Hello? Anyone there?

I often wonder if anyone reads my blog. I have to force my family to read this, which leads me to a funny interlude. Remember the Dollar Store Hero? Well, Jen and I never told our parents about her locking the keys in Steve again. I had decided to write our adventures in a blog post and see if they actually read it. It was a few days since Mom asked if we were ever going to tell her about our adventure. It took Dad another few days to read it himself. Mom and Dad, the moral of the story is to read my blog as soon as I post anything!! That way you can stay in the loop.

Before I get on with this post I would like to ask people to comment, even if it is just to say hi!

My goal for the school year is to blog often! And I really do mean often!! The Monday Posts will be done EVERY WEEK! And I am hoping to have another posting during the week sometime. I also find school to provide the structure in my life that I crave, and I am hoping that blogging will supply me with enough of a break when I do need it. We shall have to see how this goes but fingers crossed for more frequent posting.

An Awesome Thing:
#922 Getting a trucker to blow his/her horn
I have been volunteering at a day care a bit this summer and #922 is the most awesome thing in the WORLD for these little kids. There is a construction site near the day care and the big trucks use the road that day care is on to get to the site.

Imagine a peaceful playground, with kids playing in the sandbox, reading books and just enjoying life. Wait! What was that?! The rumble of the truck is heard across the playground and all the children jump up and run screaming to the fence, all of them pumping their arm up and down motioning the truck driver to honk his/her horn. When that horn does blow (as it does every. single. time) all the kids jump up and down, screaming with joy. Within a few seconds, it is peaceful once again. That is, until the faint rumble of another truck sends all the kids back to the fence again. Getting a trucker to blow his/her horn really is an Awesome Thing. 

Book Updates:
I recently finished reading Pride and Prejudice. The best word to describe this book right now is love. I am planning on devoting an entire post to P&P because it deserves it.

I am now in the middle of The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. This is quickly turning out to be a wonderful novel and even though I am not yet finished reading it, put it on your lists of things to read.

I recently did something I have not done in a very long time. I actually purchased a book! That's right, an actual, hold-in-your-hands, turn the pages, not an e-book, book! Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay has been a book I have been wanting to read for a very long time so when I saw this on sale at Wal Mart, I jumped at the chance.

I also purchased The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I am very anxious to read both of these books and I am planning on writing reviews for both.

A Monday Present:

Keeping with the spirit of epic babies, anyone have other pictures of epic babies? Funny, goofy or just plain adorable, please share!

The Dollar Store Hero

I love my sister. I really do. But sometimes I just don't understand how Jennifer survives everyday.

Just last week she lost her week old iphone and while trying to replace it, she locked her keys in her car. This week she once again locked her keys in the car. It is almost funny, but not quite.

Picture Jennifer and me staring at her car keys through the window. I am sure you can imagine the hopeless look that was on our faces. This hopeless look only lasted a little bit before 'Resourceful' Jennifer and Katelyn took over.

Locked 'Steve' (yes, Jennifer has named her car) + coat hanger = fail

Things were getting pretty desperate. Jennifer did not want to call CAA two times in two weeks and the newly cut extra key for Steve was sitting completely inconveniently at home. I had even called the shop where Kirk works to see if he had any suggestions on how to break into Steve. All hope was lost until....

The Dollar Store Hero arrived!!! 

Out of the mist, with his St. Louis cap and well-loved truck, came our hero. He was able to work his magic with the coat hanger and with a resounding 'POP', Steve was unlocked!! I am not embarrassed to say that we did a little jig to celebrate. 

Our celebration continued as we went for some ice cream! I had Cherry Cheesecake and Jennifer had Grammy's Cupboard and Peanut Butter Cup Round Up. It was amazing, my only complaint being that two scoops was way too much! In the past two scoops had been the perfect amount, but was way too much now as they must have changed the scoop size. 

I am being completely unrealistic by hoping that the Dollar Store Hero will ever read this, but I can dream. 

To the Dollar Store Hero: Thank you! Your sheer awesomeness will never be forgotten. We will buy you some ice cream next time we meet. 

To my readers: I hope that the Dollar Store Hero, or a fellow Awesome Superhero, will be near to assist if you are ever silly enough to lock your keys in your car. And that you are able to celebrate with ice cream afterwards. 

Have you ever seen an Awesome Superhero? How did they help you or someone you know? Or maybe you had a crazy adventure that made you wish for a visit from an Awesome Superhero.  I would love to hear your stories. 

Quotes anyone?

I have commissioned my sister, Jennifer,to paint me a pretty picture!

I don't have any sort of artistic abilities what so ever, so I gave very vague instructions to Jennifer (which she was not happy about; "I am not a sketchbook!" she said over and over again)

{I should give myself a little credit here: I am not artistic anywhere but the computer. I do believe myself to be pretty talented with Adobe Photoshop, but I digress}

What I did give Jennifer was an idea: vintage,inspirational and something to fit in perfectly with my blog.

Jennifer had also recently purchased this:

She sat down before breakfast. Decided how to spend her day: climb trees. Run fast. Sing at the top of her lungs. Do the dishes tomorrow.

Isn't is perfect!? I also found these from the same company. They have many more but these are my favourite!

First it begins inside your heart. Something moves. Then opens. Then frees itself. And now, you feel a rhythm breaking its long silence. This is going to be good…

She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing “yes” in the sky.

That’s the way it is with dreams. They scratch at your door. You see them through the peep hole: A stray dream looking for a home. You think it might go away if you ignore it. Wrong. It’s still there when you open the door, smiling. Wagging its tail.

You can find these and many other products here: http://www.live-inspired.com/

I told Jennifer that I love the style of these and would love something like this, so I thought I had been pretty generous with my instructions: providing enough feedback without stifling her creative freedom. She doesn't see it this way though. 

I am so excited to show everyone the wonderful piece Jennifer painted for me, so keep checking back for that! 

While we wait for my painting, enjoy some other pieces by Jennifer. 

I do want to include an inspirational quote on my painting and I am having a hard time finding the perfect one! So I am passing this over to you!! Do you have a favourite I do want to include an inspirational quote that would be perfect for my painting? It could be something that always helps you feel better after a hard day, or even a cute saying that would fit in with the direction this painting is trying to go in. I would love to hear anything you have! 

Leave a comment and the 'winning' quote will receive a painting by Jennifer Dawes, future famous Canadian artist! (she doesn't actually know about this yet)


I am looking forward to reading all of the quotes! 

Have you met Marshall?

Have you met Marshall?

Sorry that it is blurry, we found out the hard way how difficult it is to take a picture of a kitten!

When we 'rescued' his mother, Noelle, on Christmas Day last year we never imagined the crazy stuff that was about to happen! Noelle was feral; she hissed at us, she scratched us, and yet she was the most adorable kitten we had ever seen. We were finally able to catch her, quarantine her, and get her to the vet for her first shots. After months of only catching glimpses of her at the barn, we noticed how big her belly was getting. Despite our hopes for only worms, as gross as that sounds, we finally heard tiny meows coming from upstairs. The only problem was that we could never actually see where the noises were coming from!

To make a long story short, we found them and placed them in a tiny version of Fort Knox. Chicken wire, cardboard and a whole lot of staples went into getting a stall impossible to get out of. Getting Noelle in was the next challenge. Using her kittens as 'bait', we were finally able to coax her in long enough to close the door.

Where does Marshall come into this story? Well, right here!

One of Life's Simple Pleasures: Kittens!!

We knew we had to find homes for these darlings because we already had 7 cats, but it was so hard not to get attached and fall in love so quickly! It was hard to say good-bye, but we knew we found good homes for them. Until...

We get a phone call. You have to come pick up the kitten, we can't keep him anymore. I will spare you the details, but taking the kitten from a young boy's hands and hearing his voice break as he says goodbye to 'Shadow' was one of the toughest things I have had to do.

Marshall. is now a member of our family, on the condition that I take him with me when I move out. Which won't be a problem at all, since he is the most adventurous, curious and lovable kitten we have ever had! One of my new joys in life is to snuggle with Marshall. at night and being woken up through the night with kisses.

It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens. 

 ~Cynthia E. Varnado

Life Lessons from Jack

This is Jack.

And this is what he has taught me:

Over a rhetorical shirt reigns a floating proof

Love the title?! I do! I could not think of a good enough title so I went here: a random word generator. It took only two clicks before this beauty popped up!

I decided to plug this into Google Images and see what appears. The result was a random bunch of images, some of them involving t-shirts and some were just plain odd. My favourite images of the bunch were:

The random title is fitting for this random blog post. As it has been too long since I last posted I figured I should get into things again. 

I have been reading the most wonderful books recently: Far to Go by Alison Pick, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I plan on writing reviews for them all very shortly. Right now I am read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. 

 

I recently came across this list here: 365 Simple Pleasures to Brighten a Year which I read through and just adored. Check these simple pleasures out when you get a chance, I will be featuring one every blog. 

Today's Simple Pleasure is...

1. Songs that bring you back to great moments in your life.

It is amazing how much music is a part of my life. The radio is normally always on, or we have a CD going, or I am upstairs listening to my Sirius Satellite Radio. The main musical influence in my life is Elvis Presley. I have been a fan of Elvis for many years now and I could listen to his voice all day long. Whenever I hear an Elvis song I do think of my trip to Graceland that I took with my dad for my 16th birthday. It was such an amazing experience to be at Graceland and I cannot wait to go back! 

I decided that trying to complete the list of 50 Ways to Scatter Sunshine is going to take too long if I try and do it in order. So I am going to complete this list out of order. 

50 Ways to Scatter Sunshine

9. Leave an encouraging note in a library book

I rarely take out library books myself, so I put this note in one of the books that my mom borrowed. 

Sunshine successfully scattered!!

Today is....

a wonderful day.

a beautiful day.

a day to be thankful for.

a day to stop and smell the flowers.

a day to walk around with a huge smile on your face because you can.

I woke up this morning and decided that today was going to be a great day. Yes, I was so very tired when I woke up that I just wanted to go back to bed. And yes, the massive grocery shopping adventure ended up pushing my buttons. But these things did not stop me from enjoying this day.

One of the main reasons for keeping such a positive attitude, other than my birthday tomorrow of course, is this blog here: Alice's Bucket List. Alice is such an inspiration and if she can keep such a wonderful attitude despite her terminal cancer, then I certainly can.

But it all comes down to that; a choice. I can choose to have a great day today and not let anything dampen my mood. On the other hand, I could chose not to care and let every tiny thing bother me. Making the decision to have a wonderful day today was easy, keeping it a wonderful day meant some work, but it is worth it. Today is a grand day.

Because I missed this week's Monday Post due to being away, I figured I should finally post that book review for The Good Daughters. I posted it on my goodreads account and you can find the review here.

And finally..... SCATTERING SUNSHINE!!
That's right! I finally got the first item finished, it only took almost three months.

50 Ways to Scatter Sunshine
1. Send a hand-written thank you card to someone.

I received this box with cards for my birthday from my aunt and I completely adore it!

It was absolutely perfect for this scattering of sunshine. I am not going to say who the letter was to but the letter was mailed today and should be arriving sometime next week! I am going to pretend that I put off doing this first item of the list was because I did not have the right stationary to properly and effectively scatter sunshine. But now I do! 

Sunshine successfully scattered! 

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." 

— E.E. Cummings