Seven times Three

Equals twenty-one. I always liked the "sevens" times-table. It had a quirky feeling to it when the other numbers were just boring drudgery.

But that's not really what I meant to write about.

I'm 21 today!! I meant to write while it was still technically my birthday, but I didn't get online until 11:15, then I spent the next 45 minutes talking to friends and responding to birthday wishes. So here I am, half an hour into the day after my birthday.

My birthday started out less than satisfactory. I woke up in a grumpy mood. "Bleh," I thought, "I'm another year older... why can't birthdays be as exciting as they were when I was little? I'm too young to not be happy about a birthday. But nothing special is happening anyways... It's just another day. Stupid boring birthdays."

And then the coffee was yucky. And we were out of sugar and I had to use fake stuff.

And I just got grumpier and grumpier. Within like a ten minute time span. So I went back to bed! HA!

I spent some time snuggling with my pillows and talking to God. After I wallowed in pathetic self pity for a moment, He reminded me to not be so self focused and said that if I'd fix my attitude, it would be a good day. Even though nothing spectacular was happening. So I did. And He was right. (as usual.)

Birthdays are way more fun if you get to dress up. To my great pleasure, I had the opportunity when my lovely friend Katie decided to take me out for coffee. (which was superfantastic since my morning coffee was a disappointment) So, I put on my pretty skirt and my birthday things and we headed out.

Venti hazelnut iced coffee. (that can be a sentence by itself, right?) Katie and I decided to sit in the huge orange armchairs to sip our drinks. Carrying on a conversation became awkward. The chairs were comfy, but there was too much space between them and the speaker was pouring coffee-shop ambiance right on top of our heads. Not to mention the agent in sunglasses, keeping watch over his business partner (who was working a deal on the phone) and glaring at me every time I laughed.

After Starbucks, we went fabric shopping so I can make more cute skirts. Two for her, one for me. They're going to be awesome. Expect pictures in a week or so.

When I got home, my mom was making stir fry, which I LOVE.
And since I felt pretty, I had my little sis take a few pictures of me being twenty-one.
(This was also done for the purpose of photographically recognizing some of my awesome birthday gifts!)


The amazing yellow beads of sunshine are from Erin who thinks of me every time she sees something yellow. She also gave me some sweet bird earrings which are not pictured.

The super cute birdie earrings are from Kathryn, who knows my deep appreciation for Etsy and bird-related items therein.

The PERFECT belt is from Tiffany, who loves to shop. We went shopping together and she saw that I fell in love with this belt, so she went back and bought it for me the next day!!

(Sunglasses from Rae would have been in this picture too except I wore them yesterday and now I can't find them!)

Anyway, dinner was fantastic and afterward we had a family meeting of sorts. Life has been crazy, so it was good to take a few minutes to get everybody in one place to encourage each other and regroup.

Then I got to spend some much needed time with my dear friend Katey. Life's been SO crazy that we haven't gotten to really talk in a long time, so there was a lot of catching up to do. That was nice.

Beside for all that there's been a steady stream of birthday wishes on Facebook, which has been a ton of fun. I also got a card in the mail from my sweet Mema. Then when I got online to write this four friends were chatting with me at once all of the sudden! So... YAY! What I expected to be a boring, non-special day turned out really great. Nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary happened, but it's amazing how much good sweet friends, good coffee, a pretty outfit, and your favorite food can do.

So now you know. Happy 21st birthday to me!

20 was full of craziness, and so much change I can hardly believe it.
I'm excited to see where 21's gonna take me!

Happy January 3rd!

So, my friends, January is moving right along. Have you begun tackling your list of resolutions? How's it coming?

I have congratulated myself on taking baby steps for two of my unofficial resolutions:
Spending less money, and journaling more.
Last night, I wrote five pages in my journal. Goodness knows I probably could have written ten, it's been so long since I've written! But it was getting late, and my hand started aching, and I still wanted to read a couple chapters of Surprised by Joy.

Today, I went to starbucks with a dear friend from my Sunday school class, and bought a cappuccino instead of a macchiato (my fave!) because it was a little cheaper. Of course, I promptyly regretted it, because I really wanted the macchiato. lol But hey. If I'd gotten the macchiato, I probably would have had to start counting change, and when I do that I inevitably drop some, or miscount, which is embarrassing, so... yeah.

After Starbucks (where I diligently worked a few rows of a scarfling) I took my amazing yellow shoes ( have I told you about those? I got them at Etsy) to have the heel repaired at this very humble looking shoe repair shop. Indeed, it was so ... humble... looking that I was a little scared to leave my shoes in the hands of these strangers. But as the interesting man behind the counter informed me that business was booming, and as I beheld the many, many shoes stacked neatly around the workshop, I thought to myself "Well, if they have this much business they must be reputable. Otherwise, there wouldn't be this many shoes in their care." They're supposed to call me when my shoes are done.

The coming week promises fun - and tiredness by the time I reach the end.
Monday ... well, I guess nothing's planned for Monday.
Tuesday work at preschool starts back. Tuesday evening is **drumroll** girls' movie night!! YAY!! Thank you, dear Looneys for being such wonderful, marvelous, awful nice hosts. (**cough**movie reference**cough**)
Wednesday - church.
Thursday - work.
Friday - another movie night at the Looneys'! This time lots of people, not just girls. lol

So, as you can see, the holidays are over, and the schedule is packed.

I don't think there was a point to this blog post. I just felt like rambling.
Enjoy your tomorrow!

Updating

I feel terrible for not actually doing much life updating lately. You wouldn't believe how neglected my real journal is. I haven't even opened it in the past month because I don't want to see when the last entry is dated. Helpful, huh?

But I thought while I'm on checking Etsy stuff before I go to bed, I'd let you all know that I haven't died of that stupid cold yet. It still hasn't gone away. It's making me grumpy and uber tired. Yet I keep doing stuff. I went caroling yesterday. With a screechy voice. lol. But I hate to miss all the Christmas fun because I have a cold!! Of course, I think with all this activity and little rest, I'm prolonging it... ah well.

Here's a random picture for a little visual interest. I just dicovered Picnik.

An apology is in order for the neglect of Life Lesson Mondays. This sounds like a lame excuse, but I can't think of any good life lessons. I keep wishing something mildly bad and laughably funny would happen to me. No such luck. And the recesses of my memory aren't serving me well lately, either. I want to continue the series, but if there are no Life Lessons, there can't be a Life Lesson Monday. Unless I sway from my theme of obvious-yet-hilarious, or whatever.

In other news, I followed my better judgement over my heart and did NOT buy one of the adorable budgies on sale at PetSmart. (Vincent would have been SO mad.) My mother, on the other hand, gave into abouding cuteness and purchased the sweetest little red guinea pig. His name is Gimli. Thanks to me. **bows elegantly** We were tossing around names, and Abby went into Lord of the Rings characters. I told her if we were picking a name from LotR, Gimli would be the best guinea pig name. And it kinda fits his smallness and redness. Awesome.

Shopping for my preschoolers was fun. I raided the dollar store. I'm so glad they're all boys. I got dinosaurs, candy, and sugar donuts for everyone.Woo Hoo! And I got a collection of dinosaurs for my classroom. There are two in there now, but they're mean, ugly dinosaurs. I got cute ones. lol I'll have to show you some time. Remind me.

Random Bullets:

• We had a gingerbread house decorating party on Monday. It went really well.


• I went to the orthodontist today, and the Dr. said everything was going perfect, and I don't have to have any teefs pulled!


• Then I went to starbucks and when I ordered, I said my name was Caiti (I always say Caitlin...), and asked for carmel (I always say caramel). Just because I wanted to do something different.


• My eyes are bothering me right now.


• Two of my left contact lenses have ripped for no reason, and so now I don't have the same number of left ones as right one left. **Grumpy face**


• I still need to buy christmas presents for my brothers.


• Etsy is driving me crazy. I love crocheting, and I love making money, but I am so ready for a break. I can't keep up!



• I got a compliment on my Etsy banner today, and was asked if I ever considered going into graphics design.
  


• I can't wait for my business cards to come!! I'm so disappointed every day when I check the mail and there is no little box for me. :(


• Dinner and skating Saturday with my SS class is going to be so much fun!

There. I'd say that's a pretty good off-the-cuff blog post. At least now you know what's going on. :)

~Me

Headaches , Cupcakes, Coffee

There.
Rhyme and alliteration in one title. Boo ya!

Tom said that when he was leaving school today. "Boo ya, Miss Caitlin!"
His big brother taught him. What cuties! Wish I had a pic of them together.

Today was picture day at preschool. Half an hour before quittin' time, I was totally losing it.
I won't go into detail. :)
But I will tell you part of the problem - Miss Coffee Addict missed her morning fix. Ohhh not good. I had a pounding headache all afternoon. Don't try sugar-free caramel vanilla coffee mate powder when you run out of your regular creamer. It will render your coffee unfit for human consumption. Or any other sort of consumption, for that matter.

I bought a caribou coffee espresso drink thingy on the way to drop Laura off at school. I knew I should have gotten a Starbuck's frappuccino! Hang saving 75 cents. That thing was strange. And I drank every. last. drop. Figuring it would make my headache go away. Guess what? Didn't work. Funny thing about weird coffee drinks, though. Once you're past the first couple of sips, it's usually tolerable. It was definitely better than the caramel vanilla sludge I tried to drink this morning.

The title of this post was originally Books and Buttons. (more alliteration!) I changed it when the first two topics turned out to be headaches and coffee. So, the cupcakes really don't have much to do with this post. I just finished eating one, and I had one earlier. That's about it.


But, along the Books and Buttons theme, I feel compelled to rejoice aloud in my new Calvin and Hobbes collection. I should have taken a picture of it. Tis the Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes. I already had the Authoritative. Now to get my hands on the Essential. Did you know I love Calvin and Hobbes? I do. Swaptree, too. For that's how I got it. Who wants a boring old book about handbags when you can have a book full of the best comic strips ever?!

I returned lots of books to the library today, including House of the Seven Gables and The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. House of the Seven Gables I still plan to read. Just not yet. I just have other things on my priority list. Like Calvin and Hobbes. :P

Actually, I plan to read To Kill a Mockingbird. We'll see how that goes. I got it on Swaptree, too. The Ernest Hemingway stuff, however, I do not plan to read. Ever. I flipped through it the other night, and it was pretty vulgar. There's no point reading a bunch of distasteful stuff just because it's "classic" or well written.

I suppose I could keep rambling about the other books I've read recently, or the other ones I plan to read, but that's enough book talk for now. Time to move on to the buttons part.

I went shopping today to pick up some yarn. I needed buttons, too. Browsing the store, I was beginning to despair, for there were no buttons to be found. Which makes sense - it's a craft store, not a sewing/notions store. Anyways. Then I stumbled across "Grandma's button bags." Little baggies full of random buttons. Yay! Behold - what is this next to them? Vintage button bags! Sweet! They had plenty of buttons that would work for my slippers, and they were way cooler in general than the buttons in the other bag. (I mean, they're vintage. They've had a previous life. If that's not cool, then, ...well... it just is.)

I pulled out every bag and looked into them at all angles to decide which was the best. I never decided which was best, but I did decide which one I wanted, because it had a great big peachy button right in the front. See?

Nifty, huh? I already put some of them on these slippers.
And there are enough of that same kind to do another 2 pairs. Can't wait to see what the rest of them will come in handy for!
So. I need to get back to crocheting.

If anyone has any good book recommendations, let me know. Even though I can't seem to read what I've already got, I'm in the mood for tackling a reading list, so might as well add a few more as I scratch a couple off. :-)

Later!
Caitlin

We're in Florida!

Hi!
Tuesday morning, Laura and I were dropped off at the airport a little around 6:30 AM. Our flight wasn't until 9:10. We were expecting a long, boring, miserable wait, but somehow the time went past pretty quickly.

We checked in our baggage, and one suitcase was 4 pounds over the limit. The fee for that was close to 30 dollars, but the nice girl at the desk advised us to move any jeans we may have in there to another suitcase, and that would take care of it. So, standing there fighting to pull things out of a half-zipped suitcase and cram them into another one was a little awkward, knowing there were people in line behind us who probably wanted us to hurry up. But it was much less painful than 30 dollars. :D

After we went through security, we decided to kill our time by riding the concourse to the international side of the airport. We got on at gate C, (we had headed there first to make sure we knew where we needed to be) then rode all the way (shoot - I just spilled some coffee on myself.) to the last gate, then AAAALLL the way back past C, past baggage claim, to where we wanted to be. It was a fun ride. lol

We walked around looking for breakfast. Laura got a cinnamon something at McDonald's. I had pretty much decided I wanted yogurt and granola or fruit or something, but had no idea where to get it. We went to Starbucks to get some coffee. Turns out, they have yogurt and granola and fruit parfait thingies. So, I got one. It was good, except for the blueberries. They were more like... chewy fibrous lumps. Weird.

As I was eating, I noticed a guy that looked like some sort of hippy beach bum sitting in a comfy chair, reading something. And then I noticed he was reading a Bible. And then I noticed that he was focusing intently, and writing stuff down. And then I was very impressed that a guy in starbucks was studying his Bible.

And then I thought how it's kind of sad to be impressed when you see someone reading a Bible. This country was founded on the Bible. Everyone ought to know it and love it. It should not be uncommon to see young men reading and studying the greatest book that exists instead of sports magazines. But it is.

Laura and I sat down in comfy chairs, too, and she read a Narnia book while I wrote in my journal. We decided it was much nicer to kill time in a Starbucks than by sitting, waiting, at our gate.

We went back to our gate, where there were no empty seats. Fortunately, it was much closer to time to board than I thought it was, so we didn't have to wait around too long. I left Laura with our stuff and went to get a bottle of overpriced water. By the time I came back, it was time to board! Hoorah!

I love flying. I hurt my neck looking out the window. :P My favorite part is takeoff. Watching the ground get further and further away... so cool. Especially when the plane tilts... Awesome.
The flight was relaxing and uneventful... although the man in front of me smelled kind of funny.

So. We got to Tampa, and waited for our bags. Got them, nearly had my arms ripped off carrying them to Aunt Cindy's car, and then headed home. Or home for now, anyways. And my poor shoulders were sore from carrying our suitcases for the next two days. Blast us girls and our need to carry everything with us. And I don't even like what I packed. lol

Aunt Cindy and Uncle guy left a couple hours after we got here for a little vacation. Sarah and Anna are also on vacation visiting some relatives. So, it' jut been me, Laura, and Alli. Very quiet and uneventful.

We've eaten leftovers all week. I have NO IDEA how to only cook for 2 or 3 people. I tried. And we still have had gobs of leftovers. Seriously. heh.

So, um... kudos to you if you read this whole post. It seems kind of boring to me. I'm sorry. I wanted to write a funny, interesting post, but... I thought I should write something, so I just started rambling. And this is what happened.

Have a good day. :)
Me