Thursday Thirteen - All About Love!

Thursday Thirteen .....
All About Love

So last week the T-13 crew suggested a wedding topic ... a fairly simple task. But then again, thirteen of our favorite wedding memories is kind of easy, right? We plan these days and hopefully they go off without a hitch. Sometimes with a glitch or three. It's after the wedding that things can get a little harder, so I thought I'd expand on last week's topic (and keep the romance going) by listing Thirteen Things Love Is....

1. ... a walk at twilight, just to enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass
2. ... playing footsie under the breakfast table...10 years after saying 'I Do'
3. ... sitting on the couch and sharing the popcorn bowl on movie night
4. ... him cooking dinner because I'm on deadline
5. ... making fun of the same stupid commercials on Super Bowl Sunday
6. ... watching the 500 weeks of football prior to SBS, and not complaining about it
7. ... grocery shopping at midnight because we forget there was no food in the house
8. ... setting aside a special date night every week
9. ... an unexpected card, just because
10. ... putting up with my craziness and not complaining (much) ... and vice versa
11. ... shared memories that still make us laugh and cry
12. ... being slow to speak but fast to listen (corny but true)
13. ... knowing that 'what if' is right in front of me

Dress for Success

I think I've mentioned before that finding clothes that fit right through the chest without looking like a muumuu over the rest of my body is hard for me to do. In my life as a freelancer I don't have to worry about it much, but when I'm meeting with a new client or am out for an interview, I like to look good. I start at the bottom - and that means lingerie. I'm not much into the garterbelt thing, but I like my underthings to have a fit and for that fit to fit me. I just got in some new stuff from the link above and love it - Great Fit and Great Deal!

Movie Night Comfort

During the big Writer's Strike in LA, the hubster and I basically wrote off traditional television (most of it was the same story being told and retold anyway). Now we watch channels like HGTV, Discovery and the like. And we watch a lot of movies. Our new television is one of the wall tv mounts, and we put a little lower than eye-level (when we're standing) which makes it perfect for couch-sitting! We just finished the new Kirk Cameron movie and are waiting for our next selection to arrive in the mail. I've also been looking into full show lists of our favorite shows from years past. The clips look really interesting so I think we're going to try a few out and see what we see!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

At the end of last summer, our first summer with a fully working pool, the hubster and I decided to make a more liveable back-yard area. So we put in an outdoor kitchen (heavenly!!), redid the patio and installing an awning so we can enjoy the backyard even when it's really hot or raining. We also looked at fountains, but we decided against that idea. Although there were several I liked, our backyard just isn't a fountain kind of place. So...maybe our next house. I did put a small table-top fountain in our kitchen dining area, though, and I love that one!

I Love Books!

bet you guys didn't know that, didja? hehe. Of course, big joke there. Y'all know I love reading books as much as I like reading them. A very close second? Listening to books. When audio books first came out, not so much a fan. A lot has changed - I'm so busy with my writing (nonfiction and fiction), quilting and reality tv addiction that audio books are now a favorite. I can listen to a book as I work on a purse or quilt...I can listen to a book as I create new recipes...I can listen to a book while the DH is watching a ball game.

Dressing the Hubster

..is a fun thing for me to do. Not that he lets me do it often, but on our recent trip to Las Vegas he actually let me help him out at one of the stores at Cesar's. First, lemme say that he's hard to dress because he used to be an athlete so it's hard finding clothes that fit right through the chest without looking like a muumuu over the rest of his body. This store catered to him though, and from a new pair of jeans that are totally hip hop clothes to a fun tee that has gold and silver accents, he looked good. He'll probably never wear the stuff now that we're home, but in Vegas, he looked like a Vegas dude!

I Want One! I Want One!

A friend of mine passed this along to me the other day -- test tube baby aliens! And I want one! They look so fun - and who doesn't want to add an alien in the family? Seriously. :) It's like Chia Pet, only who really wants a Chia-Alien (okay, a Chia-Anything) in their home? These test tube baby aliens are just too cute. You can grab Alien Adoption World Collectors Kits and bada-bing, bada-boom your very own alien. I sent the link to the DH earlier today...maybe he'll take the hint and I'll have a little something special soon! :)

Score Me Some Pics!

So I got the best Christmas prezzie from my FIL this year - a new camera. It's one of the new canon digital cameras, not a professional-grade but the next best thing. The digi-display on my old camera stopped working last year, the pics were always blurry because of megapixel issues and it was incredibly hard to download and share. Blech!

The new camera is so simple - and I can share through Facebook and Twitter and whatnot directly from the camera. All I have to do is click which photos to share and as I'm downloading to my computer, it shares to my social networks at the same time.

The biggest benefit, though, is the grade of pictures I'm now taking - pictures that I can sell along with my writing to magazines and online sources. Triple Score!!

Shivers and Shakes, Oh, My!

so you guys know that I normally focus my articles on advertising/marketing subjects. Recently a magazine editor approached me to look into the luxury drug rehabilitation market, not really to do an expose, but to focus on the different areas of treatment. This really hit home with me because I have a friend who recently completed an intervention with her teen son and they got him into anxiety drug treatment centers.

He has not reacted well to the treatment and from what she has told me, I believe it is because the center where he is is so incredibly different from home. No matter what they do, he can't get comfortable in the environment. Before y'all shush me, think about it - it is hard enough to be treated for a drug or alcohol addiction and no one should assume it is easy to do. But imagine how hard it would be if you were 1) taken from your home as a teen and 2) put into treatment and 3) the center was 180 degrees from the type of environment you were used to. The place he is isn't a bad, dirty or otherwise reportable place; but it is very much not the kind of place he would be comfortable.

If my friend could have afforded it, she would have sent her son to a more "luxury" treatment center but that wasn't in the cards. Hopefully, though, he will adjust to his new surroundings and everything will work out.

Oh, Christmas Tree - A Little Bit Late!

...so my friends came up with a fun idea - to share our Christmas trees to get "in the mood" for the holidays...and I thought, why not jump in? So, I took a picture and never got it uploaded here. I'm doing that now. TaaDaa: here's my tree:

It's kind of a mish-mash of things: a few ornaments from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (my absolute favorite Christmas cartoon), a few ornaments from childhood (DH's and mine), quite a few bear/Coke things... not nearly as put together as Marty's tree....but it fits me.

Now that it's up, though, the dogs are sleeping underneath it instead of on my feet. Traitors! They must think there's something under there for them....