I Spy...Shoes & Jewelry

This weeks I Spy theme over at Little Miss Momma's is Shoes and Jewelry.  I'm not exactly a huge shoe person like a lot of women.  Over the past couple of years though, I have come to appreciate a nice pair of heels or some awesome boots, but I still don't have a whole closet full of shoes.  If I find a pair of shoes that are super comfy then I stick with them and have a hard time giving them up.  I will literally wear holes in them.

When it comes to jewelry I love necklaces.  I don't really wear much else except the diamond ring I bought myself for my 30th birthday. 

So, here goes...

I spy my two favorite pairs of heels.  Left: purchased at an awesome vintage inspired clothing store in Seattle.  Right:  Payless.  They are both super comfy and cute!

I spy...Pacen's favorite shoes.  He wears the cowboy boots on a daily basis when there isn't snow on the ground.  The middle pair are his wrestling shoes.  The pair on the right are his Mucks and he wears them on a daily basis when there is snow on the ground.  He's not much of a tennis shoe or sandal kid. 

I spy...my everyday shoes.  Left:  My running shoes, which are about to retire.  Those babies got me through miles of training, a few 5ks, and a couple Triathlons.  Center:  I LOVE flip flops!  I even wear them in the winter.  :)  Right:  I bought these shoes from Maurices three years ago and they are hanging in there.  I'm afraid they'll give it up soon.  :(

I spy... the pair of shoes I refuse to give up and the pair that are suppose to take their place.  Right:  I don't remember where I bought them, but I've had them for years and they are so comfy.  Notice that my dog even chewed them up (clear back when I had a dog.)  Left:  Wal-Mart.  Not comfy, but if I wore them a lot I'm sure they would get there. 

Left:  Most of my necklaces.  Center:  Three of my favorite.  All gifts from Pacen.  Yes, the blue one is from a quarter machine, but I love it!  Right:  Pacen's silhouette with a mohawk!  Right now I can't remember where I purchased it, but I do remember I found the website in a Better Homes & Gardens magazine.  :)

My diamond.  Gift to myself and probably the only one I'll ever get.  That is fine with me. :)

"Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out." ~ Iris Murdoch

"Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles" ~ Sonja Henie

Random Brooke Fact

I am very accident prone. Always have been and I'm sure I always will be. What happened to me tonight is a small example of the random accidental issues I have. I was working on Pacen's quilt, using the iron, and burned my arm. It's not a huge burn by any means, but it is big enough and it hurts like hell. I burned my arm about 3 inches below my elbow. How? I have no idea.  Look at that welt.  Ugh.  I burned my hand about a month ago as I was pulling a cherry pie out of the oven and it just now finally healed.  Luckily this burn isn't on a part of the body that bends a lot so it should heal much faster.  I hope.

To give you an idea of how accident prone I am I will tell you a couple stories.

When I was a junior in high school I decided to climb to the upstairs part of the prop room (no ladder or stairs) to get some props.  Well, I'm rather scared of heights so when it was time to come down I freaked out a little and couldn't jump, or climb down the way we climbed up.  It would've only been a 9-foot jump or so, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it..  A couple of my guy friends told me they would catch me if I slid over the edge on my stomach (feet first) and lowered myself down.  Good idea boys!  Luckily before I started sliding the boys noticed a hook sticking out of the board right where I was going to come down.  They turned it so the point faced down.  I'm glad cause that would've hurt like hell if I had gotten stabbed in the stomach by a hook.  So the plan seemed to be working out well, but there was one thing I did not take into consideration...the very thick layer of dust that had accumulated over the years.  When I laid on my stomach and started to slide the dust made me slide super fast and the boys did not catch me.  What did happen was this:  my shirt caught on the hook (but didn't tear since it was the curved side), which caused me to dangle.  About that time a freshman boy came into the prop room and the view he got must've shocked him cause his eyes got huge, he turned bright red, and then he turned around and ran!  Obviously he'd never seen a girl in a sports bra before.  Haha!  The boys finally got me down and then I felt something running down my leg.  Something warm and wet.  I looked down and there was a river of blood.  You thought I peed myself, huh?  :)  Nope.  WHEW!  Well apparently when I fell I straddled a piece of plywood that had two screws sticking out of it.  I now have a 5 1/2-inch and a 3-inch scar on my inner thigh.  To top it off I cut my leg on a barbed wire fence right near those scars about 5 years later and it now looks like a big ol' cat scratched the shit out of me!

When I was 15 I was helping at my family's hardware store/lumber yard.  Another employee and I were unloading wire panels.  As we pulled one off it caught another one.  It landed on my right arm.  I looked down at my arm just as a gaping hole filled with blood.  The guy I was working with about passed out and he kept saying, "Your dad is going to kill me.  Your dad is going to kill me."  Haha!  That little accident gave me 10 stitches and some of those tape stitches.  After the stitches were removed the big cut split open again.  There are three scars on my arm that also look like a big ol' cat scratched the shit out of me. 

Luckily I haven't had to get any stitches (from accidents) since I was 15 (knock on wood), but I have had plenty of accidents.  Falling down stairs (numerous times), falling up stairs (yes, I'm that person), falling off a ladder, wrecking bicycles, etc.  The list goes on and on and on.  Also, I've only broken two bones in my life (knock on wood again).  I broke my toe in 8th grade while playing soccer and I broke my leg my Junior year while warming up for the Homecoming volleyball game.  Yup, warming up.  I'm such a clutz!  :)  Maybe I should be the bubble girl.  :)


"I'm not clumsy, I'm just accident prone." ~ Daniel Radcliffe

Rush, Rush, Rush...

Tonight I was reading before we had to leave for wrestling practice and all of a sudden Pacen says, "Oh crap! Mom! We have to go!" I looked at the clock and we still had 15 minutes left before practice. It takes us only about 3-4 minutes to get to the school so I said, "Pacen, we are fine. We have plenty of time." Meanwhile, he is racing around, throwing on gym clothes, telling me we have to hurry, and putting on his boots. (Yes, my son wears his cowboy boots with everything...even gym clothes.) :) He then runs out the door and yells, "I'll be in the car!" Obviously he wasn't listening when I told him we had plenty of time. As I was walking out the door Pacen started honking the horn. Good grief!

The whole way to the school he was fidgeting in his seat and I could tell he was thinking, "C'mon mom! Put the pedal to the metal." As soon as we pulled up he took off running.

I wish he was like this when I'm in a hurry. It never fails...if we're running late for something that is actually important (work, a wedding, etc.) he dinks around and focuses on things that have nothing to do with what is going on, but if he thinks we are running late for something he deems important then by golly I had better be ready right then.



His dinking around used to be so bad that one morning I told him he had one minute to be ready and in the car or I was headed to work without him and he could just walk to school. We only live 4 blocks from his school, but I work 2 miles out of town and I start work an hour before school starts, so he goes to work with me and rides the bus to school. It's a nice setup. Anyway, I got in the car and was backing out of the drive when he came flying out the front door screaming and crying for me to stop. He barely made it. He also learned his lesson. I still have to remind him to quit dinking around, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be and, in all honesty, it's now usually me who is out the door last.  :)

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late." ~ William Shakespeare

I Spy...Around My Home

Hey there!! I'm linking up to Little Miss Momma again this week for her I Spy series. This week's I Spy theme is "Around the Home". First let me tell you a little bit about my home.  It was built in 1919 and as far as I can figure it was "remodeled/updated" in the 1950s. There are a lot of archways (doors and built ins) and everything is lath & plaster. It has hardwood floors that need refinished and all the original woodwork has been painted over numerous times, which is a total bummer. I love my house though and I can't wait until I have every project done.

Whoa, the most ironic thing just happened. My mom called to wish me Happy Homeowner Anniversary. I have owned my house for five years today!! Crazy! I didn't even look at my calendar today so if she hadn't of called I would've forgot. Thanks for reminding me mom! :)

Without further adieu...

I spy my newly painted room.  I don't know what that weird blotch is on the right wall.  It's not there in person.  Hmmmmm. 

I spy my "spider killer".  See how big the spider is?!  The arrow is pointing at him.  Okay, so he looked much bigger in real life.  Ick!

  

I spy my china hutch that used to belong to my Great-Grandparents.  My Grandma gave me the Depression Glass dishes and those funky fish came from my best friend.  Ignore the dust!!  :)

I spy my favorite ceiling in the house.  It is in my old bedroom (Pacen's room now) and I miss it!! 

I spy the border in my living room that took me FOREVER to do.  I traced each letter onto the wall using that old transfer paper from the 80s and then painted each one in.  It says, "She sells seashells by the seashore." 

I spy the apron Pacen painted for me for Christmas a couple years ago.  Yes, it's a snake.  :)

I spy Mad Morty Kidd!  (For some reason this picture won't turn right side up even though it is right side up on my computer.)

"A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams." ~ Unknown

Bedroom and Vanity Chair Makeover

The past couple of weeks I've been painting my room.  If you recall from this post my bedroom walls were a very bright color.  Actually, in that post you can only see one wall...the bright yellow.  The other three walls were actually green, blue, and red.  All with that orange trim.  You see, my room used to be Pacen's room.  We traded bedrooms back in January or so because I ordered a bigger terrarium for Bali, Pacen's Ball Python, and there just wasn't enough space in his room for all three terrariums and his crap toys and such.  My old bedroom is huge and I thought it only fair that Pacen and his snakes get it.  Besides, I didn't need all that room.

I lived with the bright primary colors for a few months and then I'd had enough.  I had to paint it!  So, I took some leftover blue and green paint from this room and mixed it with some leftover ivory paint from my old room.  I was going for a Caribbean turquoise color and after a bit of mixing I happened to match it perfectly to a picture on the front of one of my Caribbean Travel magazines!!  Nice!!  So the upper part of my walls are painted Caribbean turquoise, the bottom part is white, and the trim is a tan color that was left over from when I painted my living room.  So, the project ended up being cheap!  The only thing I bought were curtains and curtain rods.

 I got everything hung back up and organized and then I decided that my vanity chair looked awful and totally clashed with the new color.  This chair was here when we moved in and I thought it was too cute to toss. 

I now look at it and think, "Holy crap!  This chair is hideous!"  Luckily I have a lot of material lying around the house (I found some major good sales at Wal-Mart last year).  I chose a fabric that I liked and that I thought went well with the new color and re-covered the seat of the chair.  I don't own a staple gun so I used a hot glue gun to glue the fabric in place on the bottom of the chair.  Here it is after the makeover...

One of these days I might repaint it,  but I think it looks much better than it did and it took me less than ten minutes to re-cover it.  I'm pretty happy with my new room and I feel like it is now officially mine!

"There's a world where I can go
And tell my secrets to
In my room
In my room" ~ The Beach Boys

A Simpler Era

Today I'm linking up to Changing Lanes for her weekly Blue Plate Special.  As Changing Lanes explains, "The Blue Plate Special is designed for you to share your weekly favorite(s), something you learned this week, or anything still on your mind come Friday (your meat). Then add three photos from your week (get it! meat +3)."  Thanks Changing Lanes for having me!

Well, here it goes.  My meat for the week.  I have been thinking a lot lately about how I wish time would reverse back to a more "simpler" era.  For example:  The 14th century when gypsies were more common or the 1950s or any other time during the past that seems "simple".  Since I obviously wasn't alive during the 50s or the 14th century I really can't say that things were "simpler", but at least it seems life moved at a slower pace.  I always feel like I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  I have to be here and there and here and I get stressed and wore out!  I would love to live the life of a gypsy.  No real belongings, nothing to necessarily worry about...just roam from town to town with my horse and wagon doing odd jobs here and there for food and drink.  (Plus their fashion sense was amazing!  Well, I think so anyway.)  Today I was driving to the nearest Wal-Mart (1 1/2 hours away) to get groceries.  Between here and there is an antique place and outside was a gypsy wagon!!!  I got super excited, especially since I've been considering their way of life!  I had to take a picture!  How amazing would it be to fix one of these up, go to Europe, and just roam the back country?! I now know deep down in my heart that I was meant to be a gypsy. 

Now my three:

 One of the signs that Spring is on the way!!

  

A nice bike ride through the canyon with my mom and one of my sister's.  WINDY but nice!

Chillin' out with one of my "nieces" (on the right) and another friend's baby girl.  Love babies!  (Bad picture cause it was taken by me with my phone.)

"Time, you old gypsy man, will you not stay, put up your caravan just for one day?" ~ Ralph Hodgson

Seriously, Mother Nature? Seriously?!

This morning I woke up to this...

Yes.  Snow.  What the hell?  It is the middle of April.  Did Mother Nature not get the memo?  Hello!  April SHOWERS bring May flowers.  It doesn't say anything about SNOW showers.  I think it can safely be assumed that "showers" means rain...the liquid form of rain...not the frozen, cold form.  Okay, fine.  I've lived in this area for 30 years, so I guess I should be used to this by now, but damn...Mother Nature is being a dirty tease this year and I'm so tired of it!!

Also, I don't know if it is this weather or what, but I am exhausted today!  I can't seem to keep my eyes open and all I want to do is go home, crawl into my nice warm bed, and go to sleep.  But no.  I have to sit here in front of a computer for another two hours!  I hate that I have to sit in front of a computer 9 hours a day, almost five days a week.  It is depressing and fattening.  And today it is causing my eyes to hurt and feel droopy! 

On a somewhat brighter note, I just looked outside and it finally quit snowing.  It had better not start again! If it does I may very well pack up some of my belongings, grab Pacen and move to the Caribbean.  Maybe tonight I should look at one of my diving magazines or one of my Caribbean Travel magazines, or one of the Yachting magazines a friend gave me.  I'll sit in my newly painted room (not quite finished), that is now the color of the shallows of the Caribbean and imagine the ocean breeze blowing through my hair while I sit on a yacht sipping a Tequila Sunrise, checking out the hunky ripped captain that I hired.  *SIGH*  I love dreaming! 

"To shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring." ~ W. J. Vogel

I Spy...In My Neighborhood

Today I'm linking up to Little Miss Momma to participate in a new series she started: "I Spy". This week's theme is "Neighborhood". Before I move on with the project/game let me first say that I absolutely adore Ashley aka Little Miss Momma. She is a sweet gal and I think she would be a real blast to hang out with. I would also like to say that I'm 110% positive that her little guy, Baby W, would instantly have me wrapped around his little finger! :)

I love that Ashley came up with this new series and I hope she continues it. Pacen and I used to play "I Spy" all the time. We'd sit in the park and play "I Spy" instead of playing on the equipment. Sometimes we still play...usually when we're driving somewhere. It's rather hard where we're from cause there isn't a lot to spy along the highway. A lot of prairie. :) There is a lot of "I spy something black." "It's a cow!" "I spy something yellow." "It's the line on the highway!" Haha!

Okay, so moving on. I SPY...

This 1950s circa Chevy (?). It sits in this spot year-round. Sad.

An abandoned house (one of 4 on my block). Sad too.

My flower bed...damaged cause I accidentally ran over it. Sad again. On a brighter note...check out all the tulips coming up!! Yahoo!!

Today I noticed that a lot of the houses in my neighborhood have cool porch columns. I like the brick columns.

Pacen walking to his buddy's house.

Some of my neighbors already have blooming flowers. I wish I did.

Another abandoned house on my block. Victorian style and spooky. Love it!

(Note: I love playing around with the different effects in Picnik, hence all the different photo finishes.) :)


"Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies." ~ Jane Austen

The ABC's of Me!

I saw this and thought it would be fun and a good way for you all to get to know me! :)

{A} Age: 30! Yes, I'm actually excited about this!
{B} Bed size: Full. Yes, it seems rather small, but a majority of the time it is just me in it.

{C} Chore you hate: All chores. Haha! Okay, okay. I absolutely hate dusting! Hate it! My house is always dusty and I only dust 2 or 3 times a year. *hiding my face in shame*

{D} Dogs: None. I used to have a Dachshund named Percy, but we didn't have enough time for him. :(

{E} Essential start to your day: Shower. I don't get to shower every morning (sometimes it's an evening thing) but a nice hot shower in the morning is great for kind of waking me up. I am not a morning person.

{F} Favorite color: Yellow! It's a happy color!

{G} Gold or silver: Silver
{H} Height: 5' 9"

{I} Instruments you play: None. I played the clarinet in grade school and HATED it! I also played the piano when I was younger...too young to appreciate it. I would LOVE to learn the piano and fiddle.

{J} Job title: Office Clerk is my official title, but I feel I surpassed that title years ago as I am in charge of quite a bit. Soon it will change to Bookkeeper.

{K} Kids: One very active 10-year-old boy.

{L} Live: Lusk, WY. Say what? You don't know where Lusk, WY is? You've never heard of it? Nah...I just can't believe that! :)

{M} Mom's name: Terry
{N} Nicknames: Wookie (started in high school cause I hated being called Brookie. It stuck and almost everyone from my home town calls me Wookie...even my dad).

{O} Overnight hospital stays: C-section in 2000 (multiple night stay). Yup, that's it. *knock on wood*

{P} Pet peeve: slow drivers, whiny kids, and people who chew with their mouths open! I have many more, but I'll leave it at those three.

{Q} Quote: "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it." I don't know who said it, but it has gotten me through a lot so I had it tattooed on my side! :)

{R} Right or left handed: Right all the way (except for certain times during golf).

{S} Siblings: Two sisters. Quinn is 28 and Raine is 25.

{T} Time you wake up: On work days I wake up between 6:15 and 6:30 (usually) and on weekends I sleep in until 9:30 or later. I know, I know...I'm just wasting the day. But my bed is so comfy and I'm so tired!
{U} Underwear: I usually go commando. Yup.

{V} Vegetable you dislike: I love veggies! I think the only one I have found that I don't like is creamed corn (but I love normal corn).

{W} What makes you run late: Me. Me not realizing that it takes longer to get ready than I'm willing to admit. I'm in denial.

{X} X-rays you've had done: leg and back

{Y} Yummy food you make: According to my dad I'm a great cook so it's not often I make something that isn't yummy. I'm not bragging either...I HATE bragging on myself. My cooking skills were passed down from my Grandma who is an amazing cook and I wish all my dishes were as good as hers!

{Z} Zoo, favorite animal: Oh geez! I am a major animal lover! This is hard! I would have to say the Elephant Shrew (unless the zoo has an aquarium...then I would have to say Dolphin or Sea Turtle.)! But, seriously...have you seen the Elephant Shrews?! SO CUTE!!!


"Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are." ~ Penelope Lively