Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Ghostly Grass

Posted in House and Home, Miscellaneous, Uncategorized by

So I think our house is haunted.

Yes I totally believe in that stuff. I’ve never really bought in to the concept that when we die, that’s it, end of story, finito. I’ve always believed that our spirits live on. I don’t know if it’s in heaven or the afterlife or what, but they go somewhere.

And sometimes they like to come back and visit.

Here’s what happened Friday night. Isabella woke up around 2 a.m. crying. I went in to check on her and she asked for juice. I picked her up and we headed down the hall to the kitchen. I got her sippie cup out of the fridge and handed it to her. With gusto, she grabed the juice and was in process of lifting it to her mouth when she stoped in mid-air and started staring at the microwave. I urged her to drink her juice and then she whiped her head around and was looking in to the dining room.

Then she said, “Someone over there.” 

Cue goosebumps up my arm. I looked in to the dining room and didn’t see anyone. I now strongly encouraged her to drink her juice and she says it again, “Someone over there.”

At this point I make a hasty retreat to her room and close the door. I again ask her to drink some juice but she has lost interest so I rock her for a bit and put her to bed.

As I’m leaving her room, I look down the hall and wonder “who” is there. It could be CJ’s mom who passed away in 2009 or my grandma who died last year. Or it could be some random spirit popping by for a visit.  So I say in a whisper, “Dorothy or Ma, if that’s you, thanks for visiting and watching over Isabella. If it’s someone else, please leave.”

Then I ran back to our room and jumped in to bed next to my strong husband with the big biceps. As if having muscle is going to make a difference to a ghost. It’s not like he can beat them up or anything. But it made me feel better.

I told him about it the next morning. CJ was like, “Oh yeah, there are definitely spirits here. I hear noises all the time when I’m up at night.”

Um, WHAT?!?!?

Apparently he’s heard doors opening/closing when we’re all in bed. He’s heard door handles rattling. He even felt someone brush his ear as we were sitting there talking.

Ok, whatever spirit you are that’s touching my husband, you better back off sista!

Anyway, he decides that our house needs to be smudged to remove the spirits. We decide to do it later in the day, when Isabella was gone. So we go about our day doing work around the house and I forget about the incident.

It was a busy day and by the end, I was exhausted. I fell in to bed and was down for the count.

Until about 1:30 a.m.

I woke up to an interesting smell. My sleepy and tired mind thought it was pot. I seriously woke up and was like, “Who is smoking pot in my house?” Then I opened my eyes and saw CJ walking around the room with a burning bundle of sage telling the spirits to get out of our house.

I thought I was dreaming. I blinked my eyes a couple of times and stared. Yep, it was for real. I found out later that he had gone down to the garage and while he was in there heard our trash cans falling over. It was very distinctive and unmistakable. At first he didn’t think much of it, as it was a windy night. Then he remembered that all the cans were all loaded down with lots of trash from our day of work and definitely too heavy for the wind to knock over. So he went and looked and they were all upright just fine.

It was at that moment that he decided some pot sage was in order. It just so happens that we had some because we used it to cleanse the house when we first moved in. Guess it didn’t take. Or it’s something you have to do repeatedly, like the dentist (ahem, Cheri). At any rate, it’s now been done so we are spirit free. I think. I hope.

Unless the spirits like sage. Maybe they were hanging around looking for a good high and now we’ve just given it to them. That would be my luck too.

If I see an empty bag of Cheetos on the floor when I wake up in the morning I’ll know for sure.

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Epic Shopping Fail!

Posted in Miscellaneous by

It’s been a long week. Stress from work coupled with the big project at home makes Sarah a tired girl. I decided yesterday that I needed a little pick-me-up. Instead of running straight to the neighborhood dive bar for a stiff drink and some old man ogling, I went shopping.

We have a local store called The Post and Nickel that sells high end designer clothes. It’s going out of business so everything in the store is discounted. There are signs all over the outside that say  “EVERYTHING MUST GO!” and “CLOSE OUT LIQUIDATION SALE!” so I thought I’d be able to snag a great deal on some designer clothes.

I thought wrong.

But before I get to that, let’s step back a minute. Yesterday was an “I’m too tired to give a damn about how I look because I just want to be comfortable” kind of day. Fortunately I have a job that lets me indulge in comfie clothes on those days so I was wearing a fleece sweatshirt, jeans and Sketchers walking shoes. I also had my hair in its natural state, which is limp and wavy.

Pretty much exactly like this (except this pic was taken at a different time):

family

When I left work, it was raining at a pretty good clip. Being the healthy girl that I am, I had parked in the very last row of stalls because it forced me to walk farther. That works great on a nice sunny morning but not so great on a cold rainy afternoon. By the time I got to my car, my already limp and wavy hair was now limp, curly and plastered to my head.

Hot sexy baby!

Now picture that vision of a woman walking in to a designer clothing store. The whole place seemed to come to a halt. It was like everyone just stopped and stared as if to say, “Um, like, are you lost or something? This isn’t a homeless shelter…” I remained casual and strode on in, with purpose and confidence. I was repeating mantras in my head like “I am worthy of designer clothing” and “I make more money than these snooty sales people dammit!” and “I am a “Pretty Woman” too!”.

I was looking for a watch. Mine died and I thought this would be a good chance to replace it with something cool, at a decent price. That was my mistake – expecting a decent price. Everything in there was marked down 60-70% and it was still over $100!  I did find one pair of jeans for $39.99 but they didn’t fit. No watches that I could afford either.

So now I felt like a fat, drenched, poor little mouse. And I quietly slinked out of the building, hoping no one would notice and sneer.

I was still on the lookout to buy something – anything – to perk me up. A watch, a purse, some shoes…I didn’t care at this point! I looked around for a place that I don’t ever shop, as I wanted to try new things, and my eyes landed on Marshall’s. I thought hey, I’ve heard of friends getting great deals there on cool stuff, I’ll give it a go. I ventured on over and sprinted in from the rain, only this time everyone in the store looked like me so I didn’t feel too out-of-place.

I hit the shoes first. Nothing struck my fancy. You know how when you’re in one of those moods to shop yet can’t find anything you like? Yeah, that was me. Strike 1. I wandered over to the purses next.  Nothing that I liked or could afford. I was actually surprised how expensive Marshall’s was! $50 for a purse? Um, no. That probably seems cheap and reasonable to some people but to this “the cheaper the better when it comes to purses” gal, that was too much. Strike 2. After that, it was watches. However, apparently Marshall’s doesn’t carry jewelry because I wandered around the whole store and found nothing. Strike 3.

You’re out!

I gave up at that point and just went home empty-handed. I was feeling depressed and grouchy but when I got home I was welcomed with open arms and tail wags, which really, is all anyone needs anyway.

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Decisions, Decisions

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Why is it so hard for me to make decisions?  With some stuff, it’s a no brainer but with other things, I frett and frett over it.

For example, it was easy to make the choice of giving in when Isabella begged to go outside and play on Saturday, even though it was chilly. And it was easy to decide that she needed to wear a hat.

However, when getting ready for my Shred this morning, I couldn’t decided if I should continue with Level 1 or jump up to Level 2. I kid you not, I literally stood in my basement and stared at the TV for a full 5 minutes trying to decide what to do. You would think the world might end if I went the wrong way!  

Another conflict over the weekend – whether to complain about the cake I ordered that was not what I had asked for. I ordered chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, with “Happy Birthday CJ” written on it, and a volleyball theme. And I clarified that CJ is a male. Here’s the cake I got. You tell me if it meets my requirements:

Chocolate cake? Check. Chocolate frosting? No. Correct lettering? Yes. Volleyball theme? Yes. For a man? NO! My debate was on whether to go back and complain. I decided not to. I later regretted that decision. Even though they couldn’t have changed it, they could have given us a discount or something. Oh well. It still tasted good.

I have found that in most cases, the choices I am faced with are not matters of right and wrong but rather what is the most right for me at the time. I mean, it’s not like I’m in situations where I have to decide if someone lives or dies. Would either choice in my Shred dilemna this morning have been wrong? No. So all I really had to do was pick one and go.

Another struggle I had today was regarding what to wear to work. This was the classic battle of good (trying to be fashionable and comfortable) vs. evil (the dreaded muffin top). Seemed like no matter what shirt I tried on, it was unflattering. And as more and more shirts landed in the discard pile on the bed, the worse I felt. Oh how I wish I had the type of body that could wear anything and look good. But I don’t. So I had to work with the body I have and what was on hand in my closet. This saga went on for 20 minutes. Samson even got tired of waiting for his treat (that would come after I was dressed) and laid down to snooze. Again, there was no wrong choice here (except for that fitted peach t-shirt I tried on. Eek! It was not pretty…) but for some reason I was paralyzed by analysis paralysis.

This is a term we in the biz use when we’ve gotten to a point of over-analyzing something so much that we are going round in circles and getting way too deep in the mud. I was definitely in that state last week as I had a pretty big decision to make. I won’t get in to the details of it here but it was bigger than a workout or an outfit or a birthday cake. It was a decision that would affect my future and that of my family, and therefore one I did not take lightly. I literally lost sleep over this one. I got to the point where I had analyzed it so much, that I was starting to get all jumbled up and lose sight of what really mattered, and that was my gut feeling.

Listening to my intuition is something I’ve had to practice over the years. In my  younger days, my instinct sometimes got me in trouble because it was broken. As I got older, I’ve fixed and fine-tuned it but sometimes forget to use it.  The choices I had to make this time seemed pretty even on paper (as in my looooong pros/cons list) but when I stopped and did a gut check, the answer was clear.

Lesson to me: remember that not everything is life or death. It’s ok to just make a decision and go with it. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll have learned something to do differently next time. And if it does – well bully for you!

Here’s an easy decision for you – go check out the artwork I posted!!

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Posted in Miscellaneous by

Every year, around this time, I start to get the itch. No, I’m not talking about some kind of personal problem (because you know if I was I’d say it outright. I don’t have any issues with talking about private stuff! TMI? Puh-shaw!). I’m referring to the need…the need for speed – shopping!

As the weather starts to turn and Spring shows it’s pretty face, I get very disenchanted with all the clothes in my closet and immediately want to donate them all and start over with a whole new wardrobe. It’s like, ok, enough with the turtlenecks, sweaters, cardigans and boots already. Let’s bust out those cute T’s, shorts, capris, and best of all, strappy heels! But not the same old spring/summer clothes that I’ve worn year after year – I want new stuff!

I rarely go shopping and buy clothes for myself. Every once in a while I’ll buy a shirt here or a pair of jeans there, but there has to be a good reason for it. I can’t justify buying new clothes when we’re trying to save for a new house, pay off bills, and take care of our daughter unless it’s absolutely necessary. My most recent purchase was a new bra and I only bought that because the old one wasn’t giving me the support I needed (see what I mean about TMI?). My next most recent purchase before that was a dressy cardigan and tank to wear to the office Christmas Party.

I would love – LOVE! – to have someone give me a shopping spree and tell me to go buy whatever I want, wherever I want. Target? Kohls? Pish-posh! Go to Ann Taylor, White House | Black Market and Banana Republic. Buy yourself some clothes that not only look nice, fit right and are of the latest styles, but are also made well so they last forever. And while we’re at it, here’s a personal stylist too. And make-up artist. And hair stylist. And personal chef. And Jillian Michaels to give you that 6-pack you’ve been wanting.

What? Might as well ask for what I really want! Oprah, if you’re reading this (and I mean come on, you know she totally is), please make my dreams come true!

In the meantime, I’ll have to be content to wear my same old clothes and try to think of new ways to wear them. Look out officemates, you might see me mixing plaid with polka dots or green with purple just to liven things up a bit!