Local Harvest

With Spring upon us, I know that many are looking forward to shopping their local farmer's markets. I thought I'd post this link again if you need help locating one near you! Enjoy!

Visit Local Harvest

Really cool charity site!

Everyone should check out Free Rice. Every vocabulary word that you guess the correct definition for equals a donation of 20 grains of rice. It is an easy way to help people out, and you get to learn some new words in the process. Also, it's a fun way to waste some time and de-stress while you are working!

For all of us creative people...

Check out Lulu. It is a self-publishing site where you can do books, brochures, all kinds of stuff. It looked interesting to me, so I thought I'd share, just in case any of you want to publish your blogs in book form. :)

Neat gift ideas

If you are looking for a unique gift to give someone this year, and have some money to spend, check out this site. They have hot air balloon rides, wine tasting trips, all kinds of interesting things. Enjoy!

We miss you Burnsy

When you’ve just had one of the hardest weeks of your life, and it just happened to contain Thanksgiving Day within it, how do you answer people who ask you how your Thanksgiving was?

One week ago today, the world suffered a terrible loss as Sean Burns passed away. Known to his friends as Burnsy (as much as he might have hated that name) he was a wonderful friend who will truly be missed by all who knew him.

It is so difficult to put into words how I am currently feeling. I feel so strange when people ask how my Thanksgiving was. If I am truthful, then it is likely I am going to start crying as I try to explain why it was an incredibly tough day this year. And that is not something that I care to do with just any random person that asks. But, at the same time I don’t feel right acting as though nothing unusual happened. It would be an insult to Burnsy's memory to pretend that all was well. To really think about it though, my Thanksgiving was a wonderful day, even if it was filled with sadness. I spent it with a large group of my friends, all brought together by love for a fallen friend. It was experience that I would never wish on someone, because I would never wish for someone to have to experience this pain. But, at the same time, it was an experience that I will forever treasure and cherish. It was a day filled with such sadness and tears, but at the same time a day filled with such wonderful memories and love. It was a day when a group of friends decided to forgo Thanksgiving with their own families, no matter how tough that was, so that they could be together to celebrate and remember their lost friend. It was a day that would never have happened had Sean not been a part of our lives. It was a day that I will always be thankful for.

At this point in our lives, we don't expect to lose friends to death. Thirty is too young to go. It made me realize just how often I've taken my friends for granted; how I've always expected that they will be there, no matter what. I consider myself to be very lucky to have the group of friends that I've got, and I am going to do my best to not neglect those relationships in the future. And I consider myself lucky to have known Burnsy, even it was wasn't for nearly long enough.

My thoughts are so jumbled right now, I'm not even sure if this post makes any sense. I'm sure with time my brain will start to function normally again, but for now, this is the best I can do.

We all love you and miss you buddy. It hurts so bad to have lost you so soon.

Halloween!

Halloween is in full swing around here! I had my annual party this past Friday, and I feel it was a success. I think I ended up with about 15 or so people, maybe 18, and everyone seemed to have a great time. We had lots to eat and even more to drink, and played many a game of Twister. What else would you expect at one of my parties? I couldn't find my camera that night, but some of the guests were taking pictures, so hopefully they will share with me. If I get some good ones, I'll post a few on here. I was dressed as a fallen angel or evil fairy, depending on who you asked, and it was a very fun costume, other than the wings were about to kill me. I finally had to give in and take off the wings before they cut my arms off at the shoulders.

Saturday night I had another party to go to at a friend's house which was 70s themed. I struggled figuring out what to wear and finally just did a generic hippie. With my own party to plan and prepare for, I just didn't have the time to devote to doing something really cool. Not that my costume wasn't a good one, it just wasn't what I would have liked to have done. It was a much larger party, with probably 40+ people at it. Thank goodness mine didn't get that big--I don't know where I would have put everyone!

Now I am waiting on trick-or-treat to get here. :) Last year I had an insane number of kids come to my house, and I ran out of candy. I bought six giant bags from Sam's for this year though, so with any luck I won't have that problem this year. I think I am going to dress up as a witch to hand out candy. My neighbors may think I am nuts, but I don't care--I LOVE Halloween! What fun is that--three costumes in one year??? :)

I hope everyone else is having as much fun celebrating this year as I am!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Cool link that I had to share!

This is a really cool site to listen to music, called Pandora Radio. You put in an artist name or song title and it searches out music that is similar to it and creates your own radio station. Check it out!