Fun Finds

Once a year, usually the weekend after Easter (with the exception of this year) Moorings Presbyterian Church has a Giant Garage Sale. Many residents of Naples, FL come to drop of their items.... Some of my perks I have from working at Moorings is I get to go down to the gym everyday and have the first looks at all the finds!

It amazes me what some people actually bring. This year I actually saw an open box of Tampons! GROOOOSSSSS! Last year the a used tube of lipstick!!! Some people in Naples should lay off the bottle.

Thankfully there are more normal people the loony people in Naples. I found the below items... and managed to walk out with only spending 25 dollars!!

Trifle Bowl and 6 mini cake pans

Big bowl that I have in the middle of my dinning room table with a candle in the middle

bowl with the candle

Beautiful orange bowl for the guest room

Saks Fifth Ave purse

I also walked away with a strand of pearls and two books which I blogged about two or so blogs ago.

Spring Cleaning + Shopping= Happy Day

I took advantage of a free Saturday, and decided to do the customary "Spring Cleaning". Jake had a golf date with his boyfriend... I mean buddy, and I took advantage of the quiet house to get ahead on my cleaning for this week.

I was referred to a blog written by a woman who now is my hero. She has the ability to work and clean her home every night. What she called dirty in her pics... I called immaculate! After reading her blog, I was inspired to clean my home from top to bottom. and I did just so... literally clean the fan blades (top) all the way down to the baseboards (bottom).

I woke up at 9am and finally convinced myself that I was unable to sleep right through the day, subsequently missing my day of cleaning. I cleaned and scrubbed every inch of the house until 3:30pm. I took a two hour break to get my car washed and run to walmart for some "necessary items". (I had to go shopping for new things... Jake's parents are staying with us next weekend for Nick's graduation... and they have not seen the house since I moved in...)

New Welcome Mat... I love the pretty colors!

Our old oven mitts were gross... Jake's dad loves to cook...


Kitchen mat... I don't know why we have never had one... hmmm. I think it brings a kitchen together!

New place mats... and a mail holder for Kev's mail.
The plant is from work. I grew it from a clipping. I love how you can see the roots forming. I hope the plant doesn't mind I can see its belows!

Close up of the mats. Funky material, that is easy to clean.

Thank God for Clorox lemon bleach wipes. I went through an entire container cleaning yesterday. They were so handy cleaning the sides and tops of the toilets, baseboards, counter tops, tables, etc. Also, the Swifter Duster that has the bendable neck... is an amazing cleaning tool. I literally enjoyed cleaning the fans. It was really easy to wipe up the dust... and seeing how much you can get, kept motivating me to dust, dust, dust!

Fun facelifts for around the house for cheap, I also bought new rugs for the bathrooms and new shower curtains. It is amazing how something so small can change a look of a bathroom!

WOW...

Last night I was at a concert enjoying 4 wonderful bands. Thank you to the local radio station (969 Wink FM) who had a "Spring Fling" Concert for only $5 entry fee! It is so wonderful how people are really trying to help others enjoy small pleasures in bad times.

Performing as the opening act for the 1000 or so crowd, was a band called Cadence Wednesday. I went to high school with the lead singer Sergio. He was such a great guy and still is.

(quick plug... you need to check out their MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/cadencewednesday they are awesome!)

Anyways... watching Sergio achieving his dreams and goals got me to ponder where I am in my dream, where my friends are in their dreams, and where I want to go from here. It is amazing to look back and see where everyone is or is going. Some chose the family route, some chose to move around the country or even the world, some girls I knew in high school are strippers, and some like Sergio are living out their God given talents in music, modeling, speaking, school, etc.

I have learned it is necessary to have goals in life. With out them, how do you know where you are going? At the same time, I have and still am learning that it is not the end of the world when you do not reach some of your planned goals. I have to keep remembering that God has a specific plan for me and I must trust in him. I may have a certain time table for events or goals to happen and God may have a completely different one.

All I can do is chug a lug... and pray.

I love variety, I love spontaneous-ness, but I also love the plan. I have a plan, but the best part is God has a bigger plan. :)

Here is another shameless plug for Sergio's band...

The Next Three Weeks

So, for the next three weeks or so I have no school... time to relax and catch up on books and scrapbooking. At the church I work at we have a Giant Garage Sale once a year... during the week leading up to the Garage Sale, Cindy and I sneak into the gym and pre-purchase all the good finds! Yesterday was the beginning of this Giant Event, and I found two great books that I have not had the opprotunity to read. The first one is The Glass Castle and the second in the Kite Runner. I started to read the Glass Castle, it is a memior of Jeannet Wells life. It is sooo good that I already hate putting it down!

Scrapbooking is my other love. I wish I had more time in my hectic life to create. I will be creating these next three weeks.

also, now that I do not have any extra income, I want to find a clothing swap store. I know there is one in Naples... I just have to figure out when, where, and how much! I think that would be so fun.

Pet Peeve... People in Charge, not caring enough to get to know their empoyees.

I know it has been a while since I blogged last. I apologize for the slack. I blame it on my Professional Writing class… Ms. Withrow had us blog for our end of the year project. This is my final week shaping and creating that blog.

Anyways…

Last night as I was working my second job, the general manager comes up to me in front of bar people and employees, to tell me that he is letting me go. (I will say it got me some nice tips at then end of the night) He followed it with, I know you have a full time job and I have to worry about the girls who don’t.

I was blind sided. I only work twice a week… it is not like I hog all the great shifts. Plus, this was not just a job to support my addiction of shoes. It was a job to save for the future; to guarantee that I have a nice cushion to finish school. Unfortunately, I do not sleep or flirt with the Gen. Manager sooooo he could give two craps about me and my situation.

Life has always been a struggle for me. I do right (as best I can)… but it always seems there is a dark cloud that follows me and occasionally rains on my parade.

I was talking to Jake last night at midnight about my turn of events… and he quoted what he learned from his yearly visit to church this past Easter Sunday. He reminded me of the Story of Job… and how he lost everything, yet God was with him. Even though Jake was partially trying to make me laugh, it worked… and got me to calm down.

So as Marquis just said in a text: “time for plan d”.

I know life will work out. I have a gazillion (more the a trillion) skills in my back pocket. One of which is a realtor’s license.

Thanks for letting me whine a bit. I will get over it.