Vera Bradley, Meet Your Match!

It is so late right now that I don't even feel like writing this post, but I have to share with you what happened to me this evening. Brad and I went out on a date to the Melting Pot to celebrate our pending adoption. It was a leisurely evening, and it took a couple hours to complete our meal. Unfortunately, we needed to make a Wal-Mart run after we finished, so that put us arriving at the Indian Trail Wal-Mart around 11:30pm. Those of you who know me also know that I wear a Vera Bradley pocket book that is technically called a "small backpack". However, it is in the handbag section and is actually a purse with two straps. I bought it last fall and have worn it every day since. On the way into Wal-Mart I was stopped by the guys at the door, who asked me to leave my bookbag up front. I said, "Oh, this isn't a bookbag, this is my purse." They said, "Sorry, company policy. If you don't want to leave it up front, you can go leave it in your car." I said, "Is it because of the time of day?" Thinking that maybe after 11 they had a spike in crime and needed to crack down on certain things. No, no, the guys insisted this was a policy that is always in effect. I had actually opened it up for them and showed them the contents to prove that it was a purse and not, in fact, a book bag. There were no guns or drugs inside, and really, there was not enough room to steal anything because most of the space is taken up by my travel Bible. Yes. My Bible. However, this must have looked quite suspicious to our second shift workers, because they told me I was fortunate to have been allowed in with this bag for the past year. In stead of leaving my bag in the car, I left completely. Brad actually called the manager when we got home and politely asked him about their policy. I was still interested because I also bring diaper bags into Wal-Mart and I wanted to know if there was a problem with the size of the bag, or if it was just the fact it had two straps. The manager told Brad that they did not have a policy against purses that have two straps and that the employees were in error. So, Wal-Mart missed out on a couple of purchases tonight. And now we have to go back out tomorrow. But we will go to Target instead.

Happy Birthday Again

Today, Ashleigh and her parents came over to celebrate Anna's birthday. We had fun opening presents, swinging on the swings, and hanging out. Candy made a really good cake with mandarin oranges in the cake part and pineapple and cool whip in the frosting. It was very light and tasty. Also, we discovered where the sideways tongue gene came from. If you have been around Anna recently, you've probably seen her turn her tongue sideways. This is one of those special genetic things you hear about in biology class. We were wondering who else could do it- and now we know!

Grammar, People!

I went to the dentist this morning (8am to be precise) and on the way back home I noticed yet another billboard assaulting us with the phrase "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Now, there were a lot of bad things about the design of this ad- one of them being that the print is so small that you just may wreck your car while trying to read it. I saw it from afar- a large black board with an empty white thought balloon floating in the middle. Underneath the balloon I could see white type. What it said was a mystery, because it was the equivalent of looking at the very bottom line of a 20/20 eye chart- at 40 feet away. The print finally became large enough to read at about the time I was passing it on the highway. I could barely catch the message as I drove past, but to my horror, I thought I saw the phrase, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Let me point out the problem here. The person or organization that slapped up this billboard on highway 74 is (I assume) trying to spur us to some sort of action regarding education. However, the phrase is grammatically incorrect. A mind is NOT a terrible thing to waste. It is a wonderful and complex thing. It is a mysterious and sublime thing. It is not-as asserted by this billboard-a terrible thing. If you would like to tell me that it is a terrible thing to waste a mind, then I might agree with you. It would be a wasteful thing to waste a mind as well. But- we are left with this thought. There was no website at the bottom of the board to connect us to an organization that is fighting the waste of minds. No "www.saveamind.org". So we are left only with the thought. For people like me, who try to avoid the waste of minds (and money), this is a slightly irritating investment on someone's part. Thank you for reminding me not to waste minds. I will do my best. For the person who may be wasting their mind, they are left with no recourse. There is no help here. Only a problem presented and left in the air. Maybe the mind wasting person will now take the next left and head to the library- but I don't know. Without some direction, they probably won't know what to do in order to not waste their mind. And honestly, they probably didn't read the sign because it was so small that anyone who reads slower than me (and I'm a fast reader) would not have been able to absorb the message before it was here and gone. So I want to say to you- Mr. Billboard Designer- please, don't waste your mind. Go buy a copy of Strunk and White and brush up on your grammar.

AB's Birthday Art

My artwork arrived the other day and was promptly hung on the wall by my wonderful husband....

I have tried and tried to get a good picture of it, but the flash keeps glaring off the canvas. This side shot is the best I can do. The work is called "Still Life with Chrysanthemums" and is an oil on canvas by Emil Carlson- a dutch artist that immigrated to America. Although the original was painted in 1896 and now resides in a private collection, I am able to enjoy my framed canvas print by pretending it is a real painting.

Happy Birthday Anna!!!

Anna turned three today! What a big girl. We had a birthday lunch here at our house with Brad's family (the first in a series of birthday parties with various relatives). Anna had chocolate cake and opened a few presents. I managed to take a couple of pictures, but it is hard to be both the photographer and the party planner...

Let's just wait a minute here

The last two posts really seem to be pretty hard on ole Brad. Maybe we should back up a little bit and reword those two posts before this turns ugly.

Maybe we should say this in the first post.
"Brad works so hard around here and at work. I am sure that he will soon be able to help me with yet another project around the house. You know...he does so much already, I hate to ask him to do one more thing for me. But I am sure that he will not mind."

Then the second could read like this.
"Well, today my wonderful husband was able to install the screws into the wall in a safe and secure manner so as to not inflict damage on the pocket door behind the wall while making sure that the screws would not fall out. He sure does do a lot around the house. So many things that I can hardly keep track of them. What would I do without him?"

I think that most people would agree (at least the males would) that my version of how these posts could read are much better than the previous two.

Well I would write more but I have to go clean the kitchen, clean the table, wash dishes, change a light bulb, sweep the porch, fix the cushions on the couch, lower the blinds, and sweep the floor before AB gets home from the store....that is right she goes on trips to the store and leaves me with a laundry list of chores to do.
-Brad

Ummmm, I (AB) am back from the store, and I believe this post is slightly biased. I'm not so sure about that laundry list of chores that Brad has there. I think it went more like this...
"Brad, I need to run to the store in a little while."
"Why don't you go now before it gets too late?"
"Well, I needed to finish cleaning up the kitchen from dinner- do you mind clearing the table?"
"Sure, you go on ahead."

And now you have the rest of the story...

Art Clothesline

The Clothesline is up! I chose a purple, green, and cream striped cording as the line, and I covered the screws with green flower buttons attached with hot glue. Pretty simple when your husband puts the screws in the wall for you. :)

Blog blog blog (blah blah blah)

Well, it's about time I posted... N'est pas?

Our life has been extremely busy recently. Between Matthews Vacation Bible school, a visit from Mick and Rachel, Emily having a week long fever virus, impending birthdays and Providence's Vacation Bible School, I haven't had time to compose a report. However, I am happy to announce that the past two days I went on a cleaning frenzy and straightened up large portions of my house. The craft room, the kitchen desk area, the toy corner, and the library have all been re-organized. This was spawned by two events: my mom getting me to buy a painting for the living room (with B-Day money) and Wanda giving me a laptop stand. With the addition of two items that will add both beauty and organization to my home, came the desire to make over everything. Brad is being swept along in this frenzy. I bought some pretty cording to make an art clothes line in the craft room. I need his male assistance to put the screws high up in the wall, so I can tie the ends of the cord to the screws and then glue a decorative button over the screw to camouflage it's functional, ugly, metallic self. Can you guess how excited he is about this? You guessed it! He's so excited that he all of a sudden really needed to go to the store tonight.