Happy Memorial Day!!

I hope everyone is enjoying their day. Just a quick note to let you all know that my list is complete. You can check it out to the right. I'll post something of significance later today (hopefully). Happy Memorial Day!!!

Books!!

I now have a list of only 87 books. This is bothersome because I want to have a completed list to begin June 1st. One of my readers suggested that I include a series but I have decided not to do that because I want to have a wider range of books. I want to read things that I wouldn't normally (biographies, classics, etc). Any book that you want to read or that you have recently/semi-recently, please leave it in a comment. I need a list!! It is another of my freakish quirks... I can't have a partial list before beginning my challenge. Forgive me for being so OCD.

Also, another of my readers posted her own Summer Challenge and I think it's awesome. Anyone else have something like this going on?

Much love and many blessings,
Cass

Friday Follow - Memorial Day Weekend

Oh yes friends, it is again Friday, the day that gets most of us through the rest of the week. I am particularly found of this Friday because it is also followed by a Monday off. When you have Tuesdays off like I do, that makes for a 5 DAY WEEKEND! Cheers!

I hope you all are safe and happy this weekend. Also, please try to remember the reason for this beautiful weekend and thank any service men and women that you know.

84 of 100

I've decided on 84 of the 100 books I'm planning to read. The sad part is that probably 10-12 of those are books I already owned that I have never gotten around to reading. :D This is very exciting and also a little scary. I think I must be crazy trying to take this on with a wild and wiggly 10 month-old to chase after. Hopefully I can make it happen and most importantly have fun with it. I also need to prove to myself that I can accomplish a not-so-important, long-term goal. I am normally pretty flippant about stuff like this, which irritates me. I want to set a goal that doesn't HAVE to be met and still reach it. It will make me feel less lazy I guess. Also, I still need to pick 16 more books, so I'll post my list thus far (over on the right -->), and please give me suggestions to add to it!

Summer Reading... I feel like I'm in high school

I feel like I'm in high school because I was as much of a nerd then as I am today and in turn, I've decided to make myself a HUGE Summer Reading list. Typically back in the day, they made you pick two books to read and write a paper about and/or take a test on. Mega-nerd here usually read them all and picked my favorites to write about.

Anyway, I'm trying to decide if I should create a list and instead of only reading this summer, possibly create a challenge to read 100 books in 365 days. As a disclaimer, this is not my own idea, I read it on another blog and thought it was a great idea. I'm also considering making it a weekly event to write reviews on some of these books.

So, over the course of writing this blog, I've decided to create a major list (100 books) and start this new challenge June 1st. Any suggestions regarding books between now and then will be appreciated and likely added to the list (unless I've already read them). Also, if anyone wants to take this journey with me, I'd be glad to have someone to talk to about the books we read.

On a side note, thanks for all the encouraging words and prayers. I love my little blog community!

~Cassie

Warning, this one's a bummer

So to fill you all in on the "family situation" and put an end to my dramatic pause: one of Gary's grandmothers has pancreatic cancer that we discovered today has spread to her lungs. She was told that her only treatment could be chemotherapy possibly to extend her life but probably just to make her more comfortable. They are giving her six months - one year to live. This is a major blow to the entire family because she is an incredible woman. She is definitely the glue that holds everything together and I am deeply saddened by this news. To make things a lot sadder, her husband has Alzheimer's (which is fairly progressed) and I'm just not sure how their whole situation will work out. Adult-wise, there are three daughters with their husbands and Gary and I are the only adult grandchildren. We are going to visit her tomorrow and I'm sure it will be very emotional. This is especially hard of Gary because he's only lost one other person close to him. Unfortunately, death and I are old friends but it isn't exactly any easier. I have always been an extreme planner; so my first thoughts were "What will Thanksgiving and Christmas be like? I wonder if she'll live longer or if this is more progressed than they suspect..." I don't like to think of myself as a worrier, I just like to think ahead and consider how things will play-out.

Thank you all for your prayers. I don't want this note to have a defeated tone, which I'm seeing now that it does. I want to reaffirm that I believe that we serve a God that can heal anyone and do anything. I have not lost hope that He will heal her but if He chooses not to, I also want to be prepared for losing her. His plans are not often my plans but I recognize that it's much better that way in the long run.

Friendly Friday Follow - May 21st

A new Friday Follow! I'm so excited to check out new blogs today.
If you'd like an intro to my awesome life check out My Loves or My Freakish Quirks. Enjoy! And leave me a comment with some of our favorite posts. Happy Friday ladies and gents!

<>< Cass

rain, rain, rain

Let me be the only child brat that I am for just a minute....

I have never mowed my own yard or anyone else's for that matter. Maybe it's because I am the only child and I'm a girl. I'm not sure. But honestly, I never intend to mow my own yard. However, I would appreciate if God could cut it out with all the rain only showing up on the weekend (which happens to be the only time my husband has to take care of the yard because of a long days work and a long commute).

That's my little rant for today. Btw, it's raining tonight, tomorrow, and most of Saturday.

Dear Neighbors, PLEASE don't start a petition to have us kicked out of the neighborhood because our yard looks so bad. They are mostly weeds anyway. :/

On a different note, I turned in my notice at work. I will officially be a stay-at-home mommy soon. I didn't plan on doing this before we had another child but duty calls (duty being family and family being in-laws/grand-in-laws). I actually like the people I work with but of course, I love my child more and I want to help out since my husband really can't. Keep praying for the fam.... I'll fill you all in soon on the details of this craziness.

Much love and many blessing,
Drenched Diva

Goal update

A few months ago I posted about the goals I've set for myself and for our family. I thought I should take a minute and update everyone on our status with these goals. First of all, I fell off the wagon! J/K But, I did slow down a lot with reading new books. I picked up another classic and reread it, which took the place of one of my new books for the month but hopefully I'll just read three by the end of the month instead if two. On a side note, I would like some suggestions for "good reads." I'm hoping to make a big trip to our local used book store soon and I want to be armed with a HUGE list, so I have lots of options. :D I love reading books at the beach and the beach is quickly approaching.

I've gotten off track... One of my personal goals was to feel healthier. I believe I am making much better decisions regarding my diet and possibly the best step in the right direction of me was to eliminate sodas. I had slowly gotten to the point that I drank a few a day instead of a few a week. Not only was that entirely too much sugar for me, it was also pretty expensive! I have also opted to cook much fresher, healthier foods overall and I am enjoying it.

I know I've mentioned previously my major to-do list for this summer regarding our home.... Last weekend for mother's day we made a new flower bed. It's so great and looks like a professional job. I have to give credit to hubs and Topher though, they were the builders and I was the architect. :D In addition to that little project, I'm planning to contact the Salvation Army to have some old furniture picked up from our den so that I can tackle that space next. I love feeling like I've accomplished things around our house and lately I'm happy to say I have met my goals.

My newest goal relates a little to the healthier trend. Let me backtrack a bit... I originally put off joining Weight Watchers because I was pregnant. And then much more recently I wasn't sure if I should join because we're planning to have another baby again hopefully next Spring/Summer. But, I decided that any weight lost would be a step in the right direction, so I'm planning to join for a three month period and then see where we are on the baby plans. I'm pretty excited about joining because I know that Weight Watchers works and it's not just some silly diet that I'll fail to follow. And to be honest, I'm also nervous because I've never dieted in my life. I know that sounds nuts but I have never cared before now. (And don't ask me why I care now, because I have no idea!)

I doubt I'm brave enough to put my numbers up (i.e. weight, waistline, etc), but I'll glad starting posting my losses! Hope you all have a great week!!

Sabbatical

Sorry for my sabbatical. Life was a little unruly this week and surprisingly not because of my daughter. Most of my world was ruled by work this week but thankfully that's all over. This is the first weekend in a while that we haven't been locked in to some sort of plans and I was very grateful for that. Most of my day was spent hanging out with my two great loves and that's my version of paradise. :D

On another note, I'm asking for prayers for my husband's family. When it rains it pours, I've always believed that. I say this because two of Gary's family members have received very scary/sad news this week regarding their health. We try not to be worriers and to remain hopeful but all of the bad news coming in the same week makes it much harder to stay positive. I may elaborate later but for now I'm just asking for a quick prayer for our family.

Speaking of positive, I wanted to publicly say thank you to my awesome hubs for making me a lay-out that I love! He did it of course with a little input from me because we all know that I can be picky. But anyway, THANKS HONEY!!
~Cassie

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all current and future mothers. Our children are lucky to have us!!

Follow Friday - May 7th Edition

Happy Friday Friends!! Apparently the link isn't working properly, so go here: Friday Follow Edit.
Have a great day!!

Shonta

Living in the society we do today has opened up quite a few doors with regard to communication. This being said, possibly my two favorite things that I think I could not function without checking each day are Facebook and the blogs I follow. Maybe I'm nosy, but I like to stay informed and on top of that fact, I've gotten lazy with my phone calls and e-mail writing. I've said all of this to say, a young woman that I have always considered to be a friend took her own life a couple of days ago. And when I say friend, I mean that we have known each other since we were 5 but probably haven't seen each other face-to-face in 6-ish years. We used Facebook to communicate... constantly commenting on statuses or our children's pictures. My dilemma comes in with do I go to the funeral home and pay my respects to a person that I wasn't really that close to or do I say my prayers for her family in the privacy of my home. I don't want to seem disrespectful to her truly close family and friends with my presence when most of them have forgotten me in the years since I lived in that small town. But I also don't want her life to pass by without recognizing that there were definitely times we shared together. Unfortunately, this dilemma seems to be a recurrent one and that saddens me. I'm probably superstitious but I believe the old wive's tale that death comes in threes. It already has this spring. And it saddens me that people die so young when it seems that they are really just starting their life.

29

29 is my favorite number, it's my lucky number. Today, I have 29 followers!! Thanks Twee Poppets for following my site. Happy Hump Day all!!

Has it come to this...

The past few weeks, I've encountered something that slightly disturbs me. I've been called young lady at least 5 times by people I don't know (retail, nail salon, etc). All of the people that called me young lady are not very old themselves (mostly 30-somethings) and it makes me wonder, have I gotten old enough that people think calling me young lady will make me feel young again? I know that sounds crazy BUT, I have worked with the public long enough to know that if you call a woman that is obviously not a young lady, young lady, you are trying to make her feel young again. The alternative is that I'm being paranoid, which is completely possible. I just get this feeling that I don't look younger than I am anymore. No one cards me for drinks anymore either.

The funniest part is that I really am not concerned about my age. I doubt very much that at 30 or 40 or even 50 I'll care to disclose my true number. I really just wonder if I've reached this point.

Post-it Note Tuesday -May 4th

Freakish QuirkS

Let me be honest and tell all of you one of my many freakish quirks: I love thinking about baby names. I mean I LOVE it. I think about the names I'll give my children all the time. Because of this, I was thinking today about names that I think are beautiful but have been "ruined" by someone that I've met with that name. An example of this is the name Olivia. I don't know what that name means but I will never look it up because I will never use it because of a girl I went to school with from elementary and up. She was so nasty and hateful to people and she has ruined that lovely name for me. Another example of this is my husband's hate for the name Andrew. He says that every Andrew he's ever personally known was a jackass. I personally like that name, but apparently, it's never going to happen and I understand why.

On the same note, today was Audrey Hepburn's birthday. Let me just say, I love that woman. As a matter of fact, another of my freakish quirks regards numbers. I love matching up numbers so that they mean something. My husband and I got married on April 12th because that was the date that we met two years prior. Also, we were married 4/12/08 because the numbers were all even and 4 and 8 add up to be 12. (YES I KNOW I'M A FREAK!) So, I'm that next year I'm fully pregnant again with another girl and I will choose May 4th as her birthdate and name her Audrey. (Side note: I get to choose my children's birthdays, within reason, because I will always have a c-section due to a previous pelvis break.)

Now that you know my freakish tendencies, please continue to love me anyway. :D

Tuesday Tag-Along - May 4th

Join us on Tuesday Tag-Along. I've found that these are great for finding new and interesting bloggers. You can get the McLinky at the bottom of this post.

I love having time off

Possibly the best part about being part-time now is the amount of time off that I'm given. See, I work for two doctors, one of which is partially retired, and they kind of come and go as they please. Because of this, if one of them is off, I too am off. This helps the full-timers still get their hours and I truly don't mind. Because of this, I only work one day this week and it will be a half day. So here's my on-going to do list:

1. Spray paint "new" patio furniture. (New to us :D)
2. Buy comfy cushions for said patio furniture.
3. Create retaining wall around sidewalk and plant hostas,etc.
4. Get hair done.
5. Get emissions testing done for my car and send off check for new tags.
6. Make the house festive for Cinco de Mayo!!