Time for some Love!

It is time to take down the Christmas decorations and move onto the next holiday; Valentine's Day. My place looks rather bare without the garland and the trees. But Life must go on, and so Valentine's it is.

Yesterday, Kelly and I brought some lunch over to Heather's place. It was a lovely day chatting with these great girls, talking about JUNO and life. Kelly made an awesome Thai Pizza, YUM! We also had a great time when Heather left to go pick up her son Miles at Pre-school. As she was going out the door, I heard a rather strange noise coming from little Asher. And I must admit Heather went out the door quite quickly after that, hmmmm? :) Well it turned out that Asher had a diaper blow-out, so Kelly and i set to work looking for new diaper and clothes. Team Work! Asher is such a sweet baby that it's not a big deal at all to clean up his poop!

Well my vacation is quickly coming to an end. Only three more days of freedom. Kyle asked me the other night if i was getting bored on my vacation and if I was anxious to get back to work. AS IF! I am never bored being at home, having the freedom to come and go as a please and of course staying up very late every night and sleeping in every day! What Rapture, What Joy! Me Bored? NEVER!

Sewing and Soup

Today as I was out and about, enjoying another wonderful day off of work, I decided to go into a Hancock Fabrics store. There I got lost in the isles of fabric and trim. I used to be an avid sewing lover, making all sorts of blankets, dresses and purses. But in the recent past, I have put aside my sewing machine and moved onto knitting. However, walking around all the fabric inspired me to make some pillows. I always find that pillows are so darn expensive, and making them yourself is so much cheaper. So I opted for a red and white flower pattern that was in the clearance bin, $1.00 for 3 yards! And some white fur dot pattern that was 50% off! Gotta love the deals! I also learned this neat little trick for making little pinwheel appliques.

When I am finished with a bunch of them, i will sew them onto another pillow. So for $20 I made 3 pillows! Not bad! It's a great feeling to work with my hands... And although I have tiny hobbit fingers, I do marvel at what i can do with them. Fingers are amazing! After sewing, I set to making a pumpkin soup for my cousins. I invited them over as a way to thank them for the wonderful pumpkin soup tureen and bowls.

I made some Tastefully Simple Beer Bread, Spicy Homemade Brownies and of course the Pumpkin Soup, which was a Thai-Spiced. mmmm! Delish! The recipe can be found here, but i cheated and used 2 cans of pumpkin, much easier that way! Kelly looked cute as a bug with her new hairdo, and since she wouldn't let me take a photo, she looked a lot like Deb from Napoleon Dynamite!

I have been having many requests about my NEw Years Eve festivities, what I did, where I went, who i kissed... I will tell you that I stayed home and didn't go out.... Just Kidding! I was with my HS Home girls whooping it up. There was Chinese Food and Jason Mraz and a Party in Prior Lake. Shannon wins the award for best outfit!~ What a Fashionista!

It was a great night, I met a lot of people, and had a total blast. ;)

Happy 2008!

New Year's Eve

This is it, the last day of 2007. In a way I am very happy to put this past year behind me and forge on to a new year. I suppose I could wax poetic about everything that has happened to me this past year. Or i could just say that I didn't just survive this year, but I lived it! That is a good feeling. Although, the first part of the year was the hardest, and saddest... I went through a break-up that should not have been unexpected, but it really caught me off guard, broke my heart and changed my life. The first few days and weeks that followed were like baby steps, teetering and tottering about, falling down and trying to get back up, and man I was so scared. What could the future hold? Could God possibly see this silly sad girl and not only help her but heal her? So many uncertainties! I read yesterday on Nothing But Bonfires about how she was so scared to uproot her life, but what she found was better then what she left behind. I love what she says here and how so very true:
"The thing is, when you’re bracing against something, when you’re resisting it so hard, when your expectations of how it’s going to be are the worst you can possibly imagine: well, something happens. It’s never really that bad."

Oh the truth in that is astounding. What i was most afraid of, and what i thought was going to be the worst time of my life, turned out to be the best time of my life. Filled with happy happy moments with friends new and old and new experiences. And most importantly a time to sit with God and talk and let Him love me and take care of me. It is by His grace that I am where I am... I still have a long (very long) way to go, but the beauty of His never ending love & grace is amazing! A few verses from the Bible, that absolutely got me through the dark times were, Psalm 126 & Zephaniah 3:14-20 .
Well I made it, and I expect to make it through next year and Lord willing the next and next years. I have no New Year's Resolutions. The things I should already be doing like eating healthy and exercising more are things that i continually need to work on. But this year I hope to strive for having less and giving more. Being continually thankful and hopeful for everything God has in store for me.
Happy New Year to you All! I hope this new year finds you blessed and living life to the fullest!

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Snow Bunnies

Somehow between Friday and Last night, I was invited to a random party and somehow i agreed to go. Not that i am against a good ol' party, but this party was at a girl's house that i only somewhat knew from high school. Cindy assured me that it would be fun and that i should go. But as yesterday wore on, Cindy would call me with more details about the party, "Oh did I tell you that you are supposed to bring a white elephant gift?" Ahhh No. And then a few hours later, "Did I tell you that it was going to be a sledding party?" AHHH what? and No?

Nevertheless, I still thought it would be more fun than cleaning, and cleaning all day can get pretty old. So I met up with Cindy, Mike, Shannon, Jaime and John for dinner. We laughed, we laughed more, we had merriment and then we went to the party.

The party was a kitchen party, because for some reason the festivities were centralized to the kitchen, must be a Carver County thing. I didn't really recognize anyone but the host, Jen and that was only because i had seen a recent picture of her. She had quite the assortment of friends, very friendly, very (very) interesting. I wonder if more people recognized me then I them, because Jen was a few years younger than me in school. And typically you remember the people in the grades ahead of you then you do the grades below you. Case in point, I said my name, as just Sabrina, and this guy across the room goes, Sabrina R? and i said, "Yes that is me", (I not really sure who he was) and he just said, Nice. Which I am not entirely sure what "Nice" meant. Although, as we talked I realized that he is married to a sister of a friend from high school. But I also wonder if my reputation had also proceeded me? I wasn't a total rebel in school, but i surely was no saint. You wonder what people remember about you. I hope more good then bad???

We geared up to go sledding, walking an odd number of blocks to a church at the edge of town with a wicked good hill. We laughed, and sledded and watched the boys do crazy death defying tricks, and took swigs from the Santa flask filled with peppermint schnapps. Which was purely used medicinally as a way to keep warm.

I can't remember the last time i went sledding, but I had fun going down the hill with shannon and laughing and screaming. You forget how fun the simple pleasure of sitting on plastic, flying a million miles per hours down a steep snow covered hill. Man life is sweet.

We eventually, tired and frozen walked back to the house of the party, ate some snacks, told some stories and laughed harder and harder over silly things.

I also simultaneously at about midnight got a call from from my crazy kookie cousins kelly and kyle on their way to the casino. (How's that for alliteration?)

We talked about joining them down at "Mistake" Lake, but we were having so much fun, and plus it was almost time for the White Elephant gift exchange. There was a lot of really cool white elephant gifts and you would think maybe i could get one of them. I did have in my possession a 1977 Charlie's Angel's board game, but someone stole that from me. I ended up with a really weird object that i can't quite say for certain if it was what I thought it was, but I think I have an idea of the silliness factor. It was really weird. People are strange!! Hotpockets all of them!

All is well that ends well, around 1:30am I headed home, and when I got home at 2:00am I texted Kelly to see if they won the jackpot, her response was, "No, but hurray for vacation!"

I couldn't agree more!

Tomorrow is the last day of the year. I'm sure i will be in hardcore reflection mode, so be prepared for some deep thoughts from Sabrina.

Best wishes to everyone, Happy New Year!

The Bed.

Today I am spending the day giving my place a much needed cleaning. Dust bunnies have taken over and they are multiplying, and i thought only live bunnies had littlens' like mad rabbits. My cleaning techniques are funny. I don't set to a task, go hard or go home until it is done. I am more of a leisurely cleaner. I am like that with a lot of things in my life, namely because I am not the most ambitious person in the world, and I like to take my time. So cleaning starts at 0ne end of my home, sweeping here, organizing there, and then I sit and watch some food network television. Then I get up and move to another room, do as much cleaning as i feel like, then I head back to the couch and watch a movie. That is cleaning day for me. I do eventually get the whole place clean, but it may take all day, where as another person it might take an hour. But that is me, take me as I am.

As I was straitening my bedroom and making my bed, I thought about something Kelly was saying the other night. Basically, how as children and teenagers our beds are our central piece of furniture. There we do everything! Read, play, watch tv, do our homework, talk on the phone, and of course sit with all your friends. Your bed is your personal mecca of everyday life. We were saying that imagine now, if you went over to a friends house and they took you strait to their room, closed the door and you flopped down on their bed and shared your deepest and most appalling secrets? It just doesn't happen. Even when I am alone I only use my bed for sleeping and maybe reading right before sleep. It is funny how when you upgrade to couches and chairs, the bed loses its #1 spot for living and socializing. However, my bed has not lost the #1 spot in my heart, as far as furniture goes, no other place in my home is as kind and forgiving as my bed, all nice and cozy, inviting me in each night to sleep and dream and put the long day behind me. Ahhhhh.....

Last night i saw the movie Atonement with Ellen. I had started to read the book before the movie came out, but during the Christmas season I had put is aside. I'm glad I only read the first chapter, because I was very surprised at how the movie ended. Atonement was beautiful and sad at the same time. I would definitely recommend it to see, then read the book.

Well off i go to clean some more, only my kitchen remains, and dauntingly, that is the grungiest room in my place, next to my bathroom, which ooops, I guess I have to clean that too and this is a really long run-on sentence. Happy Almost New Year.

Bonxai!

For a couple of weeks now, My cousin Kelly and i were very excited to take out our friend Heather for the night. She was Kelly's friend first, but I think I am ready to say she is my friend now too! Heather is a great gal and I wonderful mommy to 2 ADORABLE little boys, Miles and Asher. So we thought it would be fun to get Heather out of the house for a night. WE met up at Cafe Bonxai, a nice Asian-Fusion restaurant on University Ave. Kelly's BFF Sarah also joined us, and she never fails to totally crack me up. Our plan was to go eat and then a movie. We made it through dinner, and were about to see the movie, when Heather says, "I have some scary and sad news to tell you." I was thinking the worst, but really she couldn't join us for the movie, because her kids were coming down from their Christmas high and her husband Ryan had to catch them. :) So we of course were disappointed, because we like you Heather! and I was really only mad at your for maybe 10 seconds! :) Next Time!

So just Kelly and I went and saw the movie Juno. I had seen it already, but not Kelly and she loved it! Honestly, I think it was funnier the second time! Oh and let me back up, while we were standing in line to get tickets, Kelly says, "Do you want to go to a 24 Walmart after the movie?" Heck Yeah my Cuz! So after the movie we made a trip to the Eagan Walmart. There we got lost in rows and rows of discounted Christmas decor. At one point Kelly fell madly in love with a deluxe makeup set. You know those huge boxes of every eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, nail polish under the sun. It looked so tempting that i put one in the cart too... until we realized, we probably didn't need another 50 eyeshadow combos. I did however get a whole set of fun wrapping paper and my next year's Christmas cards all for 50% off! It was fun, and the best part is, we both didn't have to work in the morning, so we could browse to our little hearts content into the wee hours of the night. Fun Times!

Hair and Pumpkins and Mraz, Oh My!

Breaking news! My cousin Chad and his wife Kristi are going to have a baby!! Whoo Hoo!!! My Cousin Kelly explains the situation best in her blog here.

So I made the grown up step and got my hair cut last Saturday. Along with a much need color upgrade. Auburn with red highlights... I am missing my long hair, but I love how healthy and shiny my new hair-do is. I don't think I honestly could go any shorter. I had thought deeply about getting the Katie Holmes hair-do, not the newest one with the bangs but the one before that with side-swept bangs... Instead I went 6 inches shorter, and I still have shoulder length hair. It's not as curly as it is when it is long... I miss that too. But I do like it, for now, but I think it needs to grow out more. New Year, New Hair! :)

Anyway, one of my favorite gifts, and there were many, was a total surprise gift from my cousin Kelly. I had seen this totally cute soup tourine and bowls in the shape of pumpkins at Z-Gallerie but they were way out of my price range. Happily, Kelly had found a similar set on QVC! I just love it and i can't wait to make some pumpkin soup and have some friends over to share in the goodness.

And on a final note, I wanted to share a quote with you from the wonderful Jason Mraz. If you haven't heard of him or his music, it is a must, especially his live cd! I was reading his blog last night and he had this great quote about the new year, about living life to the fullest. This is exactly what i was thinking for awhile, but didn't know how to express it. Mr. A-Z says it best and this is my New Year's resolution:

"Another year is fast approaching. Go be that starving Artist you’re afraid to be. Open up that journal and get poetic finally. Volunteer. Suck it up and travel. You were not born here to work and pay taxes. You were put here to be part of a vast organism to explore and create. Stop putting it off. The world has much more to offer than what’s on 15 televisions at TGI Fridays. Take pictures. Scare people. Shake up the scene. Be the change you want to see in the world."