30. What was the last thing you ate? A chocolate chip cookie that I baked in my car...more to come on this later
31. Do you wish on stars? Yes, only the first one though
32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Cerulean
33. How is the weather right now? Hot and sunny, I've spent most of the day outside by the pool!
34. Last person you spoke to on the phone? my dad
35. Favorite restaurant? Main Street Pub
36. Hair color? Brown with natural blonde highlights
37. What was your favorite toy as a child? My Easy Bake Oven (does that count as a toy?)
38. Summer or winter? Summer
39. Hugs or kisses? Kisses
40. What is the most romantic date you have ever had? Going for a long walk at a park, and around a pond, just the two of us talking
41. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate
42. Coffee or tea? Tea
44. What is under your bed? Old magazines.
45. What did you do last night? Hung out with friends, swam and watched 21
46. What are you afraid of? Spiders
47. Salty or sweet? Sweet
48. How many keys on your key ring? 3
49. How many years at your current job? 3 (as of last Saturday!)
50. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
51. How many towns have you lived in? 3
52. Do you make friends easily? yes Acquaintances? yes